Page 20 of Power Plays & Proposals

"I haven’t been back yet. Work and bills make it hard, although I suppose I have the time now."

His gaze dropped and he looked at his shoes. I'd made things awkward. Just another reason I couldn't get a boyfriend, and another thing to tell Charlotte if we ever had the girls’ night she'd brought up.

"I don’t see my family much either. Erin always changes when I can get Penelope. Makes it hard to travel to see them."

"Where do they live?" I asked.

"Minnesota."

The pause between us lengthened. I shifted on my feet uncomfortably.

Turning away from him I spotted my melting ice cream and the drippy mess it had created on the conference table.

"I'm so sorry!" I blurted out. Guilt eating at me that I'd wasted so much food after Nate had been so thoughtful to get it for me. "Are there napkins somewhere? I'll clean it up."

Hannah waved her hand. "I'll get someone to take care of it. Nate, you need to get to warm ups. Lia why don't you and Penelope follow me to the suite."

Nate checked his phone, and after a quick 'thanks' to Hannah and a nod at me, he was out the door.

I turned back to Hannah "Are you sure there isn't something I can use to clean this up?"

"This is nothing compared to what the stadium will look like after the game." She threw a glance at Penelope's take-out container with smears of ice cream. "Penelope are you still hungry?"

Penelope smiled innocently before saying hopefully, "For Glacier Berry Ice cream?"

Hannah rolled her eyes. "I was thinking Glacier nachos."

Penelope pumped a fist and did a little dance before snatching up her stuff. She was too busy drawing to eat much lasagna at Charlie’s before we left.

"I think that's a yes," I said to Hannah.

"Good thing. I don't think Nate wants a kid with a stomach ache on top of everything else."

"Well those nachos must be epic."

Penelope nodded excitedly. "They're the best. The chips look like little mountains, and they have the best gooey cheese."

Hannah shrugged. "There's a reason we sold out of them opening night."

Turned out we didn't need to take the elevator or stairs to go to the suite. We just had to walk to a different side of the arena.

As we followed the rounded edge I wondered to myself if it was considered a corner. I made a mental note to look it up online later.

Hannah guided Penelope and me into a private suite that had a security guard standing outside of it. A large TV took up the right wall behind a bar topped with white marble. Staff members were busy putting out food as we walked by. A black leather couch took up the left wall so anyone could comfortably watch the TV if they didn't want to look down at the ice. Not that the seats facing the ice were the hard plastic stadium seats that lined the rest of the arena. No, the only thing they had in common was that the bottom half of the seat could be folded down, otherwise these seats were covered in thick padding and leather that matched the couch. The team's logo was also embossed into the back of the seat.

The jumbotron that hung above the center of the rink was right in front of us and had a disclaimer about pucks going over the plexiglass.

"Does that happen often?" I asked Hannah as I pointed to the sign.

She shrugged. "Sometimes, but we have medics on standby if they're needed."

Well, that's not alarming at all. I thought to myself.

"Help yourself to anything in here. It's the team's suite, so we keep it stocked with the regular favorites. I've put in an order for nachos, but it'll be a little bit before it gets up here."

"You have to try the hot chocolate on a stick," Penelope told me. "It's the best drink here."

"It really is," Hannah agreed as she pointed to the end of the bar with lots of alcohol-free drink options. Tea, coffee, milk, juice, there was even a freestyle drink machine that let us pick our flavor combinations. "The coffee, hot water, and hot milk kettles are right here so be careful when you pour."

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