Defensive Zone

by Catherine Gayle

  So, whether he wanted me to know about his father or not, I had a new task before me.

  The bit was between my teeth. Cody had better hold on tight, because I was about to rock his world.

  WHEN SATURDAY MORNING rolled around, I headed up to the Storm’s practice facility and made my way upstairs to Jim Sutter’s office. I made sure to time my visit when the team was in the midst of a grueling practice so there would be no reason for me to worry about either Cody or my father walking in on me and wondering what I was doing here. I wasn’t ready to tell them yet. Not until after I had whatever answers I had come seeking, at the very soonest.

  In truth, I didn’t make it a habit to spend much time here. Usually, I went to the games at the Moda Center, but that was about it. Hockey was just a thing that Dad had always done, and now my brother and my brother-in-law and Cody did it, too. I didn’t dislike it, but I could live my life perfectly well without it, thank you very much.

  Rachel Campbell, who happened to be both Mr. Sutter’s assistant and Soupy’s wife, grinned up at me when I came around the corner. “Hey, lady. Your father’s down on the ice with the team.” She tucked a pen behind her ear, not noticing that she’d already tucked a different pen behind the other ear. Her Texas accent hadn’t faded much in all the years she’d been living in Portland. I grinned every time I heard it.

  “Good,” I replied. “I’m not here to see Dad. I wondered if I could get a few minutes with Mr. Sutter.”

  Rachel raised an inquisitive eyebrow, but she didn’t question me. She glanced at her computer screen for a moment then looked up at me again. “You’re in luck. He’s got a bit of time free right now because his call with Montreal got cancelled. Let me just go fill him in.” She got up and knocked on his closed door before inching it open and poking her head through. “Do you have a few minutes for Dani Weber?” she asked him.

  “Dani?” he asked, his tone full of curiosity. Not that I could blame him. Not once, in all the years we’d lived in Portland, had I ever come to his office. This was unprecedented. “Send her in,” came his response a moment later.

  Rachel opened the door wider and angled her head at me. “He’s all yours,” she said, winking as I brushed past her.

  Smiling broadly, Jim stood up behind his desk when I entered. He removed his bifocals and folded in the earpieces, then set his specs on the desk. “Does your dad know you’re here today?” he asked, his tone warm and friendly, not suspicious. “He’ll want to see you, I’m sure.”

  I gave him a shifty look. “Actually, I’d prefer if he didn’t find out about me coming to see you. At least not right away. It’s kind of a secret.”

  Jim chuckled and shook his head. “I can’t make any promises until I find out what this is all about, can I?”

  I tried to scowl, but I couldn’t quite manage it. The truth was, Jim Sutter was almost like a grandfather to me. I’d known him for something in the vicinity of half my life. I’d be far more likely to hug him than to scowl at him. That was probably the reason he was the first person I’d thought of when it came to helping Cody and his sisters.

  “The thing is,” I started, weighing my words carefully, “I’m here because of Cody Williams. He wouldn’t ask for help on his own, because that’s not his style. He tries to deal with everything by himself, even when it’s beyond what he can do alone.”

  “Am I to understand that you’re in some sort of relationship with him?” he asked me. He wasn’t being unkind or intrusive—just curious. And I supposed he was going to have to know, even if I’d rather keep the truth from my father.

  “We’ve been dating for a while. My father doesn’t know,” I hastened to add.

  Mr. Sutter gave me an understanding nod, encouraging me to go on. It wasn’t exactly a promise that he wouldn’t tell my father everything I told him, but I couldn’t worry about that right now.

  “Well, the thing is, his father isn’t well. Cody’s sisters have been trying to take care of him on their own back home, but it’s getting to be too much for them. They need help, and I need to find out what I can do to give them the help that they need. That’s where you come in. Or at least I hope you can help.”

  He sat back in his chair, eyeing me across the desk with a shrewd but kind expression drawing his brows together. “Having a complicated situation at home could make it difficult for him to focus on the game,” he said in an understanding tone. “So, what’s going on with Cody’s father, and how is it you think I can help?”

