Nate, p.11
Nate, page 11
part #10 of Las Vegas Sidewinders Series
“Something happened to you,” Toli said at last.
Nate swallowed hard.
“Do you want to—” Toli was cut off by a booming voice from across the bar.
“There you guys are! Jesus, you tore out of the locker room like bats out of hell. We didn’t know if you’d gone to The Hacienda or Keller’s.” Tore sank onto the barstool next to Toli.
“We split up,” Zaan added, sitting on the other side of Nate. “And he called me when he saw your truck in the parking lot.”
“Hey, mates.” Ian Campbell leaned onto their high-top table, motioning to the waitress.
“Oh, good, I’m not the only one who came out.” Royce Lenahan appeared out of nowhere. “There’s a cooking frenzy going on at the house, so I’m on my own anyway.”
“I think all the guys are coming,” Zaan said. “Lots of the wives and girlfriends are cooking and cleaning for tomorrow, so we’re all hiding.”
“What are you doing for the holiday?” Ian asked him.
“Since it’s not Canadian Thanksgiving and my family’s Canadian, I’m going to Cody’s.”
“Me too.” Ian nodded. Since he was from Scotland he tended to overlook holidays like Thanksgiving.
Toli and Nate exchanged a look. “Later,” Toli mouthed.
Nate nodded, turning to listen to Tore’s story about his mother’s lack of cooking skills. He’d dodged a bullet this time, but Toli was closer than he’d known and Nate wasn’t ready to open up yet. He trusted Toli, to a degree, but not that much. Not enough to risk everything.
19
Nate arrived at the Baldwin home just after two, which was when Chelsea had told him to come. He’d picked up flowers for Chelsea, a potted plant for her mother, and some fancy cookies from a bakery Ian had told him about. They were decorated for Thanksgiving, but supposedly delicious, so he’d ordered a few dozen and hoped it wasn’t too lame.
“Hi.” Chelsea greeted him at the door with a bright smile. She wore black leggings that hugged her legs and hips in all the right places, an asymmetrical red sweater that showed off her curves, and red cowboy boots. Her eyes danced as she took the bouquet of flowers from him. “Are these for me? Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He lightly kissed her, and she tugged him inside.
“Hey, everybody. This is Nate. Nate, this is everybody. You’ll have to meet them on your own ‘cause there are so many I can’t even remember their names.”
“Silly.” A woman who was almost definitely Chelsea’s mother came forward, holding out her hand. “Hello, Nate. I’m Miranda Baldwin, Chelsea’s mother.”
“Nice to meet you.” Nate shook her hand as he balanced the plant and box of cookies. “These are for you.”
“Thank you.” She smiled, taking the items from him as a tall, balding man approached.
“Hello, Nate. Chelsea’s told us a lot about you and got us watching the Sidewinders games. I’m her father Doug.”
“Nice to meet you, sir.” Nate shook his hand firmly.
“You a football fan?”
“I’m from Dallas.” Nate laughed. “That’s not optional.”
“Well, come on in and watch the game with us. The ladies are handling dinner.”
Chelsea gave Nate a quick wink, squeezed his hand, and disappeared into the kitchen, so he followed her father into a family room with a massive TV and half a dozen men sitting around it.
“This is Nate Calloway,” Doug announced. “Chelsea’s new boyfriend.”
“You’re the hockey player,” one of the men said, turning.
“I am.” Nate didn’t know if this was a good thing or a bad thing.
“What do you want to drink, Nate?” Chelsea stuck her head in the room. “Soda, beer, or water?”
“What kind of beer do you have?” He was probably going to need one to get through the next few hours.
“Corona, Bud Light, or Amstel.”
“Amstel, please.”
“Coming right up.” She eyed her father. “Be nice, Daddy.”
Her father laughed, shaking his head.
“You’re having a good season,” one of the guys said. “Are you enjoying yourself in Vegas?”
“I honestly haven’t done much but play hockey, work out, and spend a little time with friends,” Nate answered honestly. “Hockey keeps me busy.”
