Page 11 of Love on the Ice

REID

“We have tickets for the next home game. Think we should invite the girls?” Otto asks.

We’re all sitting around on the sectional sofa, a combination of coffee, energy drinks, and chips littering the table in front of us. I imagine Lorelai behind the glass, her eyes on me as I make the winning shot.

Fuck.

I should not be thinking about that. About her like that. I don’t even know her, but I want to get to know her—all of her. I want to see her across the street and take her out for a meal that makes her hungry. I want to strip her naked and kiss every part of her body.

I want her.

One look into her eyes, seeing the sadness and determination in her gaze, and I want to get to know her better. I want to make that sadness disappear. I want her to look at me and crave me as much as I already do her.

“Yeah,” I state, standing to my feet. “I’ll deliver them.”

Otto’s gaze swings to me, his eyes wide. “Okay,” he says, his voice wary.

“I don’t mind. We have them on paper, right?”

He hums. “We do. I’ll get them.”

Something hits me on the shoulder, and I turn my head, looking behind me, and see Forrest laughing. “You are totally into that girl,” he states.

“I want to know more,” I admit the truth.

I’m not scared of liking a girl. Just because I’ve never seriously dated anyone doesn’t mean I don’t want to. I’m at a really good place in my career, and as long as she doesn’t demand too much time from me, it could be fun to live across the street from someone I was seeing.

“Nothing wrong with that,” Alexei says. “They’re all gorgeous over there. Although, the one leaving for real food has my vote.”

I laugh because he’s not wrong. Otto appears and slips an envelope into my hand. It’s got the tickets inside, and I lift them in the air, waving them to the room before I leave the house. Nobody follows me. I don’t need them to. Not sure what the women will say or how this is going to make any of them feel. I don’t want mixed signals, but I want Lorelai at my game.

I want to look over and see her there watching me, big eyes, lips parted as she watches me play like a beast.

Wearing black jogger pants, slides, and a white T-shirt, I jog across the street, making my way to their front porch. I lift my hand, extend my finger, and touch the doorbell. The sound echoes around me, and I look down at the envelope, wondering if this is stupid as hell.

I don’t know why I have the desire to see her in the stands, but I do, and now I can’t get it out of my head. The sight of her bundled up, wearing a Carolina Fury jersey with my number and name on the back, makes my cock twitch.

She’d look phenomenal with Tillman plastered across her back.

The door opens, and the woman herself stands in front of me, eyes wide and lips parted. “Reid,” she exhales.

“Hey,” I greet, rocking back on my heels.

“Thought you girls might want to come to a game,” I murmur, holding the envelope out toward her.

I watch as she hesitantly reaches forward, wrapping her fingers around the envelope, her eyes flicking down as she slips it from my hand. Her teeth sink into her bottom lip, her eyes round as she lifts them to meet mine.

“Are these tickets?” she asks in a whisper.

“They are, on the glass. We get them every so often for family. None of us has anyone coming this time, so we figured you girls might like to check it out.”

Lorelai flicks her gaze down to the envelope again, then back up to meet mine. “Wow, the girls will love it.”

“And you?” I ask, looking directly into her gaze.

I hear her breath hitch, her eyes searching mine. “I have a lot of studying for my test,” she murmurs.

“I would really like to have you there, Lore.”

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