Page 97 of A Scoring Chance
Ramona
“What the hell is taking them so long?” Alise grumbles, pacing back and forth in front of the door leading to the locker rooms. “I don’t know why they wouldn’t just let us go back there to see them.”
“Because we don’t have the nifty get-into-the-locker-room badge like after the exhibition game,” Darius says, pulling a chair from the little grouping of tables to my right, and taking a seat. “I just want to see how many players I can get to sign my gear tonight.”
“Hate to break it to you, but I doubt anyone besides Beau and Cooper will be coming out this way. Most players head out the back entrance to hide from the media. Not that there is anyone here today.” Alise ruffles his curls before resuming her pacing.
Both of us have been amped since the fight that broke out on the ice near the end of practice. Everything was going well. We made sure not to disturb practice, although I blew a few kisses to Cooper when no one was looking. But once the guys started their scrimmage, it seemed like things went off the rails. After that guy scored, he must have said something to Beau because he just lost it. Whoever he was didn’t even stand a chance. He got off maybe one swing before Beau was on him again. I don’t evenwant to imagine what he’d have done if Cooper and the rest of the team hadn’t pulled them apart. After that, Beau, Cooper, and the injured player skated off the ice and never came back.
“He better hurry the fuck up, or badge or not, I’m going back there,” Alise growls, storming toward the door, ready to give the security guard what for when Beau appears.
“Stop giving the poor man a hard time. He’s just doing his job. Besides, here comes Beau now.”
“Thank fuck.” She throws her hands up in the air before spinning on her heels and storming toward Darius.
“I thought you wanted to see him,” Darius asks as she quickly shushes him, pulling out her phone and pretending like she isn’t paying attention to everything going on around her.
Beau waves goodbye to the security guard before pushing through the doors. His head is down with the hood of his sweatshirt pulled over his head. “Hey, Ramona,” he says, coming to a stop right in front of me.
“Hey, Beau.” I smile up at him, tilting my head back to look into his eyes. I scan his face, searching for any sign that the guy may have gotten a few licks in, but find nothing. “Is practice normally this interesting?”
Beau chuckles humorously, pushing his hood down. His dirty blonde curls are pointing in a million different directions. “Yeah, not so much.” He runs his hands through his hair, his eyes flicking to Alise sitting at the table with Darius before coming back to mine. “I’m sorry you had to see that. I usually can keep my cool better than that, but someone needed to teach him a lesson he wouldn’t forget.”
“I have no doubt he deserved whatever happened to him. You don’t look like the type of man that would throw a punch for no good reason.”
“Maybe you could explain that to my dear older brother.”
“Hmm, guess Cooper didn’t see it the same way?”
“You could say that,” he says, his eyes flicking toward Alise a second time.
“In case you were wondering, she was just as worried about you as I was. She’s been pacing back and forth, threatening to beat the security guard's head in if you didn’t appear soon.”
Beau doesn’t say anything for a few moments, his eyes remaining locked on Alise as she continues pretending he doesn’t exist. Suddenly, he grabs his hood and pulls it back onto his head. “Can you tell Cooper I went to get a drink with Cole? I’ll meet you guys at the restaurant.”
“Cole is your younger brother, right? Why isn’t he coming to dinner with us? I'd love to meet him.”
I’m probably pushing my luck, but I can’t help wanting to know more about Cole Hendrix and why he and Cooper have been at odds for so many years. I’m too afraid to ask Cooper, not wanting to bring up bad memories he isn’t ready to share with me. But maybe Beau will at least give me a hint about what happened.
“You’ll have to ask Cooper about that, but he’s only in town for a few more hours. He wouldn’t be able to make our reservation anyway. We’re actually meeting at a place near the airport before he heads back to Boise.”
He moves to walk past me, but I reach out to grab his arm. “Wait a second.” I turn and motion for Darius to come over. He quickly grabs the bag off the table and comes running toward us, stopping just short of running smack into Beau’s chest.
“Slow down there, Big D. I don’t want to be blamed for you being hurt and not being able to play in the game on Saturday.”
“Sorry, Uncle Beau.” He smiles up at him before wrapping his arms tightly around his waist. “Happy birthday.”
My hands immediately come to my mouth to hold in my gasp. My eyes shift between the two of them, waiting to see how Beau is going to react to his new name. Darius never mentionedanything about wanting to call him Uncle Beau, but it seems the next logical step. Everyone in the Hendrix family is uncle or auntie, although Ms. Melanie has been trying to get him to call her grandma since he got hurt back in October, but he’s yet to budge. I have a feeling she’s wearing him down; he’ll be calling her that soon.
Beau freezes for a moment before he wraps his arm around Darius's shoulders. “Thanks, Big D. I really appreciate it, although my birthday isn’t until Saturday.”
“I can’t come to the game on Saturday, so I wanted to make sure I said it today. Mona said I could text you and say it, but that doesn’t seem fair. I love hearing people tell me happy birthday. That’s way better than reading it in a text message.”
“You have a point there.” Beau chuckles, ruffling Darius’s curls.
Darius unwraps his arms from around Beau before shoving the small gift bag toward him. We racked our brains for weeks, trying to come up with an idea for a birthday present for Beau and a Christmas present for Cooper. We spent the holiday with our respective families, so I had a few extra days to work with Darius and find the perfect present. Cooper whined, yes whined, the entire time about wanting to wake up with me on Christmas morning, but I didn’t give in. We had already planned to spend a few days in Portland to celebrate Beau’s birthday and come check out the practice. The much-needed alone time with Cooper is a bonus.
“Ramona and I spent almost two weeks trying to pick this gift out. I don’t know if you have one yet, but the magazine said every respectable cigar owner had one.”