  A shot of exhilaration sped through my veins, because for once, I was going to figure out a way to make things better for Cody and his family. This wasn’t me thinking only of myself and how to get my rocks off. Yeah, I had been helping Bea, but this was different. That was partially selfish, too, because my efforts there weren’t purely selfless—I wanted to start a career, and I was helping her in an effort to help myself. But this? This wasn’t about me at all. It was purely about Cody. And if anyone could help me do it, it was Jim Sutter.

  “We need a way to get his father into assisted living. Here or in Canada…or somewhere. I don’t know where or how, or anything, really. I just know it’s too much for Cody’s sisters to deal with on their own, and with Cody playing and traveling with the team, it’s not something he can take care of, himself. This family needs help. So, I need you to help me figure out how to get them the help they need.”

  For a long moment, Mr. Sutter just stared at me. Then he put his glasses on again and scratched his head. “What have they found so far near where they live?”

  “Nothing but incredibly long waiting lists. Free health care isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, apparently.”

  He nodded, staring at me, seemingly lost in thought. “There’s an excellent facility here in Portland. Elaine and I actually have a good friend whose mother has been there for the last few years, and she has nothing but good things to say about the place.”

  “Can we get him in there?” I asked, practically jumping out of my skin at the thought that I might be able to solve one of Cody’s problems, without him being any the wiser until it had all been taken care of. “What do we need to do? Because I’m on it. I’ll do it. Whatever it takes.”

  “Well, I don’t think it would be an issue of finding a spot for him,” Mr. Sutter said, and my gut twisted. “The issue is that Cody’s father is a Canadian citizen, and we would have to find a way to legally bring him into the country to stay, long-term. Cody’s here on a Visa, which means he’s not eligible to sponsor his father.”

  “Oh.” Cody’s sisters had told me as much, but I was hoping that Mr. Sutter would have some other option at his disposal for us. I mean, he had to deal with citizenship issues all the time, since the Storm’s players and their families were from all sorts of countries from around the world. But instead, he was giving me the same information that Megan and Shelby had already told me.

  Well, hell. Talk about putting a kink in things.

  “There is an option, though,” Mr. Sutter said, and I perked up instantly.

  “What’s that?” Because it didn’t matter what it was. I would find a way to make it work out.

  “Are you sure you’re ready for this?”

  “Absolutely.” Maybe.

  Actually, maybe not, but I didn’t have much choice.

  I SPENT A few hours poring over all the information that Jim Sutter had armed me with, so I could decide what to do with it. And there was a ton of information already, with even more on the way once he’d had a chance to speak to a few people who knew more about the laws involved than he did. But it looked like there was one option that might just work out for Cody’s family…if he would agree to it.

  I wasn’t sure how to present the idea to him, though, and I was even less sure I was prepared to play my part in it. I mean, I was only twenty. Didn’t that make me too young to be making decisions that would affect the entire rest of my life, like getting married would? But it would definitely be the best decision for Cody and h
is family. And I sure as hell didn’t want him to marry someone other than me.

  I spent the afternoon chewing over it all while beginning the design of another dress. This one, unsurprisingly, would be made to Bea’s precise measurements. Apparently, I’d decided she was my muse.

  I grinned to myself every time I thought of what her reaction might be if I ever told her that. She’d probably say something like, Girl, you need a hobby. No doubt she’d be grinning while she said it.

  When the evening arrived, Bea came with it, bubbling over with her usual vivacious energy. She and I got ready at my place, but I was seriously distracted the whole time we were prepping. My brain was spinning like a top, but I managed to help her into the corset and dress without injuring either of us due to my high level of distraction.

  Seeing her in it sidetracked me enough that I was unable to stop the huge grin from forming. “You look like a million bucks. Way too good to waste on a guy like Koz, but whatever. He’ll have to do for now. We’ll find you someone else soon.”

