Beyond the Game: Chapter 22

“Look at her lifting her little head up like that!” Carissa squeals as she and Colby and Hawken step into the daycare room behind me “I know, right? She’s my little overachieving champ. Tatum says she should only be hitting that milestone around now, at eight weeks, but she’s been doing it for a couple weeks.” I lay my hand over my heart and pretend to cry with pride. “She’s truly gifted.”

“Must take after her mom,” Colby teases.

“Fuck you, dude,” I mumble. “She gets her beauty from her mommy. I’ll give her that, but her brute strength? Yeah, that’s all me.”

I crouch down and smile wide as I scoop my princess into my arms. She smiles at me as her hand holds tight to my t-shirt. “Hey, Tater Tot! How’s daddy’s favorite little girl, huh? You look so cute in your little hockey pjs. Yes, you do,” I coo at her as we walk to the door where I sign her out and let Kara, the nursery worker, know I’ll bring her back down before her next feeding time.

“It’s almost time for Daddy’s pregame dance party.”

Hawken raises a brow. “You’re including Tater Tot in your Tay-Tay party?”

“Absolutely!” I smile at my beautiful girl. “She’s the world’s newest Swifty, and she’s my good luck charm, aaaaand her mommy is coming tonight and I’m feeling good. So yeah, we’re dancing it out.” I pull the locker room door open. “So, get your ass in there, Malone.”

“Cover your dicks, gentlemen! There’s a girl in the room!”

“Smallson’s been in here a gazillion times, Dex,” Quinton laughs.

“Smallson’s eyes may be permanently damaged, but she’s an adult who can handle her own shit. My baby’s eyes don’t need to be scarred by your teeny weenies so cover ’em up.”

I walk through the room with Summer Grace in my arms, and the guys all turn to mush around me, cooing and waving and offering her high fives as if she’s old enough to clap back. I’m not really complaining though. The guys love my kid and they’ve been more than supportive of Tatum and me these last few months. I can’t ask for more than that.

Except for when it comes to dancing it out to Taylor Swift.

I hand Summer off to Carissa while I dress for the game but before I pull on my jersey, I crank up the volume on my Bluetooth speaker and help to energize the team with a dance party. After dancing with Carissa, Zeke, and Hawken, Summer is back in my arms. I hold her gently against me and dance with her while I sing into her ear.

I feel like I could win this entire game myself.

I’m on cloud nine today and nothing could possibly bring me down.

___ The roar of the crowd outside the tunnel is intense. Whatever pregame activities are going on out there tonight, the energy in the arena is high and we can all feel it. Tonight’s game against Detroit should be a great game, but it won’t be handed to us. Their team is fierce and they’ve got some damn good players.

But ours are fucking better.

We currently have nobody off the roster. Everyone is healthy and accounted for and after coming home from a seven-game win streak, we’re thrilled to be back home.

“You excited to see your girl?” Hawken smirks next to me. I can’t stand still. I’m itching to get on the ice. To feel the sting of the chill on my cheeks, mixed with the heat of the crowd. Thanks to Summer getting a little cold a couple weeks ago, Tatum stayed home during our few home games, but tonight she is finally free to see me play and I couldn’t be more thrilled.

“Fucking right I am. If I’m ever scoring a hat-trick, tonight is the night.”

“You think?”

“I do. I’ve got this. I’m not holding back. It’s time to kick some ass and take some names.”

“Huddle up!” Nelson shouts.

The team circles around him and listens intently as he gives us our pregame pep talk while the announcer begins his spiel in the arena. Right before we’re called out of the tunnel, our hands meet in the center of our circle and we shout, “HUSTLE, HIT, and NEVER QUIT!”

“Let’s hear it for our CHICAAAAAAGO RED TAAAAAAAAILLLLLS”

The team flies out to raucous applause from the crowd and circles the ice and then back around our net where Zeke awaits our warmup passes. I’m immediately in the zone going through our drills, watching the puck as we pass and shoot toward the net for Zeke to block.

“Yo, Dexter!” Quinton calls out to me. “What’s with your girl?”

“Huh?”

He points to where Tatum, Charlee, and Rory are all sitting behind the glass right behind Zeke. Charlee wearing Landric’s jersey and Rory’s wearing one of Malone’s he gifted her for Christmas when she whined about wearing mine. But Tatum…

“Son of a bitch. You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Right there next to them, Tatum cheers on the Red Tails in a Detroit jersey.

Fucking Hell.

I skate toward them and smack my palm on the glass. “What the hell is going on?”

“Hey hottie! You look damn good in that uniform!”

No, no, no. She’s not getting away with this that easily.

Compliments will get her nowhere tonight.

“What the fuck are you wearing?”

She shrugs innocently. “What? I’m from Michigan.”

“Not tonight you’re not. Take it off. Now.”

She scoffs out a laugh and shakes her head, shouting back at me. “I’m not going to just take my shirt off, Dex. That’s ridiculous.”

“I didn’t bring my girl into this arena to watch me play just for her to root for the other team! Take it the fuck off.”

She doesn’t say a thing in response. Just smirks at me and then blows me a kiss.

“Mother fucker!”

I push away from the glass annoyed that I’m even dealing with this right now when I’m supposed to be focused for the game, but I turn myself around and luckily spot the one person I know will help me. The one person who can get the entire arena’s attention. If she wants to play games, I’m more than happy to oblige.

“Hey REMI!”

I sprint to the bench where our team mascot, Remi, the red-tailed hawk, is lurking for the beginning of the game. I toss off my gloves and helmet and pull my jersey over my head, not giving a rat’s ass that I’m now shirtless on the ice. I find our equipment manager and shout for him to get me a new jersey. I grab a black sharpie from one of the staffers and write a quick note across my team number on the back and then shove the jersey into Remi’s hands pointing down the ice to where Tatum is sitting.