Several of the guys asked a few more questions about hockey, his travel schedule, and his family in Dallas before everyone got quiet and focused on the game.
“Okay, let’s get the hard stuff over with while the commercials are on,” one of the guys said. “I’m Chelsea’s cousin Ryan. We all want to know what your intentions are and why you’re dating our mousy little cousin, so—”
“She’s not mousy.” Nate and Doug spoke at the same time and then glanced at each other with a snicker.
“Well, she’s my cousin,” Ryan said. “So she is to me. But anyway, she’s not some rink rodent, or whatever you call those hockey groupies. We won’t be happy if you screw her over.”
“Puck bunnies,” Nate replied with as straight of a face as he could manage after hearing the term ‘rink rodent.’ “And we’ve only been dating about a month. I have no intention of screwing her over, but I have no idea where it’s going. I’m on the road a lot so we don’t spend much time together, and I’m going to need to know her a little better before I propose.”
Every pair of eyes in the room turned to him, narrowed slightly as if trying to decide if he was serious. Then Doug burst out laughing.
“Okay, boys, that’s enough with the big brother routine. They literally just started dating—let’s give him a break, okay?”
Chelsea came in just then and eyed them all suspiciously. “I’m afraid to ask what just happened.”
“Nothing.” Nate smiled. “It’s all good.”
“Just remember,” Chelsea spoke sweetly to Ryan. “If you scare him off, I’ll tell all your friends how you used to wet the bed when we were kids.”
“Hey…” Ryan called after her in mock dismay.
Nate was soon caught up in football, in a house full of men who hated the team from Dallas, but that was okay. He’d been too busy to follow football the last couple of years, so he drank his beer and occasionally yelled at a bad call on the field.
“So how’s your rookie season going?” Doug asked him during halftime. “Is it what you expected?”
“I honestly didn’t know what to expect,” Nate said. “I’ve played most of my life, but the jump from college to the pros is big, and I tried to keep my expectations low. So far, it’s going well.”
“What do you think of the rumor that your coach is going to retire at the end of the season?”
Nate shook his head. “I don’t have any idea, really. He told us he hasn’t decided yet, and that we have to focus on this season before he thinks about next season. He’s a great coach, though. I’ll be sad to see him go.”
“Dad, I’m going to steal Nate for a few minutes,” Chelsea came in, interrupting. “We haven’t had two minutes together since he got here.” Without waiting for a reply, she took Nate’s hand and pulled him off the couch.
He followed her through the kitchen and onto the back patio, which was spacious and clean.
“Sorry if you were cornered,” she said. “But it was probably better to get it over with.”
“It was fine. They’re all nice and much more focused on the Cowboys losing than anything about me.”
“They’re good guys. Ryan and Eddie are my first cousins. Shane is married to my cousin Lisa. Uncle Tito is my dad’s brother—his real name is Thomas but we’ve always called him Uncle Tito.”
“Anyone else coming?”
“Our elderly neighbors, the Watsons, will be here about four. Mrs. Watson is too old to do much cooking these days, and they never had any kids, so they’ve come here the last couple of years.”
“That’s nice.”
“Last year my cousins and I went and served dinner at a homeless shelter, and my mom made dinner later. Lisa’s pregnant, though, and Aunt Tammy has a cold, so we decided to do that every other year.”
“I did that last year,” Nate said, smiling. “I stayed in Boston over the holiday, so I spent the day at a soup kitchen. I was fucking exhausted.”
“Me too.” She grinned.
“Time to make the mashed potatoes,” Chelsea’s mother said, sticking her head out the sliding glass doors. “You’re up, Chelsea.”
“We make them from scratch,” Chelsea said. “And it’s been my job since I was like fourteen. Everyone says it’s because I make them the best, but the truth is, no one wants to be the one mashing them.”
“I’ll do the mashing part,” Nate offered.
She met his gaze. “You realize the guys will give you shit about that?”
