Sugar and Ice - RJ Scott Page 0,59

bed tonight.

When everyone left, we cleared up a little, but not long enough to dissuade me from being tugged to the bedroom. So, it was a yes on the bed, then.

“Your accent turns my insides out,” Vlad stuttered when we lay on our backs staring at the ceiling, hot and sticky and coming down from a high.

I curled up on my side, and kissed him soundly. “So does yours.”

I was right about not sleeping; there was no point, since we needed to be at Tucson International by five a.m., and it was already three. Grabbing our bags and locking up the house, we headed for the airport, chatting quietly in the new dawn, and taking our seats up front in first class. The flight was just over seven hours and Vlad was a big man, so this was my treat.

After all, he was running the gauntlet of my family.

“Big brother, Logan, wife, Gemma, two daughters, Lizzie and Bella. Middle sister, Josie, partner, David, not married, but engaged, son Mitchell. Dogs, and various cats, your mom is named Elizabeth, your dad is Francis. Not shortened to Frank like my Frank.”

“You can stop saying all that now,” I was amused at the way he was attempting to remember everything before he’d even met my family.

He turned to look at me his pale eyes focused. “I will not mess this up.”

I elbowed him, difficult with the distance between these seats, and he raised an eyebrow. “Big brother, Logan…”

I tuned him out, disrupted by yet more food being offered, and a helpful attendant who was a hockey fan and wanted to know about the Raptors’ chance of getting to the cup run.

“We will get to the playoffs.” Vlad was defiant, and at least it got him off the subject of my family and remembering their names.

“I’m a Railers fan,” she began.

“Someone has to be,” Vlad muttered under his breath, and I kicked him as subtly as I could.

“I love Tennant Rowe, and Stan, he’s the best goalie. I think we have a good chance of the cup this year—”

“Uhmm, could I get some more chips?” I interrupted, as kindly as I could without breaking every polite bone in my body.

Vlad muttered something in Russian, but at least the attendant left to get me what I’d asked, and by the time she returned, I’d gotten Vlad back to repeating family names, added to which we only had another ten minutes until we landed. The Raptors had been having a good run of games, much to everyone’s surprise, winning five out of the last twelve games outright, and getting points in two others for taking the game to overtime.

I knew the media were saying that I was the savior of the team, that it was me arriving which had changed things. After games, it was me who was being asked all the questions.

But they were wrong; it wasn’t just me.

Under Vlad, and with Coach, and the management behind us, this team was a unit. We worked hard, we laughed, we commiserated, we learned from our mistakes; it reminded me of all the positive team rebuilds of the past. Okay, so maybe this year we wouldn’t make it all the way to the cup, but we wouldn’t be bottom, and that was because we were a damn good team.

As soon as the seatbelt light went out I was up from my seat and grabbing coats from the overhead bin. Minnesota was cold compared to Arizona, but when I passed the coat to Vlad he muttered again. He’d been doing that a lot, telling me that there was no way Minnesota was as cold as where he’d come from, and he’d been there before. Then he half smiled at me and shrugged on the coat, doing it for me.

God I wanted to kiss him.

“Good luck in the run to the cup,” our attendant said.

“Yes, good luck to your Railers,” Vlad said very politely, and then I hoped to hell the poor woman didn’t speak Russian because whatever came next sounded a lot like what came out of the beak of an angry parrot called Frank.

We made it to arrivals after a short wait, and there they were, the entire Collins clan, holding up a huge sign, Welcome Home Tot.

I will literally kill my brother.

The hugs were wonderful, and at first I encouraged Vlad right in there, but he was like this huge blond teddy bear, swinging up children, hugging my sister, doing this awesome bow and hand kiss