“Okay.Missing you, of course.Andie and I are working on ideas for the weekend.She’s in my room talking with Colby.Nervous.”She’s holding an icing bag, so she must be in the middle of working.
“Keep working.I’m happy watching you do your thing.”
Her sweet smile has me rubbing a hand over my heart to soothe the ache.
“We baked sugar cookies, and I’m practicing doing flowers and other decorations.Andie is so much better at it than I am, but depending on what the challenges are, we may both have to do more intricate decorating and have it be cohesive.I have to come up to Andie’s level.She’ll handle the really crazy details, but I need to be able to at least prep the canvas she’s going to work on.”
She holds one up for me to see.It’s an oblongish shaped cookie covered in a thin layer of white icing.
“This is the start, you flood the cookie with white to give you a blank canvas, and then you build on it.”
First, she squeezes green frosting on, and I realize they’re leaves.I guess the shape is some kind of flower?Then she picks up another bag with the light blue frosting on her cheek and starts piping what looks like quotation marks or something on the cookie.It’s set on a little turntable, and she spins it around as she goes.As she clusters the piped shapes, I realize they’re flower petals, and as she goes around the cookie, layering the petals, the design turns into a hydrangea bloom.
The pink tip of her tongue is sticking out between her rosy lips as she concentrates.She’s so adorable, my heart aches.After adding some tiny white dots at the center of the blossoms for a finishing touch, she looks up into the camera.
“They’re honestly the prettiest cookies I’ve ever seen.If I saw them in the window of a bakery, I’d stop and admire them.They’re gorgeous.”
“Oh wow,” Andie says, entering the frame next to Phoebe.“Phoebs, that’s stunning.I can never get mine looking that delicate and lifelike.You nailed the shading.You are officially our hydrangea queen.”She mimics placing a crown on Phoebe’s head, and Phoebe holds her icing bag like a royal scepter.I’m glad Phoebe has Andie to hang around with while I’m on the road.
“Good goal, Ollie,” Andie says.“Bummer it was the only one from the Devil Birds.”
“Thanks,” I say simply.Technically I was the best player on the team tonight, but it’s hard to be happy about that when your team didn’t get the result they were hoping for.Everyone was off tonight.Even Brick, who got her nickname because of how hard it is to get a puck past her, gave up four goals before being replaced by the backup goalie—who let in another two.
“I know you two have a lot of work to do,” I say.“So I’ll let you go.I’ll talk to you later, Phoebe.I love you.”
Her smile seems tinged with sadness, but she nods.“We both work in the bakery tomorrow, so we need to wrap this up.We’ll talk more tomorrow?”
“Of course,” I say.
“Okay.Goodnight.I love you too, Ollie.”
Our call disconnects, and I sigh.This contest is so important to her, and of course she needs to focus on that.After this week, it’ll be over.It’s stupid to be jealous of a cookie and the attention she paid to it, but maybe I could offer to be a canvas for her to practice icing techniques on.I’d even wax to give her a smooth, hair-free surface.If a Bigfoot shifter offering to wax isn’t a sign of everlasting love and devotion, I don’t know what is.
* * *
We lost again.The mood on the flight home after the game is somber.I’m on my laptop when Stone flops into the seat next to me with a sigh.It’s not that anyone played badly.The Spellbinders only got one goal.In overtime.It could’ve been us.But it wasn’t.
Stone glances at my laptop screen and does a double-take.Shit.
“Is that…is that your resume?”
Of course the fucking plane is quiet, so his voice carries.Not that it matters—it’s a plane full of shifters who can hear a flea fart.No one is looking at us, but I know they’re all listening.
“Yeah, I’m going to need a job after the season is over.I’m going to be married.”
Coach stands up a couple rows ahead and turns around.His brows are furrowed, and even though I’m a grown man and bigger than him, I’m intimidated.
“You don’t want to play hockey, King?”
Am I imagining his voice is deeper than usual?
I take a deep breath so my voice doesn’t shake.Why does this have to be in front of the whole team?“Of course I want to play.But my contract is only for this year, so I need to plan ahead,” I say.
“It is?”He digs his phone out of his pocket, but then looks over at Randi, his assistant.
“Randi, do you have access to the contracts on your laptop?”
She sits up from where she’s cuddling with Mac, watching something on her computer.
