thirteen

It was a long, quiet night at Erin’s house.  Jordan brought them back from the drive-in reasonably clothed, and they went to bed.  She fell asleep almost instantly, wrapped around him from behind with her nose touching the back of his neck.  Jordan lay awake for a while, glad he’d let her see how much the prospect of leaving hurt.  He felt better knowing that he wasn’t the only one.

In the morning, Erin woke first.  Having Jordan so close now seemed too good to be true, and she couldn’t help herself.  With a smile that no one could see, she got Jordan up at the same time she woke him up.

“Thought I was still dreaming,” he blushed when he realized that her hands on his body were quite real.  Soon enough he was returning the favor.  Fumbling out of what little clothing they’d worn to bed, Joran pressed her thighs apart with his own.  She sighed as he moved inside, as if she’d been waiting all night for the chance to have him again.  Jordan never took his eyes off her, not until she sighed again when they rolled onto their sides, finished and overheated.

He brushed his hand into her hair and kissed her temple.  “You’re quite the alarm clock.”

“Just starting today off the way I hope to finish it,” she smiled.  “With you.”
____

Erin spent the day running errands and preparing for the party, all with a little gray rain cloud over her head.  At work that evening, she wished it were not a Tuesday so her section would be crowded and distract her from the fact she had not yet heard from Jordan.  It was nearly  eight o’clock when she broke down and called him.

“Nothing yet.  The union didn’t like the League’s offer, so they counter-offered.  Looks like the meetings are going into tomorrow,” Jordan said.  Erin groaned at the thought of waiting another day.  She wanted the Band-Air ripped off quickly, even if it meant she bled out from the wound.

“Sorry,” he mumbled.  “I don’t want this to ruin the party tomorrow.”

“Hey,” she forced herself to say, “at least you get to be here for the party.”

“I can also be at your house when you get home.”

Erin giggled.  “Okay, but bring Ryan.  We’ll watch a movie or something.  He shouldn’t be alone tonight.”

Two hours later she walked up to her front door.  Jordan and Ryan were sitting on the stoop.  “Somewhere in Canada, there’s a teenage girl whose wildest dream is to find you two waiting on her doorstep.”

Ryan kept a totally straight face.  “Call her up.  I’ll buy her plane ticket.”

“Ohhh,” Erin laughed.  Ryan was still feeling burned by Darcy.  She passed the keys, then slipped an arm around Ryan’s waist and leaned into him while Jordan opened the door.  

Upstairs, the boys planted themselves in the living room.  Erin changed into yoga pants and a long-sleeve t-shirt, then dragged a Party City bag into the middle of the floor.  As they watched Casino Royale on DVD, they assembled Halloween decorations for the party - little dangling spiders and three-dimensional skulls.  Ryan stood on a chair to hang cobwebs from the corners of the ceiling while Erin arranged tea light candles in jars with jack-o-lantern faces.

It was nearly one in the morning when the movie ended.  Ryan had tucked his long legs up and fallen asleep curled onto his side in the recliner.  Erin insisted he stay, and set the couch up with sheets and blankets.  He fell into them like a zombie.  Jordan brushed his teeth and came out to find Erin sitting on the arm of the sofa, looking down at Ryan and talking.  She was running her fingers through the front of his stick-straight hair, a gesture Jordan knew was very soothing.

Erin glanced up, taking in Jordan’s t-shirt and boxers.  “Now this is really that Canadian girl’s fantasy.”

In her room, she climbed into bed with her clothes on.  Jordan agreed without a word that there would be nothing physical tonight, not with Ryan nearby.  Provided they could make it through all those hours next to each other in the dark without their bodies taking over.  She curled in next to him as he lay down on his back.

“Ryan okay?” Jordan asked.  He knew there were things Ryan could tell a girl more easily than a teammate.  Erin was safe territory - he trusted her, and she was already taken.

“Yeah,” she cheated a hand under his t-shirt, rested it flat on his chest.  “He’s worried about you.”

Jordan kissed Erin’s forehead.  “He should be.”
____

The next day, Jordan and Ryan were almost dressed after practice.  They shoved things into their bags in the locker room, slipped on sneakers and hoodies, ready to head out.  Around them guys were bantering about the Halloween party.  “Your girl got a lot of hot friends?” Schultzy asked.  He was a good-looking kid who’d be breaking into the Oilers blue line before long.

