Summary:
When baby makes three, Christmas will never be the same for Ten and Jared.
There's not much that Tennant Rowe hasn't accomplished, and all before reaching thirty. Hoisting the Cup, marrying the man of his dreams, and becoming a spokesman for LGBTQ2+ athletes' rights have filled his world with great joy. While his successes on and off the ice have been beyond his wildest expectations, he's now wondering if it's time to add one more tiny addition to his already wonderful life.
Being a dad to Ryker and marrying Ten are the two of the best things in Jared's life, only something is missing. He always wanted more children, but with Ten and the Railers riding a wave of success, how could he even broach the subject of adoption or surrogacy with the man he loves? Jared would give the moon and the stars to his husband, so when Ten reveals his desire to be a father, they start a journey that will fill their Christmas with a new and special kind of love.
Rivals #11
Summary:Playing for their country in the Winter Olympics is the highest of all honors, but when family members are pitted as rivals and a dark specter from the past turns up in Beijing, tensions run high, and abruptly, it’s not all about the hockey.
Jared is torn—assistant coach for Team Canada, with Ryker on the team; he bleeds red and white and wears the maple leaf with pride. Only Ten is now a rival, and not just that, but the country they’re all playing in frowns on his marriage and keeps him and Ten apart. Jared wants to win gold for his country and his son, but he’d be so proud if Ten were to win. He’s confused and concerned, but when a face from their past turns up to play, he’s furious.
Being picked for Team USA is one of the things Tennant dreamed of when he was a little boy. All of his other aspirations have come true through hard work, determination, and pure talent. Now he’s about to represent his country in front of the world, and the pressure is starting to build. He’s also just come face-to-face with a hated rival from a dark period in his past. Add in the burden of squaring off against his husband and stepson, and Ten is feeling the pressure to be perfect.
Family becomes rivals—but love always wins.
Summary:
Family comes first in all things. Whatever the cost.
Ten had always heard the saying, “Out of the mouths of babes,” but he hadn’t expected it to hit home as it had. After a comment from their daughter, Ten and Jared ponder an addition to the family. Moving into the adoption process is nerve-wracking and riddled with anxiety—kind of the way the Railers have been playing as of late. Bringing two young men into their homes and hearts won’t be a smooth ride. But with patience, humor, and love, the bumpy road might just be a little easier to travel.
Expanding their small family was always in the cards, but no one could have foreseen the process clashing with the worst ever start to a Railers season. A string of losses, a vital player missing from the defense, a captain in the emergency room—and winning a single game seems impossible, let alone getting the team to the playoffs. Faced with hard decisions, Jared refuses to take his work home, but it’s difficult when your husband is at the leading edge of the losing streak. His focus fractures when one sibling they’re matched with is frustrated, angry, and has a healthy dose of mistrust.
Jared and Ten’s parenting skills are tested, but they’ll do anything to make a place in their home the perfect gift for two children lost in the system.
Original Review December 2020:
First off, let's see what Baby Makes Three has:
Tennant Rowe ✔️
Jared Madsen ✔️
Christmas ✔️
Friendship ✔️
Family ✔️
Humor ✔️
Love ✔️
and as the title suggests: baby ✔️
Okay, now that I've established all my reading boxes have been ticked lets continue.
Seriously though, Baby Makes Three is an absolute reading gem! As you know I don't do spoilers but I think the title pretty much says it all. If you've been reading from the beginning I don't think there's ever been any doubt that Ten and Jared would make great parents because let's face it they've had their fair share of dosing out parental guidance with a team like the Railers have😉😉.
Between this entry being a novella and my spoiler free blog, I'm going to make this short and sweet: I freakin' loved Baby Makes Three.
I do want to comment on one thing that really pleased me. RJ Scott & VL Locey managed to show the anxiety of finding a surrogate that fits the couple without, well I don't want to use the term "bog down" because the road couples face, especially LGBT couples, is important but since this is a holiday novella, an established series, and an established couple, I really appreciated how they told the drama without the angst, still keeping the story light and the guys didn't lose who they are.
Oh and the little hints for a future Raptors story was brilliantly laid out and managed to perfectly fit into Ten and Jared's parental journey. So Scott & Locey have done it again with their hockey universe. Such a delight all the way around.
Rivals #11
Original Review February Book of the Month 2022:
First of all, I couldn't think of a better book to review for the final day of the 2022 Olympics. I've loved the hockey universe RJ Scott & VL Locey has created since the very first entry, Changing Lines(Harrisburg Railers #1) and to have an Olympic set entry with Jared and Ten is like adding a heaping scoop of your favorite ice cream on a warm slice of apple pie: divine!