  “Who says he’s not going to be the one?” she demanded, rolling her eyes. “You can’t make up your mind. First, I have to go on a date with a hockey player. Now, you say he’s not good enough.”

  “He’s not. Promise. But whatevs. He’s going to help you break the seal on the whole dating thing.”

  She raised a dark eyebrow so high it was comical. “Break the seal?”

  “Like when you’ve been drinking a ton of water all day and all of a sudden you need to pee. As long as you don’t give in to the urge, you can keep holding it. But once you’ve let go even just the tiniest bit, it’s not going to stop until your bladder is empty, so you’d better not break the seal and let so much as a drop come out until you’re over a freaking toilet.”

  “You’re comparing my dating life to peeing? I don’t know what to do with you.”

  I gave her a final once-over and winked. “Just love me. That’s all you can do. Besides, you wouldn’t have a dating life if it wasn’t for me, would you?” And with that, I pulled on a slinky, hunter-green sweater that hugged my curves in all the right ways, and I opened the door. “Come on. Let’s get out of here before I change my mind about letting Koz anywhere near your sexy ass.”

  Good thing for her, she followed me out the door. There was no telling what I would have done if she’d chickened out. I might have resorted to dragging her by the hair, because homegirl needed to live a little. We got into her car, and I reminded her of Cody’s address.

  “We should just walk there,” she grumbled, backing out of the driveway. “We could probably catch a dozen Pokémon on the way.”

  “I’m not letting you ruin your heels in the name of catching Pokémon.”

  We spent the whole of the drive over to Cody’s house bickering good-naturedly. It was almost like we were sisters. In fact, we were still sniping at one another when Koz answered Cody’s door.

  I had a hard time holding back my scowl. That asshat brought out the worst in me, but I refused to give him any more power over my state of mind.

  Cody slipped past him and drew me in for a kiss, which helped improve my mood immeasurably. I had a hard time being pissed off at Koz when Cody’s lips were on mine. I had an even more difficult time of it when Cody’s hand slipped down past the small of my back so he could squeeze my ass. It gave me a delicious, tingling reminder of all the other things he’d done to my ass. Bad thing to be thinking about right now, because it’d make me want him to take me upstairs and forget all about the whole double date.

  “Hi, stranger,” I said when he broke off the kiss, not even remotely embarrassed about him groping me with other people around. I was too happy to be in his arms again to fuss over something as silly as that. And besides, after my meeting with Jim Sutter earlier, I had a feeling that Cody and I would be doing a lot more that other people would witness sometime in the not-too-distant future.

  Hopefully, we’d get a chance to discuss it tonight. I certainly intended to do my best to wangle a conversation sometime when Bea and Koz were otherwise distracted. When Cody backed away and reached for my hand, it took me a moment to remember that the two of them didn’t know each other yet.

  “Bea, this is Blake Kozlow. Koz, this is my friend Bea Castillo, and if you so much as—”

  “He knows the rules,” Cody interrupted before I could build up a head of steam. Which was probably for the best. Starting the night off with threats wouldn’t exactly set the mood I intended.

  We piled into Koz’s car, with Cody and me claiming the back seat. It didn’t take long before we arrived at Toro Bravo, a Spanish tapas restaurant in the northeast part of town. I’d never been there before, but it turned out to be an excellent choice for Bea—because we ordered a bunch of small plates, and she could eat her tiny portions without worrying about anyone noticing or commenting on how little she ate.

  Not only that, but the food was excellent. Bea and Koz sat on the opposite side of the table from me and Cody. I had a hard time concentrating on anything that was said, because Cody kept slipping his hand under the table and squeezing my thigh.

  I did notice, however, that it didn’t take long before Bea and Koz were having an entire conversation with each other, complete with a lot of laughter. Huh. Who would’ve guessed? Bea’s grin just wouldn’t quit, and I couldn’t remember ever hearing Koz laugh so much before—and it wasn’t a forced laugh, either. Nor was it crass. He was genuinely amused. Granted, Bea amused the hell out of me, but his sense of humor and mine didn’t typically mesh.

