The Arrangement (New Hampshire Bears Novella) (9 page)

“It’s perfect.” Vance grabs my hand, and he leads me away from Keaton, toward a set of doors.

“Vance, what’s going on?” He ignores me and continues to guide us through a long hallway, past locker room signs, and on to the arena. “Oh my,” I gasp as we now head up the tunnel to the player’s bench.

“When was the last time we skated together?”

“Years,” I answer breathlessly. “But, I don’t have skates and you know I’m terrible at it.”

“Keaton got us skates.” He points to the boxes. “And sticks too if you want a little one-on-one.” He jokes and opens the box. “And you’re a good skater.” He lets my hand go and sits on the bench removing his shoes.

I follow his lead and do the same. Once we’re laced up, we make our way onto the ice.

“Normally, the Bears have removed the ice already, but they rented it out this summer to some local leagues.” Vance helps me steady on the ice.

“So, why are we here?” I ask sternly.

“To talk.” He hands me a stick and nods over to the net where a bucket of pucks sits.

“About what?”

He picks up a puck, drops it on the ice, and stick handles it a few times before passing it to me, where I stop it on my blade. “About us.”

My shoulders shrug. “What about us?”

“I have a plan, and I spent most of the night on the phone with your parents and Aimee.”

I pass the puck back, trying to remain balanced on the blades. “My sister is on her honeymoon, and you’re bothering her?” It pisses me off a bit.

“I’m desperate.” He slaps the puck into the net before banging his stick on the ice. “I’m running out of ideas, and this is my last hope.” He picks up another puck and pushes it over to me.

I gather it up and pass it back to him. We do this a few times before I try to shoot it, failing miserably as it barely makes it to the paint. “What’s your plan?” Even though my mind is already made up, I’m curious as to what he’s thinking.

“Come to America with me. Let us properly date each other, and then you can make your decision to marry or go. But you were one hundred percent correct in saying I never gave us a real go. I didn’t. I’m so selfish in putting my wants and needs before yours. But not talking to you this past week really got me going. I missed hearing your voice and talking with you and then…” he stops and looks down at his skates. “Then you showed up at the airport and I knew then I would do everything to show you I care.” When he looks back up, there are tears in his eyes.

“Vance…” I say his name, but no other words come.

“I want a chance to take care of you. I want to do things you want to do. Go places you want to go. Anything you want. I want to do it too.”

“That’s a lot of
wants
.” I turn on my skates and move toward center ice where the massive New Hampshire Bears logo is. “Why Vance? Why now?”

He’s behind me when he says, “Because I care about you, and I broke your heart. I want to show you I’m a man of worth and not like my family. I’m nothing like them.”

I face him and I know the seriousness in his eyes is real—as are the tears. “My parents won’t allow me to live with you and not be married.”

“Aimee and Ned are moving to America with us.”

My mouth drops. “For how long?” I know they have their own lives and career and can’t uproot it.

“How long do you want? Three months?”

I shake my head. “No. You’ll begin training camp soon, and the season will start soon after, and then you’ll be on the road and such.”

“The season lasts seven months, playoffs could be up to three more, depending.” He counts out.

“A year.” I blurt out.

“Huh?”

“You heard me. A full year. If, this time next year, you’ve proven yourself to me then I’ll marry you, but one fuck up—”

“I swear.” He rushes and grips my upper arms.

“Of course it’ll depend on Aimee and Ned—”

“They already said up to a year last night.” He cuts me off again.

“You have all this planned out?”

“I hope so. All I need is for you to say yes. Yes, to giving us a real try. Yes, to letting me show you how much you mean to me.”

I skate out of his hold and over to the bench, taking a seat. All he said is now spinning around in my head. His words are hitting me hard and as much as I want to stand firm with my original plan, what’s a year? I’ve already wasted eleven years, but he hadn’t put in a lot of effort. I’m not sure I had either.

Of course, I’d thought about it a lot of times, but actually going through with it…not so much. The big difference, I never been with another man and he’s had women.

But what if this is my chance to be with someone I love? If I walk away this instant, how much will I regret it? I care for Vance; that’ll never change. He’s been part of my life for so many years and I would miss him, I think anyway. No, I know it.

I watch him pick up the pucks, put them in the bucket, and skate over to me. His tears may fall at any moment, breaking my heart. He begins to unlace his skates, and I can’t bear to see the pain in his face.

“I want a vow from you. A true one.”

He stops, sits up straight, and looks at me. “What do you mean?”

“No other girls. None, Vance. If you want this to be different than your parents, I won’t stand for any cheating. If you can’t give me that, then…”

“I swear on my hockey career. I won’t be with anyone but you.” He laces our fingers together.

“I’m not sitting around all day. I’m going to find employment.”

“Okay. What else?”

I take a deep breath. “You have to respect me too. Don’t just brush me away. I saw your dad do it to your mother, and I don’t like it.”

“I promise.”

I nod and Vance holds onto our hands tightly. “We’ll communicate more and trust each other, but Vance, if I hear one word or see another woman, I’m done.”

He releases my hands and cups my face. Pulling away is what I should have done, but my body leans in and Vance softly kisses my lips.

“I will apologize every single day until my death to show you we’re meant to be together. I will not fuck this up. I’ll put everything in all my being just to prove to you there’s no one for me but you.”

A single tear, from nowhere, slides down my cheeks. Vance wipes it away with the pad of his thumb. “Vance, I promise to trust you and be more forthcoming with you. I will give my all for this relationship.”

Vance pecks my lips and a tingle runs through me. This is my life now, and I want it to be. I believe his words, and I know we’ll be fine.

We’re going to be just fine.

About the Author

About the Author

Best Selling Author, Mary Smith, has been coming up with stories her whole life. She has written A HOCKEY TUTOR and THE NEW HAMPSHIRE BEARS SERIES along with numerous other titles, as well as co-authored THE PENALTY KILL TRILOGY, OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN SERIES, and THE NINTH INNINGS SERIES with Lindsay Paige. When not busy writing or rooting for the Chicago Blackhawks you can find her with her nose stuck in her Kindle.

You can visit her website at:
www.authormarysmith.blogspot.com

Follow her on Twitter: @maryms1980

Or Faceook:
www.facebook.com/authormarysmith

Books By Author:

The Ice Series (Adult Sports Romance trilogy):

Melting Away the Ice

Breaking the Ice

Shattering the Ice

Thawing the Ice (A Novella)

A Hockey Tutor (New Adult Sports Romance)

Dart and Dash (New Adult Sports Romance)

Always Forever (New Adult Rocker Romance)

DREAM (Adult Romance Suspense)

The Matched Trilogy (Paranormal Romance Trilogy):

A Royal’s Love

A Protector’s Second Chance

A Controller’s Destiny

New Hampshire Bears Series (Adult Sports Romance)

The Muse and the Fairy Tale

The Workaholic and the Realist

The Fat Girl and the Hero (coming summer 2016)

The Arrangement (coming summer 2016)

Books with author Lindsay Paige:

A Penalty Kill Trilogy (New Adult Sports Romance):

Breakaway

Off the Ice

Game Over

Our First Christmas (A Novella)

Oh Captain, My Captain Series (Adult Sports Romance)

Looking for You

A Hockey Player’s Proposal

Finding Carson Lee

Let’s Be Crazy

Their New Beginning

You and Me, Forever

Tainted

The Ninth Inning Series (Adult Sports Romance)

Felix

Blake

Hector

Trent
(Releasing March 2016)

Jordan (Releasing April 2016)

Colby (Releasing May 2016)