“What about that blond we saw Nuge with at the last game? That looked awkward enough to be awesome,” Cameron Abney said.  At six-foot-five, two hundred pounds, he seemed twice Ryan’s size.

“I hear she bites,” Alex Plante chimed in from the far corner and Ryan’s face went white as a sheet.  Jordan threw a wadded up dirty sock at the defenseman.

“There will be plenty of girls there,“Some of them might even be desperate enough to go for you, bro.”  Jordan turned to Ryan.  “Let’s go see Erin and eat, she might need us to get stuff.”

“Tell her we’re coming and she better be ready!” Schultz hollered.

They were buckling into their seat belts when Jordan’s phone rang. Before it could sound again, Ryan’s phone rang too.  The familiar panic-stricken look passed between them.  They each picked up the calls and had identical, simultaneous conversations.

“Hello?  Hey.  Yeah.  Oh... okay.  Okay.  Wow, nothing?  When are they meeting again?  Oh.  Yeah, we’re okay.  Ummm, yeah.  Call you later.”  They both hung up.

“So that’s it,” Ryan said.  “We’re staying.”

“Did he say anything about the next meeting?”

“Nope.  Nothing scheduled.  Said it did not end well and everyone needs to cool off,” Ryan elaborated.  Jordan had been told the same.  A big collection of players were in NYC for the meetings, and they would be doing a press conference in two hours.  Airing the frustrations would probably make things worse between the two sides.

Ryan let his head fall back against the seat.  “I’m happy for you,” he said.  “I know you don’t want to go.”

Jordan chewed his lip.  He felt like he’d just been pardoned the night before his execution... which made no sense, seeing as life with the Oilers was the best life he’d ever known.  The hockey, the friends, the money, it was everything he’d worked so hard for.  Right now it felt like every single one of it’s actual 1,774 miles away.  While they were sitting there, Taylor called.

“You heard?”

“Yup.”

“Guess what else?  Wait, I’ll tell you when I see you.  Where are you?”

“Meet us at Wild Wings,” Jordan said.  “And Taylor?  Let me tell her.”
____

Erin was polishing pint glasses in the dish room when her co-worker Samantha shouted from the other side of the kitchen.  “Erin!  Jailbait’s at thirty-four!”

She almost dropped the Sam Adams glass she was holding.  It teetered back and forth on the counter for a moment, hastily chucked aside, but Erin had already run from the room.  She burst into the dining room in a way that would have alarmed people if the restaurant had been busier.  Sure enough, in the middle of her section, Jordan, Ryan and Taylor were sitting on high chairs at a tall bar table.  Her excitement was not so overwhelming that she missed how great looking, how healthy and attractive they all really were.

Damn you, Edmonton.

“Hey,” she said it like a demand as she skidded to a stop in front of their table.

Jordan looked her in the eye... and smiled  “It got voted down.”

Erin was so relieved she fell into the last open chair.  She put her head right down on the table, hair covering her face, and squeezed her fingers around the edges of the stool as hard as she could.  It was the best defense against screaming - or tackling Jordan in front of the lunch rush.  She took a few deep breaths before she was able to lift her head.  Somewhere between face-to-table and light-of-day, she decided she didn’t care about the rules today.  She dropped to her feet, grabbed Ryan and kissed him on the cheek.  Then she did the same for Taylor, before ending up behind Jordan’s chair.  She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him quickly on the neck.  Then she hung there like a sack of bricks, feeling unsteady on her feet.  “I’m sorry guys, I know you wanted to play.”

Ryan shrugged.  “It’s okay.  At least we are playing, and in the States and together.  It’s not bad.”

“Speaking of playing,” Taylor said, “when the deal fell through, the union reversed my contract freeze.  I can play here, as soon as I’m off injured reserve.”

Jordan’s mouth fell wide open in surprise.  He’d completely forgotten Taylor had news, he’d never thought it could be that good.  Ryan whooped so loudly the entire dining room turned in time to see Erin give Taylor another big kiss on the cheek.

“When’s that?  When will you be cleared?” Erin asked all at once.

“Got that today too.  I’m in for the game this weekend!”  Taylor said with a flourish of his medically approved shoulder.  He smacked Jordan on the back.  “Not so bad now, eh?”

They were the only NHL players celebrating over lunch that day.

