Don't Let These Boots Fool You

I pulled up to the rink earlier than I had originally planned but found that sleeping wasn’t as easy as it once was. I walked through the desolate hallways, slowly winding my way to the offices at the front of the building. The quiet of the building was comforting. I opened my laptop and put some music on quietly before setting to work on the event that I was going to plan since Sidney had lied to me.

I looked at the guys schedule and then looked at when the optimal time for an event would be. I still didn’t know what I wanted to do. It was almost New Year’s Eve and ideas were not at an all-time high with me right now. “You’re such a dumb ass” I was going to give the kids a great New Year’s Eve present.

I wanted the event to be at the rink, a place most of these kids were never going to truly step foot in. I called a couple of the hospitals in town and somehow got a list of names of children who had cancer and could leave the hospital for the evening. I wanted the guys to understand just how important faith was to these kids. Now came the hard part, inviting every single kid to the event.

I hadn’t figured out how I wanted to invite the kids yet but knew I needed to figure out how many staff volunteers I was going to need. I called the hospitals to see if any of the nurses would come to the event to make sure the kids were safe. I had successfully planned almost every aspect of the New Year’s on Ice event when I heard a voice from the doorway.

My head snapped up to see Jordan leaned into the office. “What are you doing here so early?” he asked again.

“Oh I was planning an event, got it all done too. I couldn’t sleep and figured working would be a good idea. When are you all supposed to be on the ice?”

“Around 10:30 then we pull off at 11:30 since it’s an optional skate. Why?”

I looked up with a smile. “Nothing. I’ll walk down to the locker room with you. I need to talk to Dan.” I quickly stood up from the desk and fell into step with him and walked the maze of back hallways to the locker room where I found Dan in his office. “See you after Jord.”

Dan looked up from his desk as I walked in and sat down in the chair across from him. “How are you today Kelly? What do you need?” I looked up at him and settled further into my seat.

“I need a favor. I planned this event for New Year’s Eve. It’s for children with cancer. The only problem I’m running into now is how to invite the children. I thought it would be an excellent idea to have the guys go to the hospital and invite the children personally.”

I leaned back and waited for Dan to tell me if my idea was going to be okay or not. I really wanted this event to happen and run smoothly, but I wasn’t sure how he would take my proposal. I looked up at him with hope in my eyes. “That sounds great. After practice I’ll tell the guys to put on their team shirts and sweats”

“Sounds great. You’ll send them my way after skate. I hope that you can pull this off, it sounds amazing.” I smiled whole heartedly. Things had finally started to turn around for me, I had begun to get over my brother’s death, Mike cheating on me, and I had a great friend in my life who although I felt something more for him, I knew was going to be there for me regardless. I moved out of Dan’s office and back up toward my own.

I searched through the different stacks of papers trying to find the list of names for children that I wanted to invite. I finally found the paper full of hospital names along with names of many different children. “There you are you little shit.” I muttered as I ran over to the wall where I had a map of the town. I pinpointed all four hospitals and divided the guys up into teams. I needed to keep the trouble makers away from their partners in crime.

My phone went off quietly telling me that it was time to get up to the conference room to tell the guys what was going to happen. I really hoped that they didn’t give me flack about it because if they did this was going to make my job so much harder.

I pushed through the door to find all of the guys seated with their matching shirts and sweats. “Alright guys, I’ve got something really important for you all to get to.” I set down the list of names in front of my seat as I passed a paper around with things they should say to each set of children. I walked back around to the front and wrote down names of all the children that I wanted them to see.

“Who are they?” one of the voices in the back of the room questioned.

“These are the names of children at four of the local hospitals that you all will be inviting for the mandatory New Year’s Eve event.” I turned around after writing the last name under the title of group four.

All of the eyes in the room grew as they looked at me. I could see the married ones trying to figure out what to say to their wife, the single ones thinking I was taking their party time, and the in between guys didn’t know how to feel. “What exactly is this event?” Marc piped up.

My lips spread wide at the work that I had done in such a small window of time. “You all would be inviting these few young cancer patients to an event here on New Year’s Eve. This will not be an all-night affair and is a family friendly event. This event will be from four thirty until eight. We will count down at 8 for these kids and there will be confetti. For most of these kid they’ve never got to experience a night where they can forget that they are having problems in their life.” I slowly sat down in my seat at the head of the table and looked at all of them.

Fear crossed every one of their faces as I began to explain everything. They were used to interacting with adults for charity events or simply showing up at a school. School children had been a minimal part of their charity work unless they were family men. “Why do you all look as if I told you that you weren’t playing anymore?”

Everyone’s expression slowly calmed down a bit until finally I made eye contact with Max. He looked as if he wanted to speak up but knew that if he did he might dig himself a bigger hole than when he had begun speaking. I knew that I needed to give him some encouragement in order to make this event a success. “What you all will be doing is skating with them around the rink, maybe play around a bit. These kids just want to be treated normal. If you’re a family man you know how to be around your kids be that way. For those of you without kids, think of your family.”

Some of them looked a little more relaxed about the idea of having to spend time with a bunch of kids. I smiled as I pushed the chair back to stand again. I moved toward the board and pointed at it. “Ya’ll are headed to these locations now to formally invite these kids. After you are done for the day with me.”

Many of the guys started to decide who was going to drive to the specific hospitals. I watched as a few trickled out until finally it was just Jordan. I had come to rely on him in so many ways. It felt as if I had finally realized who I was again. I didn’t know how to let him know how grateful I was for him. Hell he had followed me out of a restaurant instead of staying with his bombshell.

