SWNOVELS Beyond the Game: Chapter 13
Me: I scored tonight! Did you see? Were you watching?
Tatum: Watching what?
Me: *frowny face*
Tatum: *smirk emoji* Just kidding. Of course, I watched. You looked great out there! Though I admit I may have drifted to sleep a few times. It’s been a long day. Congrats on the goal.
Me: Are you feeling okay?
Tatum: You just won another game…a game in which you scored…and you’re asking if I’m feeling okay?
Me: Tate…
Tatum: I’m fine, Dex. Just a little tired. My body is a baby factory that works overtime you know. Tired is okay.
Me: Need me to come rub your feet or give you a back massage? I can bring snacks.
Tatum: You mean the team isn’t celebrating tonight?
Me: Yeah, they are, but I can skip it. You and the baby are more important.
Tatum: That’s sweet of you, Dex. Really. But I’m good. You go out with your friends. You deserve to celebrate.
Me: Tate…
Tatum: I promise I’m okay, Dex.
Me: Go out with me tomorrow.
Tatum: Why? Do you have a charity thing or something?
Me: No. I have the day off tomorrow and was just hoping to spend some time with you. Thought about introducing you to my guys on the team. I guess that was my way of asking you out. Sorry, I’m not very good at this. Don’t worry about it. Maybe another time.
Tatum: I would love to go.
Me: Wait. Really?
Tatum: *smiley face* Yes. Really.
Me: Okay. I’ll pick you up at three?
Tatum: See you then. G’night, Dex.
Me: Night Tatum.
___
“I should uh, apologize or whatever ahead of time for anything said here tonight.” I press on the Ring doorbell at Milo’s front door.
She chuckles beside me. “That bad, huh?”
“I love ‘em like brothers and we all act like brothers, sooo…”
“Oh, I get it.” She nods. “Lots of pissing contests and an abundance of dick talk?”
“That pretty much sums it up, yeah. In our locker room you see more foreskins than a Rabbi during a baby boom.” I laugh. “God, we’re so predictable.”
She giggles. “Nah. Just men. Teammates. Athletes. I get it. My brother played baseball in high school. It’s all I ever heard from his friends when they were around.”
“Whatever he says, don’t believe him!” says a voice from the doorbell speaker. “Dex’s dick is the smallest one on the team.”
I cock my head and roll my eyes. “Uh, she’s seen my dick, asshole. Pretty sure she knows better.”
Tatum pushes me out of the way of the doorbell camera with a smirk. “Whoa! I don’t know anything though! I mean if his is the smallest, I’m all for meeting the rest of you! Do we need to have a dick-off or something?”
Loud female cackles come from the other side of the door before it swings open and Tatum is greeted with a huge hug from Carissa and Charlee. “Oh, my God, Hi! I’m Charlee and this is Carissa and I think we’re all now best friends!”
Tatum laughs but hugs them all just the same. “I could use a few new best friends for sure! Hi. I’m Tatum!”
“It’s soooo good to mee you, Tatum,” Carissa sings. “Also, look how fucking adorable you look! EEEEK!” She hits my bicep playfully. “Can you even believe that’s your kid in there?”
Tatum turns to me with a smirk and a nod toward Carissa. “This one might give Rory a run for her money.”
I roll my eyes. “Just wait till they’re all three together. It’s like a fuckin’ hen fest in here listening to them squeal and snicker about one thing or another.”
“It’s your dick sizes, Dex,” Charlee explains. “We’re always laughing about your dick sizes.”
“Yeah, and Colb says yours is pierced! When do we get to see that?”
Colby shakes his head. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. I never said anything about you seeing it, Smalls.”
Tatum’s eyes grow and she gasps. “Oh, my God, that’s right!” She shoots her hand up in the air. “I can certainly confirm the piercing!” She grins at the ladies. “So, I’m guessing piercings aren’t a team thing?”
Charlee laughs. “No, but they sure as hell should be!” She turns to Milo. “Why don’t you get pierced, babe?”
“Because nobody touches my man hammer but you, Goldilocks.”
“Goldilocks?” Tatum’s brow furrows, but Charlee waves her off.