When Erin cleared their dirty plates, she leaned close to Jordan and stage-whispered, “Meet me by the bathroom.”

“He gets that all the time, you know.  In Canada,” Taylor said.

Erin gave him a deadpan look.  “Where?”
____

She put the tray down on the counter and unloaded the dishes with shaking hands.  Jordan wasn’t leaving.  At least not right now.  And even better, he had things other than her to be happy about.  She was no longer the sole reason that he wanted something he shouldn’t, that he was hoping against his own self-interest.  Erin knew she could never keep him, but at that moment it felt like some of the pressure had disappeared off her back.  She piled plates quickly, ran her hands under the tap and hurried toward the bathroom.

The restaurant had a long hallway with doors: restrooms, storage, maintenance.  There was an alcove left over from the days of payphones, but now it stood empty except for a photo of an Oklahoma State football player celebrating a touchdown.  That was exactly how Erin felt.  Jordan was already there when she turned the corner, sprinted the last twenty feet and threw herself on him.

“Oh my God,” kiss, “I can’t believe it,” kiss.  “I feel terrible for,” kiss, “wanting it to get turned down.”

Jordan held on as best he could and kissed her back.  “Me too.  But I thought I was going to scream when my agent told me, just say YES! and start honking the car and then I’d have to tell him all about you and he’d kill me.”

“Why would he kill you?”

“He doesn’t make any money if I don’t, Er.  I’m sure ten percent of what I make here is not paying his mortgage.  But I don’t care.  I’ll make it up to him when I’m on my new contract.”  He squeezed her tight.  “We’re going to get an apartment.  Fuck the hotel, we all hate it there.”

“I have good news too,” she said.  “I have a job interview Friday.  I heard yesterday, but I didn’t want to tell you before.”

“That’s great, babe.  So great.  Whew,” Jordan felt a little weak from all the conflicting emotions.  Everything had gone from bad to worse in the real world, and good to great in his little fake life here.  “We’re going to have a hell of a party tonight.”

She gave him the single most dazzling, dimples-and-all smile ever.  “Wait until you see my costume.”
____

Erin heard the doorbell ring and new feet tromping up the stairs.  It was quarter past eight and a handful of people had already arrived for the party.  She put down her drink and went to the top of the stairs.  “Shit,” Schultz said looking up at her.  “You sure you wanna be with Eberle?  He’s kinda cross-eyed already, wait till he sees that outfit.”  

Erin laughed as he reached the top landing and kissed her cheek.  He was dressed as a gladiator, complete with no shirt under his breastplate and a leather-looking kilt.  “Careful in there, the lions will tear you apart.”

“Counting on it,” he said over his shoulder, headed for the kitchen.  Two of the other players were with him, one dressed as a police officer and the other as Iron Man.  Erin followed them into the party and watched every female head turn like it was on a swivel.

“Well done,” Samantha said.

“Is nothing sacred, Sam?  Slutty Nemo?” Erin could not get over the tight, short dress with big orange and white stripes around the body, trimmed with black lace, running out well shy of white stockings and black heels.  The girls were discussing which Disney prince was hottest when the door opened again.  

“We’re here!” Taylor bellowed.  He rounded the corner and half the girls in the room collapsed to the floor.  With his big, broad body stuffed into an olive green jumpsuit, aviator shades on and his hair gelled up, he looked every inch the Top Gun.  He’d even gotten the character right - the military-style name patch on his lapel said ICEMAN.

“Move it, stud,” Amanda pushed him from behind.  Her own Top Gun outfit was definitely designed by a man - short A-line dress in the same green, with the top three buttons open and her boobs pushed up into the crease. She also had aviator shades on, plus knee-high black lace up boots with a stiletto heel.

Erin moved toward them at the same moment Ryan came out of her room where he’d been changing.  Taylors sudden laugh sounded like a bark.  “Oh my God, that’s fucking weird!”

“What is?” Jordan stepped through the door and Erin grabbed Samantha’s wrist so hard the girl yelped.  He was dressed like a 40’s gangster - but it wasn’t a Halloween costume.  It was a real suit, an expensive one, and Erin would have bet the farm it had been tailored to fit him.  Either that or she had been very, very good in a past life.