Those that follow my reviews will know that I'm not really a hockey fan except during the Olympics(I actually prefer the women's games but I watch the men as well) so you can imagine how extra special fun Rivals was for me. If you're a hockey fan, then I'm sure you're well aware the NHL didn't actually send any players this year(which for me made it better, I liked the whole amateur level of so many college players) and Scott & Locey obviously wrote this novella before that announcement but that's okay because Ten and Jared are my favorite pairing in their hockey universe so it's all good.
I won't give too many details away, other than we get to see a few extra characters popping up from their hockey world, who most were some of my favorites so that's another tick in the treat box. As you can guess from the title and the blurb, Ten and Jared are on opposing teams: Team USA and Team Canada. Many authors would have went for the dramatic overkill of that scenario but not these ladies. Oh, don't get me wrong there is drama, drama that needed to be addressed eventually and I couldn't think of a better way to present said factor(this is one thing I won't spoil). So we have drama, but we have fun, we have love, we have friendship, we have country spirit, we have humor, and like so many of their stories, we have plenty of heart.
Ten and Jared just continue to grow stronger with each hurdle they face and my love for them does too. I can't wait to see what Scott & Locey have up their sleeves next for the duo and for their hockey universe as a whole. Brilliant fun all around.
Side Note: If you're new to this world they've created, I highly recommend reading the series in order(here's a link to the authors' website reading order). You many not be lost if you haven't read the previous entries but you will certainly be missing some key facts and emotions that make the journey flow smooth, not too mention all the great reads you'll be missing out on.
Perfect Gifts #12
Original Review November 2022:
Gotta start by saying: YAHOO!!!! Another Railers holiday tale!!!!
The authors may have tagged this a Christmas Railers novella but it actually encompasses multiple holidays including Turkey Day and that is a holiday that is rarely touched on, or at least not nearly enough. That right there is worthy of 1 bookmark alone. Being Harrisburg is worthy of another. What gave it the other 3? Read on.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: love, love, LOVE men who care for kids! Seeing Ten and Jared's family grow is so heartwarming, watching them tackle fostering and adoption of older kids turned me into a big puddle of sappy goo. Now that's not to say this leg of the crowned Princes of Scott & Locey's hockey universe is cliche by using the term "sappy" oh no, no, no, no. Sure some moments may seem cliche but that doesn't make it bad. With so many health issues in our family, status quo or cliche, is often a welcomed treat so when I say "sappy" all I'm really saying is "can we bundle those boys in layers and layers of bubblewrap so harm never comes to them?"
Soren and Milo are amazing! Milo is the quintessentially adorably loveable little boy. Soren is the epitome of "give me your best shot and I'll tell you what for" chip on his shoulder older brother. Some might say Soren is a little brat but not me, what I see is a scared boy having to be older than his years to protect his little brother. He's thrown for a loop when he meets Ten and Jared and it raises his guard up even higher. Now I'm not going to say more because despite this being a holiday novella and Scott & Locey are always about the HEA, I don't want to spoil any of the journey the Madsen-Rowe household embarks on, just know that your heart will thank you for the experience. Seeing little, itty bitty Lottie walking and talking and being all kinds cute is plus.
How can I write a review for a Railers tale without mentioning one of the funniest scenes I've read in ANY story in a long time? Adler and Stan loudly discussing naughty Valentine gifts as Ten tries to shut them up as a reporter is only 10' away. How can that not leave you ROTFLYAO? Trust me, I'm glad I read this when I was at home and not in the waiting room at Mayo Clinic, they may just have had to call security because I would literally have been on the floor laughing hysterically. Thank you, ladies for including a convo that could only work with Adler and Stan.
The hockey universe consisting of Harrisburg, Owatonna, Arizona, & Boston Scott & Locey has created should be read in order, especially those involving Ten and Jared. Will you be lost if you read Perfect Gifts without having read any of the other universe? Probably not but there are other characters mentioned and seen who make a lasting impression if you know their individual stories as well. None of the stories will leave you sorry you picked them up. Just so much yumminess all over the place and I don't mean just the sexy times, but overall heartwarminess(yeah I know that's not a word but I think it sums it up pretty spot on).
Baby Makes Three #10
Chapter One
Jared
February
I hated waking up to a Ten-sized space in bed but in the last few weeks it had become the norm. Missing the early morning snuggling was one thing, but knowing that my normally unflappable husband woke every day with his thoughts in a twist was hurting my heart. As I tugged on sweats and a T-shirt and resolved to hunt him down, I didn’t know what I’d find.
