Heather snorted. “My brother never uses those.”

“Well, he might want to. It will help the public perception of everything.” Her eyes slid to me, an apologetic look on them.

Which meant there were still unflattering things being said about his new wife. Me.

Great.

“If his fans see he has his family’s support, it could help them get behind you both. As it is, they’re not being kind, and my job—”

“I know. I get it. And if it distracts him, his game could suffer. No one wants that,” I assured her.

She exhaled, relieved I understood. “Exactly.”

“Where do you want us?”

“Right here is great. Waiting outside the locker room for him, together, if that’s okay? Fans always love a little backstage look even if it’s a cement hall.”

“Perfect.” Chuck came up and tugged me to his side, and Tracy rounded my other side. “And if you could get us some pics of the wedding, we’d love that too. Our friends will want to see and we have quite a few followers who think following us on The Facebook or The Gram will be a way into Kane’s life.”

“It’s not The anything,” Heather laughed at her dad. “You’re so old.”

“Watch it,” he warned her with a loving glare. “I’ll say and do whatever I want.” He turned to me and side-hugged me tighter. “And that includes supporting my new daughter, too. Any way she needs.”

Tears burned my eyes.

Gosh. This family was incredible. “Thanks, Chuck.”

“Nonsense.” He grinned and turned to Alicia. “You can call me Dad.”

Kane yawned almost as soon as he entered his home. “Damn, it feels good to be back.”

He kicked off his shoes after we shut the door, alarmed the system behind me, and slid his shoes beneath the sideboard table near the entry.

He’d had to head to the arena at two in order to prepare for their seven o’clock game and I might have only been around him for two games, but already I could see what he meant about the intensity of the season. There was always something to be doing, somewhere to be going, or a late-night return home. Once they finished in the locker room and the media room, and then Alicia declared she had enough pictures once he came out of the locker room, there’d been chatting with some of the guys on the way to the car, Gabby and Paige talking about their first away game later this week.

It all made my head spin, and even if it was only eleven, he’d had nine hard hours of work.

“Do you need anything?”

The house was quiet, a drastic change from the last couple of days with Heather and their parents around. I missed all of them already and my goodbye to Heather might have included alligator-sized tears on my part.

Now, real life was coming to a head.

Where Kane and I could no longer pretend we weren’t married, that we weren’t going to have to be seen together when we could, being all happy and lovey dovey. Alicia said that’d be important on his home game days and off days so his fans would get used to seeing us together. Not that Kane cared about that, it didn’t seem to be affecting him at all… but what if it did eventually?