Page 94 of Breakaway

We watch Ryan take a shot and cheer, but the goalie swallows it up. I sip my soda. “You’re coming back, right?”

“Soon as we win the Frozen Four,” Cooper promises.

“Good. I miss you over there.” I give Blake a sideways look, but he doesn’t seem bothered by the mushiness. Apparently, he remembers Cooper as the player he used to be—high school Cooper was even more wild than college Cooper, not that I’m sure I believe it—and he couldn’t believe when Cooper told him he was going to meet his girlfriend. Blake has been witty, hilarious without trying to be, and quite the flirter as well; he shamelessly chatted up a woman at the concession stand and winked when her husband came to collect her. It’s no wonder that Cooper missed his presence in his life, especially with how strait-laced his dad is. Sebastian told me the other day that he approves of our relationship, but Cooper hasn’t been in the mood to talk about his father, so I haven’t mentioned it. His family’s foundation is having a gala—that’s the word he used, gala, like we were suddenly in a royal fantasy court—next month, and I’m already bracing myself for the awkwardness.

“Penny,” Blake says, “don’t you agree Cooper could sign with a team tomorrow and kick half the league’s asses?”

“Probably.” My stomach does a somersault at the thought of Cooper leaving me to go play in the NHL. I’ve already thought about the fact he is going to graduate a year ahead of me. Long distance for a year while he’s off in some city, possibly across the country or even in Canada, is going to suck, however necessary it’ll be. The thought of giving him up sucks even worse, after all. “But there’s no rush. Right?”

“Right,” Cooper says, giving his uncle a narrow-eyed look.

“Just wanted to make sure she knows what a stud you are,” Blake says. He rubs at his beard, giving me a roguish sort of grin. I can’t help but blush. “Besides, she gets it. Right, Penny? Coach for a dad and all.”

“Yeah.” I refocus on the game, where Ryan is on the ice again and showing off his ever-growing skills. Cooper was like that once, tiny but fierce. I was too. It’s silly to think about, because he was in New York while I was in Arizona when we were around Ryan’s age, but what if we met as kids? Would we have liked each other? I have the sudden image of a little Cooper challenging me to a race on skates. He’d be in a hockey sweater and pads, his blue eyes shining, and I’d be in leg warmers and a leotard, my hair in a bun instead of loose around my shoulders. I was shy when I was little, and something tells me I’d have had a little-kid crush on Cooper so huge I wouldn’t have been able to talk around him.

Now he’s the man I’m dangerously close to falling for, and while his future is in the NHL, there’s no part of me that wants it to come early, even if he could technically try.

“If his own father isn’t going to brag about him, someone has to,” Blake adds. He nudges Cooper’s side. “One day, that little buddy of yours down on the ice will be wearing your sweater.”

Cooper’s smile isn’t his usual one—no wide grin, no bravado. Just softness. My heart melts, and things don’t get much better on that front when Ryan runs off the ice at the end of the game a couple minutes later and throws his arms around Cooper’s waist.

“Did you see the whole thing?” he asks excitedly. “Even my goal?”

“Every moment, buddy,” Cooper says. He takes Ryan’s helmet off and ruffles his sweaty hair. “Where’s your mom? Let’s talk to her about me finding a time to help you work on stick handling.”

Chapter 52

Cooper

It’s pouring by the time we get back from Pine Ridge, and somehow, in the dash from my truck to the door, we manage to get soaked to the bone. I’m shivering uncontrollably. The moment we get inside my house, I push Penny against the door, kissing her so deeply I taste the sugar on her tongue. She’s chilly like me, but at least there are sparks in the way our breath washes over each other. She wraps her arms around my neck, tugging me even closer; I’ve been with her long enough to know that means she wants my full weight on her. My cock is responding. It stirred when she whispered those filthy things in my ear right before we went to Ryan’s game, and now that’s all rushing back. I oblige her, pressing her right up against the door, my leg between hers. I push her coat off her shoulders and unwind the scarf from her neck, and I’m just about to tug down her sweater for a glimpse of her tits when someone coughs.

Penny’s eyes widen. “Cooper!” she whispers, hitting my arm.

I groan, turning around. Sebastian, Rafael, and Hunter are on the couch, jostling each other as they play a video game. Victoria is sitting on the loveseat; Remmy’s stretched out on it, his head in her lap. Izzy is on the floor with Tangy, reading a book—or at least she was, until she spotted us.

“You couldn’t do that in the car?” she drawls. “Or, I don’t know, your room?”

“Why are all of you here?”

“Believe it or not, we have lives that don’t always involve you,” Sebastian says. He glances over for half a second. “You hungry? I made stew.”

“It was fucking great stew,” Hunter says. He doesn’t take his eyes off the game; he’s concentrating so hard his tongue is poking out of the corner of his mouth.

“The way he toasted the sourdough? Perfection,” Rafael chimes in.

Remmy waves. “Hey, Coop,” he says. “I’m guessing Pen’s there somewhere behind the wall of muscle, so hi, Penny.”

“Hey,” Penny says as she runs her fingers through her wet hair. “Stew sounds, um, great, Sebastian, thanks.”

“Later,” I add. “We have something to take care of first.”

“Sure,” Izzy says exaggeratedly. “Don’t be too loud.”

Penny pouts. “I really would like stew,” she says. “At least stew is hot.”

I tug her upstairs. “I have a better idea for warming you up.”

When she sees that I’m taking her to the bathroom, not my room, the lingering hesitation on her face slips away. She grins, kissing me as soon as we click the door shut.

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