Any reservations Sinead
had about walking into the Blades party holding Adam’s hand evaporated as soon as she saw how happy everyone was for them. Esa Saari looked especially surprised, particularly when Ray motored over to Sinead and Adam and said loudly, “Has he proposed yet?” It was immediately obvious that theirs was not a casual relationship, even though Ray’s question had mortified Sinead. After that, they had to endure a few bad jokes about “attorney/client privilege,” but overall, it was a great night, apart from Ulf Torkelson’s wife looking Adam up and down like he was a prize bull she wanted to ride.
It was close to seven a.m. when she, Adam, and the Cup arrived at her apartment. Sinead was in that schizophrenic state where her body was physically exhausted but her mind remained sharp. It would probably be hours before she fell asleep.
She stifled a yawn as she locked the door behind them. “You tired?” she asked Adam.
He smiled wearily. “Yes and no. That was a great party.”
“I was surprised you didn’t get just a tiny bit drunk.”
“I was buzzed,” Adam protested.
“True. You
were
smiling a lot.”
“That had nothing to do with booze, and everything to do with you—”
“And the Cup.”
“Well . . . yeah,” Adam admitted sheepishly.
Sinead kept waiting for him to put the Cup down, but he didn’t. Then it dawned on her.
“You want to bring it into the bedroom, don’t you?”
“Of course,” Adam replied as if it were obvious.
“Would you like to sleep with the Cup, and I’ll bed down in the spare room?”
“Nah. The Cup probably takes up more room than you do in the bed. I think it’ll be fine on the floor beside me.”
“I’m flattered.”
They headed for the bedroom, which was flooded with early morning sun. Sinead hurried over to the windows and quickly pulled down the shades. The bright rays actually hurt her eyes.
Adam had planted the Cup on “his” side of the bed, close enough for him to reach out and touch.
“You’re like a little kid on Christmas morning with his favorite toy.” Sinead laughed, taking off her clothing as Adam stripped down as well. They slid between the sheets simultaneously, Adam tenderly wrapping her in his arms.
“I love you,” he whispered as he positioned himself above her, his mouth dipping down to plant the barest of kisses on her throat.
“I love you, too.” Sinead didn’t worry anymore about being vulnerable. She knew, as Adam reverently kissed her all over, that he was the one she’d been waiting for.
As delicately as separating the petals of a flower, Adam pushed her knees apart. Her breath quickened; she knew what was going to happen next, and she was already wet, waiting for him. Adam slid down the length of her body, lifting his head to look into her eyes before he began flicking his tongue between her legs.
Sinead’s breath quickened as excitement overtook her. Adam took his time, tongue slowly lapping, slowly circling. And then, like a stab of light to her body, he doubled the tempo. Tripled it. Sinead couldn’t hold back; she arched up, her entire body quivering as she screamed with unabashed pleasure.
She slowly dropped her hips back down on the bed, still shuddering in the simmering aftermath. “Thank you,” she whispered.
Adam lifted his head, looking at her with such love it stunned her. “You never have to thank me for making love to you.”
Sinead reached out to cup the side of his face. “I’m not thanking you for just that. I’m thanking you for being the man you are.”
“I wouldn’t be if it weren’t for you,” Adam murmured. “I’d just be some pathetic jock with no life outside the rink. You’re my life, Sinead.
You
make it all worthwhile.”
Sinead was overwhelmed. Adam grinned sexily and then, getting on all fours, began nibbling his way back up her body, lingering at her breasts to unhurriedly suckle and tease. Sinead twirled her fingers in his hair dreamily. It was taking all of her self-restraint not to drag him up so they were face-to-face, where she could brutally assault his mouth with hers, pressing home the greed threatening to explode inside her.
Adam must have sensed it; he wasted no time giving her what she wanted. His breathing was hard and ragged as he pressed his lips to hers wildly for a series of hard, bruising kisses. Sinead groaned beneath him as the wonderful, tantalizing heat began once again to build inside her. She pressed against him hard, her body telling him to please, please hurry. Panting, he tore his mouth from hers, the two of them locking eyes. His body glistened with sweat, his gaze so intense and penetrating that she almost had to look away. But she didn’t.
“Fuck me,” she whispered. Adam obeyed, and then they were moving together, spurring each other to go harder, deeper. Sinead found the flashes of heat going back and forth between them nearly unbearable. It was stripping her raw, making a mockery of her senses. And then, finally, the beautiful, explosive, overwhelming release. But Adam wasn’t there yet; a new shock of pleasure jolted her as he reached for her hands, twining their fingers together as he moaned low. Moving deep inside her, he gave himself over to his own final pleasure.
41
THREE YEARS LATER
“There’s my girl.”
Sinead put down her briefcase and crouched, opening her arms so her two-year-old daughter, Nina, could fly into them.
“Mommmmyyyy!”
Sinead hugged her tight, covering her face in kisses before picking her up and leaning over to kiss Adam. “How was your day?”
“Long,” said Adam. He tugged on Nina’s curls. “But we had fun, didn’t we, Bug?”
“What did you do?” Sinead asked Nina.
“Played tag! And had a picnic in my
room
!”
“Lucky you!”
Nina wriggled to be released, so Sinead lowered her back down to the floor gently.
“Now what?” Nina asked eagerly.
“Now you let Daddy rest a little bit so he can talk to Mommy,” said Adam.
“Why don’t you come draw at the kitchen table while Mommy and Daddy make dinner?” said Sinead.
“Oh! Kay!” Nina ran ahead of them into the kitchen.
Sinead kicked her heels off, massaging the sole of her right foot. “God, traffic was hell.”
