by Kat Mizera
The Blizzard won that night, so everyone was in a good mood afterward in the family lounge. Sara introduced her parents to Gage and Laurel and her father immediately struck up a conversation with Gage about football, leaving her alone with her mother.
“I’m sorry he’s been so difficult,” her mother said. “I don’t know what’s come over him. He’s worried about you.”
“I’m fine.”
“We were scared when you were hurt in the earthquake and it’s hard when your only child is thousands of miles away without anyone to take care of her.”
“Dani and Sergei paid for everything the insurance didn’t cover and I’ve got great friends. Aaron stepped up to the plate even before we got together, so you don’t need to worry. I have a good life here.”
“Are you really going to leave a great guy like Aaron if you get accepted to one of those schools?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “But I don’t think so. It’s going to depend on how things go. I mean, if he asks me to marry him, definitely not. I love him and he’s probably going to retire in a few years, so there will be time for me to go to school if I’m still feeling it.”
They stopped talking as the guys arrived and Aaron came over to kiss her, sliding an arm around her shoulders.
“Did you enjoy the game, Mrs. C?” he asked Rita.
“It was exciting. I’m not much of a sports fan, but I’ll have to pay more attention to hockey now. I watched when Sara played, of course, but that was different, being in college and such. Tonight’s game was crazy with all the fighting.”
“That was just for show,” Aaron chuckled. “Many of us on these two teams are friends.”
“Oh my.”
Sara excused herself and went over to Dani. “Is your brother here?” she asked.
“Of course. Want to venture over to the other locker room?” Dani’s eyes twinkled with mischief.
“Duh.”
“Let’s go.”
Normally, they would never do that, but the relationship between the guys on the two teams was unique because of the siblings and now the addition of a recently retired Sidewinders player to the Blizzard coaching staff. They weren’t big rivals either, since the Blizzard competed more directly with their counterparts in Seattle.
They walked down a hall and around a corner to the other team’s locker room just as their head coach, Jared Wylde, came out. He smiled at Dani and gave her a hug.
“Your brother was about to come looking for you,” he said.
“Good timing.” She walked into the room and was immediately assaulted with greetings. She made the rounds, hugging different players she knew, including her brothers-in-law, while Sara went to Dani’s six-foot-six-inch monster of an older brother. Zakk was an elite player in the league as well as Sara’s good friend. He’d been a senior in college when she and Dani had been freshmen and they’d all been close.
“Hey.” He hugged her tightly and Sara closed her eyes, breathing in everything about him. He was as close as she’d ever come to having a sibling and Dani wasn’t kidding about Zakk’s hugs being the absolute best. “You okay?” he asked, glancing down at her.
“Just been a rough few months,” she said.
“Dani told me you and Aaron are together now,” he said quietly. “He treating you right?”
“Oh, yeah, Aaron’s great.” She smiled. “Just have my own shit going on and my parents came to spend the week without any warning, which has been a lot more stressful than I thought it would be.”
“I’m sorry.” He gave her a smile. “But you know I’ll kick Ferrar’s ass if he fucks with you, right?”
She shook her head. “He’s not the one that needs it. Unfortunately, I don’t think it would be very cool if you kicked my dad’s ass.”
“Yeah, that might not go over too well.” He gave her an intent look. “You’re always so hard on yourself, Sara. Try letting go for a while, you know? Just take life as it comes. Stop letting other people influence you or change what you want. Do what makes you happy. Does Aaron make you happy?”
She nodded, smiling. “Yeah. A lot.”
“Then go with that. You can always change jobs or careers, go back to school, etc. But finding the person that makes you happy, well, that’s a hell of a lot harder.”
“Thanks, Zakk.” She hugged him again.
27
Aaron, Sara, and her parents went to see the house that wasn’t far from Dani and Sergei’s the day after Thanksgiving. It was spacious and bright, with everything Sara could have wanted in the kitchen, a fantastic master bedroom suite, and the deck Aaron wanted. He did a cursory check to see if there had been any earthquake damage, even though it would be professionally inspected if they decided to buy it, and everything looked good.
“It’ll need a few coats of paint,” Rita said as they wandered through the rooms. “But I see lots of potential here.”
“How old is the roof?” Stan asked.
“We’re compiling a list of questions,” Sara told him. “So we can ask the realtor and make sure the inspector checks everything once we decide if we want it.”
“It’s expensive,” Stan mused, looking around. “You’d get twice the house for this money in Minneapolis.”
“Except I don’t have a job in Minneapolis,” Aaron said, trying not to get annoyed. What was it with this guy? He understood him being overprotective of his daughter. He would probably be the same way if he had a daughter, but what the hell was up with the constant negativity? Everyone had a bad day, but Stan was having a bad eternity with this attitude. Personally, Aaron didn’t give a shit, but it hurt Sara, and that pissed him off. They were still so new on the romance-front, and this kind of thing could make her start second-guessing everything. She did that a lot anyway, and he wanted her father to knock it off.
“Well, you could get traded. Probably making a lot more money.”
