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KRAV MAGA CLASSES WEREno joke. Neither was my determination to learn how to protect myself. Seeing Guy’s car in the Shari’s parking lot had left me more shaken than I’d ever been in my life. By the time the cops had arrived at the diner, he and his car had been gone.
They told us they were going to stop by wherever he was staying today and give him another warning, but so far he hadn’t done anything to warrant his arrest. Right now, I wasn’t sure I wanted him arrested. Deported back to Canada would be much better. Nothing short of at least having him in jail would help me feel safe again, though, and it didn’t matter how many people I had surrounding me or how many weapons I had with me. I wanted Guy out of my life, once and for all.
Aside from all that, even if I wasn’t fond of Cam and Hammer’s tactics the other morning, they’d proven one thing—something I’d already realized but maybe hadn’t been ready to admit to myself. If Guy decided to physically attack me in some way, I was going to have to fight tooth and nail to escape. He could easily overpower me. Nearly any man in the world could, for that matter. Which meant I needed to learn ways to fight back that he wouldn’t expect.
So, even though I was spending hours every day on the ice with Anthony and working out in the gym like I always did, then spending several more hours teaching Sophie and the handful of other figure skating students I’d picked up along the way, I was giving it everything I had in Krav Maga.
Especially now, while the Storm was out on the road. I didn’t have my brother and Levi here as distractions, so I was able to fully devote myself to my training.
Not that I was doing it alone. Anthony and Jesse came with me sometimes, taking the classes alongside me. One night, Sophie’s mom, Paige Bergstrom, suggested that she and her daughters should all join me. That had been quite the adventure, but Sophie had proven to all of us exactly how strong she was. She actually took me down a couple of times, and not because I was going easy on her. Katie had tagged along a couple of times, dragging her mother with her. Some of the other players’ wives and girlfriends were starting to pop in on the classes, all saying it was a good idea for each of us to understand how to protect ourselves in case anything were to happen since the guys were on the road so much. Sara had even left the kids with one of the other guys’ wives on a few occasions to come with me, not that I understood why any of them would agree to keep an eye on Connor. None of them were related to the tiny terrorist.
By the time I got home at the end of each night, all I wanted to do was soak in a hot bath and melt into bed, but my nephew typically had other plans. He liked to jump on me, especially since Levi wasn’t around to be used as a jungle gym.
That was how Jesse and Anthony discovered me when they came over for wedding planning one night after the team had been gone for almost a week. But at least I hadn’t seen any signs of Guy stalking me in that time. Maybe the additional warning from the cops had been enough.
“All right,” I said as Connor dug his toes into my ribs and flung himself across my shoulders. “Venue for both the service and the reception are taken care of. Officiant has been arranged. What’s next on the agenda?” I did my best to hold on to my pen and note pad, despite Connor’s efforts to get all my attention on him.
Three voices answered at once, each with a different response.
“Flowers and photographer,” Sara said.
“Wardrobe,” Anthony insisted.
“Cake,” Jesse said with way too much enthusiasm.
“Flowers and photographer are two separate items,” I replied.
“Not necessarily.” Sara tossed a platter of fruits, veggies, meats, and cheeses on the coffee table between us. “Mia Quincey offered to shoot the wedding for you at a very fair price. And she’s got a friend she works with sometimes who’s a florist. They’ll give you a package deal. She gave me a quote, based on everything you’ve already decided.” She dug a couple of flyers and a price list out of her purse and passed it over to the guys.
“Not bad,” Anthony said a moment later.
“Not bad at all,” Jesse put in. “In fact, it’s good enough that we can splurge a bit on the cake.”
I held up a hand. “Hold on. One thing at a time. Are you two happy with using Mia and her friend for photography and flowers? Or at least happy enough to set up a meeting to talk with them?” There were only a couple of weeks left before their date, so we didn’t have any time to waste on jumping from one thing to the next without settling on anything.
They looked at each other for a moment, then turned back to me and nodded. “Yes,” they said simultaneously.
“Done.” I marked a few things down on my note pad before looking up at Jesse again. “The cake? What are you thinking? Did you go sample—”
“I didn’t. Because I have a better idea.”
“This sounds like trouble,” Sara said.
“This sounds expensive,” Anthony corrected her.
I waved a hand at the two of them to be quiet. “Go on,” I said to Jesse. “What’s your idea?”
“Well, you two remember the chocolatier from ChocolateFest, the one who made the chocolate-covered bacon?” He ignored his fiancé’s groan and kept going. “I grabbed her business card while we were there, and I gave her a call. She said she can make chocolate-covered-bacon roses to use as decorations on an ice cream cake. All of our favorite things! All together!”
“I’m not quite sure chocolate, bacon, and ice cream were meant to go together,” Anthony said warily.
“Honey.” The single word came out as a whine. “Please. Do it for me.”
“What’s she going to charge?” Sara asked, bringing us back to the details.
“I’m glad you asked,” Jesse said, whipping out a scribbled note on a used napkin covered with coffee stains. He passed it over to Anthony, who made some faces. After some hemming and hawing, he gave in so we could move on to the next item on the agenda.
Half an hour later, all the details for the wedding had been settled upon. Everyone knew who was responsible for arranging which services. Sara excused herself to take the kids up to bed, thankfully relieving me of my small-but-deadly-to-my-kidneys burden.
