by Kat Obie
“Oh. You know boys. He was a wee bit immature and thinking he was hot stuff for being a high draft pick and the best player on his college team the whole year he was there. Yet someone or something seemed to knock some sense into him. He got more focused and grew into the man that I knew he could be. I just assumed there was a woman to blame especially since he stopped acting like the biggest man whore.”
Jenna was surprised how quickly his mom opened up to her. It was nice and refreshing and it put her at ease. “Yeah. I wouldn’t put up with that stuff.”
“Nor should you. You have value. If he tries to be a man whore, do me a favor and dump his ass.”
Jenna was laughing so hard. It didn’t help that Corey came into the kitchen at that moment and yelled, “Mom. How could you say that? Aren’t you supposed to protect your dear old boy?”
“Not if you’re being a man whore. You know I don’t put with that sort of crap between you and LeAnn. I’m still pissed at her for her behavior at Christmas. She’s going to kill herself if she doesn’t get herself straightened out. That’s why I love that you did it on your own. Like a good boy.”
He shrugged as he stole an uncooked roll off the tray that Jenna held and put in his mouth. His mom smacked his hand with a wooden spoon. “No. We need to cook those.” Then she took the tray and put it into the oven.
Corey snaked his arm around Jenna’s waist and pulled her close. He whispered, “I hope she’s not scaring you. Sorry. I didn’t mean to take so long with Dad in the basement.”
She whispered back to him, “It’s fine, babe. It’s been a good talk.”
“So, ready for tomorrow, Cor?”
“Hell yeah. Why are you asking that, Mom? You know I’ve been looking forward to having a backyard feast with the Cup and taking it back to the old rink since I was a little kid. I think the only thing not happening that I wanted was an elephant parade.”
Jenna started laughing. “You wanted an elephant parade for your day with the Cup?”
“When he was six, he sure did. He thought it would be the best thing to happen to Burlington.”
“I still think it would be hysterical. I just know now that it’s not practical. But hey. I made all my other dreams come true.”
“That you did,” Jenna said quickly.
“Now it’s time to make your mom’s dreams come true. By getting married and finishing up your degree.”
“I will. Sooner or later. Let me finish my hockey career first,” he said confidently to his mom and then in a softest whisper to her, “And I know who I would love to spend it with, if you let me.”
Jenna just swooned and nodded, not trusting herself to say too much more. The interaction between mother and son was so sweet and perfect but not what she expected.
Corey
So far everything has been great. He was so glad that his parents were cool with Jenna. Sure, it seemed like there were times that his mom was trying to separate them so she could grill Jenna. But he couldn’t blame her; he wanted to get Jenna all to himself as much as she did.
After dinner, he took Jenna up to his old room. It was weird since his parents kept it the same since he was a teen. It was embarrassing for Jenna to see the pinups on the ceiling that he used to jack off to. Thankfully, she didn’t say anything about that right away. Instead she zoned in on the trophies and medals hanging up on the shelf.
“Damn, Corey. That’s a collection right there.” He chuckled since it was indeed a collection. He played on so many teams, traveled all the time and his teams would win. He kept his medals. He even had a few of his jerseys hanging up like his draft day one and his Team USA U-18s jerseys.
He reached up behind a trophy and he pointed to his stash. “Yeah. If you look up there, you’ll see the various plane tickets from over the years.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. I would just stick them up there after each trip. I still do it from time to time when I come home with paper tickets.”
She smiled and came up toward him with a hug. “I think it’s sweet. Although, babe, can you be any more cliché with that?” She pointed up toward the ceiling.
“What can I say, I was fourteen and horny.” He couldn’t deny it. Plus it also showed he had a clear taste in women. He loved his brunettes with rocking bodies, just like Jenna. Not that body type ever really made a difference when he was hanging out with LeAnn. He was tempted to pull her down to his bed. “You okay with this room or do you want to sleep in the guest room?”
