Breakout (A Dallas Demons Hockey Romance) (6 page)

“So he wouldn’t even meet with you?” Niko asks.

“No. My birth mom did,” I say. “She’s an editor for a fashion magazine in New York. She flew here when I requested to meet her. Met with me at a DFW Airport hotel for a few hours so nobody would know.”

I pause for a moment, as her shame about me still hurts when I relive that awful day.

“She said she never wanted to be a mom,” I say, continuing. “Her parents made her go through with the pregnancy. My birth mother selected my parents through an open adoption, so she knew them, but wanted no contact beyond that. She met with me one time to answer my questions. But she made it clear that she has her life in New York, that she’s happy, and her future would not include me.”

“Lexi,” Niko whispers, “that’s a lot for anyone to handle, let alone a vulnerable sixteen-year-old girl.”

I swallow hard. “It was devastating, to be honest. I had hoped to have the happy reunion. And have an extended family, you know? Because I love my parents-Charlotte and Andrew. Those are my
real
parents. But I always hoped that my birth parents could be a part of my life, too.”

“I’m sorry,” Niko says softly.

“No, don’t be. My birth mom gave me amazing parents. I’m thankful for them making that choice, especially seeing now how they don’t want me in their lives. I’m a scandal that they never want to revisit again.”

I turn and gaze out the window for a second. Only Kenley and her family know about this. Kenley and my mom were the ones who held me after that horrible meeting with my birth mom, who let me cry, who assured me it was her loss and not mine.

And now I’ve shared all of this—the most painful part of my life—with Niko.

“Lexi.”

I face him. Niko’s studying me, and I realize what I’ve done. I’ve taken a perfectly wonderful start to a date and dropped an emotional bombshell all over it.

“I’m sorry,” I blurt out. “I . . . I never should have told you all that.”

“What if I’m glad you did?”

My heart stops. “But I ruined our evening.”

“No,” Niko says firmly. “You made it
better.
I have a feeling you don’t share that story with just anyone.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Then I’m glad you felt safe enough to share it with me,” Niko says. “It stays between us, I promise you that.”

I see the fierce look in his eyes, and I know he means it.

“Thank you,” I say.

“And not for nothing, your birth parents are missing a fucking lot by not getting to know you.”

“It’s okay. They gave me life. They gave me a family. I’m grateful for that.”

“Your birth parents didn’t reject
you
,” Niko says firmly. “They didn’t want to be parents to
anyone
at that point. Big difference.”

I feel comforted by his words. I’d never considered the situation like that before.

“I appreciate you saying that,” I say softly.

“It’s the truth.”

I decide to shift to him. “So there’s my damage. Tell me yours.”

Niko laughs. “Do we have time? I have a lot of damage to go through.”

I laugh with him. “You’re lying.”

“Oh, you think so? Prepare to be overwhelmed with my personal crap.”

I tuck up my legs underneath me. “I’m in listening position.”

Niko flashes me a sexy grin, and my pulse jumps in response.

“Okay. I grew up in Baltimore’s Greektown with my parents and older brother, Dimitri. Dimitri was the smart one. I always had crazy TV dreams, as my parents would say. Because they saw a bright future for Dimitri, he got to study all the time while I had to work in their bakery after school. My studies didn’t matter because I was going to take over the bakery for them someday. So while I was scrubbing the floor and taking out the trash every night, Dimitri got to study, play sports, go to club meetings, et cetera. To look good on his college applications, you know.”

The unfairness of what happened to Niko hits me in the heart. His parents showed zero regard for his dreams and forced him to sacrifice everything to help his brother achieve his.

“Anyway, Dimitri went to law school, graduated at the top of his class, and is practicing law in Baltimore. He married a Greek girl and has a beautiful baby boy. He did everything they wanted.”

“And you didn’t.”

Niko runs his hand over his five o’clock shadow. “No. My parents said TV was a pipedream. Stupid. So they put all their money into Dimitri’s education and left me to my own devices. Needless to say, I’m 27 and still paying off a mountain of student loan debt.”

