Goalie Interference (NHL Scorpions) (22 page)

After dodging T-Rex legs and a flying Pterodactyl who simply did not want to let his ball through, he gave up all pretense of being good at golf. His hockey buddies would have a field day with him. Hockey players were supposed to be good at golf. It was, after all, their summer sport. Most of the guys held golf tournaments for charity in the off season. He secretly hated the game, but he enjoyed seeing Crystal’s concentration as she tried to dodge the closing legs and flapping wings.

When her ball hit Rex’s leg for the third time, she sighed like a grown up and placed her hand on her forehead in disgust. “I can’t do this, Dad. It’s too hard.”

Vlad instantly felt a burning pressure in his eyes. She’d called him Dad like it was a normal occurrence. He wanted to pick her up, swing her around, and hold her tight, but he was learning and knew that would make her uncomfortable, so he didn’t say anything about it.

“Don’t look at me. I can’t do it either. Rex has my number for sure.” Vlad looked around and rubbed his chin. “I have an idea. How about if we try it together?” He’d get that damn ball through if it killed him!

“How?”

Vlad walked over and stood over her so that they could grip the golf club together. “I’m not sure. Maybe like this? I know. Let’s line it up, and then close our eyes and just go for it.”

She looked up at him, doubt in her eyes. “Okay, but I don’t think it’s going to work.” They did as he said.

“Okay. No peeking. Ready? One … two … three!” They whacked the ball and heard a solid
thunk
as it hit Rex’s leg. “Dammit,” he mumbled.

Crystal laughed. “We’re not very good at this, are we?”

He looked into her eyes and smiled. “I think we’re doing okay, Little Bit. I think we’re doing just fine.”

It was like someone flipped a switch. He felt her body stiffen, and she stepped out of his arms. “Let’s just go get Zoe’s ring, can we?” He thought he saw her lip trembling.

There was no one else in their general area and he carefully got down on his knee. “What’s wrong, Crystal? We were having fun. Honey, what happened?”

He could tell she was fighting so hard to be happy, but it just didn’t work all the time. He saw a tear escape and resisted the urge to pull her to him. In that tiny voice she used, she told him what she was feeling. “It’s just that when I start to feel happy, I feel sad. My mom is dead. Why should I feel happy?” She clenched her little hands as another tear escaped.

“Ah, honey. It’s okay.” Zoe had told him to let her feel what she was feeling and to accept it. She told him to let Crystal know that he was okay with her being sad. “You’re going to feel sad a lot for a while. That’s okay. Your mom was a wonderful mother.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I know you. Your mother did a great job with you. You’re a fabulous little girl, and that’s because of how your mom raised you. I’ll tell you something else. She’d want you to be happy. If you think about it, you know it’s true. Just because you feel happy doesn’t mean you don’t miss your mother.”

Crystal listened to what he said. “So Mommy would be mad at me for being sad?”

“No!”
Christ! Was he fucking this up, too?
“No, honey, not at all. Nothing that you feel is wrong. It’s okay to feel sad, but it’s also okay to feel happy. Your mom would understand the sadness and be proud of how much you love her, but she would also want you to find happiness and live a wonderful life.”

She sniffled, but seemed to accept that. “Okay. Should we finish the game then?”

“Do you want to? If we do, can we just move onto the next hole? This T-Rex is killing me.”

She smiled slightly and picked up their golf balls. “Yeah, let’s go to the next one. I think it’s just one of those big leaf eater guys.”

They eventually made it to the eighteenth hole. There was only one other hole they couldn’t get through with a very stubborn Triceratops.

“We did okay for a couple of newbie dinosaur mini golfers, don’t you think?” Vlad was happy about their day so far.

“Well, we had to cheat a little, but I won’t tell if you don’t.” She gifted him with one of her rare smiles that lit up her face.

Vlad made the motion of zipping his lips. “Not a word.” They were walking through the mall when he smelled burgers and his stomach grumbled. “You hungry?”

“I could eat a dinosaur!” She laughed at her own joke.

“Well, how about a burger instead?”

While they were eating their burgers, Vlad started to gently inquire about her life at home. “Do you want to tell me about things you liked to do back home?” He hated to use the word ‘home’, as San Diego was her home now, but maybe that would be more comfortable for her at the moment.

“I played soccer. I really like that.” She smiled and looked up at him quickly before giving her attention back to her cheeseburger. “I’m a goalie.”

Vlad’s eyes widened. He didn’t see any record of that in Carla’s notes that she left him. “Really? That’s great, Crystal. Would you like to play here? We can look into it. I have to register you for school anyway. We need to go there tomorrow, so you can start next week.” He held his breath for her reaction.

“I don’t want to go to school, but I know I have to. Yes, I do want to play soccer, if that’s okay?”

He hated the way she asked if everything was okay. Most kids would demand to be allowed to play. He didn’t agree with the way some kids ruled their parents, but he didn’t want her to be afraid to ask for things either. He also understood that most kids didn’t lose their mothers to cancer and get uprooted to live with a father they never knew they had.

