Sugar and Ice - RJ Scott Page 0,50
the easiest and hardest question of my entire life. How could I explain why I’d done what I’d done without coming over as stupid, or flippant about the institution of marriage, something I held sacred. For me marriage meant forever, with family, and I was far from stupid.
Gullible maybe, too sensitive, yes, but not stupid.
Where did I start?
“Lacey was a team-mandated responsibility,” I began, and then wriggled free of Vlad’s hold and sat cross-legged with pillows behind me.
He copied me, propping himself up on the opposite end of the bed so we could talk. I kind of wanted him to lie down and shut his eyes to listen, but it was clear I had an avid audience.
“It was in your contract to marry her?” He was confused, and I realized that maybe this wasn’t how I needed to start the conversation.
“The Railers were getting heat, externally from some of the more bigoted fans, but they’re up in PA and their fan base for the most was supportive, and you know, and I know, that they’ll stay supportive all the time that the Railers keep putting the points up. The minute the team dips, you know what will happen, losses will get blamed on whatever they think is the weakest link. It could be racial, gender-specific, it could be sexuality. Dallas weren’t flying the flag for equality as much as the Railers.”
“Okay?”
“But Dallas was never worried about me.”
Vlad ticked off on his fingers.“White, straight, brilliant player.”
“Yep, all of that, I mean, Colorado is right, I’m properly apple-pie-flag-waving perfect. Until I met Tom. He was a new kid, apprentice to the support team, really cool guy and we got talking about Star Wars, and one thing led to another, someone saw us, and suddenly my bisexuality was an issue.”
“Tom,” Vlad said, with an ominous tone, and I kicked out at his foot.
“Kissing, Vlad, just kissing.”
He grumbled low in his throat, and I kicked him again. “Stop with the jealous shit, this was two years gone. Tom is now very happily settled with Laura and Mike.”
“Hmmm,” he muttered, and then turned even more serious. “So, all this began because the Mr. Perfect Hockey image, with the hair product line and the power to sell merchandise, was in jeopardy?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
He huffed and then crawled up the bed to me and kissed me. “You have the softest hair and the prettiest eyes.”
I shoved him back, after I had gotten my fill of a hotly possessive kiss. “Stop interrupting me,” I ordered.
He gave me a fake salute, which would have been funny, only he was crossing his legs again and flashing everything and I was suddenly in a hurry to forget the story and get back to the sexing. The bastard knew it as well, taking his time to settle before waving me to carry on.
“I got pulled in the office one day, just for a chat, kind of a how-you-doing type thing, but Dallas wasn’t doing so well. Let’s face it, we were in the middle of a rebuild year, and trading players away in bad deals. Management had lost control and left me and some of the remaining guys exposed. They looked to me as the skater to get the focus back on the playing and not on the bad deals, or the fact that my salary was one of the reasons we were up at cap space.”
“So they made you date Lacey?”
“No. That wasn’t why I dated her. I liked her, met her at a random pizza night with the team, she’s actually the half-sister of Marco Ruiz, winger, third line.”
“I know who Marco Ruiz is,” he muttered. “Pain in my ass pushy asshole forward, likes to shove his stick where it shouldn’t go.”
“Yep, that’s Marco, scrappy player, good guy, and we used to be friends. He introduced Lacey, we got talking, she seemed nice, we fooled around a bit, only the team thought this was the coolest thing since hockey was invented. If you listened to them, me, Tate Collins, wonder-boy, could fall in love, refocus the entire franchise, and save everything.” I exaggerated my hand movements and gave my best Superman impersonation, even with arms crossed over my chest, but I could tell Vlad wasn’t really getting the reference, and made a mental note to add the Man of Steel to my movie list for my own personal man of steel.
“Kissing this Lacey wasn’t going to turn the Dallas game around, you were having a very bad year.”
“Says the captain