Olivier (Chicago Blaze 9)

“Nope, you’re right on time.”

The light scents of her body wash and shampoo have become my favorite smells. They have a tropical, coconut scent that makes me think of our trip to Fiji last summer. We left the world behind for a week and rented a secluded beach house with Giselle. There’s a canvas picture of the three of us from that trip hanging in the living room, and a smaller one on my desk at work that Daphne put in a frame.

Daphne and Giselle get along better than I could have dreamed they would. Giselle volunteers at Annie’s Kitchen with Daphne and Daphne never misses her band performances.

“So this is…” Daphne furrows her brow as she looks at the TV screen. “Don’t tell me, I know this…it’s Dallas and…Tampa Bay?”

“Yes.”

She smiles, looking pleased. During the offseason, we watched a few classic hockey games and I explained the game to her. Though she’s still learning, she’s got a basic understanding of the rules and positions now.

“This game should be pretty intense,” I tell her.

“Why?”

“Well, gossip travels fast in hockey, and there’s a guy on the Dallas team who has it out for a guy on Tampa Bay’s team because of something that happened off the ice, and this is the first time these two teams have played since it happened.”

Daphne grabs another slice of pizza and sits back, tucking her feet beneath her legs. “So what happened?”

I help myself to another slice of pizza as I explain.

“So Maverick Hagen is a forward for Dallas. He was engaged to a woman, and she cheated on him with Hunter Paul, a forward for Tampa Bay. Maverick and Hunter were good friends, and Maverick came home from a road trip and found Hunter screwing his fiancée on their kitchen island.”

“Oh God, how awful.”

She shakes her head, probably remembering how it felt to find Aiden cheating on her. If I ever meet that douchebag, I won’t be polite.

“In hockey, other players’ wives and girlfriends are off limits,” I say. “It’s an unwritten rule. The hockey world is actually a pretty small community in the scheme of things. You just don’t go there. But Hunter went there, and everyone knows Maverick’s ready to kill him over it.”

“Is that…” Daphne looks at the screen, her mouth dropping open in shock. “Is that him?”

“Yeah.”

We both freeze as we watch the scene unfolding right after the ref drops the puck. Hagen descends on Paul like a demon, jabbing and punching, and the other players from both teams stay back, knowing this was coming and that it needs to happen.

Gloves fly. Hagen gets in a few good punches before Paul shoves him to the ice. The refs break it up and send them to their respective penalty boxes.

Daphne snuggles in close. “It’s wrong to be entertained by violence, but here I am watching it anyway.”

“It’s part of the game.”

“You’ve mentioned that a time or two.”

With a laugh, I wrap my arms around her and kiss the top of her head. The physical therapy I had to do for my broken shoulder was intense, but worth it. My shoulder is fully healed and I’ve rebuilt the strength I lost.

“You know, we wouldn’t be able to have these evenings alone watching hockey if we decided to have more kids,” Daphne says, pulling away to meet my gaze.

“We’ll still do it; it would just be different. I want our kids to grow up loving hockey as much as I do.”

We’ve been talking a lot recently about our future. Daphne wants kids, and she was concerned that at age forty-two, with a seventeen-year-old daughter leaving for college soon, that I wouldn’t.

I do, though. Being a father is the hardest, most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. I want to have more kids with Daphne, and I want it soon.

I’m having an engagement ring made for her, and planning a weekend at a cabin for just the two of us so I can propose.

“I’m terrified and excited at the same time about having kids,” she says. “My mother isn’t exactly nurturing.”

“Hey, you’re nothing like your mother, babe,” I assure her.

“But what if I overcompensate, and make our kids too soft?”

“Don’t overthink it.”

She smiles. “Didn’t you say overthinking is like a part-time job for me?”

“Oh, it definitely is.”

She leans in and I kiss her, trying to remember what time Giselle is supposed to be home. Daphne and I have found that practice makes perfect when it comes to sex. The longer we’re together, the better it gets. She knows every inch of me now, and I hope she feels the same way about me.

“We have maybe twenty minutes,” she says, reading my mind.

“Hagen is at it again,” the announcer on the TV says. “He’s only got one thing on his mind tonight.”

Daphne and I turn to look at the TV screen again. Maverick Hagen sprints out of the penalty box towards Hunter Paul, and when he hits him, they both fall to the ground. They’re nothing but a tangle of fists and hockey gear. I’m pulling for Hagen, because Paul had it coming.