“Remington Knight, you are in so much trouble.”
I spun around at the sound of my name and all but gaped at my mother.
“Mom.” I quickly got to my feet, hugging her. “Hi.”
“You didn’t tell me you were in Vancouver. Again.” She gave me a pointed glare.
“This is business, Mom.” I turned to the table. “Mom, please meet the man I hope will be the new head coach of the Lauderdale Knights, Anatoli Petrov, and his wife Tessa.”
“Hello, so nice to meet you.” My mother was the ultimate lady, especially once I mentioned business. She might rag on me in private, but her public face would be nothing but polite sophistication. They all shook hands and then I held out a hand to Noelle, who got to her feet as she took it.
“This is Noelle Burrier,” I told my mother. “Noelle, my mother, Aletha Knight.”
“It’s very nice to meet you.” I saw the nervousness in Noelle’s eyes, but she smiled and shook my mother’s hand.
“Would you like to join us?” I asked politely, even though I prayed she would say no.
“Of course not. You’re with friends.” She smiled. “Anyway, I have a date.”
“A date.” I stared at her as if I hadn’t heard her right.
“A date. You know, like the thing you’re on…” She motioned to Noelle. “Anyway, I hope you’ll come home with Remy for Christmas, Noelle. I’d love to get to know you better.”
“I’m not sure what our plans are yet but thank you so much for the invitation.” Noelle nodded.
“I’ll call you tomorrow.” My mother lifted her cheek for a kiss, which I gave her, and then she sauntered across the restaurant, where a handsome man of about sixty got up and kissed her hello.
“I had no idea my mother was dating,” I murmured, sinking back in my chair.
Toli chuckled. “I can’t imagine my mother dating. My father is still alive, but I mean in general. I think I’d be so overprotective she’d kill me.”
“Good thing she’s in Russia then.” Tessa gave him a teasing smile.
“So, shall we order wine?”
“Do you think he’s going to take the job?” Noelle asked me late that night after we’d made love and were just about to drop off to sleep.
“I don’t know,” I admitted, wrapping my arms around her. “He wants it, but he’s worried about Tessa.”
“She’s going to say yes,” I said softly. “She already told me that his happiness is more important than hers. So to speak.”
“Really?”
She nodded in the darkness. “Yeah. I think they’re the sweetest couple. She loves him so much you can hear it in her voice when she talks about him.”
“I think he’s deeply in love with her too,” I said. “Though I’m probably not as in tune to that kind of thing as you ladies are.”
“Trust me—he’s going to say yes.”
“Well, that’s makes me pretty damn happy.” I paused. “But did you get the vibe that she’s going to be miserable?”
“No. I got the vibe that she’ll do whatever she has to do to make her husband happy, within reason.”
“I got the same vibe. He told me there are two players whose wives she’s extremely close to, so I’m going after at least one of them either in the expansion draft or as a trade afterwards.”
“You could also try to get his son,” she said thoughtfully.
“Anton’s young and the Sidewinders drafted him. There are a lot of rules about younger players. I’d have to see what I could possibly offer them that would make them give up a young star like Anton.”
“There are rules, but there are always ways around the rules,” she replied. “And if you want Toli as your head coach, I think you might want to do whatever you can to get him.”
“He and I would have to talk about that because I don’t know how a father-son relationship would work with him as head coach.”
“Something to think about, though.”
“You have quite the head for hockey,” I said. “You want to work in the back office with me?”
“I’d like to be Director of Hockey Operations,” she said without missing a beat. “If you can make that happen, sure.”
“Damn, woman, you drive a hard bargain.”
“Damn straight.”
I leaned over to kiss her bare shoulder. “I like that about you.”
“So was your mom really annoyed you didn’t tell her you were in Vancouver?”
“Probably a little, but not actually mad about it. She knows I’m busy and when she met Toli, she instantly understood that this was an important meeting. She knows I want him as my head coach.”
“Don’t you have to clear it with other people in the organization?” she asked.
“Yes and no. The others—my current Director of Hockey Operations—and the General Manager, already went through two rounds of interviews with him. My two investors aren’t interested in the day-to-day details, so that’s all me. Plus I own fifty-two percent of the team, and they each only own twenty-four. That was done by design so I always have the final say.”
“Do you think bringing one of Tessa’s friends along will sweeten the deal for them?”
“It definitely will, but both of the players Toli mentioned will be tough to get. Probably even harder than picking up Anton. I mean, Zakk Cloutier is at the height of his career. He’s thirty-one now, thirty-two next season, so I’d say he has three or four good years left. And Karl Martensson is the starting goalie for the Sidewinders. He’s thirty-four, so thirty-five next season, which puts him closer to the end of his career. They’d want a fortune for either of those guys, and while Zakk would probably be a great addition no matter how much money we spend, I don’t know that a thirty-five-year-old goalie with only a few years left is the direction we want to go.”
“You bring on someone huge to start, though,” she said. “Name recognition, a strong leader in the locker room, and then have an up-and-coming young backup who’ll hopefully be ready to take over once Karl retires.”
I leaned over and rested my chin on her shoulder. “Miles Hammond, my Director of Hockey Operations, is going to hate you.”
“Why?” she asked, chuckling.
“Because I’m thinking of actually firing him and hiring you in his place.”
“I’m not ready for anything like that.” She turned over so we were facing each other. “But I love hockey and I’ll talk about it all day long, anytime you want.”
“I always want.” I kissed her, my lips touching hers gently. “Except when I want to do this.” I slid my hand along the curve of her hip. “And this.” I nibbled the soft spot behind her ear. “And maybe this.” My hand moved to the apex between her thighs.
“I like those things too.” She sighed against my mouth.
“You wanna go again?”
“You don’t even have to ask.”
“I’ll always ask, but I love knowing the answer will be yes.”