I swallow. I once again realize how blessed I am that not only did my parents support my TV dream, but encouraged it and paid for all of my education.

“And then there’s the problem of marrying a Greek woman,” he adds.

“Are you supposed to?” I ask, incredulous.

Niko laughs. “Um, your expression kills me. But yes. I’m supposed to marry a Greek woman and have Greek children. That is the only acceptable path for my life. My mom has been researching potential candidates for years now.”

My heart catches. Could this be true? That Niko would truly only marry someone of his own ethnic background?

Shit, I’ve lost my mind.
Marriage
? Why am I thinking of marriage? For all I know, this conversation could take a turn and crash and burn. Or if it went farther, he could be a crappy kisser.

My eyes instinctively move to his mouth. And oh, those sexy full lips. I can imagine what it would be like to kiss him, to feel his five o’clock shadow burn against my face as the kiss intensified—

There’s no way Niko could be a crappy kisser.

“But I’m going to throw out my really dirty laundry now. Are you ready?”

I blink, mortified by my thought process.
Don’t worry about marriage, Lexi
, I scold myself.
Or kissing or anything else. Right now you are two people having coffee. Period.

“I’m ready,” I say, refocused on our conversation.

“I’m going to marry who I want. I’m not going to make her being Greek a priority. I’m not Dimitri. I won’t do it.”

Okay, we are light years away from that even being a possibility, but I can’t help it. Elation fills me from his declaration.

“Dimitri dated all these blonds in college, but when it was time to find a wife, he started going to Greek events to find The One,” Niko continues. “The field was narrowed immediately to that trait when he was ready to settle down. So he followed the family script.”

“So even if you fell in love with someone who wasn’t Greek, and she was a really good person and made you happy, your parents still wouldn’t approve of that?”

“They’ve never supported me,” Niko says matter-of-factly. “I challenge them, and they think that’s disrespectful. But there’s no way in hell I’m making a decision on who to marry based on their ethnic background. So no, they wouldn’t support it. In fact, they’d be furious. But I’ve learned to live with that. I’d rather they be disappointed in me than for me to live a life I didn’t want to live.”

Admiration for Niko swells in me.

“You have a lot of strength,” I say. “It takes a very strong person to face what you did and still pursue your dream. You had zero support from the people who are supposed to believe in you more than anyone else. You could have used all of this as an excuse not to pursue your dream, but instead, you used it to achieve it.”

Niko seems surprised by my words. “You see it that way?”

“How can I not? The kid from the Greektown bakery did good, Niko.”

“Well, we’ll see. I know I got this job only because Total Access Total Sports was in a jam. I have a one-year contract,” Niko confesses. “They are test driving the car before buying it.”

“But don’t you see? To even have this opportunity says
a lot
,” I insist. “They might have been in crisis mode when they found you, but trust me, TATS wasn’t going to hand it over to you unless they thought you were qualified.”

“I guess.”

“Come on, you know it,” I say. But then I circle back to his family again. “But surely your family can’t be angry now, right? They have to see how you’ve made it in TV. You moved across the country, rose through the ranks, and now produce a world-championship hockey team. I mean, you’re
extremely
successful.”

Niko grins. “Oh, leaving Baltimore was another mistake. Family stays near family. So add another check mark in my screw-up column.”

I groan, and he laughs.

“But I vowed I would prove them wrong. My dream was to get all the way back to Baltimore to produce the Blades,” Niko says, referring to the Baltimore hockey team. “That way, I could prove to them not only did I make it, but I made it in my hometown, just like I claimed I would all those years ago. I’d be fulfilling that prophecy.”

I notice he used the word “was” to describe his dream to get back to Baltimore.

Not
is
.

Could Dallas change his mind about going all the way home?

“So there you go,” Niko says, breaking my thoughts. “All my emotional dirty laundry. Care to pass the detergent?”