“Long story.”
“Bro, man hammer?” I cringe. “Nah man. I think we can come up with something a little stronger than man hammer.”
The girls lead Tatum inside while the guys follow behind.
“How about lap rocket?” Zeke suggests.
Quinton shakes his head. “Clam Clogger.”
Colby winks. “Thrill drill.”
“No way.” Hawken shakes his head. “Mine’s Long Dong Silver.”
“I think I prefer purple-headed yogurt slinger.” I nod, happy with my thought.
“Charlee called mine Fuck Norris the other day and I don’t hate it.” Milo smirks and we all laugh as we meet up with the ladies in the kitchen. I go through and introduce her to each of the guys and then stand back and watch as she takes each one of them in and gets to know something about each of them individually.
Not intimidated or scared of them at all.
Like none of us are professional hockey players with million-dollar salaries.
Because she’s amazing like that.
___
“Did your parents never lie to you when you were a kid?” Carissa asks the group over dinner. We were just chatting about what fibs we’ll tell our child as its growing up.
“Pfft. All the fucking time. Like I said, my parents weren’t good role models growing up. Thank God, Rory and I had each other.”
“My parents used to tell me fibs all the time when I was young,” she says. “Some of them took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out they were in fact, lies.”
“You mean like Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy?” Zeke asks.
“Oh no.” She giggles. “Much worse. Like for one, my dad used to tell us it was illegal to turn the light on in the back seat of the car at night, so my siblings and I never touched it. Not once.”
Charlee giggles. “Oh, you poor sweet thing.”
“Hey Colby, remember what your dad used to say about those ice cream trucks?” Milo smiles.
“Oh shit, yeah. He used to tell us when the ice cream truck plays music around the neighborhood it’s letting you know it’s empty and has to go restock.”
I slap my palm to my forehead. “Oh man, you fell for that?”
“Yep. Sure did.”
“Soooo I have two.” Tatum beams. She is very much enjoying this conversation and I am very much enjoying watching her.
“My whole life, I thought Hansel and Gretel got eaten by the witch!”
Okay that one makes me cackle. “No, you did not.”
She raises her hand. “Swear to God. I thought the whole story was a cautionary tale about not running away from your parents. It took until I was twenty-two! Twenty freaking two before I actually read the whole book and realized that is not, in fact, how it ends.”
Charlee throws her head back in laughter. “Oh shit, that’s funny!”
“That’s not the worst one.”
“Oh no!” Carissa leans forward, her chin resting in her hands. “This ought to be good. Do tell.”
Tatum holds her forehead with the tips of her fingers. “Oh, God, I can’t believe I fell for this one.”
“Wait, let me guess.” I stop her.
She shakes her head. “You’ll never guess but go ahead and try.”
“Umm was it if you swallow gum, it’ll never digest?”
“Nope.”
“If you swim after eating, you’ll get a stomachache?”
“Nope.”
“The parks aren’t closed when Mom has a headache?”
“Huh?”
My shoulders fall. “Yeah, that’s what my mom always said.”
Tatum chuckles. “You poor thing…but also, nope.”
“Alright, I give up.”
She takes a deep breath and tries to wipe the smile from her face. “Okay, here goes. So, my mom used to suffer from nightmares.”
We all nod as she explains.
“And I mean like, a lot of them. And when she had nightmares, she would uh…you know, scream and moan and be loud, and I would lie in my bed at night and feel bad for her because she couldn’t get herself to wake up from her nightmares.”
“Oh fuck…”
I think I see where this is going.
“Yeah.” She nods, her eyes widening. “So, one night I go to the bathroom and when I’m walking back from the bathroom to my room, my parents’ bedroom door is open and all I see is my dad’s bare butt on top of my mother!”
There’s a collective sucking in of lips around the table to hold back our laughter, because yep, I was right about where this is going.
“Tatum!”
She turns toward Carissa. “And there I was thinking…wow! Dad is trying to get my mom to wake up from her nightmare. Weird that he’s not wearing pajamas but how nice of him to help Mom.”
I can’t help it. I burst out laughing as does everyone around this table, and thank God Tatum is laughing too. “Oh stop! This is too much!”
