Page 104 of Against the Odds

“Yeah. Only after they decided to go gay, though. I didn’t want them to Google it and end up in a total meat market.”

“Fair. As long as Blocker’s up for being hit on left and right.”

“Is he your type?” I teased, putting the SUV in gear.

“That ass is everyone’s type and supersized.”

I laughed. “Congrats on the win, by the way. The boys were thrilled, and your grandpa too, even though he tried to play it cool. Hannah says the Foxes miss you.”

“No doubt.” Callum grinned at me and pretended to buff his nails on his suit jacket.

“Jos said to tell you that you have a point-per-game streak going.”

That made Callum snort. “Smart-ass kid.”

“Yeah. I like it.”

“Me too.”

We exchanged glances. Jos had come a long way from the obnoxious, grieving preteen I’d moved home for. He still could get snippy, but that meant he fit in with the two of us. He no longer spent all his time locked in his room, and he was making more friends. Big-brothering him felt a lot more natural with Callum at my side and Roy running backup.

I asked, “Did they give you a game puck?”

“Two of them. First game and first point. They’re in my locker, till I bring them home for the trophy case.” Callum couldn’t hide a satisfied smirk.

“Feel better about playing in the NAPH?” He’d had a few decent but not stellar games in the preseason, and I knew he’d been biting his nails over this start.

“Yeah. Even if I tank next time, I had this, you know? I proved I could do it.”

“You won’t tank.” I set my hand on his thigh, and he covered it with his own.

My phone chimed, and I dug it out of my pocket and passed it to Callum to check for me. “Friend or foe?”

“Olivia. Not sure which that is.”

I snickered, although that secretly hurt, because she had not been impressed with my decision to leave the force. It was Olivia’s opinion that I would graduate, spend a year beating my head against the futilities of social work, and beg to come back to where we could at least arrest douchebags who needed arresting. I knew better, though. Too many times, walking away from the person who needed help to drive around intimidating folks had grated on me. I was still testifying against the monsters we’d caught, and I didn’t regret one minute of that. But I was done with being a cop.

“What does Olivia want?” I asked.

Callum read, “‘Tell your boyfriend he did good. Tell him to bring you to dinner with me and Nicole next weekend. I need some queer bonding.’”

“Type back, ‘Yes. Let me know,’” I instructed. It’d been months since we’d spent any time with Olivia and her wife, and I’d take an olive branch when I saw one.

“She sent back a thumbs-up.” Callum stuck my phone in the cup holder.

Tiger’s had a decent-sized parking lot for being this near downtown, currently full of more high-end vehicles than it usually saw. “Looks like some of your teammates are here.” I pulled in next to a Porsche.

“Should be fun.” Callum got out, slipped off his tie and suit jacket, and tossed them in the back seat. I did the same, watching him unbutton his shirt and roll up his sleeves to bare his forearms. His newest tattoo came into view, and I caught his arm to look at it in the actinic glare of the parking lot lights.

He’d finished the tattoo for his dad a month after the playoffs, and the hawk on his chest had come out great. Then, one day in summer, he came home with this one. At first glance, it looked like a child’s drawing. A tree with a round top beside a three-story pointed-roofed house, and four male stick figures on the lawn. One of the people had gray hair, one red, and one of the two dark-haired figures was shorter than the rest. But if you looked closer, you saw all the little details River had included.

The shortest guy held a comic book, the front window of the house showed a trophy case with a gold cup, the curtains in the top floor window were drawn tightly shut… and the trunk of that simple lollipop tree had angles and curves and bark that could’ve hidden a lightning bolt SS. The same angles and shadows that hid mine. Some people said matching tattoos were a curse, but this was like a secret match, a detail that only we would notice, and I loved it.

I ran my thumb over Callum’s tattoo, then looked up at his face. That harsh light brought out the clear blue of his eyes and sparkled in the copper of his hair. He’d been smiling, but the humor faded as he gazed down at me.

“I always wanted a real family,” I said. “Mine always seemed to have bits missing, people unhappy or discarded, or lost. What I have now, with you and Jos and Roy, is everything I need.”

“You also need to help six hundred total strangers,” Callum said, as if to lighten the moment. “Or whatever your caseload will be.”

“Yeah, I hope that job will be good for me, and them. But I don’tneedit, except to pay my share of the bills.” I stroked the tattooed trunk of that tree on the pale underside of his forearm, where the lines matched mine. “You and me, and the life we’re building together? That’s what matters.”

Callum bent and kissed me, and joy surged inside me at being free to do this, have this, to wrap my arms around the man I loved and craved, right here in front of all the world.

Then someone shouted behind us, “Hey, Fitzer! We’re here for you to dance and show off. No heading home with your man yet. Get your chunky ass inside the club.”

Callum’s arm flexed behind me, and I bet he was shooting them the bird. But then he laughed, broke the kiss, and held out his hand to me. “Shall we go inside and watch my team prove to the world that most hockey players can’t dance? Show these straight dudes a good time? You up for that?”

I closed my fingers on his and grinned. “I’m up for anything with you.”Always and forever, up for anything, as long as it’s with you.

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