“Still drink yours black like it’s a punishment?” Ben shot back, lifting his cup in a salute. Then he turned to me. “Have you caught him with lucky pink skate laces yet?”
“Not yet,” I answered, laughing.
“Man, that’s twenty-year-old stuff, and it was a safety issue.” Sean pinned him with a look and grinned, not minding the embarrassment.
Forty minutes slipped away fast.
“Nice to meet you, Mel,” Ben said as we stood to leave. “I hope to introduce you to Kelly, my wife. She took the children to her parents, but next time I’ll make sure you two meet.”
My cheeks warmed. “That would be nice.”
Sean’s best friend already wanted me to meet his wife; meanwhile, I’d spent the first two days of our relationship dodging the boyfriend like he was bad takeout. Classic me.
Ben took off, and Sean and I wandered back toward the hotel. The late-May Dallas heat clung to us with every step, but I didn’t mind. I was happy to stroll through a new city with him.
We cut through a plaza where a small crowd had gathered for what looked like a street performance. I tugged at Sean’s hand to stop. He gave me that coach look, all focused, no room for fun.
“Even coaches can pause once in a while. I promise the Cup won’t vanish if you look away for thirty minutes,” I grinned.
He sighed but stayed beside me, watching.
When the first performer wrapped, Sean dropped a bill in the opened case. “Paying for my girlfriend’s off-beat swaying,” he teased.
“It’s called expressive movement.”
He snorted. “Yeah, and she gave it a name, so people wouldn’t call it flailing.”
He took my hand, and we kept walking.
“I still haven’t seen you dance. Bet it’d be my best laugh-out-loud moment yet,” I said.
He stopped and turned to face me. “Already won that bet.”
“We’ll see. I’m the one with the rhythm.”
The hotel came back into view, both of us acting like tonight’s game wasn’t waiting.
That night’s game gutted us.
We lost by one. A tight, bruising battle that left the bench quiet, and the charter flight home wrapped in shadows.
By the time the shuttle pulled up to the team’s headquarters, the sky was starting to pale. 5 a.m. maybe. Every muscle in my body begged for a real bed. My brain was still half on the ice, running line changes.
Sean slowed as we stepped onto the curb, the overhead lamps catching the tired lines around his eyes. He looked at me for a moment, as if weighing something.
“I want to drive you home,” he said, “but… will you come with me to a nearby hotel first?”
My heart kicked in that slow, gut-deep way that comes when you realize intimacy might be on the table—not because I didn’t want him, but because I did.
We’d kissed, he’d asked me to be his girlfriend, and now... the possibility hung there. I liked him; I really did. But… he was watching me, waiting.
The anticipation of being seen twisted my stomach. I hated how my brain always froze when things got real. I could flirt all night, but the moment it felt serious, I turned into a deer in headlights.
I needed a second to catch up to my racing heart.
Breathe, and just say it.
Chapter nineteen
