Even though the team had played crappy last year.
As the conference wrapped up, he rose from his chair and shook hands with some of the team personnel who were there. Everybody looked as happy as pigs in shit. None of the other players were there yet and Tag knew they weren’t feeling so happy. Even as much of a pain in the ass it was for him, a single guy, to pick up and move, a lot of the guys had wives and families, kids in school with friends in Phoenix, and they were not so happy about moving. And especially to Winnipeg.
Which was why the team and the league were counting on him so much to put a positive spin on this for everyone—the league, the city, team personnel and the players. He’d always been a leader on the team, captain for the last five years, but now they’d told him he was the face of the new Jets.
Great. Just what he didn’t want.
He just wanted to play hockey.
But it was July, and training camp was still a long way off. Meanwhile there was all the business part of hockey that had to be attended to, especially at this important juncture in the team’s existence.
When he walked into his parents’ home an hour later, his mom was in the kitchen making dinner. He headed straight to the fridge and helped himself to a beer.
“How did it go?” she asked him, rinsing some green beans in a colander in the sink.
“The usual.” He drank deeply. “I’m tired of it already.”
“I know.” She smiled. “But you’re doing great.”
He grunted.
“I have some good news for you though,” she said. “Scott MacIntosh is coming home next week with his new baby.”
“Cool.” He and Scott had been best friends pretty much their whole lives, although in the last ten years they’d only seen each other a handful of times. Scott now lived in Vancouver and their paths rarely crossed, although they kept in touch by email. Tag had only met Scott’s wife at the wedding and one other time. “That’s his second kid, right?”
“Yes. So Jenn MacIntosh and I were talking. Scott and his family are heading straight up to the lake when they get in. Jenn and Greg are going to be up there for the next three weeks on holidays. And we decided that we should all go up to the lake for a week. All our boys are home right now. All their kids are home. We could have a big family party up there. Doesn’t that sound great?”
It did sound great. A week of chillaxing at the beach sounded like heaven. But he wasn’t sure if that was possible right now. “I don’t know, Mom. The team has all kinds of shit planned for me.”
She gave him a look. “The season is months away. You can tell them to just back off.”
He laughed. “Sure. I’ll do that.”
“Seriously, Tag. One week without you there isn’t going to hurt them that much.”
True. “Our golf tournament is in three weeks. We have to be back by then for sure.”
“Of course. I already talked to Matt and Logan. Jase and Remi fly in Monday and I know Jase wants to take Remi up to the lake to show it to her. But you don’t have to come until next weekend.”
Huh. Jase and Remi. His little brother had gotten serious about a woman, and it wasn’t the model he’d been dating for a couple of years, it was some little school teacher. But, in a bizarre twist, the supermodel ex-girlfriend was pregnant with Jase’s baby. Tag had no doubt that the model had gotten knocked up on purpose in an attempt to hang onto Jase and his fame and fortune, and this new girlfriend would probably be next. Although Mom and Dad seemed impressed by her from the time they’d met her in Chicago.
No, Tag didn’t envy Jase and his messed-up life. He much preferred his single, no strings attached life.
“Okay, I’ll see what I can do. Maybe we can rearrange some stuff.”
She smiled. “Thank you. Can you imagine? It’s been years since both our families were all together.”
“Yeah. It has.” Seeing old friends like Scott was good. Scott’s younger brother Michael was the same age as Jase and they’d probably be happy to see each other again. And then there was Scott’s little sister, Kyla. Tag couldn’t help but smile at remembering her, how she’d trailed after the six boys, trying so hard to be one of them and how hopeless it had been. Poor little Kyla. Totally outnumbered by the boys. Totally outdone by them. All six boys had been athletic and energetic and she had been…not.
“Michael still lives here, right?”
“Yes that’s right.”
“Still single?”
“Yes.”
“And how about Kyla?”
His mom looked at him with a smile. “You be nice to her.”
He laid a hand on his chest. “When was I ever not nice to her?”
“You boys used to torture her unmercifully.”
“She loved us.”
Mom shook her head. “Maybe so, although I have no idea why. Anyway, yes, Kyla still lives here. She works at a big law firm.”
“Oh yeah. She did want to be a lawyer. She always was kind of geeky-smart.”
His mom grinned and bent her head to the salmon she was sprinkling fresh dill over. “Geeky. Well. I guess you haven’t seen her for a while.”
He drank more beer, leaning against the counter. “Yeah. How long has it been? I don’t even remember.” Totally not true. He shrugged. “When’s dinner?”
“About an hour.”
“Okay. I’m going to take a shower. Matt and Logan and I are going out tonight.”
“Ah.” She nodded. “Behave yourselves.”
“Mom. We’re adults.”
She gave a soft snort. “So’s your brother Jase and that didn’t stop him from getting into trouble.”
Tag repressed his grin, remembering Jase’s arrest a few months earlier. Really, getting arrested was serious stuff. It shouldn’t be funny. Jase had caught hell from all directions for that little mishap. He couldn’t wait to rib his little brother about it though.
“Just remember,” Mom continued. “The whole city is watching you now.”
He sighed and clunked his empty bottle down on the granite counter. “Yeah. Thanks for the reminder.”
Tag leaned against the bar at Harmony, loud music thumping in the darkness, strobe lights pulsing over the crowded dance floor. He lifted his beer to his lips.
“I’m too old for this,” he muttered to his brothers.
“Yeah, you are,” Matt said. “It’s embarrassing, actually.”
Tag’s lips twitched. He shifted position and caught the eye of a girl at the end of the bar who was blatantly giving him the eye. She stood with two other girls dressed in skimpy halter tops and short skirts who were also looking at him and his brothers. She looked like she was barely out of high school. And she probably was. After living in the States where the legal drinking age was higher, coming to a bar here at home, where eighteen-year-olds were legal, was a little disconcerting for Tag. The girl smiled seductively at him. Tag sighed.
Matt, at age twenty, fit in better with the crowd in the bar than Tag did. Even Logan, a few years younger than Tag, fit in better.
“I’m here to keep an eye on you youngsters,” Tag said. “Mom was worried about you.”
“About us? Bullshit.”
Tag grinned. “Remember what Jase did a few months ago. Getting arrested isn’t a good move. I think she’s a little paranoid.”
“No shit. What the hell got into him, anyway?”
“He was obviously hammered,” Matt said.
“Obviously. But that’s not like him,” Logan said. “He’s never been one to drink too much.”
“He’d just found out that Brianne was pregnant,” Tag said, remembering those phone conversations. Christ, Jase was going to be a father. Holy shit. Tag could barely wrap his mind around that concept. “We can give him a hard time about it when he gets here,” he added, smiling at the prospect. “He flies in Monday.”