Heart and Snow (Texas Highlanders Ice Hockey) (11 page)

“Didn’t it drive you nuts?” Cody was curious as to why a person would deal with screaming children all the time. He wasn’t sure if he could handle siblings like the Reynolds family had.

“Of course, but they were just kids. Joey’s a decade older. Relating to each other was difficult. But they are still family.” Ed smiled. “It’s different when they’re your kids.”

“Did you ever lose your temper with them?” He almost didn’t ask the question, but he needed to know that other people had the temper he did. Maybe that was what he was worried about the most. Was his temper normal, or was it something he got from his father?

“All the damn time.” Ed laughed. “Cherry is much better at dealing with the girl drama. I always seemed to make it worse somehow.”

“I think I’d want a girl.” He was barely aware of the words coming out of his mouth. The statement surprised Cody. “I mean, to have a mini-Jo running underfoot? It can’t be that bad.”

Ed laughed again, shaking his head. “Careful. The women in this family, even when they’re pissed at each other, will band together against the male side.”

Cody groaned.

Ed grinned. “The trick is to orchestrate that happening so they forget that they were mad at each other.”

Cody stared at Ed. That had to be the most brilliant thing he’d ever heard. And the scariest.

*~*~*

Cody stepped inside the house, wiping his feet on the welcome mat before tromping through the house. There was no one in the living room. He could hear voices in the kitchen, but he recognized them as Cindy and Cherry. Doug had gone out with Ed. That left two people unaccounted for, and Michele was probably still sulking up in her room.

He peeked in the bedroom he and Jo were staying in, and saw his wife sitting on the edge of the bed, facing away from him. He wasn’t going to go in, just let her have the time alone, but then he heard the sniffle.

He stepped into the room, slowly. “Babe.”

Her back stiffened. “Yes?” He sighed and shut the door behind him. This had not been an easy vacation for her. And the car thing probably had her shaken up too.

He walked around to see her. Her eyes were red and puffy and she clutched a white tissue in her hand. “Jo, babe. What’s wrong?” He slid onto the bed beside her.

“Nothing.” Her voice was shaky. “My mom gave me this box and it made me miss my grandma. And since breathing apparently makes me cry, the waterworks started.”

He glanced down at the open box in her lap. Tons of older pictures were tossed inside, some black and white, some sepia, some colored and looked like they were out of the seventies.

“My grandma, she used to sew and knit and do all those special stay at home mom things. I used to think that she loved what she did for her family, that she hadn’t any regrets about her life. I never considered that she really wasn’t happy, just choiceless. And by the time she could have choices, she was stuck.”

“What makes you think she wasn’t happy?”

She lifted a picture of a young woman out, dressed in a nursing uniform, taken outside what looked like Hawaii. “This was my grandmother. She was a World War II nurse in Hawaii. She was there for Pearl Harbor. She spend days patching people up, and saving lives. Do you see her smile?”

Cody glanced at the photograph. The woman’s grin reached ear to ear.

She set the photograph down and pulled out another. The same woman, only this time there was a man in the picture, along with a baby. “This is her ten years later, with my Uncle Ronny. My granddad came home from the war, and like a good fiancée, she married him, quit nursing, and became a wife and a mother.” She picked up the other photograph and held them side by side. “Do you see the difference in her smiles?”

Cody scrutinized the two pictures. The nursing picture was a carefree woman, who didn’t have anchors in her life, did what she loved, and wanted to see the world. But in the second picture, the smile was different. It didn’t quite reach her eyes. But he wasn’t seeing what Jo did. He didn’t see a woman who was miserable. He saw a woman who had matured, who had gone through the horror of an international war, managed to come out with her fiancé alive when millions of others lost theirs.

“Okay, I see the difference, but not what you think. People change as they get older, Jo. It’s not necessarily because they’re miserable.”

