Legend (Arizona Vengeance #3)(21)

“As you should,” I tell her, and then find her neck again with my mouth.

She moans and her fingers twine throughout my hair. On a breathy sigh, she adds, “But if you get bored and want to hang with me and my family, just let me know. It’s an open-door policy and my parents are pretty cool, outside of their eating habits.”

I ignore the comment and the invitation. I find running my lips along her skin to be much more interesting.

Besides, meeting her parents takes this further down the road than I’m comfortable with right now. My hand slips between her legs, then she’s arching up and into me, and I know the Christmas holidays have been forgotten.





Chapter 10


    Legend


Using a piece of tape to seal the top of the colorful bag shut, I admire my handiwork laid out across my dining room table.

Christmas presents all perfectly wrapped and ready to be opened.

Granted, these are actually bags because I don’t wrap presents worth a shit and I’m too lazy to stand in line for complimentary gift wrapping. So I bought a bunch of Christmas themed bags in varying sizes. I’m pretty sure I was supposed to have tissue paper in there to hide whatever present was inside, but I forgot to get it so I’m just taping the tops shut to keep the contents a secret.

Not that Charlie is old enough to look inside. She can’t even hold her head up and will have no memory of the roughly five hundred dollars’ worth of toys and clothes I bought her.

Charlie woke Pepper and I up around 6:00 a.m. I fed Charlie her morning bottle and Pepper slipped away to get some last-minute Christmas things done before she went to her parents’ house.

I did, however, get her to agree to come to my house for dinner the night after Christmas so I’ll be seeing her in just two short days.

Grabbing an armload of bags, I walk into the living room and put them beside the fireplace. It’s made of hardwood, and finished in cream with fluted columns and crown molding along the breast.

It’s very traditional.

    And I realize…boring.

Looking around my living room, I see nothing but taupe and creams, rich leather seating and heavy, solid pieces of unadorned furniture. My throw pillows are brown and cream plaid with a hint of green you can barely see. Contrasted with the rainbow of colors over at Pepper’s house, I realize my house is kind of dull.

I shake that off because now is not the time to Martha Stewart myself, and even if my house is dull, I’ll never decorate it like Pepper’s. Maybe a bit more color, but not much.

As I arrange the bags so they are all standing up, I have to admit I’m really feeling guilty about not having a decorated tree. In my nine years of adulthood and living on my own, I have never put up a Christmas tree and that’s mainly because as a professional hockey player, I was usually traveling or playing in a game, or in the rare opportunities that the schedule worked out the right way, I’d have a few days to fly home.

This year, it just worked out that Christmas fell in the middle of a loose home schedule. Ordinarily and being child free, I would have flown home to Boston to see my parents.

That’s not an option this year because I just don’t have the guts to fly across the country with Charlie. I’ve only had her for three days now and I’m still so very wet behind the ears when it comes to caring for a newborn. I mean sure…right now it’s just caring for basic needs, and she sleeps a hell of a lot, but I wasn’t about to take her on a plane with all kinds of germs and little self-esteem as a dad right now.

So tonight, Tacker, and Dax are coming over. I’ve got dinner all ready—thank you Whole Foods Market, who actually cooked the turkey and sliced it for me—and we’re going to stuff our faces and have a few drinks together to celebrate the holidays.

    None of the team has met Charlie yet because most of them don’t know about her. Really, the first opportunity to convey the news was before the game against Toronto last night, but that didn’t feel right. I didn’t want anything to draw away anyone’s focus. I decided it would be better to do it at the next team practice, although I have let a chosen few people in on the secret.

Dax and Bishop, of course, as they’re my closest friends on the team.

I’m an assistant captain along with Bishop, so it made sense for me to tell our number one. That would be Tacker, as he’s the captain.

And I told Coach Perron and our general manager, Christian Rutherford.

Past them, I’ve held this tight to my vest. With Pepper helping out on babysitting, I didn’t even have to bring any of the other players in on the secret by asking their wives to help watch Charlie.

The plan is to tell everyone on the twenty-sixth after our short practice. Coach Perron has already told everyone to gather in the team meeting room and I bet they think we’ll be reviewing film, but instead I will be helping them to welcome the first baby born to the Vengeance since we formed.

Truth be told…I’m kind of fucking excited about telling everyone.

Heading back to the kitchen, I grab the last of the presents, which includes a singular gold foil bag that’s much smaller than all the others. I place it near the rear of the other packages, as it won’t get opened until the day after Christmas.

    Within that bag is a present for Pepper that I went out and got today. I had to pick up the groceries at Whole Foods for dinner, and I made a stop at one other store.