Page 102 of The Curveball
“Sage, I’m sorry, but we need to steal your man for something.” Cal grips Brady’s shoulder and steers him away.
“Don’t worry, he’ll be fine.” Foxxy gives me a wink before he, Griff, and a couple of the other guys follow Cal and Brady.
Curious, I drift after them, only to find Brady shaking his head as Cal tries to force him to hold a microphone.
Suddenly, Foxxy has another microphone is his hand.
“Let’s give it up for the one, the only, the future Vancouver Trident, Bradyyyyyyy Dixon!”
“I’m not doing this, no, no I’m not—” Music starts up, a familiar tune.
“Grandma got runover by a reindeer…”
I burst out in laughter as the other guys all produce microphones and start singing a karaoke version of the cringiest Christmas song ever.
Pretty soon, everyone is watching and laughing. Brady has reluctantly joined in, and eventually is arm in arm with his friends and teammates as they finish out the song.
The room erupts in cheers and clapping as the boys all take an impromptu bow before Griff and Foxxy take over and start singing Elvis Presley’s “Blue Christmas.”
Brady makes his way over to me and drops his head on my shoulder. “That was terrible,” he groans.
“Poor baby.” I giggle, patting his back. “I will say, singing is not one of your many talents.”
Several songs later, the music ends and Dom’s amused voice comes through the microphone. “That concludes the entirely unplanned entertainment for the evening. Now, if everyone could find their seats, let’s have some dinner.”
One delicious meal later, everyone is back tomingling and laughing, and some are even dancing, to actual music, thankfully, not karaoke. Our table is empty, except for the two of us, and Brady’s fingers are toying with the hairs at the nape of my neck, making me want to arch into his touch. My hand finds its way to his thigh, and his covers mine as he leans in closer.
“Think anyone would notice if we ducked out now? We could say Ivy needs us.”
I dip my chin to hide my smile, turning slightly toward Brady. “Are you seriously trying to use our daughter as an excuse to get out of this very lovely party?”
“No, I’m trying to use our daughter as an excuse to get you out of that very lovely dress. It would look even more lovely on the floor of our bedroom, don’t you think?”
“You just don’t want to get pulled back up for anymore karaoke,” I tease.
“That’s the truth. C’mon, Hurricane. Let’s get out of here.”
But as we get up and move to the door, trying to be subtle with our exit, we’re cut off by Griff and Foxxy, wearing matching grim expressions.
“Hey, we were hoping to find you two. We just got paged by our chief at search and rescue. That winter storm they thought would hold off until overnight seems to be coming in early. The roads are getting messy, and they need all hands on deck, but we wanted to say goodbye before we left,” Foxxy explains.
Brady hugs them both, and then I do, too.
“Don’t be a stranger around here, okay?” Griff says gruffly, slapping Brady’s back.
“Yeah, you better be at a game or two. Both of you,” Foxxy adds.
Brady nods. “You bet. And you guys have open invitations to come to Vancouver whenever you want.”
After exchanging final farewells, we watch the two men leave swiftly.
“I hope they’re okay,” I say quietly, leaning into Brady’s side.
“I’m sure they will be. C’mon, let’s head out now, too.”
We say a quick goodbye to Cal, Dom, Rafe and his wife Imogen, and then duck out into the lobby of the hotel.
Outside, just as Foxxy said, a winter storm has hit. The snow isn’t falling too hard yet, but it’s enough to make me glad we’re going home now and not later.
