He shrugged. “The guys can manage without me. They get that work stuff comes up. And Chance is the team captain, so he knows the deal.”
“But…” She bit her lip.
David nudged her. “What?”
“Can we go? I’d like to see you play, and it would be great to get out for a while.”
“Yeah? You guys like hockey?”
“We’re Canadian,” Reese said, deadpan.
Mati rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. Don’t even try that. You hardly gave a damn until recently.” She grinned at David. “Now he’s an addict. He’s all about drinking cheap beer, eating giant pretzels, and shouting himself hoarse every chance he gets—and that’s just when he’s watching at home. You should see him at the games.”
“Really?” David drawled, seeing Reese in a whole new light.
“Well, I do get a little worked up.”
Mati snorted. “You once threw a pair of reading glasses at a ref.”
David cracked up. “Youdidn’t."
“It was a lapse in judgment,” Reese allowed.
“Hodges certainly thought so, since they werehisglasses,” Mati said.
David tried to picture Reese losing his shit at the hockey game. “I’d like to see that.”
“You’ll have to come to a Cats game with us,” Mati said.
“That’s your home team?” He didn’t point out the chances he’d ever see a game in Nova Scotia were infinitesimally small.
For some reason, Reese looked uncomfortable. “Oh, uh, sort of.”
Mati rolled her eyes again. “That’s the team he owns.”
David blinked. “Youowna hockey team?”
“I do. Well, a quarter of a team,” Reese said. “The Moncton Ice Cats.”
“Huh.” Because what the hell did you say to that? “So, you guys don’t mind if I play?”
“As long as it won’t make a lot of work for you and Chance,” Reese said.
“We can get coverage. Some of the McCormick guys who don’t play hockey come to watch anyway.”
“Great,” Reese said.
David smiled, alarmed and pleased at the same time. He honestly had no idea what the fuck he was doing, but he knew he wanted to keep doing it. He didn’t want this to end. Not yet. Not by a long shot.
Which was going to be a trick, since they were fromCanada, for Christ’s sake.
Chapter Fifteen
David’s kitchen suited him, from the copper hood above the oven, to the warm, dark wood cabinets, all the way down to the tumbled porcelain tiles on the floor. There was enough counter space—not counting the high breakfast bar—for four people to work simultaneously, and David utilized every inch. Reese enjoyed watching him, particularly when he got lost in the tasks before him, working on several things at once without a single recipe to be found anywhere.
Mati made a frustrated noise beside Reese.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