“I know it’s going to be hard to start a new school, but maybe if you join the school’s soccer team, you’ll make new friends even quicker. Speaking of friends, if you have some you’d like to call, you can. Anytime.”

“Really? I haven’t talked to my friend Emmy in a week! I miss her.”

“Of course. You can call her everyday if you want. And she can come visit if her parents say it’s okay.” Vlad wanted to make her adjustment as easy as possible.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Now, if you’re done, let’s go buy Zoe a ring.”

They didn’t immediately go back to Zoe’s when they were done at the mall. They took a detour to a furniture store so Crystal could pick out new bedroom furniture.

“What are we doing here?”

“I want you to pick out a new bedroom set. You don’t want that furniture that’s in there now, I know it.” Vlad spread his hands wide over the showroom. “Pick out anything you want.”

Her eyes lit up as she took in the store. “Really? Anything I want? Wow, we had all used stuff at home.”

Vlad winced when he heard that. He could have bought them anything they needed all those years. What good was all the money he had if he didn’t know Carla could have used it to raise his daughter. It was so frustrating. “Really. Anything you want. Bed, bureau, lamps, anything.”

She made a bee line over to a pink canopy bed. The frame was whitewashed oak with a soft pink, lacy canopy. It was covered with a big, fluffy white comforter that had pink flowers embroidered around the edges. Four pillows, the size of Crystal, adorned the head of the bed, while one long, pink bolster pillow sat at the foot. “This is pretty. So pretty.”

“Do you want to look around some more? This is the first bed you’ve seen.”

“No, thank you. I like this one. Is that okay? The pillows are so pretty.”

The salesman had walked over and heard her comment. “I’m sorry, the coverings and pillows are just for show.”

Vlad looked up at him and pulled out his wallet. “I’m sure we could work something out.”

As soon as the salesman looked at Vlad, recognition kicked in. “Vlad Bejsiuk! I’m a big fan.” He stuck out his hand and pumped Vlad’s enthusiastically. “Of course we can work something out. Is there anything else I can show you?”

“For now, we’ll take the whole bedroom set. Taking some big bills out of his wallet, he asked, “Is it possible to have this delivered today?” At the salesman’s dubious look, Vlad pulled out a couple of more bills.

“Of course,” he stammered.

Vlad was having fun. He never used his status or money to get things done. Well, okay, maybe he’d gotten a table at a crowded restaurant once or twice, but he never bullied with it. He hated people like that, but when it came to Crystal, he found it didn’t bother him so much.

“We’ll just take a look around and make sure there’s nothing else we want, okay?”

“Absolutely. Let me just go and start making arrangements for delivery. If I could have your address?”

Vlad gave him the address and the phone number of the loading dock manager to his building. Deliveries of that size all came through the back and up the freight elevator. He then took Crystal’s hand. “Let’s go look at some lamps for your room.”

After another hour in the store, Crystal had picked out a giraffe floor lamp, an elephant table lamp and a dainty pink and white desk where she could do her homework. The lamps didn’t match by any stretch of the imagination, but Vlad didn’t care at all. She enjoyed picking out her new furniture. And he enjoyed seeing her enjoy something.

She enjoyed it so much she actually asked Vlad if they could go shopping for new school clothes.

Vlad couldn’t quite hold in his groan. He had had enough shopping for one day. Or month. “I’ll be happy to buy you new clothes, Crystal, but how about if we see if Zoe will take you? She’d be much better at that than I would.”

“Okay,” she replied happily.

Vlad was just moving the last piece of his furniture out of Crystal’s room when the phone rang. “Hello?”

“Hi, Mr. Bejsiuk. This is Cal, from the loading dock. Your furniture is here, sir. Can we send it up now?”

“Sure, thanks.”

After all of the furniture was moved in, and they were about to leave, Vlad caught one of the delivery guys eyeing the furniture that he’d just moved out of Crystal’s room.

“You like it?”

The guy looked embarrassed to be caught ogling Vlad’s stuff. “Sorry, sir. It just caught my eye. It looks like the same furniture my brother had. His house burned down about three months ago.”

“That’s rough. I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Thanks. He’ll be fine. We always are.”

“Why don’t you take it? Give it to him if you think he’d want it.” Vlad was going to donate it anyway. It would be nice to be able to give it to someone who really needed it.

The guy’s eyes widened in surprise, and he took half a step back. “What? Oh no, I couldn’t, but thank you. He won’t take charity. Even from you.”

“What do you mean, ‘even from me’?”

“Oh, he’s a huge hockey fan. He’s gonna die when I tell him I was here today.”

Vlad smiled in appreciation. “That’s great. The fact that he’s a fan makes it even better. Come on, take it. I’m giving it away anyway. You’re saving me the hassle of having to hire someone to haul it out of here. As long as he needs it, I’m happy to give it.”

“You’re really serious? Aw, man. This is great. His birthday is next weekend. He’ll flip!” He hesitated as he started to walk toward the bed frame. “Could I snap a picture of you in front of the furniture with my phone? You know, so people believe him?”