“You say that every Thursday.”
“I know.”
Adam kissed her softly. “Mmm, this is my favorite day of the week.”
“Me, too. I don’t realize how much I miss you guys until I get in the car and start the drive home. It seems to take forever.”
When Sinead found out she was pregnant soon after she and Adam married, they knew they had to find a middle ground. Sinead wanted to take maternity leave, but she didn’t want to quit work completely. They decided she would stay home part-time. The rest of the time, the baby would be taken care of by a nanny.
But by the time Nina was born, things had changed radically. Adam, wanting to end his career on a high note, retired from hockey, and he was now a full-time, stay-at-home dad. Monday through Thursday, Sinead stayed in her own apartment while working in the city. Then on Thursday night, she drove up to their house in Bearsville to be with her family until Sunday night. Sometimes Adam and Nina came down to New York and stayed with her. They’d have dinner with Sinead’s family, or Sinead would stay home with Nina while Adam went to see the Blades play. More often than not, though, it was just the three of them relaxing at home. Both she and Adam believed it was important that Nina see where Mommy lived part of the week and that she feel comfortable staying there. It wasn’t the ideal situation, but it gave both of them what they wanted: Sinead could keep working, and Adam could live in the country.
Nina was already at the table, her face scrunched up in intense concentration as she scribbled on a piece of blank paper. “Look at her,” Sinead murmured to Adam worriedly. “God, she looks so focused. I hope she doesn’t take after me.”
“What, type A personality?” Adam teased, pulling out a bottle of Belgian beer.
“Yeah.”
With a flourish, Nina finished the picture and handed it to Sinead.
“What’s this?” Sinead asked, wide-eyed with interest, even though there was nothing really discernible on the paper. It was just a bunch of squiggly lines.
“A picture of Daddy.”
“Daddy doing what?”
“Dancing with monkeys.”
“Wow!” Sinead said, amazed. “I didn’t know there were monkeys up here.”
“There are.” Nina took a fresh piece of paper, and with her nose practically touching the table, began another drawing.
Sinead tapped Adam on the shoulder, where he stood opening the beer.
“What’s up?”
“Look how close her nose is to the paper,” she said quietly. “Do you think she might need glasses?”
Adam rolled his eyes, but he looked amused. “No. You know, thank God it’s me who’s the stay-at-home parent.”
“Why?”
“Because if it were you, she’d be going to the doctor every three days. That is, if you were willing to take her out of the bubble.”
“That’s not true,” Sinead insisted. She glanced back at her daughter. “Okay, it is,” she reluctantly admitted, taking the glass of beer Adam handed to her.
“If it’ll make you feel better, I’ll give her a home eye exam,” said Adam dryly. “And an intelligence test. I think she might be falling behind memorizing torts.”
Sinead gave him a dirty look. “You are so not funny.”
Across the table from where Nina sat doodling was a stack of the daily newspapers Adam liked to get, mainly for the sports coverage: the
Post,
the
Sentinel
, and the
Daily News
.
“How are the Blades doing?” Sinead asked, as she began taking the fixings for salad out of the fridge.
“Off to a solid start,” said Adam, beer in hand, as he stared out the large kitchen window into the woods. “Jason’s a good captain. Everyone knew I was just keeping the
C
warm for him. I was the bridge between the Ty and Michael generation and the new generation.”
Sinead wrapped her arms around him from behind. “You miss it, don’t you?”
Adam turned to look at her. “Of course I do,” he admitted. “But it was good to retire at the top of my game. I didn’t want to be one of those guys who don’t know when it’s time to hang it up. Besides, the game is really changing. Now that I’m gone, they’ll easily be able to institute new rules about unintentional hits to the head.”
“Bet you never thought you’d be doing this.”
Adam switched places with her, standing behind her and rubbing her shoulders.
“Nope. Never in a million years. But you know what? I love it.”
“You’re a good dad.”
“I do okay for a boneheaded jock.”
Sinead playfully hit his hand. “I never thought that.”
“Right. And I never thought you had a pole up your—butt.”
“Good catch,” Sinead whispered.
Sinead glanced back over her shoulder at Nina. She was beautiful. Perfect. Okay, maybe not perfect, especially now that she was in full-blown terrible twos mode, but still. It had been harder for Sinead to go back to work after her maternity leave than she ever could have imagined. She spent the first two weeks crying as soon as she woke up in the morning and crying the minute she left work. She was envious of Adam. But deep down, she knew she’d made the right decision. It wasn’t so much a matter of losing traction in her career as it was knowing that Adam’s assessment of her neurotic personality was dead on: if she were the parent staying home with Nina full-time, she’d probably make a basket case of their daughter.
“Oliver was wondering if he could come up for the day Saturday,” said Sinead, peeling a cucumber.
“As long as he doesn’t come bearing tons of junk food.”
“He doesn’t.”
“He
does
,” Adam countered. “By the time he left last time, I was sure it would take days for Nina to come down from her sugar high.”
“That’s our fault. We shouldn’t have said yes every time she asked for something.”
“It didn’t help that Uncle Ollie was slipping her goodies on the side.”
“He adores her.”
“And she adores him,” said Adam. “But no crap food.”
“Got it.”
Sinead gazed out the large kitchen window. Twilight was approaching, streaking the sky with bars of pink and gray. The leaves were starting to fall; soon it would be dark by four o’clock. But right now, there was a perfect stillness outside that matched the contentedness inside her. Sinead took in her husband’s handsome profile and felt a surge of love. She looked at her daughter and couldn’t believe it was possible to love another human being as much as she loved Nina.