Page 52 of For the Captain
She looked up to see Jordan coming back out, helmet on and eyes focused on the crowd. Charlotte remembered the words he told her about how cool it was to be out on the ice when the arena was full. She smiled apprehensively. He would need more than just a cool feeling from the fans to get through the next period on the ice, especially with his broken body.
But when the whistle blew, he was ready to go. Charlotte still noticed he winced here or there when he got hit, but he seemed to have found a way to avoid hits rather than aggravate his injury. For the most part, it was working. He was getting passes to his teammates, skating down the ice pretty easily, and motivating the team to keep pushing. He was being the perfect captain.
But avoiding the hits had a disadvantage: it's not easy to keep balanced on two thin pieces of metal when you're trying to dodge an opponent. Jordan took a swing at the puck, then ducked out of the way of a defenseman, sending his skates in different directions. But no one was paying attention to his fall on the ice. Instead, they were all watching the puck he had just shot as it bounced off the goalie's leg pad and into the net.
Jordan King, injured captain of the Detroit Pirates, had scored a hat trick.
Hats came flying down from the seats above Charlotte as Aiden got hit with a cowboy hat. He was so excited, he didn't seem to care. Instead, he scooped it up along with some baseball caps and a pink beret that hadn't made it all the way to the ice.
"Charlotte, can you help me?" he yelled at her.
She quickly grabbed the small boy and walked down to the glass, a huge smile on her face.
"You ready?" she said.
The boy nodded and she hoisted him up so he could toss the leftover hats on to the ice with the biggest smile she had ever seen. Even bigger than when he first met Jordan in her apartment a few short months ago.
That's when she saw the captain, who had been aimlessly skating around the rink, make a beeline for their spot. He smiled and scooped up the cowboy hat that Aiden was tossing over the glass, letting it dangle from the blade of his stick as he yelled "Thanks, buddy!" Then Jordan turned to look at her and gave her a warm smile.
The captain ducked his head and started skating back to his bench with that look still on his face as Aiden bounded up the stairs with Charlotte in tow.
After the debacle in New York, she wasn't about to make a scene in front of an entire arena full of fans despite the fact that she so desperately wanted to do something to make sure Jordan knew she saw his smile. But the quick exchange between the two of them was apparently pretty obvious.
"Don't think I didn't see that," Rachel said after Charlotte returned to her seat.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she replied innocently.
"That hat trick was for you."
Charlotte just smiled and turned back to the ice, trying to ignore Rachel's remark. She had no hope or wish that her friend was right. She didn't need hopes or wishes because she just knew.
Jordan King had scored a hat trick for her.
Charlotte quickly peeled off her tight jeans, put on a pair of comfy yoga pants, and settled on the sofa with her TV remote. She had hoped to get some writing done after the game, but her mind was still buzzing with the image of Jordan smiling at her from the ice. The Pirates had won their game that night, eliminating Washington from the playoffs in no small part thanks to Jordan's hat trick. So instead of doing work, Charlotte decided to watch the news and relive the events at the arena that night.
Apparently, the game had been a little too overwhelming for her because she woke up an hour later after completely missing the sports segment on the local news. Instead, she opened her eyes to see some late night comedian talking to a pompous actor she recognized as the guy who lived a floor below her parents in New York.
Then she heard the sound again that had woken her up in the first place. Someone was knocking on her door. Whoever it was hadn't been announced by the doorman so it was either someone who lived in the building or had access to it.
Perhaps someone she had given her second key to so he could park in her extra space in the garage.
She padded quietly over to the door and peeked through the peephole.
Jordan.
Charlotte quickly ran a hand through her hair to try and tame it before looking down at her clothes, thankful that she had kept the tight t-shirt on. She opened it to find Jordan standing there in a well-fit gray suit with a white shirt and black tie. On his head was a matching gray fedora. He looked classic and sexy and amazing.
"Hi," she said tentatively.
"Hey," he replied in the same tone.
"I like the hat."
A smile broke across his face. "Can you believe someone threw this on the ice?"
"Well, it was a pretty spectacular hat trick," she said. "You can't just give the captain of the Detroit Pirates some cheap cap after a performance like that."
He laughed — laughed! — and Charlotte could feel her heart speed up in her chest.