Day one of waking at dawn I’d found him running hell for leather on our treadmill, day two it was weights, day three he was slamming pucks at the net in our large backyard, then day four we were back to running. It was twenty-one days since we’d gotten the letter from the Harrisburg Central Family Agency, and I had no idea what Ten could be doing today. Hockey players were a superstitious lot, but I was convinced this new daily ritual he’d formed was less about helping his game and more about escaping his worries.
I grabbed coffee and the specific protein shake Ten had on game days and went searching for him, finding him in the home gym. Only he wasn't running, or lifting weights; he was sitting on the treadmill, his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. He was a sight for sore eyes, his dark hair soft and messy around his face, his Railers T-shirt with his number was old and worn and hugged him like a second skin, and his shorts meant that I got a good peek at his long legs and spectacular hockey thighs. But it wasn't any of that that I focused on—it was the look of misery on his face.
The Railers were on top of the division by five points, he’d played with a fire that blew away the opposition, and the team was on a high. So I was sure it wasn't hockey that was playing with his mind. Also, he’d only just had another checkup so I hoped it wasn't his brain that was causing him issues. He had headaches sometimes, moments when words didn’t immediately come to him, but that was a small non-issue according to the specialist, just remnants of the trauma.
I was sure it was tomorrow that was messing with his head, but then it was a big day for us both. Stress and worry frustrated him, and that was why he’d reverted to routines.
“Babe?” I called from the door.
He glanced up at me. “Hey,” he murmured.
“You worried about Philly?” I knew he wasn’t, and also knew full well what his answer would be. At least it would raise a smile.
He huffed. “The day I worry about playing hockey is the day hell freezes over.”
“Good.” I deliberately didn't push him to tell what the actual reason was, always kept it to hockey, because one day he’d tell me the truth. I almost left him to his thoughts, but it appeared that today was the day he’d decided to share.
“Jared? It’s not hockey, it’s all these worries about what we’re doing.”
My stomach fell. “About trying for a baby?” We’d made the decision together, on Christmas Day, and had talked the issue to death until we were both completely sure we were on the same page. Ten wanted a family with me, I wanted a family with him, and at the end of it we’d hugged and agreed that the time was right.
“No, not that.”
“What about then? Do you want to talk?”
“You’re going to think I’m stupid,” he muttered and rubbed his eyes.
“Never.”
“Well, what if our surrogate hates us?” he blurted.
And there it was. Twenty-one days ago we’d had an email confirming a potential match from our choices, and twenty-one days ago Tennant Madsen-Rowe had begun to lose his shit. I instinctively knew that was the thing messing with his head, but it was up to him to process it all and let me in when he reached a point where he couldn’t keep it inside anymore.
I handed him the shake, and settled next to him on the treadmill, bumping elbows. “What is there to hate?”
“Where do I start?”
I winced at the resignation in his voice. As his coach I needed his head in the game today, but as his husband and lover I wanted to make everything right for him. “You know she picked us from the list, right?”
“Yeah, but—”
“No buts, babe. We ticked all the boxes, same-sex married couple, sportsmen, annual income, family history, your injury and recovery backed up by doctor letters, my divorce, Ryker, wills, trusts, suggestions for contacts, references, there was nothing we left off, so if she chose us then she made decisions based on facts.”
“She can still pull out of it all.”
I put an arm over his shoulders and tugged him close. “She could, and you know what? We’ll deal with that if it happens. Together.”
“What if we go all the way to the end and—?”
“Stop thinking ahead. Let’s take each day as it comes. Treat it like hockey and take each day on its merits, where each win and loss forms a tapestry of content to get us to the finals.”
He laughed, and I knew I’d broken the fears for the moment. “Dude, did you just use the word ‘tapestry’ in a sentence about hockey?”
“I have mad English skills,” I said with a smile and pressed a kiss to his stubbled cheek. He faced me and the kiss changed from a peck to a full blown hello and good morning.
Ten would be fine and we’d make it through the game, and then hell, we’d rock the meeting tomorrow with the potential surrogate.
Together.
Isobel Mackie was thirty-one, a beautician, married to Eddie, and with a twin brother, Adam, who was gay. Isobel had signed up with the agency when her brother had been going through the same process as us to become a dad with his husband. In a selfless exchange of love, she’d offered to become a surrogate because her brother was now the father of twin boys by using the same method. That was one of the things that had drawn her to us the most; that she knew what the process had been like for the brother she adored, and that her family supported her one hundred percent. In fact, her husband, Eddie, was with her today as her advocate, and there was so much love between them that it was like looking in a mirror at Ten and me. The four of us were ushered into a plush room to sit at a round table with the agency owners and a young woman called Michelle who was there to take notes.