Aaron bit back a nasty retort and shrugged. “I have three years left on my contract and it’s hefty. Most teams aren’t going to want to pick up that kind of salary unless it’s a huge market like New York or Toronto, and those teams aren’t looking for goalies.”
“You never know until you try.” Stan clapped him on the back like they were buddies or something.
“I’m sorry,” Sara whispered in his ear as she tugged him into the master bedroom. “So, how much fun could we have in this room?”
He chuckled. “So much fun.” He wrapped his arms around her. “Do you like it?”
“I do. You?”
“I do. Do you want it?”
“If you do.”
“No. Do you want it? I can live in that apartment and be fine. It’s not ideal, but it saves me a lot of money and requires very little upkeep for a single guy on the road a lot. I’m asking the woman in my life if this is where she wants to start our life together.” He paused, hoping his words sunk in and portrayed all the emotions he struggled to articulate.
“I…” She blinked, staring up at him. “Yes. I love this house. The bay windows in the front are the perfect place to put a massive Christmas tree during the holidays. The walk-in closet is bigger than my entire apartment in college. There’s a yard for Mama to run and play in. There are lots of walls and floors for me to lose myself in decorating. It’s wonderful.”
“And extra bedrooms should we decide to…add to the family.”
She nodded happily. “Absolutely. And it’s right around the corner from my bestie.”
“Let’s pretend we need to go home and think about it,” he said under his breath. “We’ll call the realtor in a few hours with an offer. We don’t want to seem too excited.”
“Got it.”
He took her hand and walked out to the main room, calling to Stan and Rita that they were ready to go.
Everything happened quickly after they made the offer. Aaron had low-balled it, hoping they would come back with a decent compromise. Instead, the sellers accepted and, pending the inspection, they could clo
se the day after Christmas. It was startlingly fast but Aaron was happy. He had a bunch of stuff in storage that he could get out and Sara didn’t have all that much, so the move would be relatively easy. He’d hire someone since he would be gone a lot. The team was leaving on a road trip on the twenty-seventh, so everything would have to go smoothly with the closing, but he didn’t foresee any issues. He was giving them a huge down payment, and his credit was impeccable, so the bank wouldn’t be a problem.
In fact, everything was pretty great. Sara seemed happier now that her parents were gone and it was just the two of them. They were gearing up for their first Christmas as a couple, now they were buying a house, and Dr. Harjo had started repairs on the clinic, which meant it would reopen in a couple of months. Everything was falling into place for them and he was debating buying her a ring. He hadn’t used the “L” word yet, but she had to know how he felt. Right?
Shit. She was still a girl. Technically a woman, but a girl in the context of romantic things, where girls needed a lot of reaffirmation and things spelled out. Which he hadn’t done. He needed to, but saying “I love you” wasn’t something you just blurted out after a good fuck. At least not the first time. He’d struggled with it. Not the feelings, he had those in spades, but how to say the words. She was dealing with something, he wasn’t sure what, and he’d been giving her time and space to work it out. He figured she still had lingering doubts about veterinary school and her future, so he didn’t want to muddy the waters with proclamations of love and an engagement ring.
But what if he was wrong?
That day after practice he sought out Sergei as they walked out to the parking lot.
“I have a question,” he said.
“Shoot.” Sergei glanced at him.
“I need to buy a ring. Where did you get Dani’s?”
Sergei’s face lit up with a smile. “So this is getting real, huh?”
“Oh, it’s real. I just…” He hesitated. “I keep trying to give her a little time to adjust but I don’t know if that’s the right move. Like maybe I should tell her I want this to be forever.”
“What if you put her name on the deed and show her the papers at Christmas? There’s nothing much more direct than giving a woman you’re not married to half of your new house.”
Aaron nodded. “That’s a good idea. I don’t want to propose on Christmas; I want it to be separate, but I need to look at rings and there are two problems. One, I don’t know what styles she likes, it’s never come up, and two, I don’t know where to go here in Anchorage.”
“I can help you with both those problems.” Sergei pulled out his phone and typed something out. “I just texted Dani and gave her the 411 so she can let us know about jewelry styles. And I’m going to text you the name and number of the jeweler I used for Dani’s ring.”
“Thanks. You’re the best.”
Aaron drove home lost in thought and found the apartment empty other than Merlin, who greeted him happily.
“Tweet, tweet, motherfucker!”
“Hey, big guy.” He let the bird out of the cage and scratched him for a while. “Where did your mom go, huh?”
He checked his phone and found a text from her.
SARA: Going to work with Dr. H for a few hours. I’ll text you when I’m on my way home.
He’d also gotten a text from Dani, telling him Sara liked white gold or platinum, and was fairly traditional with jewelry, so a round cut diamond was probably her preference. He found the phone number Sergei had sent him and called the jeweler, asking him when he could go in to meet with him and see some engagement ring options. The jeweler was free today and Aaron took off, excited to get the ball rolling on this. He wasn’t sure when or how he would propose, but he wanted to be prepared.
