Legend (Arizona Vengeance #3)(58)

Pepper’s head swivels back and forth, following the conversation. A brief glance at Ryker and I can tell he knew this was coming. This wasn’t about just old friends getting together for dinner.

Gray is here scouting for the Cold Fury, and she’s doing it by bypassing my agent completely.

Smart girl.

I pick up my glass of wine and take a sip. My tone is casually dismissive, as it should be. “Let’s be real for a second, Gray. You already have one of the best goalies in the league in Max Fournier. I’m playing the best hockey of my life and I’m not about to play second fiddle on any team. I bet Max feels the same way.”

“You would both be starting goalies,” she says, and it sounds ridiculous. Then she adds her sweetener. “I’d pay you more money than you’re making now. Your endorsements would skyrocket coming to a back-to-back championship team. And you know you’ve got the best shot of getting your first Cup by coming with us. It’s a perfect deal, Legend, and you would strengthen our team beyond reach.”

She makes a lot of good points. But this is not a deal I would ever consider. “While I appreciate the offer, we both know you’re not making it to strengthen the Cold Fury but rather to weaken the Vengeance. And I could never do that to my team.”

    Respect flashes in Gray’s eyes and she gives a shrug. “Oh well. Didn’t hurt to try, did it?”

“It’s why you’re one of the best GM’s in the league,” I tell her as I raise my glass of wine in salute.

She smiles at the compliment but Ryker corrects me. “The best GM in the league.”

I laugh and give him an incline of my head. “You know, I actually might agree with that, but don’t ever tell Christian Rutherford that. He’d fire me.”

“And then you’d have a place on our team,” Gray says with a sly grin. “Maybe I should tell Christian what you just said.”

We all laugh and then the conversation is turned again.

“How long have you two been dating?” Ryker asks just as our meals arrive.

Pepper answers for us. “A couple months. Right around the time Charlie came into his life.”

“We’re next door neighbors so we’d known each other a few months,” I explain.

“He hated me at first,” Pepper says so seriously that Ryker and Gray go still across the table.

I roll my eyes and correct the misstatement. “I did not hate you. But I didn’t like you.”

“Now that sounds like an interesting story,” Gray drawls in a “do tell” kind of tone.

    “My style offends him,” Pepper says.

“Not anymore,” I cut in.

She shoots me a sweet smile and amends, “It used to offend him. We’d bicker over my yard ornaments and I’d plant plastic pink flamingos in his yard.”

“Oh my God,” Gray laughs and waves her steak knife at us. “You two are adorable. Enemies to lovers with a surprise baby thrown in. You’re a classic romance novel.”

“You read romance?” Pepper asks Gray.

“I do,” she replies and then they are off and chattering about their favorite authors and books.

I look to Ryker and he shrugs as if to say, “Women.”





Chapter 26


    Legend


It’s game day and I’m starting to get my pump of adrenaline as I near the arena. I’m bummed that Pepper won’t be here to watch the game, but I asked her if she would stay home with Charlie. It’s not that I don’t trust Lucy to take care of and protect her, because by all accounts, Lucy has acted brilliantly under pressure the times that Lida showed up.

But I want that extra layer of security for my peace of mind so that I can concentrate on the game. Pepper even did me one better and took Charlie to her parents’ house to watch the game. Her dad apparently wasn’t much of a hockey fan but has become one in recent weeks since “his daughter was getting serious with a hockey player.” Pepper told me that and I laughed my ass off and also secretly gloated that Pepper told her parents she was serious about me.

I pull into the player’s’ parking lot and smile when I see Bishop and Erik tossing a football back and forth. Both are already in their workout gear and they’re just doing something fun to start loosening up. Our cars are the only ones here but it’s still quite early yet.

I park my Tahoe and walk to the rear, pulling my game duffel out of the back. I spy a burp rag that must have fallen out of the diaper bag on our way home from the airport Sunday night when we’d returned from Boston. It was really a magical weekend and for the first time in a long time, I actually truly enjoyed spending time with my parents. It’s like Charlie has bridged the tiny gap that was between us and I’m realizing my dad had layers I never even imagined.

    Best of all was spending some quality time with Pepper. The two nights we had together in the hotel without a baby to worry about were down right mind-blowing. Turns out Pepper can get quite loud when she wants to and the things I did to her caused sounds that I’d never heard before.

I vow to myself that as we continue to settle into our relationship that we have to take time for ourselves every once in a while. I feel like we came back from Boston with a renewed sort of energy and determination to face the troubles we’d left behind.