“She tried to talk my mother out of being a housewife. Clearly, she regretted her decision to get married and settle down, and she didn’t want Mom to make the same mistake.” Jo sighed and closed the box. She twisted her torso so she faced him. “I need to know that we’re not making a mistake, Cody. That we’re doing the right thing for us. Are we cut out for this kind of life? With the minivans and the soccer practices and the parent-teacher groups…”

Cody moved from the spot on the bed and knelt down in front of her. He took the box from her and set it down on the floor, then took her slender hands in his. He wanted her to not misunderstand anything he was going to say. “First off, there will be no soccer practices. This kid is coming into a hockey family.”

She snorted and grabbed another tissue from the nightstand to blow her nose. Okay, he could still make her laugh. This was a good thing.

“Second, we are not your grandparents. We are not your parents. We are who we are. We’ll make our own way. There’s nothing saying we’ll be exactly who our parents are.”

He stopped, thought about what he had just said. Jo had a bit of a smirk on her face. Understanding spread through him and he waggled a finger at her. “You’re tricky, Mrs. Baker. Well played.”

He brushed her cheek with his fingertips, wiping away another tear. “Why are you crying?”

“What, beyond the fact that I cry about everything right now?” She gave him a soft smile and picked up another picture, one of her, her mother, and her grandmother. “I was crying because these pictures made me remember how much my grandma shaped my life. She always wanted me to reach for the stars. She encouraged me to do all kinds of things.” She paused. “I didn’t do any of them. I wanted to be a princess when I was a child, for Christ’s sake. How unattainable can you get in terms of a career? I have an astrophysics degree I’m never going to use because at one point, I wanted to be an astronaut.”

“Pretty Pretty Princess isn’t a fantastic career path, no, but you could always get a tiara for your space suit.” Cody managed a straight face, but she smacked his shoulder. He smiled at her, tightening his hands around hers. “What are you really upset about? Don’t tell me you’re sad you’re not a princess or an astronaut.”

“No. It’s just… when I see someone I love holding back from something he would be amazing at because he’s just as scared as I am, it makes me sad. It makes me…” Her voice cracked and she breathed out, trying to regain her control. “I think you would be an amazing dad.”

“Do you know how much I love you right now?” He asked. His heart pounded with love, and he gripped her hands tightly. “You are the only one who’s ever thought so highly of me, who’s never compared me to my dad.”

“Because I married you. Not your dad. That’s kinda ew.”

He grabbed the back of her neck and kissed her. There weren’t enough words in the world to describe how much he loved her in that instant. Every day. Every hour. He didn’t stop kissing her as he rose from his kneeling position and pushed her down on to the bed. Her legs wrapped around him, tightened around his waist. He wanted to show her how much he loved her, make her believe that there wasn’t anyone else for him but her.

They broke for air. Jo sucked in her breath as Cody said, “I love you. I love us. I don’t want you to go anywhere.”

She gazed up at him, a soft smile on her full lips. “I’m sorry I’m insane. This baby is zapping brain cells.”

“Maybe it’s all that bleach in your hair, Barbie.”

“Shut it, mister.”

He grinned. “Enjoy it while you can, love. You know you can’t be around hair stuff during pregnancy, right?”

Dismay fell over her face. “Are you serious?”

“Yep. Doug told me earlier. Something about the ammonia in the dye or something.”

“I’m going to need a book or something.” She sighed. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Cody sat up, and handed her the closed memory box. He placed her hand on top of it, and pressed it lightly into the wood. “Neither did any other woman in your family. But look at it this way. Strong women will never make bad mothers.”

*~*~*

Jo glanced at the box, but her mind was so far from her family. Her heart swelled as she let her eyes wander over her husband’s face. Cody had never looked so serious, but within his eyes, she saw the tenderness of a man in love, and the affection he desperately felt for her. Feelings she completely returned.

She leaned up on one elbow, and set the box on the nightstand. And then she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him to her in a greedy kiss.

With deft fingers, he unbuttoned her blouse without ever breaking the kiss. The man was an expert at getting her out of her clothes. Within seconds, she was in her bra and panties. He sat up, grabbed the edge of his shirt and pulled it over, leaving him bare-chested.

She inhaled sharply.

“You like what you see?” He teased her, grinning.

She nodded. Cody stood and quickly dropped his pants and his boxers, his erection springing forward. She followed the length of his body, straight up to his eyes. The pent up desire on his face made her heart beat faster.

