Page 62 of Best Man
“Thank you.” He put his hand on Jax’s shoulder. “What I’m saying is, I really hated this guy at first.” The crowd laughed. “I mean, look at him, for God’s sake. He is huge and mean as heck. MEAN, I tell you—first time I tried to bring puck into his side of the ice,boom, he smashed me face-first into the boards.” Niko grinned. “Of course, I score goal later that shift, anyway. But hey, you can’t blame him for that. It’s not easy to stop Niko from scoring.”
He paused long enough for the chuckles and groans to subside.
“When we traded for Jax, my first thought was, ‘Oh, thank God he’s on our side! He won’t try to kill me anymore.’ I think I still hated him for a little while, though.”
Jax raised his arms, as if to say, “What? Really? News to me.”
“But I got over it and we became friends pretty quick. See, Jax, he’s a big guy. Everybody knows that. You can just look at him and see. But what you don’t see when you look at him is that he has a big, big heart. That’s why I couldn’t hate him for very long. My sister, Katya, taught me to speak English,” Niko said, and pointed Katerina out to the crowd. “Every day, after practice, before every game, she would be helping to teach me. But Jax was my English teacher on the road—he helped on the bus, at the hotel, on the plane, everywhere else Katya couldn’t. He was a big, big help in teaching me.
“But sometimes, I wonder—maybe Jax only wanted me to know English for selfish reasons?” Niko asked, pausing long enough to let the audience wonder where the heck he was going with that. “So he could have someoneelseto talk to, maybe? After all, he drove everyone else on the team crazy since he only ever wanted to talk about one thing—”
Jax hid his eyes under his hand, his shoulders already shaking with laughter.
“—Piper,” Niko said.
A booming round of laughter came from their teammates, confirming what Niko had said.
“And boy. Once I learned enough English to hear about Piper all day, I almost wished I could only speak Russian again.” More laughs. “Because Piper wasallBig Rig ever wanted to talk about. Butno,he didn’t have a crush on her—and how dare you suggest that! They were just friends, just roommates. But she was his roommate in Colorado, too. When he got traded to Dallas, Piper moved with him to Texas. You know, that’s what normal roommates do, right? Follow each other around the country when they get a new job? Roommates who do that aren’t in love, of course. And yes, Piper just so happened to be beautiful, funny, successful, and smart. Butno,Jax was not secretly in love with her—they were just friends! Gosh, why won’t anyone believe us?! Just friends, huh?” Niko lowered the mic and made a big show of surveying their surroundings. “Yeah. Sure.Sweetwedding, bro.”
The crowd loved Niko’s roast of the groom, and everyone was rolling with laughter. Jax nodded and laughed, a good sport as he took his licking.
With a smile, Niko wrapped his speech up. “Anyway, my point is, Jax is my best friend because he has a very big heart. And Piper is a great woman, a fantastic person who deserves every bit of love that big heart can offer. I’m so glad you two found each other. Even if you took way too long to admit it.” Niko raised his glass of sparkling cider. “Jax, Piper, I love you both very much, and I wish you two all the best in the future.”
The crowd drank and broke into applause.
“Your speech was great!” Paulina said over the cheering.
“Thank you. You will do better though, okay?” Niko said as he passed her the microphone. He whispered, “You got this, Paulina.”
“Thanks,” she whispered back. She took a deep breath and raised the mic to her mouth … but no sound came out.
Come on,Niko thought, his fist balled, silently pulling for her.You can do it.
The audience waited.
“I still remember the phone call like it was yesterday,” she began. “Wait. I guess I have to explain?”
She turned her worried eyes to Niko. He nodded to encourage her and remind her of his advice—just start talking! You got this!
She cleared her throat. “Back when Piper lived in New York City, she used to call me every few days to give me all the juicy updates on her life. Considering we both grew up here on the farm, my sister’s exploits in the city were like hearing about life in another world entirely. Those phone calls were the highlight of my week. Inevitably, the subject of our conversations was about theguysshe’d met.”
It was Piper’s turn to be embarrassed. She shielded her blushing face behind her hands. Niko let out a breath of relief, because he could tell the crowd was starting to feel it, too.
“You’d think, in a city the size of New York, there’d be a lot of quality guys around, right? But actually, it was the opposite. I think trying to date in New York is where she first got the idea for Soulmate.”
Piper was a mix of mortified and panicked, and she leered at her sister as if to say,Please please please don’t say anything bad!
But Niko knew Paulina had it all under control. He could see her cool confidence—she was finding her groove.
“But then there was the day she called to tell me about a new guy she’d just met the night before,” she continued. “I could just tell from the very beginning that this guy was different—I could hear it in the sound of her voice. His name was Jax.”
The crowd wentoooooh.
“And she and Jax were officially going on their first date later that night. I asked her to the spill thedeetzabout this new guy, and I thought for sure she was pulling my leg when she calmly replied that he was a professional athlete. I mean—a pro athlete? Obviously, we’re farm folk, so the closest we get to pro athletes out here is watching them on TV. I couldn’t even begin to imagine where someone would meet a pro athlete outside the arena or what they’d be like in person. But no, she wasn’t joking; she really met a pro hockey player, thanks to her friend and business partner, Camille, and her high school friend, now husband, Beau Bradford—say hi, you guys.”
The Bradfords waved to the crowd.
“Anyway, the point is, I was shocked that Piper had a date with a pro athlete. And I must’ve kept saying that over and over, because Piper, already turning blossoming into a city slicker in the Big Apple, told me—‘Relax, Paulie, he’sjusta rookie.’ ” Perfectly remembering her shock, Paulina’s jaw fell. “JUST a rookie in the National Hockey League! Oh, okay! Well, I guess that changes everything then, doesn’t it?!”