“We can share,” I say, smiling at him. “And next time, I’ll remember to bring the fabric softener.”

Niko laughs. “I like your sense of humor.”

“I like that you get it,” I say. “Most people don’t.”

“Then you obviously haven’t met the right people.”

No, I haven’t
, I think, studying him.
Until I met you
.

We stay at the café for a long time, sharing bits and pieces of our lives with each other. The conversation is so natural and easy that I don’t want it to end. I throw all kinds of questions at Niko, and he answers them all. Even better, he asks his own questions of me, and I can tell by the way he looks at me that he is enjoying this night as much as I am.

Suddenly we notice chairs being put up on tables and Niko glances down at his watch.

“Oh, shit, it’s almost midnight. And you’ve got work tomorrow.”

I smile, reaching for my coat. “It doesn’t matter. Working on the bank website is boring whether I’m wide awake and fully rested or tired.”

Niko furrows his brow. “Well, hopefully that won’t be for much longer, if I have anything to do with it. I’ve gone to bat for you, Lexi,” he says, his eyes firmly locked on mine, “and I need you as my editor. And I’ll do everything I can to get you on board at TATS.”

Hope rises within me.

“I don’t think I can ever repay you for all you have done for me,” I say, sliding into my coat. “There is never enough that I can do for you for even opening this door a crack for me.”

“Stop it.”

“No, it’s the truth.”

“Are we going to argue about this?”

“We seem to argue a lot,” I tease.

“Yes, we do.”

We both laugh and head outside. The temperature has dropped some more, and we walk back toward the arena.

“Where are you parked?” Niko asks.

“The P lot,” I say.

Niko raises his eyebrows. “That super exclusive lot next to the building?”

“Yep. Kenley gives me the tag from Nate’s tickets when she goes home with him.”

“Nice.”

“You park down with the players, right?” I know this from what Ryan told me. That the hockey production team parks down where the players park their cars.

“Yep,” he says. “I junk up the lot because I’m not driving a Bentley or Maserati.”

We both laugh. Before I know it, we’re at my Volkswagen CC.

“This would be mine,” I say, nodding at the silver car next to us. “And yes, it’s a gift from my parents for graduating from TCU. Lord knows I don’t make enough to buy one.”

“Yet,” Niko adds. “Not yet.”

I smile at him. “Do you know how much editors make? I’ll be driving that car until it falls apart on Central Expressway.”

Niko laughs. “Whatever.”

A silence falls between us. The night is cold and breezy, and a crescent moon shines overhead.

“Give me your hands,” Niko says.

My heart pounds inside my chest as I extend my hands to him. Niko takes them and covers them with his own to warm my skin again.

“You can’t drive home with frozen hands.”

Crap. If he’s reducing me to a puddle by warming my hands, I can’t imagine what kissing him would be like.

“I might have to hire you for this service,” I manage to say.

“I offer it free of charge,” he says, staring down at me.

Oh I want him to kiss me now. I’ve never wanted a man to kiss me so badly as I want Niko to at this moment.

“Thank you for tonight,” Niko says.

“No, thank you. For the wine, the coffee, the conversation,” I say. “I had a lot of fun.”

“Me, too.”

Niko continues to rub my hands, and I shiver in response.

“So I go on the road tomorrow,” Niko says.

“Right.”

“It’s a long trip. Up to New York, Boston, and Toronto.”

I nod. “I know.”

Silence falls between us.

“So maybe we could get together when I get back.”

Ahhhhhh! I’m so happy I could burst at this moment.

“I’d like that.”

“Good, me too.”

Niko releases my hands. I can’t help but notice he looks gorgeous in the moonlight.

“All right. I’ll let you go, but I’m not leaving until I see you drive off.”

I smile. “Okay.”

Niko steps away from me, and I reluctantly open the door. He’s not going to kiss me, but that’s okay. Tonight was perfect exactly the way it was.