Jordan wrapped his arms around me and the ease washed over me. I had done something right with planning this event, even coming back to Pittsburgh wasn’t that bad. I learned how to live without my twin brother, I had learned to live without a ring on my finger, and most of all I had learned that no matter what our family is always there.

I looked up at him as I playfully pushed him away, “Go invite your kids to the event. I’ll be at the house when you get done.” I smiled as I watched him walk away Jordan was someone that I had become comfortable and he hadn’t even had sex with me which was saying a lot.

My Truck was sitting right by the door with a sticky note under the windshield wiper. I quickly grabbed the note and climbed up into the truck. I pulled away from the building and headed out to the suburbs to my house. I saw Jordan’s SUV in the driveway and wondered how long it had taken me to clean things up at the arena.

I pulled the sticky note from the cup holder and looked down at it. I had seen the tiny scrawl before, many times before. My breath halted and my heart stopped. I wasn’t sure what this meant that he had gone to my work place. I didn’t read the note. I couldn’t read the note, if I knew what he wanted from me or what he was threatening me with I might just die.

I slowly slid out of the driver’s side and into the house. Jordan looked up from a magazine on the couch with a smile on his face. I wanted to return the smile to him but I simply couldn’t my fears were coursing through my body. I walked right into the kitchen and sat down at the bar.

I pulled the bottle of whiskey that I had taken from Jordan and filled a glass with about a shot. I hated whiskey but knew that I needed something to take the edge off of what I knew was bound to happen.
“What’s wrong Kelly?” I looked up to find Jordan standing in the corner of the room with a serious look on his face. I hadn’t seen that look on him often but when I did I knew that it was honest.

My head fell to the counter where I kept it. “Mike left a sticky note on my windshield. I don’t know what he’s doing here anyways. His report date isn’t until February 20 and even then he’s supposed to be in Texas.” The breath pushing out of my lungs didn’t feel good as I tried to stay calm.

His heavy footsteps sounded closer and closer until they stopped and arms were wrapped around me. “Kelly I’m here, the guys have got your back, and even Danny would never let something happen to you. Now how about we look at that note?” He sat down in the other bar stool chair and looked patiently at me.

The paper was scratchy in my hand as I unfolded the paper to its full size. The quick scrawl stopped my heart again even though I knew that regardless of what he tried to do to me I could handle it. I had a job of my own for Christ sake. I looked at the note and finally read the words that had been threatening me, “I hope you’re tired of being a rebellious woman. I thought your whole idea of moving to the same city as me was to be closer. Needless to say I was quite pissed to find my house empty when I arrived back home from Christmas. I fully expect to see you home by the end of the week.” I looked up at Jordan and back at the note. I began to wonder if he was crazy.

Never before had he wanted to have anything to do with me during the off season. He usually stayed in Kentucky for a few weeks and then came out to Pittsburgh a few weeks before report date, and that was usually when I would find a text from a woman saying that she had to walk Mike back home, she had no idea that he wasn’t single.

Tears filled my eyes as I tried to think of something to do because he was getting out of control. He showed up at my cabin which was sacred ground to me and he knew it. He thought that we were still together in some sick situation in his mind. My body shook with the tears that I had yet to shed over the situation that had started with Mike.

“I’m calling my lawyer. I’ll pay for whatever it takes too.” He pushed his chair back abruptly and pulled his phone out. It wasn’t seconds until someone picked up on the other end of the phone. “Hey, I’ve got a problem. One of the employees with the organization has become really close to the whole team we’ve looked out for her a lot since her brother died earlier in the season. Well her ex-fiancé and her ended it back in preseason, but her ex just doesn’t seem to get the message that they are through.

“He showed up on her door demanding that she show up to his mother’s for Christmas dinner. When she told him that they were through and had been for some time he wanted to know what she did with his ring. She had sent it to him weeks before that meeting. He kind of died down a bit until today. He left a sticky note on her car saying that he fully expected her to be at his house with him by the end of the week. That she moved there for him. I just want to know what we can do to get this guy to leave her alone.”

I hung on every word that Jordan said because what he was doing for me meant more to me than when he followed me out of the restaurant. I quit listening to the rest of what he was saying as I tried to figure out when Jordan had changed. The guy I had met during preseason would have never done this for me, he would have never been vulnerable when I found him at home in a terrible place. This guy was closer to the guy I wanted him to be but didn’t think he could be.

“My lawyer said he’s going to take him to court to file a restraining order. Is there anything I need to know in regards to the situation with you and Mike? Did he give you money, pay for school anything?” Jordan looked serious with his pen and paper with his phone sitting beside it.

This was not the time I wanted to tell him about how grandma was loaded. This would mean that I’d have to reopen the wound that I had already opened once with Danny. I looked down at my hands for a few seconds and back up at Jordan and shook my head. “No I actually found out he was stealing my money. My grandmother actually gave him some money once to help out with some expenses he had racked up gambling his first few years in the league. If anything I gave him money I didn’t ask for a thing from him because my Grandma is a rich woman.”

Jordan looked up from the paper that he had been writing on and dropped the pen onto the counter. I looked up at him to see a shocked expression on his face and his hands braced on the counter. “Wait, you’re loaded and you live in a small apartment like this, drive a truck, and work a job that has more hours than a teacher?” His eyes looked as if they would bug out of his head.