We shook hands, exchanged pleasantries, all very formal when all I wanted to do was hug Isobel until she squeaked. Of course that would be after I explained to her that Ten was sure she was going to back out, and then begged her not to.
“It’s so nice to finally meet you in real life.” She smiled broadly.
“And you,” I said when Ten stayed quiet. I knocked my shoe against his, but he was focusing on the paperwork in front of us.
“Do you have any questions for me?” Isobel asked with an open smile, and I knew Ten had a thousand, but again, silence.
“This is the time to discuss the finer points,” Lloyd, the owner of the Harrisburg Central Family Agency encouraged, but Ten seemed tense.
“Ten?” I murmured, “You want me to—?”
“No, it’s okay,” he said, then lifted his chin. “I’d prefer this meeting to be just the four of us in here, with Michelle as our case manager,” Ten interrupted.
“For a high profile situation we usually oversee,” Lloyd said.
“Actually, we’d prefer it to be Michelle,” Isobel murmured.
Lloyd glanced at his wife, Jennifer, the other half of the ownership team, but Jennifer shrugged.
“Okay, if that’s the way it has to be, then Michelle has this,” she said, and pushed back her chair. “Michelle, make sure you detail everything.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Michelle murmured, and opened the pad in front of her, making a big deal of writing the date and time at the top of a fresh page.
We waited in silence until Jennifer and Lloyd had left, and as soon as the door closed behind them I could see the tension leave Ten in a rush.
“I hope that wasn’t rude. I wanted it to be us so we can get to know each other better,” Ten admitted.
Eddie nodded. “Totally understandable,” he said. “But, then I thought maybe they’re all sniffy because you’re high-profile clients.”
Ten dipped his head, he hated the celebrity part of what he did, and out in Harrisburg he was recognized more often than not. “I don’t want them staring at me as if I don’t deserve to be here, or that we won’t be the best parents.” He glanced at Michelle who was still in the start position waiting to write, but who returned Ten’s glance with a level stare.
“Believe me, I have noted, and fully understand your concerns,” Michelle said, and that was all we were getting. Only there was something in her expression that spoke of a deeper understanding of Ten’s worries.
We knew they were the best local agency, and from the first meeting the owners had made it clear that they supported our choices. But they’d also insisted we didn't publicly post about our progress or make what we were doing into a media circus. They called it reasonable discretion, but I felt as if they were implying we were going through this process to get an accessory to our lifestyle and not because we wanted a family. I was probably wrong to even think that, but still, the concern had been there on my list of pros and cons.
I liked Michelle though, a quiet woman who appeared to respect what we were doing.
“Actually, can Jared and I have you as our specific case officer and put it in writing?” Ten asked Michelle.
Michelle appeared startled, but then stared down at the notebook. “You can request whomever you want,” she admitted after a short pause.
“We request you as well,” Isobel said, and Eddie added his agreement.
“Okay then,” Ten said with enthusiasm, “can you write that down. Number one, Mr. and Mr. Madsen-Rowe request Michelle as the official case manager.”
“And Mr. and Mrs. Mackie,” Isobel added.
Michelle was flustered at first, and then she pulled on her game face and sat back in the chair a little more relaxed.
“Let’s get down to business then.”
The next few hours were spent working through the surrogacy structure, the financial and emotional investment from both sides. We spoke at length about why Isobel was ready to do this, and she spoke so eloquently about her twin. Some of it was technical and dry, the fact that we would have an anonymous egg, with Ten’s sperm, and that Isobel was our gestational surrogate. The rest? That was laughter, and getting to know each other, and finally ending up leaving the agency with the four of us going for lunch. We’d signed reams of paperwork and Michelle was collating and copying and sending our contracts.
Everything in writing even this early before conception was an issue. We’d already had a home assessment, criminal and records checks, and Isobel had been screened alongside us. There were extra NDA pages to sign so that Isobel didn't go out and sell our story to the media, and even though I wanted to say blindly we trusted her, we had to have that level of protection.
I had to keep my family safe.
Isobel had us sign anonymity forms, and our own type of NDA that we wouldn't out her as our surrogate unless she chose to reveal it. Michelle appeared to have every eventuality listed, and lawyers had prepared everything. It was reassuring, and overwhelming all at the same time.
