Goalie Interference (NHL Scorpions) (14 page)

“God, Zoe. I’m fine, just fuck me.”

Zoe loved making love as much as fucking. There was a time for each, and the time for fucking was upon them. She gave him more, and when she was sure she wouldn’t hurt him, she rode him hard until they both exploded in ecstasy.

Hours later, both perfectly sated, they were still awake, talking about getting married.

“You seemed kind of surprised that you asked me to marry you. Are you sure that’s what you want, Zoe?”

She reached for his hand and locked their fingers together. Turning her head she looked into his eyes so that he could see the truth in them. “To be honest, I meant to say ‘I love you’, but ‘marry me’ came out. I did freak out internally for a couple of seconds, but then I realized it felt right. You know, sometimes the heart knows what it wants before the head understands it. I’m sure, Vlad. One hundred percent sure. I want to watch you get old.”

“Me get old? What about you?”

“I’m a woman. I’ll dye my hair and wear tons of makeup. I’m not getting old.”

He smiled at that and traced his finger down the new pink stripe in her hair. It was subtle, but he loved it. She definitely had her own style. “You’ll always be beautiful to me, whether you’re thirty or eighty.”

“Well, no shit. I’m pretty hot.” She winked at him and brought his hand to her lips. “I’ll always find you irresistible too, you know. Even if you have two bum hips.”

Vlad’s hand tightened in hers. “God forbid! Don’t even joke about that. I’ll need at least one good hip to keep up with my hot wife. You’re very demanding in bed you know.”

Zoe sucked on his finger and he let out a groan. When she bit the tip, he pulled his hand away and pulled her onto his chest.

Absently stroking her hair, he asked, “When can we get married? How long do you need to plan everything?”

“You know how I am. I’m not a fancy person, Vlad. I don’t want a big wedding. I’d be happy with just you, me, Jody and Lacey in the court house. Then we could just throw a kickass party.”

“Are you serious? You might just be the perfect woman.”

Zoe laughed and slapped his chest.

“Seriously though. You don’t want the big wedding? Lots of people? The frilly dress?”

“No. I don’t. It’s just not me, Vlad. What do you want?”

“That’s easy. I want whatever you want. I want you to be happy.”

“Good. Then let’s tie the knot around Christmas time and get er done!” She kissed his chest and stifled a yawn.

“That sounds perfect to me. Now let’s get some sleep. We’ll talk more tomorrow, okay?” Zoe didn’t answer him as she was already half asleep.

Zoe woke up a few hours later and watched Vlad sleep. The pain medication he’d taken was working, and he finally looked relaxed in the luxury of a pain-free sleep. Gently running the tip of a finger over his slightly parted lips, she thought about how they had come together.

She loved him so much it scared her. It was a miracle that she had been able to hold him at bay for so long. Zoe had never truly believed in soul mates outside of movies and literature. Surely there was more than one person in the world who could be someone’s other half. But looking at Vlad lying there, she couldn’t imagine ever loving someone else like she did him. As guilty as it made her feel, she couldn’t help thinking that his injury was her blessing.

It wasn’t quite dawn when Zoe quietly got out of bed and headed into the shower. Using Vlad’s soap and shampoo, borrowing his clothes—that were ten times too big—and just feeling secure in his love, were comforts that Zoe hadn’t enjoyed since before her parents died and her life fell apart. Being in his home with him made her feel like maybe she really could have it all. Maybe she didn’t need to be quite so independent. Maybe it was okay to finally let someone take care of her.

Less than an hour later, Vlad woke up to find Zoe missing. He made his way downstairs and found her wrapped in a blanket on the patio, watching the last of the sunrise.

Vlad stood inside, hand on the door for a full minute, drinking in the sight of her before making himself known. She turned at the sound of the door sliding open and leaned back in the lounge chair, watching him as he joined her on the patio. He walked over to her with a brilliant smile on his lips as he rubbed his arms in the cool morning air. “Good morning.”

Zoe smiled up at him, and his first thought was that the sunrise had nothing on her smile. She spread her legs and opened her blanket, scooting back on her chair. “Come on in here and get warm.”

He sat down and she wrapped her legs around him, pulling the blanket tight over his chest. “How’s your hip feel this morning?”

“It’s okay.”

“Really?”

Vlad sighed. “No, not really. It hurts enough that I’m not hating the idea of having surgery as much today. It’s going to take me a while to get over the fact that my career is over, but this hip seems to be getting worse all the time. I don’t want to live in pain, so I guess the surgery seems more like a blessing than a punishment at the moment.”

“Wow. Sounds like you’ve been doing some hard thinking. That’s good, Vlad.” She kissed the back of his neck. “Try not to worry about what you’re going to do after the surgery. Just worry about healing. The rest will work itself out.”

“I know it will. I’ll make it work. I know Lacey told you about the possibility of my working with the youth league. I think I could be good at that. Some of those kids need role models, and hell, if I didn’t kill Cage, how bad can those kids be?” First, though, he had to get through the surgery.

