Page 44 of Score Her Heart

“I’m from Minnesota; it's kind of not a choice!”

“Oh, I almost forgot!” Brad exclaimed and reached down into his bag to pull out a paperback book. He handed it to me, and I nearly peed myself with laughter at the cover with the half-naked man with ice skates in his hand. “My wife really liked this one and thought you might like it.”

“Oh yeah, I think I read the first one in this series. They are very steamy.”

Brad smiled. “I’ve met Ruby a couple times. She does the whole self-pub thing.”

I thought about doing the self-pub thing before, and despite what people said about it being easier, it was not. You had all the control, which was great, but also bad because you were in charge of everything yourself. It was a lot of work. I didn’t think I was built for that.

I peered at the name on the cover in interest and flipped to the back, where a brunette in cat-eye glasses stared back at me.

Katie’s eyes sparkled. “I know! You should write a steamy romance book next!”

Brad had his agent face on. “You could do it under a pen name if you want; it might be a good idea.”

“Hmmm…I don’t know. But I will definitely enjoy reading this,” I said evenly. I finished the rest of my beer and took it into the bin in the kitchen. “You guys okay to drive?” I asked.

I didn’t have a car because I never needed one with public transportation, even though SEPTA was reliably unreliable. Just because I didn’t drive didn’t mean I didn’t want my friends to get home safe.

“I’ll take an UBER,” Katie assured me.

“You sure? I mean, we do have a bed in the office if you want it,” I suggested. Katie’s apartment in Mt. Airy was a bit of a hike from Center City, and I worried about her being alone at night.

“I’ll drive you home,” Brad offered. Brad didn’t drink, so I knew he was okay to go.

“Oh, no, it’s out of your way,” she said.

“Katie, take the ride. Mt. Airy isn’t that far from Chestnut Hill. Thanks, Brad.”

Brad gave me a thumbs up, and he helped me clean up. I hugged both of them goodbye and thanked them for coming over. Brad was right, I did need to relax, and then I could work on my book with fresh eyes tomorrow.

I put away the leftover pizza and changed into pajamas. I then parked myself on the couch with the sports news channel still on while I dived into the very sexy book that Brad’s wife had recommended. She always had the best tastes in the smuttiest romances. I freaking loved it.

Chapter Fourteen

RILEY

I had hoped I would see Fi before leaving for the game, but she was nowhere to be found when I came home for my pre-game nap. I had slid into bed late last night, and she had curled into my side, but then I had to get up early for morning skate. Leaving my bed warm with her next to me had been torture.

I wanted to give her space, but I also really wanted to talk to her. I still felt like maybe I trapped her in this marriage by proposing to give me a couple months to prove to her it was worth it. At the same time, I was hopelessly in love with her, and I wanted her to feel that way about me too.

How did you woo the woman you were already married to? And hopelessly in love with?

It had only been a couple days since I last saw her, but damn did I miss that woman. I didn’t question what work thing she was doing but instead suited up for my game. I drove myself to the arena but walked in with Hallsy. We fist-bumped each other and then went our separate ways to start our pre-game rituals. I taped and re-taped my stick three times before it was time to get dressed. I dressed in my particular weird order, saving my jersey for last, always. I heard the music from down the tunnel and was ready to get out on the ice.

I shut my brain off from thoughts about Fi and focused on the game. I visualized skating backward to block the puck and being on the breakaway while I took practice shots on Metzy during warm-ups. I felt good, and we were coming off a win, so we had a loose feeling to our game. That didn’t mean the pressure wasn’t on, though. We all felt like every game needed to be played like a playoff game. It would all be worth it in the end if we could climb out of the bottom of the standings to secure that wild card spot. I had my doubts, though, because I had been studying the stats religiously. It didn’t look good for us.

The game started, and I got my head into it, thinking about nothing but getting the puck on my stick and protecting the slot in front of Metzy. I took to the ice on the first shift change and watched Noah take the face-off while I backed him up and trash-talked the opposing defenseman. I was ready for this game to be a battle.

I was an offensive defenseman. I was good at protecting the net and blocking shots, but I also knew when to get up in my opponent’s zone. It was all good because my defensive partner Jonesy played his game close to the old-school blueliner way. He was a stay at home defensemen, so when I rushed the net, he knew to cover the other end of the zone. We worked well together, but I had to admit his game had been a little off lately. I wasn’t sure what that was about; Jonesy usually had his shit together. We were gonna need to spend more time reviewing tape together this week, but I couldn’t think about that right now. I had to focus on the task at hand.

I eyed the opposing defenseman while Noah took the next face-off in their zone. Noah’s face-off skills were legit; it also helped that he had Benny and TJ on his wings tonight. Noah won the draw and went to the net. He flicked the puck back to me to distract our opponents; I took the shot without hesitating and scrambled as it hit the post. Benny fought in the trapezoid with our opponent, and as if graced by the hockey gods themselves, he scored the wraparound goal.

The siren sounded, and the red light lit up behind the net while the goalie threw down his stick in annoyance. Ha! Goalies were the weirdest guy on the team.

Benny skated right over to me and threw me into a great big hug. I returned it, cheering and excited that we scored the first goal of the game. It was going to be a good game; I could feel it.

I looked up into the stands and saw the spot where all the WAGs usually sat together. Noah’s girl Dinah was cheering with Hallsy’s girl Mia. I waved and smiled at them as I headed towards the bench.