We had an egg donor chosen, no name or identification, but we had enough information and we’d asked for very little in the way of qualifying data. We didn't care about some of the more specific stuff like hair color and eyes, because who knew what genetics would play a part in the baby we would end up loving? Yes, we crossed all the Ts and dotted all the Is but now we wanted to know Isobel, the person.
She was lovely, there was no other word for it, and even though we knew the dry details, I wanted to know more about her, but she beat me to it.
“At sixteen we fell pregnant,” she blurted out, and Eddie squeezed her hand. “We’d been dating since eighth grade, and I knew I’d be with him forever. But me getting pregnant was the final straw for my parents. They not only had a gay son in my twin brother, but they had a daughter who was expecting a baby outside of marriage. Let’s just say both myself and my brother were encouraged to leave home.”
Of course we’d read all of this in her profile, but to hear her say the words and know that her parents had rid themselves of two children at the same time, was heartbreaking.
“She didn't need them,” Eddie said, “both Isobel and Adam moved in with my mom and we did okay.”
“We got married, and our first son, Dale, was born just after my seventeenth birthday, and our second, Austin, when I was nineteen. We worked for Eddie’s mom in a salon in town and we were a family. When my twin, Adam, met his husband and wanted a baby, I offered to carry a baby for them.” She glanced at her husband. “We offered. But it worked out better for all of us to have anonymity, and I promised myself that we would help another couple who couldn’t have children. When we read your profile, we knew it had to be you.”
“Thank you.” Ten was choked.
“Of course, when we matched and they revealed who you were we nearly rethought it,” Eddie said, and my chest tightened. “Only because I’m a New York fan.”
“Someone has to be,” Tennant deadpanned, and like that, the ice was broken.
I knew we were in good hands. She was very open about why she was willing to carry our baby, using the money to fund her education and to give her kids a good start in life, and I wanted to hand everything over to her there and then. Ten relaxed as lunch continued, and we were done. We hugged her goodbye, thanking her so much she was scarlet with pleasure. We headed back to the parking garage, and Ten tugged me into a dark corner, and held me as if he’d never let me go.
“We’re doing this,” he whispered in my ear.
I grinned and held onto him. “We’re so doing this.”
The disappointment was real when the first cycle didn't work. February was a hard month mentally and physically for us both. The Railers were fighting tooth and nail in a close division, tensions were high on ice, and the call from Michelle to explain there would need to be a second try rocked our safe little world.
“We get everything so easy.” Ten grasped my hand hard after the call ended, “I just expected this to be easy as well.”
“We don’t get everything easy,” I said, and tugged him to sit next to me on the couch. “We work hard at everything, and this is no different.”
We entered the second month with renewed hope, and the day we would find out if everything had worked was the day after a brutal game against Brady’s Boston Rebels. Ten had been slammed into the boards in so many different ways that he was a mess of bruises, and he was exhausted. We’d slept late, but at least when I was woken by my cell phone dancing on the bedside table, he was curled up next to me.
I reached for the phone, connected the call as soon as I saw it was Michelle.
“It’s good news. Isobel is pregnant.”
And in that single instant as Ten and I hugged each other, we knew our lives were about to change in the most dramatic way.
Bring it on.
Rivals #11
Chapter One
Jared
“The name is wrong on my bag.” Ten shoved his Team USA kit bag onto the bed, right on top of my neatly folded T-shirts. “I filled in the form Madsen-Rowe and look!” He pointed at the single word ROWE that appeared in several places on the bag. I gently picked it up, and placed it to one side, then smoothed out my small supply of official team shirts in all their red and white glory. Ten had been a flurry of motion today— the last few hours before attending the All-Star game, and then flying direct to Beijing— and he hadn’t stopped since three this morning when he’d woken up flailing and muttering about bacon. God knows what he’d been dreaming about, but if it involved his beloved bacon, then it had to be serious.
“I’ll get you a marker, and you can add the Madsen,” I teased, but I hadn’t read the room, because Ten slumped to the bed, only just missing my folded tees.
“I miss Charlotte already, and we’re doing this huge thing, and they can’t even get my name right.”
Okay, this was serious, so I picked up the shirts and placed them out of harm’s reach, then sat next to my fretting husband, hugging him, and resting my cheek on his hair. “I miss her as well,” I murmured, then felt and heard his whole-body sigh.
“I know she’ll be fine with Mom— spoiled— and I know it’s only a while, but I wish she was coming with us, and I wish they’d gotten my name right. It’s like they forgot I’m married.” He suddenly tensed; “Holy shit, what if my jersey is wrong as well.” He stood then, shook me off, and raced out of the room with a resounding, no fucking way!