She sat down on his bed and tilted her head with a come hither look. That was all the answer he needed. He made sure he locked his bedroom door, not that his mom couldn’t pick it with a bobby pin but he needed the illusion of privacy. He tossed his T-shirt off toward the floor of his closet. Then he strutted over toward the bed where he straddled Jenna and pulled her close. He took her shirt off. As he was about ready to take her bra off, she asked, “Are you sure you’re okay doing it where your parents can hear?”
“Shit. Well, I still want to do it. But you’re right, they would hear. It wouldn’t be right.” He started to rub her arms and looked into her eyes longingly. He knew she was so uncomfortable about being the first girlfriend he brought home. He didn’t want to make it harder on her. While his parents weren’t ever oblivious to his sex drive and his lays, he never did it around them. He had some standards, plus his mom would never let him hear the end of it. He still couldn’t believe his mom told Jenna that he was a horndog.
He still pulled off his pants and then snuggled into Jenna’s body. “I love you. I’m glad that you came here. I hope that things aren’t too weird.”
“It’s surprisingly not weird. I like seeing the photos of you when you were a kid and all your awards,” she said as she played with some of his hair that was threatening to fall into his eyes, although it wouldn’t actually fall with the amount of product that kept the swoop in place.
“To think, they haven’t even pulled out the baby photos or the embarrassing ones.” He smiled as he said it. He was glad that they weren’t trying to embarrass him too much. They seemed to really like her.
“There’s still time for that. I could always ask your mom,” she said, but her voice told him how much she was teasing him. He knew that his mom would totally be okay with showing off his naked baby photos. She showed most of his buddies growing up whenever she disapproved of his decisions.
“Don’t even give her the idea,” he said, laughing. “Hell, she would probably love you for asking to see them.”
“I might have to do that then. I want her to like me,” she said while kissing his chin. He just smiled and leaned in to kiss her nose.
“Trust me, she loves you. She already told you if I screw up to dump me because you are worth everything. What more do you want?”
She paused for a moment as she thought. The smile on her face was downright devilish as she teased him. “I guess I don’t need to ask for your embarrassing photos. How excited are you for tomorrow?”
“Oh, yeah. I’m super excited. I know it won’t be anything crazy like Scotty’s day. But it will be fun.”
That’s when she laughed and rubbed her leg up, making his dick rise. “Dude, nothing can be bigger than a freaking wedding. I still can’t believe you got up on stage to sing. It was so hot. There is no reason to be so shy about your music.”
He sighed. She was right and she had no clue how hard it was for him. He didn’t like to fail at anything. Unlike hockey, he was still learning and he wasn’t cocky with it. He practiced “Hold My Girl” for weeks. If it wasn’t for his respect for Scotty, he wouldn’t have sang the second song until it was perfect. “I know you keep saying that I don’t need to be afraid. I’m working on it more and more. I’m getting more confident. I thought about singing some tomorrow but I didn’t want to stress myself out. The day with the Cup is for me to do my thing and have fun so I got my buddy’s band to perform.”
“It’ll be fun. I can’t wait to meet all your friends. We
should sleep.”
“We should.” He pulled her closer to him. He still wanted to have sex with Jenna. “Or we could get busy.”
She patted his shoulder. “Not in your parents’ house. Not in the bed you used to jack off to them.” She turned over to bury her face into his shoulder. “Baby, it’s kinda creepy to have them staring down at you.”
“I’ll totally take them down if you want me to. It’s not a big deal.”
“It’s fine. I’m just going to tease you about it though.”
He snorted and said, “Okay.” He dropped a kiss on her forehead. “I’m so glad you’re here. Thanks, beautiful.” With that he drifted off to sleep.
It was a sound sleep but he woke up early with excitement. He was surprised when the doorbell rang since he wasn’t expecting to meet with the Stanley Cup protector until 9:30 a.m. at the rink and Petey shouldn’t be coming over quite so soon. He threw on some pants and booked it down the stairs so it wouldn’t wake up his parents unnecessarily, completely forgetting about the noise his footsteps would have made running down the stairs.