A pinstripe suit vest was buttoned over a crisp white dress shirt, sleeves carefully folded back and a black watch accentuating his thick, muscular forearms.  The narrow red tie had a perfect knot - he’d clearly gotten help from Taylor on that.   Trousers that could make a girl cry hugged his ass and thighs, just brushing the tops of polished black wingtip shoes.  A black fedora with a white band sat perfectly askew atop his head and he dangled the matching suit coat on one finger over his shoulder.

He saw Ryan and burst out laughing.  Only Erin could have come up with such a costume.  Ryan wore jeans and a Barons jersey - with EBERLE 7 on the back.  Thick fake eyebrows were stuck over his real ones.  Then he smiled - the inside half of each of his front teeth had been blackened, to look like Jordan’s trademark gap.  Taylor was circling him in awe.

“That’s awesome.  Need about forty pounds of junk in your trunk, Nuge, but that’s killer.”

“It was Erin’s idea,” Ryan said.  They all turned toward her at once.  Jordan’s coat slipped right off his finger and fell silently to the floor.

She tried not to blush while he examined her - and Taylor did too - because she’d asked for it by wearing a slutty version of a Mountie costume.  In tiny black shorts, black-thigh high stockings with red trim and black heels, she was easily Jordan’s height.  Her tight red blouse was made of some slinky Halloween material and unbuttoned one too many spots.  The pocket and arm each had a little Maple Leaf flag sewn on.  A gold braided rope crossed from under her collar to under her opposite arm, and she wore a tan hat with a white band and a flat, circular brim.

Jordan blinked twice.  This was possibly better than he dream he’d been having when he woke up to find her hands really down his pants.  She was all leg, right up to her neck, except for the perfectly round interruptions of her ass and breasts.  And that smile.

“Jesus you look incredible,” he found his voice, shook his head and walked right up to stake his claim.  Erin giggled, taking off his hat so she could kiss him with hers still on.  “What are you... how am I going...,” he gave up.  “Arrest me.”

She arched one eyebrow at him.  “You’ll have to do something bad.”

“I’m a gangster, isn’t that like probable cause?”

“It would be, but there’s only room to hide one gun in those pants.”

“Break it up, break it up.  We need a toast,” Taylor said, barging in between them with two beers.  Ryan and Amanda were behind him.  “To me finally being able to play.”

“To me finally being able to watch a whole game without Taylor complaining!” Amanda shouted.  

“To the lockout not being over yet,” Ryan said.

Jordan frowned like Ryan stole his line, and instead said, “To someone getting drunk and making out with Ryan.”

Erin lifted her glass.  “To me getting drunk and forgetting it’s really Ryan in Jordan’s jersey.”

They all cheered to drown out the sound of Jordan booing.  Clinking their bottles together drew other people to them, and the party was in full swing in no time.  At eight forty, just when Erin was starting to wonder where Darcy was, the sound of a fire truck siren approached the house.  It slowed very loudly right outside.  People moved to the windows.

“Of course she did,” Amanda said.

Outside, Darcy climbed down from the cab of the truck, dressed as a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader.  She called something and waved, the guys in the fire truck waved back.  They honked, sirens still wailing, as they drove away.  The entire party waited until Darcy walked into the room.

“Hi y’all!” she said, waving a silver pom pom.  The kit that had made the Cowboys cheerleaders legendary looked like it belonged on Darcy for a living: little white shorts, white cowboy boots, a blue midriff top tied beneath her boobs with a short white star-spangled vest over top.  Her brown hair was rolled and teased into total bombshell mode.  Someone whistled.  Ryan blushed so hard his fake eyebrows almost fell off.  

“I was stopping at the store, and those nice firemen offered me a ride,” she explained like the picture of innocence.

“So where’s your car?” Taylor asked.

“At the store,” Darcy shrugged.  “They said they’d pick me up, if I need a ride.”

“I’ll give you a ride,” Schultz appeared with a beer so fresh it was dripping condensation on the floor.  He looked like he wanted to rub the cold surface all over her exposed skin.  Darcy headed for the kitchen, more than one Baron close behind.  Taylor turned back toward Ryan.

“Dude, I hope she gets really drunk.”
____

“Too much?”  Darcy’s voice came from behind Erin as she was mixing a cocktail at the makeshift bar.  The party had been going for a few hours and it seemed like everyone she knew from work, plus a lot of their school friends had come.  Having a lot of big hockey players around certainly filled the place up, literally and figuratively.