As soon as he’d gone, I checked my official duffle, and thankfully, saw that the full name was stitched onto it.
“Something else that makes Canada better,” I said smugly to no one, and then realized that I should be more upset on Ten’s behalf. The fact we had been picked to represent our countries on opposing teams hadn’t come between us in any way— apart from the constant teasing I got from the Rowe brothers with their stupid-ass childish “USA is better” chant in the family chat, which I could mostly ignore. I took the higher ground and simply sent them a picture of the Canadian team in 2014, which was my way of saying “take-that-team-USA”. Funnily enough, both the Rowe boys and I ignored 2018— some things were best not spoken about, and we were all getting tired of Stan waxing lyrical about the Russians.
There was a healthy rivalry among us all, friends and family alike, but in my heart I kind of dreaded the aftereffects of losses where national pride was concerned. Canada wasn’t just my birthplace, it was in my heart, and I was proud of my heritage, and being chosen as one of the Team Canada assistant coaches made me want to burst with pride, and of course I wanted to beat Team USA soundly. But as Ten’s husband, I wanted him to win because I was so proud of him, and he was one of the best players of his generation, and he deserved to win. But then, Ryker was Team Canada, and to see my son win a medal would be the pinnacle of hockey-dad life.
I already had a gold medal from 2014, part of the victorious Canada team, although to be fair, I’d ridden the bench for most of it. Still, I’d played in that final game, and I’d been part of the team that had taken gold. I wanted that for Ten, but I wanted it for Ryker as well.
I was confused, and patriotic, and then more confused, and then a proud spouse, and father, and friend, and really, all I wanted to do was get to Beijing and start coaching some hockey.
The entire Railers team had ended up at our place to watch the opening ceremony. Depending on whether a player had been at the All-Star weekend, guys like Ten, Tate, and Stan, wouldn’t be arriving until a full three days after the opening ceremony, but with an intense season and not a day to spare no NHL player would make the grand beginnings of the games at all. So instead, every single one of us had stared in awe at the beautiful Beijing National Indoor Stadium and cheered as our various teams behind the flags of our countries passed by. Stan cried, which not even one of us laughed at. This was overwhelmingly intense.
It was disappointing, and maybe we got a better view watching it on the TV, but still, to have been there, parading for our countries? That would have been awesome.
Ten arrived back with his cell phone to his ear; “… and that’s non-negotiable!” he snapped, and then ended the call with a terse goodbye.
I winced. “Who were you shouting at?”
“Ed, our team equipment manager,” he groused, and then his eyes widened. “Shit, I just shouted at poor Ed, the wonderful, amazing, team equipment manager.”
I stayed quiet— Ten was placid off the ice, passionate about his sport, but he was never rude, and I could see all those emotions passing over his face.
“Shit,” he said again, and then pressed redial, and slunk out of the bedroom, probably so I didn’t hear him apologizing to Ed, who was a perfectly nice man and didn’t deserve anyone being a diva. I carried on packing, knowing the bulk of what we needed would already be in Beijing with the start of the tournament only a week away. We’d practiced some, shifted lines around, but none of the teams had real ice time after the qualification rounds.
My biggest issue was with the final six D-men I was going to recommend to Abraham Devers, the Canadian head coach for the duration, who coached for New York in the season. I already had a short list of seven from the pool I’d been given, but I’d not physically played with any of them, and the notebooks I’d filled with details weren’t making the picture any clearer.
I’d even taken to checking out social media to see what the fans said, but I got stuck on the Ten! Watch website, reading on the forum about how the sexiest player in the world was Ten, and how no defenseman from any country could touch him. Of course, I agreed with the sexiest part, and felt a sudden urge to kiss some of his stress away. Still, I had a few defensemen who made Ten work hard, him and Tate Collins both, and yet again, I went from angsty to proud and back again.
“Ed’s forgiven me,” Ten dropped his cell onto the bed and sat down so heavily I swore the frame creaked. “I told him about Charlotte, and the way that…” He stopped and scrubbed his eyes.
I tugged him in for a hug, then did this complicated flip maneuver that had him under me, his mouth slack with shock. Then, I proceeded to kiss him soundly, and after a short while, he relaxed into the mattress. We didn’t have time for more, but this was enough to ground him and me.
His cell chimed with a familiar tone that he had for his family. We scrambled up together in panic, and he answered it immediately. The video call connected, and we were face-to-face with our beautiful daughter, who stared at the screen and then pointed at us.
“Dadda! Pappa!” she said, and then turned away, probably to talk to Ten’s mom, Jean, who shuffled into view so we could see them both.
