“Not long.” He knew Virgil, and the old man hadn’t called him across the sound just to hear some juicy details. “Get to the point.”
“You’ve played some damn good hockey for me, and I’ve never cared where you put your dick. But when you fucked Georgeanne, you fucked me over.”
John stood and seriously considered jumping across the desk and pounding the crap out of Virgil. If Virgil hadn’t been so much older, he might have. Georgeanne was the most seductive and hottest woman he’d ever been with, but she wasn’t just a fuck. She was more than that to him, and she didn’t deserve to be talked about as if she were trash. With an effort, he held on to his anger. “You still haven’t gotten to the point.”
“You can have your career with the Chinooks, or you can have Georgeanne. You can’t have both.”
John lik
ed being threatened less than he liked people digging into his personal business. “Are you threatening me with a trade?”
Virgil was deadly serious when he said, “Only if you force me to.”
John considered telling Virgil to shove it up his wrinkled old ass. Five months ago he might have. Even though John loved playing for the Chinooks and couldn’t see himself stepping into the captaincy for another organization, he didn’t respond well to threats. But he had too much to lose now. He’d just discovered that he had a child, and he’d just been granted joint custody. “We have a daughter together, so maybe you should tell me what you mean by ‘have.’”
“See your kid all you want,” Virgil began. “But don’t touch her mother. Don’t date her. Don’t marry her, or you and I are going to have trouble.”
If Virgil had made the threat a year, or even a few months, ago, John probably would have walked out and forced a trade. But how could he be a father to Lexie if he had to move to Detroit or New York or even Los Angeles? How could he watch Lexie grow if he wasn’t living in the same state? “Hell, Virgil,” he said as he watched the older man stand, “I don’t know who dislikes the other more, Georgeanne or me. If you’d asked me last week, you could have saved yourself some trouble, and saved me the trouble of driving over here. I want Georgeanne like I want a berry ringer, and she wants me even less.”
Virgil’s fatigue-rimmed eyes called John a liar. “Just remember what I said.”
“I’m not likely to forget.” John looked at the older man one last time, then turned and left the room. He walked from the house with Virgil’s ultimatum echoing in his ears. You can have your career with the Chinooks, or you can have Georgeanne. You can’t have both.
He waited for the ferry for fifteen minutes, and by the time he reached his houseboat, the absurdity of Virgil’s threat forced a strained chuckle from him. He supposed the older man thought he’d found the perfect revenge. And it might have been a good one, too, but John and Georgeanne couldn’t stand to be in the same room together. Forcing them together would have been a more fitting punishment.
Buzzers and bells, squealing tires, and breaking glass filled John’s ears as he watched Lexie crash into trees, run up on sidewalks, and flatten pedestrians.
“I’m gettin‘ pretty good,” she yelled above the chaotic atmosphere of the arcade.
He stared at the screen in front of Lexie and felt a dull ache start at his temples. “Watch out for the old lady,” he warned her too late. Lexie mowed down the senior citizen and sent her aluminum walker flying.
John didn’t particularly like video games or arcades. He didn’t like shopping malls, preferring to order what he needed by mail, and he didn’t really care for animated films either.
The video game ended, and John turned his wrist and looked at his watch. “It’s about time to go.”
“Did I win, John?” Lexie asked as she pointed to her score on the big screen. She wore the silver filigree ring he’d bought her from a jewelry vendor at Pike Place Market on her middle finger, and on the seat next to her sat the little hand-blown glass cat he’d purchased at another stall. The back of his Range Rover was loaded with toys, and he was just killing time before he and Lexie headed up the street to the movie theater so she could see The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
He was trying to buy his daughter’s love. He was unrepentant. He didn’t care. He would buy her anything, spend his time in dozens of loud arcades, or sit through hours of Disney if he could hear his child call him “Daddy” just once. “You almost won,” he lied, and reached for her hand. “Get your cat,” he said, then the two of them wove their way out of the arcade. He’d do just about anything to have the old Lexie back.
When he’d picked her up at home earlier that afternoon, she’d met him at the door without a trace of eye shadow or rouge. It was Saturday, and even though he preferred to see her sans hooker makeup, he was so desperate to see the girl he’d met in June that he’d suggested she wear a little light lip gloss. She’d declined with a shake of her head.
He might have tried to talked to Georgeanne again about Lexie’s unusual behavior, but she hadn’t been home when he’d picked her up. According to the teenage sitter who wore a ring through her right nostril, Georgeanne was working but was due home before he returned with Lexie.
Maybe he’d talk to Georgeanne later, he thought as he and Lexie headed toward the movie theater. Maybe they could both behave like reasonable adults and resolve what was best for their daughter. Yeah, maybe. But there was just something about Georgeanne that tweaked his nerves and made him want to provoke her.
“Look!” Lexie came to an abrupt stop and stared into a shopfront window. Behind the glass, several striped kittens rolled in a furry ball and chased each other up a carpeted scratching post. About six baby cats were kept in a large wire pen, and as she watched in awed wonder, John was treated to a glimpse of the little girl who’d stolen his heart in Marymoor Park.
“Do you want to go inside and take a quick look?” he asked her.
She glanced up at him as if he’d just suggested a felony. “My mommy says that I…” She paused and a slow smile lifted her lips. “Okay. I’ll go inside with you.”
John opened the door to Patty’s Pets and let his daughter into the store. The shop was empty except for a saleswoman who stood behind the counter writing something in a notebook.
Lexie handed him the glass cat he’d bought for her, then she walked to the pen and reached over the top. She stuck her hand inside and wiggled her fingers. Immediately, a yellow tabby pounced and wrapped its furry little body around her wrist. She giggled and lifted the kitten to her chest.
John shoved the glass figurine into the breast pocket of his blue and green polo shirt then knelt down beside Lexie. He scratched the kitten between the ears, and his knuckles brushed his daughter’s chin. He didn’t know which felt softer.
Lexie looked at him, so excited she could hardly hold it all in. “I like her, John.”