“Section 109 at the glass. She’s wearing a fucking Detroit jersey. Don’t leave her until she’s wearing my name, you hear me? Do whatever you have to do. And then make sure she gets one of every fucking piece of merchandise this arena has with my name on it. And take Smallson with you!”

Remi gives me a high five and turns to make his way up and around the arena. Within minutes, Nick, our equipment manager, is back with a new jersey for me and I’m redressed and back on the ice in time to finish the last couple minutes or so of the team’s warm-up. As both teams are finishing, the music in the arena changes to Taylor Swift’s “Look What you Made Me Do”, and Remi is now on the jumbotron marching himself down the steps toward the ice behind Zeke. Carissa follows behind, recording his every move.

“Oh man. No, you didn’t!” Hawken snickers when he skates up next to me.

“Oh, I most certainly fucking did.”

Remi finally reaches the bottom where Tatum is sitting and offers her his hand. Smiling, she takes it and he leads her out of her seat to the stairs where they have more room. He tugs on her Detroit jersey and pretends to be sick all over it as the crowd around them laughs. He shakes his head No and then holds up my jersey turning it around so she can see the back where I wrote on the large white number seventy-seven.

My girl wears my name and my number.

He tugs on the jersey she’s wearing once again and then hitches his thumb behind him and the crowd around him starts to chant, “Take it off! Take it off! Take it off!”

At least Tatum is a good sport about it. With a larger-than-life eyeroll and a huge smile on her face, she lifts the Detroit jersey over her head, leaving her long-sleeved black t-shirt underneath. Then Remi helps her put mine on. It’s way too big on her but my dick twitches at the sight of her finally wearing my number. Hawken nudges me.

“How’s that feel?”

“Like I just fucking won.” And that’s no lie. I’ve seen thousands of women over the years wearing my name on their back, but it’s never meant a damn thing to me before. They’re just fans. Nobodies. I don’t know any of them.

But seeing Tatum wearing my number…it’s a whole new feeling for me. Because it means something to me. She means something to me. She is finally mine.

And I am hers.

The crowd cheers for Tatum who turns in a complete circle showing off her new gift. She lifts the collar to her nose and inhales and then smiles and hell, I could’ve come in my pants like a damn teenager watching her breathe in my scent.

“Dude, I think Dexter has a crush,” Nelson says with a laugh as we all line up for the national anthem.

“I think it’s more than a crush, Nelson,” Landric answers. “Look at him. He can’t take his eyes off her.”

It’s so much more than a crush. Much, much more.

“Well, he better focus on the damn puck once he hits the ice. You hear me, Foster?”

“Loud and clear, Nelson.”

Landric faces off against Mindroni, Detroit’s center. The puck is dropped and it’s Landric’s off the face off and he shoots it to Shay as Nelson and I scramble down the ice. Shay passes to Malone who takes his shot slipping the puck past Detroit’s goalie for our first goal of the night.

“Holy shit!” Colby laughs as we join the group of them in a team hug. “That was like five whole seconds!”

“Always gotta be the showoff, huh Malone?” I beam at him.

“Hey, when you got it, you got it. What can I say?”

The game continues and we play through our shifts scoring once more before the end of the first period.

It’s been a solid second period so far with the Red Tails maintaining the pressure against Detroit as Hawken and I come off the ice after our first shift. On the jumbotron, Remi appears in section 109 once again, a huge sack over his shoulder as if he’s Santa Claus himself. He and Smallson descend the steps and the crowd cheers when he takes Tatum’s hand and leads her to the steps for a second time. He digs his hand deep into his red sack and pulls out a Red Tails scarf wrapping it around her neck. Then he pulls out three different hats, a baseball cap, a beanie, and a toboggan, each of them sporting a Red Tails logo and makes her put on each one. She’s such a good sport and though she looks silly wearing all her new team merchandise, I think she’s fucking adorable.

Remi digs into his bag again and pulls out two other jerseys with my name across the back, a t-shirt, a long-sleeved t-shirt, and three hoodies all with my name on them. He tops her off then with a pair of sweatpants, two pairs of socks, two lanyards, one red, one black, a travel cup, a souvenir cup with bendy straw, a drink koozie, and last but not least, a large stuffed Remi the Red-Tailed Hawk wearing a team jersey.

The guys sitting next to me on the bench laugh at the spectacle Remi has made of Tatum while keeping their eye on the game play as it’s almost time for our next shift.

“So, how are you feeling about tonight?” Hawken asks with a nudge to my arm.

“Fucking great.”

“Yeah?”

I nod. “Yeah. The room looks amazing. I think she’ll love it.”

“Think she’ll say yes?”

“Hard to say, but I fucking hope she will. It just makes sense, you know? It would be easier.”

“Agreed. I really hope it works out for you.”

“Thanks man. Hey, did Rory ask about chilling at your place tonight?”

“Yeah. It’s cool. You know I’ve got plenty of room.”

“Touch her and die though. I know my friends are her friends but she’s still my sister.”

Hawken shakes his head laughing. “Rory? That’s cute, Dex.”

“What’s cute?”

“That you think you have any say in what she does these days. Have you met your sister?”

“Eh. You’re not wrong, I guess. That girl is headstrong and too confident for her own good.”

“Let’s call it brave. She’s brave.”

I laugh. “That too. She’s always forged her own path, God love her.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s never me you have to worry about,” he says, and then we hit the ice for our last shift of the second period.