“Dex, it took until I was in high school to realize my mother was in fact not having nightmares and they just liked to fuck. And it took until I was in college to ever say something about it.” She laughs. “And now that night is a core memory for me that I will never ever, ever be able to get rid of, or unsee!”
I’m holding my stomach from laughing so hard. “Oh fuck, Tatum. That’s the best story I think I’ve ever heard in my whole damn life. I’m so sorry.”
“No, you’re not, you ass.” She slaps me playfully on my arm. “You’re getting off on my misfortunate childhood.
“Hey, it’s not my fault you were a sweet naïve little girl…teenager…young adult. Twenty-two, huh?”
“Shut up.” She huffs out a giggle and I can’t hold back. She’s so damn cute. Her smile…I think I could get off on her smile alone. She has been so much fun hanging out with all of us. I find myself dreading having to take her home. I’d give anything to prolong our time together.
___
“Two truths and a lie.” Tatum pulls her spoon from her mouth, having devoured the ice cream she just slipped inside. At her insistence, we picked up a couple pints of ice cream after leaving Milo’s and I invited her back to my place since it was closer to the store than her place. Nobody likes melted ice cream. Hers is mint chocolate chip. I chose chocolate marshmallow. “See you if you can tell which one is a lie.”
Easy peasy.
“Alright.”
“Umm…I have four siblings. I make a spectacular coconut cream pie. The first concert I ever went to was Kenny G.”
An amused grin spread across my face. “Kenny G?”
“Mhmm.”
“Has to be that one.”
She winces. “Oooh sorry, but you’re wrong.”
“Seriously? Kenny G? He’s that saxophone elevator music guy, right?”
“Yep. My dad loved him back in the day. Had all his albums. When he came to town, he bought tickets for the whole family. I was eight. And literally all the audience members were old people. I was the youngest person in the room.”
I shake my head. “Wow. And you didn’t walk out of there itching to learn the saxophone.”
She grins, a pinkness coming to her cheeks. “It’s what I played in my high school band.”
“Ha! The visuals I now have of little Tatum Lowe in her band uniform.”
“I know. So hot, right?”
“So, which of the other two was the lie?”
She scrunches her nose. “I can’t stand coconut cream pie and I’ve never made one in my life.”
“You’re a very convincing liar.”
“You think so?” She grins and something in my chest does this little flippy thing.
“Yeah. So, you have four siblings then?”
She nods with excitement. “Yeah, I do. They’re great. We’re all very close. Simeon, he’s the oldest. He’s a veterinarian with his own practice in Lansing. My brother Shane is a plastics engineer. My third brother, Silas is about to graduate from grad school with his master’s in chemistry, then there’s my sister Tess. She’s an artist. And then me.”
“Wow, busy family. And you get to see them often?”
She nods and then shrugs. “Yeah. Well, I did. We were all within an hour of each other. But now, not so much. I’m the one who decided to move away. I have a feeling my sister might follow me out here. Chicago is a way better place for her to grow as an artist than anywhere in Michigan, but I think she’s waiting it out to see how I like it here.”
“So clearly the family knows about us? The baby, I mean? Our baby?”
Shit, it feels weird asking someone that question.
“Mhmm. I called my mom shortly after I found out. She’s always been such a huge supporter of me. And there was no way I could keep it a secret from my family unless I plan to never see them again. Besides, once Tess knows something, the whole family knows. She’s the only sister I have. We tell each other everything, so…”
“Ah. I understand.”
I really want to ask her what she told them about me, but how the hell do I ask that?
Hey, did you tell them a rich and famous hockey player knocked you up?
Would they consider that a good thing or a horrible thing?
Do you tell them you liked me or did you tell them we don’t speak?
Do they know I’m taking responsibility?
Do they know I want to be involved in our kid’s life?
Do they hate me for what I did to their daughter?
Suddenly, a horrific thought crosses my mind and my stomach drops.
Will her family ask her to move back home?
Will they encourage her to fight me for sole custody?
Fuck.
What do I do if that happens?
Can she take my kid away so I can never see it again?
Would she really do that?
“You’re turn.” She nudges my knee with her own.