“Hey, Lottie!” Ten called, and Lottie gave the widest grin, holding up a toy bear and waggling it at us. She was over a year now, and while she was linking a few words, it was mostly sounds and waving toys. She was everything to us. She was bigger than us, bigger than hockey, and worth more than any Olympics— and that was what we needed to remember.
“We just had pancakes,” Jean announced.
“You did?” Ten said, and his grin was so wide I wondered if it would ever leave his face. “Lottie? Yummy?” he asked and made smacking noises to indicate eating.
Lottie stared at us, babbling about her teddy, but she too was smiling, and that was a nice image to take with us when the call ended.
“So, what did Ed tell you?” I asked after a short pause.
Ten flushed in embarrassment. “My jerseys have Madsen-Rowe on them,” Ten said and lay back against the pillows.
“So, it’s just the bag that Team USA messed up on?”
He shot me a wry look, then sighed. “I overreacted.”
“Yep.”
He sighed some more, then we exchanged an extra kiss. We weren’t even flying out to Beijing together, me stuck in one more planning session, Ten jetting out first class after appearing in the All-Star game. He was proud to have been invited to the All-Star— an event where a ton of specially invited players went up against each other in things like hardest shot, or fastest lap. It was just bad timing that it was right before the olympics.
I laced my fingers in his. “I’ll miss you,” I murmured, and pressed my forehead to his. We’d done everything together for so long, apart from the Stan/ Elvis Christmas road trip, which I still hadn’t entirely forgiven him for. The thought of not being together was unsettling.
“I’ll miss you, too.”
“We’re lucky that at least we’re going to be around each other, Stan spent an hour in the chat talking about how Erik is staying back here.”
“Was that before or after he talked about how Russia is best.”
We both chuckled then because since he, Ten, and Bryan Delaney, the Railers’ second goalie, had been signed up by their countries, Stan had been like a broken record.
“I need to finish packing.” He rolled off the bed, and I had to restrain myself from tugging him back and pinning him down so I could get some more kisses. Instead, I settled for watching him tuck one of Lottie’s tiny teddies into his bag, and then doing the same for me. Finally, we couldn’t delay things any longer, and it didn’t help that a team car was outside for him, and he really had to go. I stopped him at the door, grasping his hand.
“Good luck,” I murmured into a kiss.
“Good luck,” he whispered. Then, he lifted a single eyebrow and, with his best impersonation of Stan, growled: “USA best,” then darted away before I could squash him like a bug. He waved as he got into the car, and I waved, making a heart with my hands and sighing as the car went through the gates, watching them close behind him.
Now it was just me, and my car wasn’t going to arrive for a while. I couldn’t join Ten at the All-Star Game, instead I was heading out to a coach’s camp, so I didn’t know what to do with myself. I tidied away a few of Lottie’s toys, checked I had everything I needed, checked it again, locked up the house, unlocked the back door to relock it, just so I knew it was done. Anything to kill time.
Finally, I checked some game tape. Only it wasn’t for Team Canada. Nope, it was my old favorite— the first time Ten had gotten back on the ice after his accident.
I had it bad.
Which was good.
The airport was manic, but at least we didn’t have the fanfare on leaving that Team USA did— boarding from New York, there were crowds of supporters. While we did have some fuss, we weren’t Team USA flying out of an American city, so the players got some attention, but luckily, myself and the other coaches slipped through mostly unnoticed. That meant I got to sit and chat with our head coach, and while Abraham Devers was normally a rival on ice, this time I could talk frankly about the D-men I was working with and the three who were giving me issues. The players were at the back of the plane, us at the front, along with a couple of the figure skating coaches, and thankfully, we could use the time to talk.
“So, the three we need to discuss?”
“Jennings, Hennessey, and LaFleur,” I reeled off the names easily enough, and Devers nodded. “My instinct is to keep Hennessey in reserve.” At only twenty, he was the youngest of the three, and was so damn fast no one could keep up, but what we lacked in defense was the big guys, the ones who could protect our forwards— protect Ryker. Not that I was thinking that way, I was a professional, and Ryker was one of several forwards who needed protection. We had to go for bulk and brawn over speed sometimes.
“Agreed, I like what Hennessey brings to the table, and we can switch him in if needed. It’s the US side we have to be careful with, Tate and Ten.” He side-eyed me, and I waited for him to ask me if I had insider information, but all he did was smile. “Tate and Ten, the dream team,” he added. “But we have Ryker, and he’s a chip off the old block, don’t you think?”
Enormous pride welled inside me, but I didn’t give anything away.