“You look incredible.  I kinda want to get with you,” Erin said.

From somewhere near the fridge, Jordan yelled, “I heard that!”

“Me too!” Taylor shouted.

“Well I need to drink more, because I still feel self-conscious.  And...,” she lowered her voice so only Erin could hear, “Ryan looks really cute in that costume.  I mean, not that I think Jordan isn’t... well he is, but, you know.  Ryan’s like, extra adorkable now.  And I’m naked.”  She reached over Erin’s shoulder, poured a shot of tequila and tossed it back.  Just like that.  

When she was gone, Jordan took her place at Erin’s side.  “You know, you get could drunk and riled up tonight.”

Erin batted her lashes at him.  “Any more riled up and we’ll make more noise than that fire truck.”

Sure enough, guys and girls were making the kind of connection that only skimpy outfits and alcohol can produce.  Couples were dancing in the middle of the living room floor, and others were paired off on couches talking closely.  Only one makeout was in full session - Iron Man had lost his mask over Alice in Wonderland.   Groups of people talked and laughed, shouting at the beer pong game that was getting heated.  Near the window, two girls from Erin’s graduation class were talking animatedly to Ryan.  Taylor and Amanda were standing nearby, watching.

“What are you doing?” Erin asked.

“Trying to see which one takes Ryan down,” Amanda whispered. “Carrie’s drunker, and she keeps rubbing his arm.  Jessica though - remember in school, she got busted for having sex on the football team bus?  She’s much sluttier, so I think she’ll win.”

“I’m for the drunk one.  Ryan’s gonna be too nervous for any hard core stuff,” Taylor added like he was a scientist observing an experiment.

“You guys!  You’re supposed to save him!”  Erin marched right over to Justin Schultz.  She pointed at Jessica, said one sentence about the football bus, and Schultz was on his way.  He draped his arms around both girls and totally interrupted the conversation.  Erin pretended to need Ryan in the kitchen,  where she grabbed his beer and sniffed the top.

“What?” he said, a little drunkenly.
“Making sure they didn’t roofie you, Ry.  I don’t want you getting date raped at my party.”

He laughed sourly.  “I don’t have a date, remember?”

“And you don’t have any STDs either, so consider yourself lucky.  Come on,” she steered him toward better people, “I wore this outfit so you would check me out all night.”

By one in the morning, people were starting to leave.  Not all of them with the people who brought them.  Erin, who’d had a few drinks herself, made sure everyone called cabs or had sober drivers.  Some people were still dancing, a few were making out, mostly they were sitting and talking loudly, laughing a lot.  Jordan was sitting with a couple of the Barons, no Taylor in site, talking hockey.  Erin smiled to see him looking so at-ease with his new teammates, now that he knew he’d be here awhile longer.  Amanda and Taylor were cozied up on the recliner, her legs across his lap, flipping through the playlist on her iPhone.

“I take back what I said about jailbait,” Samantha said, leaning against the wall next to Erin.  Her Nemo costume was as slutty as ever.  “Excellent selection of guys at this party, I am impressed.  And the little one is really cute.”

“Who, Ryan?”

“Yeah, with the eyebrows.  Thought he might be single there for a minute, but hey,” she grabbed the bowl of pretzels off the nearby bookshelf, “guess I’ll just keep swimming.”

Erin spun around.  The kitchen was empty.  The bathroom door was open - no one hiding inside.  Her room was locked.  From the groups and few tangled bodies in the living room - no Ryan.  Only one place left.  She hurried through the kitchen to the window that escaped onto the roof of the laundromat.  It extended another fifteen feet behind them, forming a sort of deck that Erin used as a patio in the summer.  Now the window was closed - but not locked.

Standing right in the middle of the roof, hands all over each other, were one Barons jersey and one Dallas Cowboys cheerleader.  Darcy’s pompoms were a sparkly silver pile at her feet, her hands full of whatever was under the back of Ryan’s sweater.  His hands were on the bare skin of her waist, still a few chaste inches above her very tiny shorts.  They were kissing like they meant it.

Erin ran back the other way, grabbed Jordan from mid-conversation and hauled him to the window.  His eyes got wide, then he just laughed.  Next thing he was throwing open the window.  “Hey, get a room!”

They didn’t even stop.  Ryan just lifted one hand and gave Jordan the finger.  Then he put that hand back down on Darcy’s ass.
____