Opening up the door, Corey saw the FedEx guy returning to the truck but there was a massive stick box at the door. He thought that was weird since he hadn’t ordered anything, but it was hard not to know what the box was since he ordered sticks every year. He brought them into the house and popped open the box and saw that they were taped, which was weirder since they shouldn’t be taped up. Every guy tapes up their sticks differently and never should be taped upon opening. He then saw a note:
Hey Corey,
Sorry I can’t be there for your day. But to make up for it, I have some signed sticks for you to give out at your event to the kids. Give them my love.
Best,
Scotty
He smiled. That was unexpected and nice. He felt Jenna come up and ask, “What do you have there?”
“Apparently Scotty sent some autographed sticks for today.”
“That’s nice. Were you expecting that?”
“No. I just invited him and Alice to today before we knew that they were going on their honeymoon. I never thought another thing of it. So this was out of the blue.”
Before Jenna could say anything, the doorbell rang again. Corey made a face ’cause he wanted some solo time with Jenna. But he opened the door and saw Petey and Aubrey. “Oh hey, guys. Come on in.”
He led Petey and his girlfriend into the kitchen. It was both weird and cool to bring his Cleveland family to his “home” home. “Did you guys have any problems coming in?”
“None. It was a long ass flight from BC to here,” Petey said. He turned to Aubrey. “Hey, babe, have you and Jenna actually had a chance to meet?”
“Nope.”
Corey was filling up the coffeepot to get it started. He knew he would need coffee today. “Sorry, I just assumed you guys have met. Aubrey, this is my girlfriend, Jenna. Jenna, this is Aubrey, Petey’s girlfriend.”
“It’s good to finally meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
He turned around in time to catch Aubrey rolling her eyes; she obviously didn’t care about being there one bit, which was crazy. Petey was in love with Aubrey and put up with the times when she wouldn’t speak to him. It made him so glad that he had it good with Jenna. He decided to ask, “Do you guys want anything for breakfast?”
“Nah. We got stuff at the hotel.” He was still pulling out some eggs and milk from the fridge so he could make some scrambled eggs.
That’s when his parents came down. His mom immediately said, “Oh good, I taught you well.” Then she noticed Petey standing by the island. “Oh my goodness, Petey, who did you bring with you?”
“Hi, Mrs. C. This is my girlfriend, Aubrey. Didn’t you guys meet when you came to Hamilton?”
“Nope. Although I remember how you boys got drunk after the game.”
Petey shook his head and said, “I tried to control him but it was a losing battle that night.”
“Hey, I’m standing right here and I wasn’t that bad,” he said more defensively than he would have liked, but he didn’t want Jenna to continually hear how he was an asshole before he settled down. “Also, Jenna’s right here.”
“Babe, I know you were a horndog and drank way too much before you came up to the NHL. It’s not like it’s news. Besides, I also know you have been so good,” Jenna said with a kiss at the end.
“Now get away from that stove, Cor, you will not burn down this house when you have guests coming over later. Besides, I need to get started with the food for this afternoon.”
“Thank you again, Ma. I can’t wait to have some of your mac and cheese. But Pizza Verita will be delivering too.”
“So I finally get to try the famous Pizza Verita,” teased Petey.
“Oh, yeah. Next to Mom’s mac and cheese, it’s the best thing in the world.”
He knew it was time to get out of the kitchen, so they went to the backyard with his old setup. There was a little net next to the shed. It brought back memories of growing up and how he made it all the way to the top.
17
Jenna
Time was flying by at Corey’s place. She loved his mom. She was a force of nature but she was honest to a fault and completely loving. It was weird since she couldn’t imagine his mom letting either him or LeAnn get away with anything. But obviously, she had no control over LeAnn.