The next couple of weeks were crazy. Laurel couldn’t travel anymore, so Coach Riser took over as head coach and though Laurel was involved via Skype during team meetings and such, there was yet another new vibe on the team with coaching. Coach Riser was great. Everyone liked him and though he was hard on them on the ice, he was personable and not subject to temper tantrums the way Coach Cade had been. This was his first coaching job, though, so taking on the head coaching position for a professional hockey team had to be daunting.
The team went two and two on the road, which was better than the last road trip, but still not as good as they would have liked. Aaron was distracted, though, thinking about all the changes coming in his life. Even when his marriage had been falling apart and he’d been struggling with falling in love with his buddy’s ex-wife, he hadn’t allowed anything to get in the way of hockey. With Sara, she’d become his priority and it was a little scary. Part of him didn’t like it, because hockey required the ultimate focus if he wanted to play at the level expected of him. But another part of him was cognizant that hockey would most likely end in the next few years and he’d need to spend time and energy on his wife. Hopefully a family.
They’d never talked about kids, though he knew she loved them and wanted some eventually. He wondered what that meant and was suddenly acutely aware of how much he took for granted with Sara. She’d been his best friend and sidekick for a couple of years now, so they knew each other well, but now they were a couple and they needed to communicate about all these things. He’d seen it happen with his friends over and over, a lack of communication causing issues. He needed to fix that sooner rather than later.
“Hey, what’s happening with the new house?” Jake asked, settling in next to him on the plane home.
“Inspection was yesterday. We haven’t heard anything but my gut tells me everything is fine. I don’t know why.”
“Hope you’re right. A lot of these houses had a shit ton of hidden damage after the earthquake, like the crack we just found in the wall of the guest room. Contractor says it’s cosmetic and not to worry, but it’s unnerving.”
“Yeah, it’s been hit and miss. I’m looking for a good outcome.”
“Watch, it’ll probably have termites or some other non-earthquake issue.”
“Bite your tongue!” Aaron laughed.
“Everything good with you and Sara?”
“Everything is great.” He pulled up a picture on his phone of the ring he’d chosen. “I’ll be picking this baby up this week.”
“Oh, yeah.” Jake grinned. “That’s awesome. I’m really happy for both of you. She’s a great lady. You finally picked a good one.”
“Tell me about it.”
“When are you popping the question?”
“I don’t know. Christmas is such a cliché. I was thinking the day we move into the house. It’ll be when we get back from that road trip after Christmas.”
“Sounds perfect.”
“You think we can plan a wedding in six months?”
“I’m positive the wives on this team can make that happen. You’re ready, huh?”
“I am. I mean, she’s the best. Why would I wait?”
“You shouldn’t. You two are perfect together.”
“When we met in college, did you picture us where we are today?”
Jake laughed. “Definitely not in Alaska, but yeah, kinda. I probably pictured myself with Addy, and not Whitney, but other than that, I figured we’d be married and chasing a few kids around by this time. We’re a few years behind the eight ball.”
“You and Whitney ready yet?”
“For kids?” Jake shook his head. “Nope. She loves what she’s doing and I’m okay with waiting a little longer. I think she’d like one by the time she’s thirty but we have a few years.”
“I think we’re going to have seven hundred pets by the time Sara’s thirty,” Aaron said. “So I don’t know where we’ll put any kids.”
“I can’t believe you have a bird.”
“I can’t believe I have a bird that says ‘motherfucker’ and ‘go fuck yourself.’”
“I need this bird,” Miikka said, leaning over the seats. “Maybe he teach me English.”
Th
ey all cracked up.
28
Between getting ready for the holidays, taking care of Niko, helping Dr. Harjo when he needed her, and everything she had to do for the move and the new house, Sara was busy from first thing in the morning until late at night. She was happier than she’d been in a long time, though, and for the first time in years, she wasn’t thinking about anything but what was going on right now. She wasn’t waiting for an acceptance letter, updating her résumé, or scouring the internet for career options. She was working as a nanny and a vet tech, and getting ready to buy a new house with the man she loved.
She’d been debating what to buy him for Christmas and had just found some interesting antique hockey items online when her phone rang. She didn’t recognize the number, but it was the Minneapolis exchange and she answered curiously.
“Hello?”
“I’m looking for Sara Chandler.”
“That’s me.”
“Hi, Sara. My name is Dr. Justine Winters and I’m the dean of admissions from the Flanders School in Minneapolis.”
Sara froze. What on earth could this be about? “Hi. What can I do for you?”
“Well, I have an apology and a proposition.”
“I’m not sure I understand, but sure.”
“First of all, we had a computer glitch a couple of months ago. Every single person in our database, both current and potential students, got a rejection letter. They were automatically generated and our regular secretary was on maternity leave, so we had a temp. When I told her to go into the database and print and mail the rejection letters, it didn’t occur to her that it was an extremely high number. It wasn’t until we had a bunch of current students come to us with the letters, that we realized what had happened. It’s taken us weeks to fix the glitch and figure out who we needed to contact.”