“I like what I see,” he murmured as he crawled up her body, dropping kisses over her stomach, between her breasts, and finally, her neck. She threw her head back to give him more access and let out a delicious moan.

Her breath trembled as she held back tears. Fucking emotions. Her emotions clogged in her throat, her hands trembled. The way his eyes devoured her, the tenderness with which he touched her…

“Lie back, sweetness,” he whispered against her neck. “I want to love on you.”

She obeyed, but not before he snapped the front enclosure of her bra apart. She wiggled out of it and lifted her hips as he slid off her panties. She laid back as he stretched out on the bed beside her.

His hand idly moved over her body, tweaking a pink nipple between his thumb and forefinger. His soft lips dropped kisses over every inch of her, teasing, licking, bringing her to the edge of oblivion before he yanked her back.

He didn’t leave an inch of her skin unexplored. Every brush of his lips sent shivers of passion down her spine. Every nick of his teeth against her threatened her sanity. Every flick of his tongue sent her into the stratosphere. By the time he allowed her to pass over the edge, he had her gasping for breath and mumbling gibberish into the pillow to keep from screaming.

When she could breathe again, Cody slid up her body, his erection thick and heavy against her core. He cupped her face in his large hands, the intensity of his stare building tension in her core again, an ache that only Cody could ease for her.

He heaved in a breath. “I need you.”

“You have me.” Her voice came out in a whisper.

Adjusting his angle, his cock slid into her pussy. She’d thought having him fill her would have alleviated the ache, but it only intensified it. He pushed into her, taking his agonizingly sweet time about it, which only tied up and built the tension within her.

Before she knew it, the orgasm hit her so hard all she could do was wrap her arms around her husband while a hurricane of pleasure swept her away. And even though she shuddered and gasped for breath, he didn’t pick up the pace, but moved in slow, leisurely strokes into her body.

When she finally was able to see again, Cody was watching her, his expression one of awe. “I never get tired of watching you come.”

Cody’s tempo increased, but not by much. Even though she’d come already, she felt the stirrings of another orgasm coming her way. She rose her hips to meet his. The two moved in perfect unison, bodies joined together and chests colliding. His mouth fused over hers, his thrusts gaining erratic traction. His cock brushed against that spot within her over and over, and when he groaned her name, the sheer joy of him losing control skyrocketed through her body, and set her on fire.

When their muscles relaxed enough to give them enough energy to move again, Cody mumbled something so supremely sexy, even though she couldn’t understand him. He gently withdrew from her, and together they rolled, so he could tuck her against his damp chest.

It wasn’t the most comfortable position they’d ever been in, but Jo didn’t care. This was the closest they’d been in months, maybe years. This hadn’t been a fucking. This had been about them, about love. She had never not loved Cody, but over the years, their relationship had become… friendly, and tonight, that had changed, because Cody hadn’t just said he loved her… he’d shown her.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Sitting at the Penalty Box, Gavin willed his body to come back under control. He hadn’t been able to take a nap this afternoon, not after the crazy plan Misha had dropped on him. He didn’t know why Misha was suddenly all over this threesome thing.

Even so, the man was being damn picky. He’d shot down every single girl in the place. If Gavin didn’t know any better, he’d swear that Misha had been searching for someone specific.

Loud laughter from beside him caught his attention. Some of the other guys were there, too, but since Misha was on a mission, they hadn’t done much more than say hello to the rest of the team and engage in some good-natured heckling.

Leo Vasquez was out tonight, something he hadn’t done in a while. That made his dick twitch, thinking about what he had at home. Leo’s live-in couple-friends. Was that what you called them? Garrett and Brianna Zane were married before getting involved with Leo, and they’d kept that whole situation tight-lipped as hell for nearly a year.

Leo had been his introduction into bisexuality. Before him, he’d been strictly women, but Leo had a way of bringing out his sexuality in ways he didn’t even imagine before then. But the man was firmly off the table. Even if he hadn’t come out as part of a polyamorous arrangement, the way he looked at Brianna, and even Garrett sealed that deal.