Page 66 of The One Timer

“Lost my head.” She drops to the floor and I drag her into my room.

“I was kidding. You can call her Gran, or Molly or old lady or whatever the hell you want. You own her friendship. She loves you, Em. And I don’t blame her.”

Her golden eyes flicker up at me, and the grateful appreciation I see nearly buckles my knees. A heady mix of emotions gathers in me as I tug her by the hand to my bed and fall into it, holding her on top of me.

She laughs. “You really know how to take a girl on a roller coaster ride, don’t you?”

“We haven’t even started.”

Her eyes go glassy as she moves against my now stiff dick and I roll us over so I can stare down at her perfect face, one finger toying with a lock of her soft lush hair. Her dark lashes curtain her eyes as her lids get heavy, but not with sleep, with lust. I know the look. I love that look.

Jesus. “I want you so much, Em.”

“Then what are you waiting for, Chase?” Her voice teases me and sets me free from the dangerous knot of my emotions.

She’s up before me in the morning and dressed, sitting on the edge of my bed caressing my when my eyes open.

“Good morning sleepyhead. I have to leave in a minute, but I wanted to extend an invitation.”

I bring her in for a quick kiss and she laughs into my mouth. “I say yes. Whatever you’re inviting to I want to go.”

She sits up. “That’s great. Because we’re having an event at the rehab center and your presence has been requested by management. Thanks to Merry’s big mouth, I’m now known at the center as your gf and they’ve insisted that I invite you. Call it a special request. Call it a favor. If it wasn’t for the special request from the patients and staff, I wouldn’t ask.”

Fuck. How do I tell her hospital visits are the only events I don’t do? Never have in college or the short time I’ve been in the pros when we’ve been invited. I write a big fat check and let the others do the in-person shit.

But how can I say no to her without sounding like an asshole? Or without getting into the whole scene about my parents’ death. I shudder.

“You okay?”

“Fine.” I force a smile. “I’ll go. I’ll bring a couple of the guys with me.” The idea of dragging my guys with me calms my nerves. Because the idea of spending time in anything like a hospital setting turns my stomach.

She rewards me a smile that crinkles the corners of her sparkling eyes and my heart tumbles.

I’m late for the morning skate and coach Nash gives me a gnarly stare when I duck into the locker room attempting to go unnoticed. Fuck. Fifteen minutes late wouldn’t mean shit except for two things.

First, it’s not my first time. Second, I’m a rookie trying to prove myself. Third, all season I’ve arrived early, sometimes before everyone else and I’ve prided myself on giving it my all, so this arriving late shit stands out as abnormal behavior for me.

As I skate off the ice, dripping wet, Sabien flanks me.

“What’s up with you? Why were you late again? Lady troubles?”

“No trouble,” I say, but it’s my knee jerk response to deny any problem.

And clearly, I have a problem. My relationship with Emery is the difference, is the reason I’ve been showing up late, the reason I haven’t been consistently arriving early to practice for extra shooting drills or strength training. Fuck.

When we get in the locker room and start undressing I rip off my pads like they’re attacking me.

“What’s your problem?” Link says, walking by me wrapped in a towel on the way to the shower.

“Never mind him,” Sabien says. “He thinks everything is fine. He doesn’t know he’s in trouble. Female relationship trouble. Has the signs written all over him.”

I give him the finger, but I suck in a deep breath as his point slams me like a check to the boards in the corner.

“Maybe he thinks hockey isn’t as important as his girlfriend,” Link says, with a challenging stare.

“Fuck you. I’m committed to the team. I can have both. Look at all these married guys. Go give them this bullshit.”

“He has a point,” Jason says, sitting down next to me. “But they haven’t changed their routine half way through the season.” He knows something about balancing relationships although his love life seems to be on-again off-again with the most inappropriate woman there is for a Whaler’s player—the owner.