Turning away from him, I walk down the hall and bypass the locker room, heading into the family lounge. Kate is still holding Ben, and talking to Mely Bressard, the wife of our team’s captain. As I approach, Mely pats Kate’s shoulder in commiseration and shoots me a smile as she starts to walk away. “That reporter is such a bitch,” Mely says over her shoulder.
I nod at her with a grimace. “Agreed.”
My gaze goes to Ben first, who seems oblivious, his little hands gripping Kate’s shoulders as he gives me a grin. I smile at him and cut my eyes to Kate. “You okay?”
“I’m fine,” she says, but her face is a little pale.
“I’m really sorry about that,” I tell her quietly, resisting the absolutely stupid urge to reach out and tuck her hair behind her ear.
She gives me a very Kate-like snort. “Don’t be sorry. I wanted to punch that witch when she started asking about Ben. If I hadn’t had my arms full of the little rug rat here, I think I would have, but I figured it was best to remove him from that situation rather than duke it out with her. Plus, that wouldn’t have set a very good example for the little man.”
I blink over the look of fierceness on her face and the protectiveness in her voice, followed up by the splash of humor to relieve the tenseness of the moment. She couldn’t care less that that reporter was coming after her. She was worried only about Ben, and that causes something warm to unfurl in my chest. Now I have the insanely stupid idea to pull her in to me and kiss the fuck out of her.
Shaking my head, I take a quick step back. “Yeah…well, you handled that great. I’m going to go get a quick shower. Just hang here and then we’ll be ready to go.”
“Okey dokey,” she says with that sweet twang and then turns away from me to go sit on one of the couches. Mely starts walking back over to her, and I’m thankful that she took Kate briefly under her wing. She’s sort of the team mother hen and was an amazing support to me right after Gina died. I know that Kate and Ben are going to be fine while I go get changed.
Chapter 12
Kate
“Maybe thirty minutes until dinner’s ready,” I yell out to Zack and Ben, who are in the living room playing the Wii. The sounds of LEGO Star Wars III float back to me, along with Zack making lightsaber noises and Ben giggling.
I smile to myself as I start cutting up some fresh heads of broccoli to roast. Zack loves broccoli, but Ben not so much. Still, I’m resolved to have him try it periodically in the hope that he’ll start to like it. My devious plan tonight is to smother it with cheese and pray he doesn’t recognize what I’m doing.
Today was a very good day. Ben woke me up early, excited to get on the road to the North Carolina Zoo as Zack had promised him. I was in a mellow frame of mind as I got into my shower—I’m lucky enough to have my own bathroom en suite. I tilted my head back under the hot spray, closing my eyes and thinking about the game last night. Zack was amazing, and it was so much fun to watch the game with Ben, the little guy getting so excited when Zack scored a hat trick, I thought he was going to have a heart attack.
That reporter bitch after the game wasn’t so fun, and I saw the pain and frustration on Zack’s face when she carelessly started asking him personal questions. Rage filled me and I wanted to do her bodily harm for being so insensitive.
Opening my eyes, I lazily reached out and grabbed my shampoo off the corner ledge in front of me. I hadn’t moved the bottle two inches toward me when I saw the immensely huge and hairy black spider sitting behind it. I shrieked, dropping the shampoo, and scurried backward away from it, lucky the nonskid mat under my feet held me in place.
A second look at the massive beast while my heart threatened to burst out of my chest, and I realized it was a plastic spider.
“Not funny,” I screamed out pissily above the spray of water, and I heard Zack and Ben laughing at my bathroom door. “You’ll pay for that.”
More snickers, and then I was met with silence as I’m sure they were running downstairs and away from my wrath when I emerged.
When I walked downstairs after getting dressed, Ben’s giggles greeted me while Zack just surfed on his laptop with the tiniest of smiles on his face. I shot them both a glare, but inside I was smiling. I think I’ve officially been accepted, as proved by that god-awful prank that I’m sure was spearheaded by Zack. I never said a word about it, but stealthily plotted my revenge against them.
The day at the zoo was so much fun, I didn’t want it to end. I’ve come to learn that Ben is an animal lover, and I would bet money that he’s going to do something with his life that revolves around them. He was beside himself all day, dragging us from exhibit to exhibit to ooh and ahh over all the creatures both scaly and furry.
It was an absolute pleasure to watch Zack too. Not only because he is so beyond good-looking it ought to be considered a crime, but because I spent almost a full day watching him laugh in such an easygoing manner that it was hard for me to remember the acerbic way in which he used to treat me. He was completely relaxed, and no matter how great a hockey player he is, there is no doubt in my mind that his favorite thing in the world is to be with his son.
My heartstrings would play a mad pulsing tune when he would hold Ben’s hand or bend down to look at one of the animals with him. Or when Ben got tired later in the afternoon and he’d carry his son in his strong arms so he didn’t have to walk. All of it…so sweet and touching that I just wanted to wrap both of them up in a hug and thank them for letting me share in their specialness.