The only person she hadn’t liked meeting so far was Aubrey. She was so aloof and seemed like she didn’t want to be there at all. She legitimately felt bad for Petey ’cause he was such a good guy and Aubrey seemed to just be completely oblivious to how he was head over heels for her. They were heading over to the skating rink that Corey grew up playing at. For some reason, the car ride was tense with the four of them.
Almost immediately, Corey was greeted by people. First it was the Cup attendant and Corey quickly took the trophy. He looked like a kid with a red balloon for the first time: a mix of joy and wonder. She quickly took out her phone and snapped a few photos since it was just too perfect. She couldn’t wait to send them his way.
Then came the rink manager. Corey tucked the Cup under his left arm as he shook hands. “So if you want to come on back, we will get things set up.”
“Beautiful, can you get us more coffee from the Dunkin’ across the way?”
“Sure. Want to join, Aubrey?”
While Aubrey didn’t respond, she turned back toward the SUV. Jenna wondered what crawled up Aubrey’s butt and died. Then she reminded herself that Aubrey was probably just shy and not really rude. She just needed to give her a chance. As she climbed into the SUV, she realized the box of sticks was still there. She stepped out of the car and called, “Hey guys, the sticks are here.”
Petey immediately came back and grabbed the box. “I’ll get them.”
Then the two girls did the short drive across the street. Trying to keep things light and less awkward, Jenna said, “It’s good that you could come out.”
She snapped, “I don’t know why I bothered. You didn’t join Petey’s day.”
“Uh, I couldn’t. There was a huge server upgrade and I was working all night to make sure it went off without a hitch. I wanted to support Corey if I could. But Corey said it was a guys’ trip.” Thankfully, they pulled up to the parking lot and they got out of the car so they weren’t forcing the small talk.
When they got into the Dunkin’, it was empty, so they were able to go right up to the counter. “I would like a large white mocha latte, a large black coffee, and what about for you and Petey?”
“Large upside down caramel macchiato and a large coffee with three sugars.”
The clerk rang up their order. She immediately pulled out her debit card and paid the tab. She heard Aubrey say under her breath, “I can’t believe you are spending his money already!”
That took her aback. “What the hell? This is my debit card.”
“Well, you still should earn it. We all know that you’re just another puck bunn
y looking for an easy lay.”
“Excuse me? What’s your problem?”
“We all know Corey is an easy lay. Given your age, you have to be out for his money. You just latched yourself on to the first available Sound player. Why else would you go to Scotty’s wedding? I couldn’t even get an invite to that shindig.”
“What the hell are you talking about? I am not trying to get along with any Sound player. I don’t even live in Cleveland. The reason I went to Scotty’s wedding was because Alice is my best friend and I was the maid of honor. And I know for a fact you were invited to the wedding and you canceled since you had your graduation ceremony. Also congrats on your nursing degree.”
Aubrey’s jaw dropped. She clearly didn’t know who Jenna was and was acting on wild accusations and/or assumptions. Thankfully the order was ready, so she grabbed the four coffees from the counter and left.
“Well, you still need to earn your place. At least I put up with Aaron’s hockey bullshit for years now. I earned the payoff.” More and more, she was starting to think Aubrey was a straight-up bitch, which was a shame since she loved Petey. He was a good guy. Jenna wanted to hit her but she reminded herself that it wasn’t worth going to jail over. Petey would kill her and Corey would just be disappointed if she hit Aubrey.
Jenna had to center herself. She would not hit the girl on Corey’s big day. She wanted to warn Petey but didn’t know how to or if it was worth it. She said calmly, “It’s Corey’s big day. Petey’s his best friend.”
“At least call him by his proper name. His name is Aaron.”
“He’s always been called Petey when I’ve been around. His entire team calls him Petey. Hell, you’re the only one I’ve heard him call him Aaron.”
The two of them walked into the rink. Jenna was uncertain what she was going to say or do but she wanted to play it cool. She was surprised at the setup inside the rink—there was an area for photos and a giveaway table with a little wheel on it, and then on the ice there was a skill challenge of some sort. She wasn’t sure if it was a slap shot or whatnot.