  I didn’t know what to make of it. Every bone in my body had been screaming that Koz was the absolute last person on earth who could possibly be right for Bea, but the evidence seemed to be pointing in the other direction. She was positively beaming.

  “They seem to be hitting it off,” Cody said quietly, dipping his head down so close to my ear that his breath tickled my skin.

  “For now,” I said, suspicion tingeing my tone. Any minute now, the son of a bitch would say something rude, or he’d make a crass joke, or do something to prove to Bea that he was a jackass of epic proportions. Right?

  But Cody was trying to distract me. He had draped an arm around my shoulders, but it kept dropping lower and lower, teasing the bare skin of my arm with a promise of what might be to come later, if I played my cards right.

  With all that going on, I would never figure out how or why the next words came out of my mouth, but they sure as heck did.

  “I had a meeting with Jim Sutter today,” I said quietly, so as to keep Koz and Bea from overhearing. They seemed to be otherwise occupied with making one another laugh, anyway, but I didn’t want to take any chances.

  The arm Cody had draped over my shoulders tensed up. “Why did you meet with the team’s GM?” he demanded, his tone suddenly cold and suspicious.

  Which, admittedly, it should be. I’d gone behind his back and meddled in his business. Yeah, I’d done it for a good cause, but still. Judging by the way his sisters told me he was constantly trying to take care of everything for them, I doubted he’d feel too kindly toward me interfering in his life.

  Especially without his knowledge or permission.

  It was too late to go back in time and undo what I’d done, though. And honestly, it wasn’t as if anyone had been hurt through my actions. Quite the opposite, actually.

  Because now I had a potential solution for his problems.

  But now wasn’t the time or place for us to talk about it. Not with Koz and Bea sitting across the table from us and cracking up over the jokes they were telling. Honestly, who would have ever thought those two would suit? But I couldn’t deny that this was going far better than I would have imagined.

  Well, the parts involving Koz and Bea were going well. Things with Cody and me, on the other hand, seemed kind of dicey. He looked like he was about to blow a gasket.

  I pinched my lips together and shook my head. “Later,” I bit off.

  The way he looked at me wa
s pure thunder. He put a hand on my elbow and tugged hard enough to get me moving, even though that was the last thing I wanted to do, hauling me away from the table. “We’ll be back in a minute,” he muttered to Koz and Bea, not that they were paying us any attention. I doubted they either heard or cared.

  I stumbled after him as he headed toward the hallway leading to the restaurant’s bathrooms, racking my brain. What could I say that wouldn’t leave him fuming? Probably nothing, but it was too late for second thoughts.

  He came to an abrupt stop and backed me up against the wall of the semi-dark hallway, looming over me with fire in his gorgeous midnight-blue eyes. “It’s later. What were you doing talking to Jim Sutter? Because something tells me it wasn’t anything to do with your father or your brother-in-law.”

  His perfectly muscled arms had me boxed in against the wall. Even though he wasn’t touching me, I felt every inch of his thinly-veiled fury pulsing in the air between us.

  A couple walked past us in the hall, the man sending a wary glance in our direction. I tried to give him a look that said everything was fine, because the last thing we needed was some stranger trying to come to my rescue and picking a fight with Cody. The couple kept going, thank goodness.

  My lungs burned. They wouldn’t fill. But I couldn’t look away from him, no matter how much my nerves were screaming out for me to do so. “I had something I needed to ask him,” I said evasively.

  “About your father? Or maybe something to do with Babs?” Cody asked, but there was no hiding the fact that he didn’t believe I’d asked about either of those people. Not for a second was he buying my story.

  Lying wouldn’t do me any good. I’d never been a good liar, anyway. “About how we can help you with the situation with your father,” I finally said, staring at his lips because it was safer than staring at his eyes. Those eyes were going to eat me alive. I’d much prefer he eat me with his lips.