Page 100 of Keeper
“Oh, good—don’t worry, you don’t have to explain. I’m trying to teach him English and you just never know what will come out of his mouth. But hey, he couldn’t speak a word of English when the season started, so wearemaking progress, believe it or not.” She grabbed my hand. “Anyway,let’s introduce you to the girls already.”
Katerina led me to the living room and I met the dozen or so WAGs, and right off the bat, all the girls were so sweet and welcoming.
I quickly figured out that Austen Marlowe, the adorable fiancée of team captain Dane DeHardt, had a razor wit, a cutting sense of humor, and a need to quickly get to the bottom of things.
A shimmering golden aura seemed to surround Emma Hathaway’s being. Emma was the wife of Jack, and right away, I sensed she had such a good, genuine soul. Emma and Jack’s precocious five-year-old daughter, Mackenzie, was also running around the party—and as cute as a button.
Then there was Molly Cooper, wife of backup goaltender, Ryan Cooper. The other girls affectionately called her “Mama Coops”—not simply because Molly was a mother of five(!), but also because she was the longest-tenured hockey wife. It was obvious right away that Molly was a pillar of the WAG community and the other girls looked to her for advice and guidance in life.
After a quick round of introductions, the group of girls surrounded me and bombarded me with curious questions about my life and how Tanner and I met.
I’ll admit, I was nervous as I fielded their questions. The more I talked about my life and danced around the vague circumstances that brought me and Tanner together, the more vulnerable I felt. It almost felt like the popular crowd of cheerleading all over again. I was worried these girls would sniff me out as a fake or suspect I was one of those jersey chasers that Tanner talked about. Maybe they’d think I wasn’t for real. Or maybe they’d think I wasn’t the right girl for Tanner and reject me from the in-crowd.
But that wasn’t what happened.
I leaned into the awkwardness of the whole thing, explaining that yes, I lived in Kansas, where I went to art school. And yes, Tanner and I hadonly met a couple days ago. And yes, he’d literallyjustasked me to be his girlfriend when he picked me up at my hotel, so we’d been dating for, oh, approximately twenty minutes?
Yeah, my cheeks might’ve turned a little red when I had to admit that one.
But Emma leveled with me. “Don’t worry about that, sweetheart. Trust me, we’veallgot stories like that—and I’m sure there’s alotof special, magical little details in your story that you’re holding back from us.”
“Oh God, yes!” I laughed, enthusiastically nodding my head.
“Everything is a whirlwind with these guys,” Austen said.
The group of girls agreed, heads nodding with sympatheticmm-hmms.
“But they know what they want,” Austen continued. “And when they want something, they go after it and theyget it.”
“So true,” Katerina purred. “Before this season began, I was living in Moscow, and I’d never even heard of Derek. Now he’s the love of my life and these girls are my best friends. Everyone here is amazing, Ainsley. We’re here for you and we’ll help get you through any hard times. If you need anything, you come to us, okay?”
“Thank you all somuch.”
The girls truly did their best to make me feel like I was now part of their group. And while we talked, I remembered something Marta had said earlier—that athletes went for boring trophy wife types, with faces pumped full of plastic, and artificial personalities to match, blah blah blah.
But these girls weren’t like that at all. They were all so genuine. And when they talked about their lives as dedicated partners of a pro athlete, it wasn’t to brag or gloat about how amazing their lives were or how good they had it—it wasrealtalk, about the upsandthe downs of being the committed partner to a pro athlete. Because while there were a lot of great parts to being a hockey wife, it wasn’t all sunshine and roses. The lifestyle came with its fair share of downsides, too—their lives were built around hectic schedules and constant travel nine months out of the year. When the team was on the road, you might not see your man for a week or longer. Sometimes, he got body checked so hard, he had to get taken off the ice, and you’d be in tears and full of fears that he’d never be the same … until you finally got the phone call that he was fine. The money was great, of course, but what he made now had to last the entire family a lifetime. And there were always concerns about that next contract offer. On and on.
Emma touched her hand to my shoulder. “So with all that being said, you’re one of us now, Ainsley—like it or not!” she said, and everyone laughed.
These girls weren’t fake at all. They were the realest girls I’d ever met in my life. And the support they gave each other was incredibly obvious. They might not be able to get through it alone, but they certainly got through it together. Something told me I’d finally met the group of friends I’d always wanted.
(Mama Coops even gave me some Devil-dating advice that made me blush! But we’ll talk more about that later.)
Before I knew it, we’d made plans to hang out tomorrow and go to the game together. I whipped out my cell phone and traded phone numbers with the group.
While I finished punching the last number into my phone, Tanner sneaked up on me and grabbed me from behind.
“Ah!” I yelped, almost dropping my phone.
“Scare you?” he whispered, his whiskers prickly against my neck as he nuzzled me.
“Yes!” I panted, my heart pounding.
“Sorry,” he said with a wicked grin.
“I forgive you.”
I put my phone away and he pulled me into a private corner, away from the others.
