It wasn’t just the hotness of the picture—even though it was sexy as fuck. It was the fact that she trusted me enough to send it. That she was willing to put herself out there, try something new, something that scared her. That she was willing to do that with me. This girl absolutely blew me away.
Fuck,I finally typed, figuring it summed up my reaction pretty succinctly.
Then,Jesus, Gracie.
I watched the bouncing dots appear then disappear then reappear. She was overthinking her response, nervous. I hurried to type a more cohesive sentence.
Me:You’re gorgeous, Grace. That was the best text message I’ve ever received. Thank you.
The dots appeared again but only for a moment this time.
Gracie:Wish I was there in person so you could thank me properly;)
Jesus, the girl could make me hard with just a wink face emoji—well,harder. I was clearly losing my mind. And I didn’t care one little bit.
My phone beeped in my hands and I looked down at the new message.
Gracie:See you soon. Sweet dreams.
Yeah, I thought, gripping my erection as I opened the picture again. My dreams were going to be pretty damn sweet indeed.
I was startingto think Gracie Knight was some kind of a good luck charm. Knowing she was in the crowd for our next game lit a fire under me. Part of me wanted to impress her, just like I had been trying to do every day since I was a pimply teenager. An even bigger part of me was plenty eager for her to make good on her promise to send more racy pictures the next time I was on the road. Mostly, I was just super jacked up, knowing I was going to get to see her soon.
Whatever the reason, I played some of the best hockey of my career that night. I ended up scoring three goals—the first hat trick in Sting history. It felt damn good ending our losing streak, and even better to do it in this arena, where I had played so many games.
The first thing I did when we hit the locker room was to video call Josie. It wasn’t a school night, plus the time difference made it earlier there, but I still wanted to talk to her before she headed to bed.
“Daddy!” she cried as soon as her face came into view. I grinned at her beaming smile, relief slipping into my belly. She’dbeen in much better spirits since the first home game. She still had a tendency to slip into broody silence more frequently than she used to, but she didn’t seem to be directing her pain onto me. She’d also started researching dog breeds again, even sending me pictures from the rescue website when I was out of town.
It was starting to feel like I’d gotten my little girl back, and I would take that over a thousand game winning goals.
“I can’t believe you scored a hat trick in New York,” she crowed. “Against your old team, too! That was amazing! And that last one—you totally deked out Gregson!”
I chuckled. “Well God knows I practiced with the guy enough over the years.”
She giggled and the sound went straight to my chest. “I wish you were here, Josie-girl.”
She sighed, face dropping a little. “I wish that too, Daddy. We could get bagels at Leo’s.”
“Or pizza at Sal’s.”
She groaned.
“You’ll come with me next time we play here, okay?”
I held my breath, hoping I didn’t just inadvertently bring on another burst of melancholy. But her face brightened almost immediately. “It’s okay. Granny and Grandpa are going to take me to the aquarium!”
“That sounds great, baby. Take lots of pictures for me.”
“Okay, Daddy.” She scrunched up her nose. “You look pretty gross. You better hit the shower.”
I laughed. “I’ll do that. You get to bed soon, you hear?”
She sighed, still smiling. “It’s gonna be pretty hard to sleep after that.”
I had to agree with her as I hung up the phone. Luckily, I wasn’t planning on doing much sleeping that night.
I showeredand got dressed in my suit—league rules required at least a shirt and tie when players arrived at or left a game. I usually found it annoying, but not tonight—Gracie had confessed to me that she had a thing for me in a white button up shirt. And I aimed to please my girl.