Zoe went with Vlad to see the surgeon to discuss his procedure. His entire family was in Ukraine, and she was adamant that he didn’t go alone.

Vlad had told his parents he was retiring, but he didn’t go into too much detail as to why. They knew he had hip issues, but not the extent of the disease. He’d eventually have to explain it all to them, but thought it would be best to have more information before doing so.

They were sitting in the waiting room when Vlad started fidgeting—picking up magazines, shuffling his feet, gripping his hands. He was obviously more nervous than he let on. He had come to terms with the fact that his career was over, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t worried about what the surgeon was going to tell him. He reached over and gathered Zoe’s hand in his, resting them on his thigh.

“Thanks for coming with me today.” He rubbed his thumb back and forth over the back of her hand. “It’s nice to have you here. I didn’t really want to do this alone, but, you know, I’m such a tough guy and all.” Vlad flashed a quick smile at her that was clearly laced with fear and uncertainty.

“There’s nowhere else I want to be.” She gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. “I’ll hold your hand, take the brunt of your anger over this, or sit silently while you process your thoughts. Whatever you need.”

He didn’t deserve her. Truly, he didn’t. He had been such a prick of late. He knew how great Zoe was, but it was humbling to see this gentler side of her. She was such a tough girl, but wow, when push came to shove, she could provide tenderness and support like no one he’d ever met.

He didn’t have words like she did, so he just leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Thank you.”

“Mr. Beggsiack?” The receptionist cleared her throat. “I’m sorry, Mr. Beg—” She smiled at her own inability to even guess how to say his name. “Vlad?”

Vlad gave her a genuine smile. He knew his name didn’t flow easy. “Good enough, I know it’s a good, strong Ukrainian name, right?”

“I love unique names, but I sure can mangle the pronunciation.” She offered him a smile and pointed toward the door. “The doctor will see you now.”

The interior room they were shown to was decorated with bunnies and ducks on lively yellow wallpaper. “Is this their way of lightening up bad news? That’s not a good sign.”

Zoe was as surprised as he was. It wasn’t the décor one typically saw in a surgeon’s office. A pediatric office, sure, but a surgeon’s who replaced hips?

The doctor came in and shook Vlad’s hand. “Sorry about the room. We’re doing renovations so I’ve been using this children’s room for consultations. So, how are you feeling today, Vladimir?”

“Just Vlad. Vladimir’s my father.” And his father before him, and his father, and so on. “How am I feeling? I’m not sure how to answer that. Are you looking for a pain scale?” He wanted to give the doctor as much information as he could to get the best help.

“Just overall. Tell me what you’re feeling. I saw the game last night. Getting your leg bent back like that couldn’t have been pleasant. How were you treated for it?”

“After I was over the danger of puking from the pain, I sat in a whirlpool for a while. Took some pain meds last night and went to sleep.” Vlad stole a quick look at Zoe remembering the part in between that he wouldn’t dare tell the doctor. Zoe answered with a smile that told him she knew exactly which part he was remembering.

“Good. And how are you feeling today? Is there any relief from the pain?”

“Some. I don’t think I’d want to strap on skates, and I’m still limping a bit, but I can take it. I would say the pain is about a five. I haven’t taken any pain pills today because they make me too loopy. If I don’t need them, I don’t want them.”

“That’s fine. You don’t have to take them right now, but I would like you to take some anti-inflammatory pills when you have pain. They’ll help without simply masking the pain and making you tired. Okay, on with the bad news.”

Shit. How could there be any bad news left? Vlad looked over at Zoe. She wore the same surprised expression that he did. He grabbed her hand once more. “Uh, bad news? I thought I got that already.”

“Well, you got some. I was looking over your most recent MRI, and I believe your damage is worse than Dr. Culp originally thought. I talked to him, and we discussed what I saw. I believe we’re looking at a total hip replacement.”

Vlad already knew that, didn’t he? “Yeah, wasn’t that what I was told?”

“Well, no. We were hoping to graft bone from your lower leg to put it in your hip where the diseased bone is. It would have been a longer recovery, but better in the long run. We were hoping the bone would fuse together, get stronger, and that would be that.”

“Okay, so why is a total hip replacement worse than that, if it has a shorter recovery time?”

“You’re young. Chances are you’ll have to have it done again. And of course the older you are, the slower you’ll heal. It’s not the end of the world; it’s just a bit more than we were hoping you would need.”

Vlad was actually relieved. He thought they were going to tell him he had cancer or something awful like that. “Okay, I can handle that. I’ll still be able to strap my skates on though, right? I mean, I know I won’t play pro again, but there’s this possible job I could have as a coach.”

“Absolutely. You’ll be able to do almost everything you could do before. I don’t think continually going down into a butterfly and snapping back up is something you should do too much of, but you’ll have full range of motion.”

“How long until I can skate again? What’s the recovery time?”

“You’re looking at about six to eight weeks, depending on how fast you heal. Some physical therapy will help too.”

“All right. Let’s get this done.” Vlad wanted it done as soon as possible so that he could figure out exactly what he would be capable of doing.