“That sounds like you’re asking me on a date, Wildflower.”
My heart does a little stutter-step with his use of the nickname. I nod. “Kind of. The town will think so. But for us, it’s friend time. Like the time I spent with Everly, Andi, and Sutton. Since that time won’t lead to naked time.”
“Everytime you spent with your boyfriends led to naked time?” he asks.
Okay, that’s a fair point. “No. I guess…it’s just thatwe’renot together tonight because we met and liked each other and then wanted to spend time together…” I trail off. That doesn’t sound quite right. It’s true, but if I’d met Alex and had a conversation at a coffee shop, for instance, I think I would have wanted to spend more time with him. I try again. “We’re not spending time together because we want to sleep together…” I trail off. Okay, that’s not technically true either. Wewant to. We’re just notgoing to. I take a breath. “We’re spending time together because we want…” I trail off again, still not sure how to really define all of this.
“Because we want other people to like me,” he fills in.
I don’t like how that sounds. I frown. “I guess. But I do like you. And tonight has been fun.”
Something flickers in his eyes. “I can promise you, Nora, that I very much like spending time with you, regardless of the naked-less status of our relationship. And I’m sure that even if I wasn’t trying to get people to like me and buy hockey tickets, I would still want to spend time with you.”
That’s so…dammit, is that romantic? Or is it just nice? Is it a thing a friend would say?
Andi or Everly or Sutton might say that to me, but they wouldn’t mention our naked-less relationship status. Nor would they have that low gruffness in their voice or the heat in their eyes.
And I wouldn’t have the very vivid memory of how it felt to have them kissing me imprinted on my brain, or be obsessed with how their big hands felt on my face, or be unable to stop staring at their shoulders in the suit they’re wearing.
It definitely feels strange to think of Alex Olsen as just a friend.
But I can not make him more than that. Not for real.
“But regardless of whatweknow, those kids are going to put the photos and captions on social media,” I finally say.
“I know.”
“But you told me that you weren’t going to make a big deal out of being here in Louisiana or what’s going on with your parents. Now you have those kids talking about the Revelers and posting on social media, and you talked about letting them watch the team. How are they going to do that?”
He shrugs. “Astrid and I can make that happen. We’ll get someone to film the games, and we can stream them online somehow. It really just takes money. And a few connections. We’ve got both. Astrid will love the idea.”
I’m so not used to having people with resources who can just make any wild and fun idea happen.
I like it.
“You were right,” Alex says. “Fans and the media are going to be interested in the Revelers. And they’re very much going to be interested in who I’m dating. I told you that the town would like our romance better than all the hockey stuff. I’m thinking we widen the net of interest. Get people talking.”
“The hockey fans aredefinitelygoing to care more about the game and this new league thanme,” I say.
He grins. “Let’s find out. Either way, if we want to put butts in the seats and sell tickets and stir up interest in what we’re doing down here, then we might as wellreallystir up interest.”
My heart does a somersault. I’m going to ignore the idea of my name and face being splashed across the internet by the sports media. “So you’re going to be public about this? The Revelers? The singing and dancing?”
“It’s still hockey,” he says. “Like Matt and Austin and Alex said, hockey is hockey on some level. Did you see how Alex was looking at his brothers when they were describing how they made his season with the horrible hockey team fun?”
I shake my head. I’d been watching this Alex.
“He was so crazy about his brothers and what they did. It wasn’treallyabout hockey.” Alex shakes his head. “It was about them being involved and those brothers all coming together like that. Hockey was just the way they showed their brother that they supported and loved him.”
My heart pounds harder in my chest.
Alex shakes his head. “I don’t know. There was just something about that that made me think that if the Revelers can bring Rebel together to have some fun and be together and can show people that Harley is the best choice for mayor because he cares about them enough to go all out and over-the-top…being a part of that could be cool.”
Oh…crap.
Not sleeping with this guy is going to beverydifficult. Because I really want to hug him. And hugging him will remind me of how good it feels to be up against him and how great he smells and how big his hands are. And that will make me want to kiss him and kissing him definitely makes it difficult to remember that I shouldn’t take my clothes off.
“You know,” I say softly. “I totally get what you said earlier about loving having hockey fans come up to you.”
