His heart felt strangely sore and his mouth was dry. He couldn’t remember ever talking so much in one evening.
And it didn’t bother him at all.
Chapter Eighteen
Eighteenth encounter
“I think cocoa is the best drink. Sure, coffee has caffeine, but let’s be honest: any drink you have to get used to can’t be the best. Wine gives me a headache. Gin and tonic is, I guess, a close second to cocoa. But…yeah. Cocoa. Sorry, what was your question again?”
Lucas raised his eyebrows. “Would you like some water?”
Anna hadn’t thought her mood could improve that day, but watching Lucas fail at pool made her laugh more than once, mainly because he swore so much that Melody would have covered her ears in shock. She beat him twice before he invited her to dinner (“You’re welcome to pay for yourself, but do you know how much I made last year?”) and drove them back to the hotel.
They didn’t speak about her father, or how stupid Anna felt because she’d hoped that her father had changed. She wanted tobe happy that he apparently had a job, but the message sounded like an excuse, as if he’d suddenly been afraid of seeing her.
They didn’t talk about that because there was nothing Lucas could have said that would have made it better. He seemed to know that, so he didn’t say much, just warmed her with his mere presence, letting her know that she wasn’t alone. And sometimes that was all someone needed.
Their rooms were on the same floor, which was miraculously deserted when they returned shortly before nine o’clock. Jack and Dax had both texted her, asking where she was. She could stop by their room as long as it was before nine, so no one would break the coach’s curfew.
Lucas apparently didn’t care about the rule.
“So, then…” she mumbled when they arrived at Lucas’ door. “Thanks again. For everything.”
Lucas paid no attention to her. He looked around, glancing carefully to the right and left before opening the door, gently closing his fingers around hers, and in the next moment, pulling her into his hotel room.
Perplexed, she stumbled into his entryway and let him push her inside by the shoulders.
His room looked like hers: pale birchwood furniture, a bulky picture of a cactus above the king-size bed, and a counter with a coffee maker on it.
Of course, her gaze lingered on the bed.
She sighed and glanced anxiously over her shoulder. “Lucas, I don’t feel like…well, you know,” she said. “I…”
“Well, you know?” He looked at her, irritated, as if the thought hadn’t even occurred to him. “We’re not sleeping together, Anna. We’refriends, remember? Friends don’t have sex.”
Astonished, she opened her mouth. “Okay, then what am I doing here?”
He furrowed his eyebrows and took off his shoes. “In the world? I’m a hockey player, not a philosopher. How would I know?”
She snorted in amusement. “In your room.”
He sighed and rubbed his chin. “I thought you might not want to be alone,” he replied softly.
Her stomach twisted sweetly. “No, I don’t want to be alone,” she whispered.
“Good.” He nodded, scratching the back of his neck. “That’s why you’re here.”
“But…didn’t the coach forbid you from bringing anyone back to your rooms tonight?” she asked nervously. “He told everyone, so we’d rat you out if you broke his rules.”
Lucas smiled slightly, making the muscles in her lower abdomen flutter. “Are you going to rat me out, Anna?”
The corners of her mouth twitched. “Hm, if you bribe me, I might keep my mouth shut.”
He nodded as if the demand was more than fair. “I don’t have ice cream, but the coffee machine makes hot chocolate.”
“That’s good enough for me,” she said confidently. “Hot chocolate is the best drink.”
“I know, Anna,” he murmured in amusement, turning his back on her to fiddle with the machine.