“You realize I’m a professional hockey player who can kick all their asses? Except for your dad’s, of course.”
She snorted out a laugh. “Okay, big guy, a-mashing-we-will-go.”
True to her word, the guys gave Nate a hard time about helping Chelsea with the mashed potatoes, but it was good-natured teasing, and he didn’t seem to mind in the least. He smiled and laughed, flirted with Aunt Tammy and taste-tested everything that was cooking at the time. Chelsea was amazed at how easily he fit in, not at all intimidated by her crazy family and obnoxious cousins.
“So is it true you’re on some naked guy calendar?” Lisa asked, popping a tomato in her mouth and looking at Nate with a grin.
Chelsea nearly choked. “I forgot about the calendar,” she said. “Is it out?”
“Uh, yeah, it went on sale today, I think.”
“Damn, I forgot all about it.”
He chuckled. “Honestly, so did I. Until just now. I think we’re supposed to stay after the game tomorrow night in the lobby and sign them for season ticket holders who bought them.”
“I ordered one just now,” Lisa said.
“I’m definitely ordering one,” Chelsea said.
“I’ll pick one up for you,” Nate murmured in her ear. “Are you coming tomorrow night? I’ll get you a pass.”
“Of course. I’ll even do a write-up about the event and give the calendar some publicity. I’m sure there will be photos we can use, or I’ll call Floyd and see if he can come out. He has a press pass so he can take pictures at any of the games.”
“I haven’t given it a lot of thought,” he admitted. “But Lana said we’re raising money like crazy. It’s nice knowing we’re doing something that benefits others.”
“The Sidewinders do a lot for charity and the community,” Lisa commented.
“They have a lot more focus on service than I imagined,” Nate said. “But it’s nice. Makes it feel like family as much as it does a job.”
“That’s really nice,” Chelsea said softly, smiling at him. Their eyes met and for the first time, she saw a promise of something more, something special between them, lurking in his. Hopefully, she wasn’t reading him wrong.
20
After dinner, Nate helped clear plates from the table and started rinsing them as Chelsea, her mother, and her aunt began putting away the leftovers.
“A man who does dishes,” Aunt Tammy murmured. “You should marry this one, Chels.”
“A pin-up model who does dishes,” Nora teased. “You could do worse.”
Chelsea rolled her eyes. “You guys are going to embarrass him and the guys have done enough of that today.”
“Nah, I’m good,” Nate spoke up.
“Are you two going to move in together?” Aunt Tammy asked.
Chelsea groaned. “Aunt Tammy.”
“What? Isn’t that what all you kids do today?”
“Tammy, stop.” Nora gave her sister-in-law a look. “They said it’s new. Let’s not give them any more of a hard time.”
“What fun is that?” Tammy protested.
“What’s fun is letting my daughter have a boyfriend without us scaring him off.”
“Well, she already scared off the last one, so we need to—” Tammy squeaked as Nora yanked her out of the kitchen by the arm, whispering in her ear.
“Uh oh.” Nate cut his eyes to Chelsea. “What happened with your ex? Didn’t he cheat on you?”
Chelsea sighed, putting down the saran wrap she was using. “He did. The thing is…” She bit her lip and glanced around. “I’ll tell you later. I can’t talk about this now.”
“Okay.” Nate leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Whatever it is, don’t worry about it. I’m not interested in the past, just what we have now.”
“Thanks.”
It was much later before Nate brought it up again, and he hadn’t forgotten the look on Chelsea’s face when Aunt Tammy had made her insensitive remark. Whatever had happened with Chelsea’s ex, it embarrassed her, and he hated that for her. He knew what it was like for the past to be embarrassing and hoped she would open up about it, so he could help relieve whatever lingering doubts haunted her.
“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow night,” Chelsea said, walking him out to his car.
“Oh, no, you don’t.” He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him as he leaned back against his car. “You’re not getting off so easily. Tell me what your Aunt Tammy was going to say earlier.”
