Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 105697 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105697 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
The next few hours go by quickly—thankfully, with no additional blindsides or bullshit. Everyone puts their heads down and does their job. By the end of practice, I’m slightly more hopeful that we can create some semblance of an actual team before we take the ice against an opponent.
I hang around the bench until everyone else has gone to the locker room, then grab my stick and a puck. It’s my favorite time of the workday. With the arena quiet and my body calm after a blistering practice, I have the place to myself. I missed having the warm-up before practice because I had to run a few errands. Important, but it stole the time I like to put in prior to dealing with others.
This is where champions are made. It’s where you get ahead. Working on the basics, creating muscle memory—putting in time when everyone else is relaxing. This is the time that matters.
I work on a few shots that gave me a bit of trouble today and kill another hour. It’s one hour less I’ll have at home, missing Summer.
Fuck, I miss her.
I miss the way she laughs at the most random things and the way her smile lights up my insides. I crave her touch, kisses, the taste of her tongue first thing in the morning. Every day without her feels off. Unbalanced. Incomplete. Less in every way.
I just . . . I love her.
“Screw this,” I mutter, heading for the tunnel. I need to hear her voice. In reality, I need to see her, to touch her, but hearing her voice will have to suffice.
But just as I turn toward the exit, it’s not the mouth of the tunnel that catches my eye. It’s the woman in the stands just to the right of it.
Ten rows up.
Summer stands.
My speed slows and a smile stretches across my face. She’s here? As if she sensed the desperation I’ve been feeling.
She comes running down the steps to the edge of the tunnel and leans over. “Can I have your autograph, Maverick?” she teases.
Setting my stick against the wall, I chuckle. “I can do you one better.” I pull off my gloves, dropping them on the floor and dumping my helmet right after.
I missed that smile shining for me like I’m the only one in the world deserving of its light.
“Oh yeah?” she asks, grinning. “What’s that?”
“I’ll show you.”
Planting that fine ass of hers on the ledge, she swings her legs over. “You got me?”
“I got you.” I’ll always have you, Sunshine. She hops into my arms, and I turn, heading back onto the ice. “Hold on.” Wrapping her legs around my center, she loops her arms around my neck.
Her giggle melts me. Having her in my arms knocks a weight that I’ve been carrying across my shoulders onto the rink. For a few moments, at least, my world is righted on its axis. Complete.
“What are we doing, babe?” she asks.
“Babe? I like that.” I grin at her, still not believing my own eyes. “Just thought I’d take you for a spin.”
She caresses my face, her thumb running under my eye where a bruise is healing. She places a kiss there. “I don’t like this.”
“Part of the game.”
“I still don’t like it.” She looks at me, her eyes soft at the edges. “I missed you. A lot.” In a heated crush, her lips find mine.
The lights in the arena seem to fade, and the sound of my skates cutting through the ice grows distant. It’s just my girl and me together like it should always be.
Far too soon, she pulls away. “I needed that.”
“I need much more than that.” I kiss her again. “Let me get changed, and I’ll show you all you’ve missed.”
Her smile falters. “I can’t.”
I flinch, pulling away to see more of her face. What does she mean she can’t? She drove all this way. “Surely, you’re coming home with me, right?”
“I have about ten minutes before my car gets towed,” she says, then catches herself. “Fall’s car, actually. If it hasn’t already.”
“What are you talking about?”
She sighs. “My car is still out of commission, so I borrowed Fall’s. But she has an overnight shift at the hospital, so I promised her that I would be back before then. But I couldn’t find parking since the arena garage is closed. So I parked in a loading and unloading zone at the end of the block. Her eyes widen. “I probably need to go.”
“You came here for a kiss?” I ask, confused. Not that I’m mad about it, but it seems like a little wild decision . . . even for Summer.
“No. I came here to give you something.”
I skate back to the tunnel and set her back on her feet. “They have delivery companies these days, you know.”