“I couldn’t say,” I finally offered.
We bumped fists, and then Devers sat back in his seat, iPad on his chest, staring at game film. “This could be our Olympics,” he mused.
I sat back as well, lovingly hugging my clipboard with the penciled-in names, my bible of skills, my list of awesome, and let myself imagine for a moment Team Canada getting the gold. Then, getting a squirrely feeling in my chest at the thought of Ten not winning, and then, thinking about Ryker, again.
Fuck my life.
This could be rough.
Perfect Gifts #12
“So, where do we think she got on the brother kick?” Jared asked as he stirred some of the honey that Adler’d brought us into his mug. Ad had taken up beekeeping. Why? Not a clue, but we all suspected that it was so he could brag about having a big stinger in the locker room. They’d found out Layton was allergic, so he watched the bees from a distance.
“Probably at the indoor playground over in Camp Hill earlier,” I said while dunking a Stella D’oro cookie into my tea. I’d have a few. Cookies were not recommended by the Railers nutritionist as healthy afternoon snacks. “She was playing with Michelle Khan.”
“Oh, yes, Mrs. Khan just had a baby,” Jared replied, then added one more dollop of honey to his mug. “A little boy.”
“Yep. She was cooing and cuddling the baby until we left. She even skipped the jungle gym and slide to tickle tiny Joey’s chin.”
Jared’s eyes flared. Lottie never passed the jungle gym and slide. Ever. I’d had to climb in a time or two to extract her when it was time to go. Jared—the old D-man that he was—was too burly to fit. The parents who had gotten to witness a hockey player trying to wedge his shoulders into a skinny tube with monkeys painted on the sides had found it pretty amusing. As had the local press the following day. Nothing says professionalism after just signing a new multi-million dollar contract like being photographed wriggling through the monkey tumble tube.
“That explains it,” he commented as he began thumbing languidly through his daily read of The Patriot News online. The man looked sexy AF in those reading glasses.
“Yeah, I guess.” I nibbled on my cookie, my phone showing a half-read article in The Athletic waiting for me to return to it. “You know we could consider it.” That brought his gaze up from the local news. He studied me over the top of his DILF glasses. “What? It’s not as if we haven’t discussed having another baby. It was kind of always our plan.”
“Well… yes, I know we’ve discussed it.” He removed his glasses, folded them, and laid them by the cookie box. He assessed me intently. “Do you think it’s something we should look at more closely?”
“Maybe?” I reached for another cookie, my sight darting from the cookie to Jared to the window where the glass was coated with a touch of frost around the edges. Fall was here, and it was glorious. We had pumpkins to carve, cider to drink, and Halloween costumes to decide on before the end of the month rolled around. “I mean she is here alone all the time.”
“She’s not alone. She has us, a nanny, and now, a dog.”
“Well yeah, I don’t mean like we Kevin McAllister her or anything, it’s just…” I plucked the cookie from its wrap, then dunked it quickly into my tea, hurrying to get the shortbread treat to my mouth. I chewed, then swallowed. Jared sat across from me waiting patiently for me to make my point. “Okay, so, and never tell them—especially Brady—but having siblings to grow up with was pretty nice. Most of the time.”
Saturday's Series Spotlight
Road to the Stanley Cup Edition
🏒👨❤️👨🏒💖👬💖🏒👨❤️💋👨🏒
Writing love stories with a happy ever after – cowboys, heroes, family, hockey, single dads, bodyguards
USA Today bestselling author RJ Scott has written over one hundred romance books. Emotional stories of complicated characters, cowboys, single dads, hockey players, millionaires, princes, bodyguards, Navy SEALs, soldiers, doctors, paramedics, firefighters, cops, and the men who get mixed up in their lives, always with a happy ever after.
She lives just outside London and spends every waking minute she isn’t with family either reading or writing. The last time she had a week’s break from writing, she didn’t like it one little bit, and she has yet to meet a box of chocolates she couldn’t defeat.
V.L. Locey loves worn jeans, yoga, belly laughs, walking, reading and writing lusty tales, Greek mythology, the New York Rangers, comic books, and coffee.
(Not necessarily in that order.)
She shares her life with her husband, her daughter, one dog, two cats, a flock of assorted domestic fowl, and two Jersey steers.
When not writing spicy romances, she enjoys spending her day with her menagerie in the rolling hills of Pennsylvania with a cup of fresh java in hand.
RJ Scott
VL Locey
EMAIL: vicki@vllocey.com
Baby Makes Three #10
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Rivals #11
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Perfect Gifts #12
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Harrisburg Railers Series
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