Page 79 of Hitting the Goal Line
My face turns a little red as I follow her and her baby into the steel cart. Me and Elijah have been officially together for threemonths now. We really hit off on our coffee date and we both decided that we wanted to see each other again. I was a little reserved about it at first, but I was able to get over it quickly. From there, we went on date number two, and then two turns into three and four, then a month in, we finally put a label on it.
It’s been an awesome three months, filled with a lot of fun and a whole bunch of smiles. But in those three months, I have yet to introduce Elijah to Blake or his and mine hockey family or even my parents. I’ve introduced him to my friends at the hospital and some of the girls from school, but not the most important people in my life. I’ve told them about him, and most of them have said how I look happy, but that hasn’t been enough for me to bring him around. Don’t get me wrong, I want to introduce them, I just find every excuse in the book not to.
Why?
I have one theory and that theory is Blake.
Every girl should look forward to the day when she introduces her best friend to her boyfriend and see them become just as close. That’s the day that she looks forward to, the day that she hopes for.
But something deep inside of me tells me that that isn’t going to happen.
In all the years since we have discovered dating, I’ve tried to strike up friendships with most of the girls that Blake has dated, in some capacity. Apart from Gwen, who was just a bitch from hell, most of his girlfriends have liked me. I haven’t kept in touch with them since Blake kicked them to the curb, but I was still their friend in some way. Blake on the other hand, has probably liked maybe one guy out of the five or six I’ve dated for longer than a month. According to him, there is always something wrong with them.
And the feeling in my gut tells me that he is going to find something wrong with Elijah. So I’ve been holding off onbringing the two together, and because the Knights and their significant others are an extension of him, I’ve held off on bringing Elijah around them too.
As for my parents, well, that’s normal. I don’t bring anyone around my dad unless we’ve been together for at least a year and or are extremely serious. For the record, that has only happened with Theo and look how that turned out.
Stupid, cheating, ass-face.
Emma coos in her mother’s arms as the elevator doors close, taking me out of my train of thought enough to answer Chloe’s question.
“Maybe,” I say as I watch Chloe take care of her daughter. “He’s here at the game, but he’s sitting down by the ice with his friends.”
“Why didn’t you invite him up to the suite?” Chloe asks, as the elevator arrives at the suite level.
Usually, we sit down in the stands with everyone else, rarely taking advantage of the suite that Liam, her baby daddy slash boyfriend, and Knights starting forward and captain, reserves almost every game. We like being around all the commotion, or we did before Emma was born a few months ago. Chloe brought her to a pre-season game a few weeks ago and it was a little loud for her little ears, even with noise canceling headphones. So we decided it was best to just use the suite and invite a few other of the wives and girlfriends that have little kids.
We also invited Eliana, Christian’s girlfriend, up here with us, but since the girl is the team’s photographer and is working throughout the game, she can’t be up here.
“I don’t know,” I say, giving Chloe a shrug. “This is basically the WAGs’ suite, and given that I’m not even a WAG, it would be awkward being up here with my boyfriend, all the while everyone else is cheering on their men.”
“I guess,” Chloe says, giving me a smile while she shakes her head. “So, if you didn’t invite him up here, why aren’t you sitting down there with him and his friends?”
I don’t have an answer to that.
“Because I’m helping you with Emma,” I answer, because apparently I can’t come up with any other excuse as to why I’m not watching this game with my boyfriend.
Why aren’t I watching this game with my boyfriend?
“You mean the four-month-old baby that is about twenty second away from falling asleep?” she says, giving me a pointed look as she rocks her baby back and forth.
I look down at the baby in her arms and sure enough the Crawford-onesie-dawning child’s eyes are closed and cuddling deeper into mom’s arms.
“I’m also up here to keep you company,” I throw out, because I really have no reason to be up here.
“There will be plenty of kids and other wives and girlfriends up here that will keep me company. Go down there and watch the game with your man,” Chloe urges, nodding back toward the elevators.
There is no reason for me to hesitate with her command, so why am I?
There is nothing in the world that should be stopping me from going down to the stands and watching a hockey game with my boyfriend.
But what if Blake sees us?
And what if he does? I have to pull the Band-Aid off and introduce them eventually. Beside, he’s going to be too distracted by playing in the actual game to even look up at the stands.
With a smile in Chloe’s direction, I pull out my phone and shoot a quick text to Elijah, asking to see if they still have an extra ticket.
We had talked about attending the game together, he even bought the seat next to him, but in the end, I decided to come up to the suite.
