We chat for another half hour, sharing old hockey stories, his time in the pros, the injury that took him out of commission, and by the time a knock sounds on his door, I feel almost giddy with parental acceptance.
“I’d better let you get back to it.” I smile, pushing up from the chair.
He nods, his shoulders more relaxed than I’ve ever seen. “It was good talking to you, Finnegan.”
“You too, sir.” I nod, dismissing myself and heading to the door.
“One more thing.”
“Yeah?”
Coach Rafferty’s voice sounds a lot less like Serena’s dad and more like the stern coach I know as he warns me, “I don’t want to overhear anything about my daughter in the locker room, on the ice, nothing. You hear me?”
“Got it,” I agree, knowing I’m going to have to get Cas and Kol on the same page.
I throw the door open, and my jaw follows suit when I find Serena on the other side.
Her face lights up. “Oh, this is perfect actually.” She walks around me. “Dad, I need to talk to you.”
“Serena,” I murmur, sliding my hands on top of her shoulders.
“Shh. I need to do this,” she whisper-shouts at me.
Looking up at Coach Rafferty, I find him grinning from ear to ear with … pride and adoration.
“I never thought I’d see the day Bates was put in his place.”
Silence falls on the room, aside from the deep belly laughter emanating from her dad.
“Actually, Serena?—”
“What did you do? Did you already tell him?” She whips around, staring up at me in widened disbelief. Her gaze drops to my chest, and her face pales as she turns back to her father. “You already know.”
He nods, clearly entertained by the show playing out in front of him. “Yeah. You were about”—he checks the clock—“thirty minutes late.”
His phone rings, and he quickly answers, leaving us a moment to ourselves.
She whispers, only loud enough for me to hear, “I’m going to kill you.”
Bending down, I wrap her in my arms, my lips near her ear. Softly, I murmur, almost inaudibly, “You’d have to stop coming on my cock first.”
“I can multitask,” she argues, dropping her elbow into my ribs. “I hate you.”
“No, you don’t.” I squeeze her tighter. “You love me. Not as much as I love you, but pretty damn close.”
Her body tightens, and then ever so slightly, she nods before nestling deeper in my embrace. “You have no idea how much I love you.” She doesn’t say it like a lovingdeclaration, but like a challenge to my statement. Of course her competitiveness would come out in everything, even this.
“I’ll prove it to you later. Make you scream it out loud.”
“You can try,” she counters.
“Oh, baby, I onlydo.”
Her dad sets the phone back in the base. “Sorry about that. Where were we?”
He checks his phone, and I take the second to roll my hips against her ass. She jumps free from my arms.
“I am going to head home for the day. As for Bates, he’s got errands to run or something. Flowers maybe?” Her eyes twinkle, her lips gradually lifting.