She looked down, shaking her head. “It’s kind of humiliating. Especially since that dickhead told my parents.”
“You can tell me. No matter what it is.”
“He said…” She took a deep breath and looked up at him. “He said I was a prude and sucked in bed. He told my dad that no man could stay faithful to someone as cold and passionless as me.”
Nate was mortified on her behalf, his own insecurities screaming in emotional agony. What the hell kind of guy said something like that? And to her father? Even if things weren’t good in the bedroom, there had to be ways to talk things out, change things up…didn’t there? Not that he knew first-hand, but common sense would dictate trying to fix things. At least in his mind, it did.
The shimmer of tears in her eyes nearly brought his dinner back up, and he pulled her in closer, his lips grazing her ear. “I’m not that experienced either. Anything we do or don’t do, we’ll learn together, okay? He sounds like a selfish prick, and I can’t believe your dad let him talk about you like that.”
“My parents are…” She paused, looking away. “They’re good people. You see how they are, taking in strangers, feeding the homeless, hosting the whole family. It comes from some old-fashioned values that are wonderful on one hand but a mixed blessing on the other. They still sort of live by the idea that a woman’s entire purpose in life is to please her husband and raise a family. So hearing that I wasn’t able to please my future husband, well, they bought into it. My mom and I have made a lot of progress in that department because it really hurt me when they took his side over mine, but they’re coming around.”
“They’re old-fashioned but didn’t have a problem with you having premarital sex?” He hated to be a hypocrite, but he wasn’t the one who’d treated Chelsea badly.
“Not as long as it meant I was going to find a husband and be a good wife.”
“But if that’s the only goal, then why even send you to college?”
“Like I said, they’re complicated but coming around. They’re proud of me and since I had a scholarship and could live at home, it’s not like they had to pay for anything but books. They’re slow on the uptake but not slow in the head. They also figured college was the best place for me to meet a husband.”
He sighed. “I’m sorry, Sunshine. That sounds terrible.”
“I don’t want you to hate them. My mom has really come a long way and she’s helping bring my dad around. Aunt Tammy puts her foot in her mouth sometimes, but she loves me.”
“It’s kind of like my family,” he admitted. “I get so frustrated with my dad, the way he’s treated his wives since my mom died, but he’s not a bad guy. He lost the love of his life and didn’t know how to handle it, so he’s done everything wrong. He’s not a terrible human being, though, especially for a guy with a lot of money and a high-powered job.”
“But you’re still alone on Thanksgiving.”
“That’s one of his many bad choices.”
“We’re a lot alike in many ways,” she said after a slight hesitation.
“I think that’s why we click.”
They stared in each other’s eyes in the moonlight and he lowered his head to hers. This time when he kissed her, their mouths came together with familiarity and passion. Whatever her schmuck of an ex had thought, he didn’t agree. All he knew was soft lips and a sweet little tongue dueling with his. Kissing her was the highlight of his day each time it happened, so he didn’t give a damn what anyone thought.
“You know they’re probably watching from the window,” she muttered, reluctantly pulling away.
He nodded. “That’s my cue to get home. I’ll see you tomorrow night?”
“You will.”
“Thank you again for having me. Despite the little hiccups, it was great spending the day with you and your family.”
“So you’re not deleting my contact info from your phone the minute you drive away?”
“Not a chance in hell.”
“Goodnight, Nate.”
“Goodnight, Sunshine.”
The weekend was busy with back-to-back games for the Sidewinders and a slew of holiday activities at the Baldwin household. Between finding a Christmas tree and putting it up, decorating, and even a little holiday baking, Chelsea only saw Nate for a few hours in the evening after the two games. Teddy had run a small piece on the charity calendar and according to Lana, who’d called her, sales were out of control. She thought they would be sold out within a week so Chelsea was grateful she’d bought several on Friday night.
On Tuesday, she had her interview with Dom, which went well, and the team left for a road trip on Wednesday. Nate texted her that day before the flight and the following night after the game against Winnipeg.
