Page 74 of Head Over Skates

Idrag myself into the Blizzard Dome gym on my day off, dreading this lame touchy-feely team building nonsense the coaches have cooked up. I’d rather spend the day loving on Emily, buying her things, taking her anywhere she wants to eat. We haven’t had a real date, well, ever. Instead, I gotta sit in a circle with the guys, sharing our feelings, or whatever hippie bonding rituals the coaches have planned. They insisted it was necessary after the whole trophy scandal, to "reunite" and "be in agreement" or some crap like that. As if holding hands singing Kumbaya is going to magically bring us all together.

The only bright spot is that Emily came with me this morning, since I've put my foot down about letting her stay at her apartment alone while Creepy Cody is still lurking around.

I glance at Emily sitting in the PT room, watching us through the glass, laptop open, probably working on a new blog post for Blades After Dark. She glances up and gives me a little wave and a smirk that says she knows exactly how much I don't wanna be here. I roll my eyes and mouth "save me" dramatically. She just laughs and goes back to typing.

At one point, the assistant coach suggests we all say one nice thing about the person to our left. I get stuck complimenting O'Malley's calf muscles.

After an excruciating hour of trust falls and leading each other around in blindfolds, Coach finally sets us free. I make a beeline for Emily, who's now packing up her stuff to leave.

"How was the lovefest?" Emily asks as I approach.

"Oh, it was delightful. We braided each other’s hair and made friendship bracelets," I deadpan. “Hendrix even let me borrow his scrunchy.”

Emily laughs. I love her laugh.

"So, what should we do on our day off?" I ask. Emily bites her lip as she thinks about it, the simple action driving me crazy. I want to kiss her so badly, but the rest of the team is filtering out of the gym right now.

She scrunches her nose adorably in thought. "Hmm, not sure yet. Maybe we could catch a movie? Or there's that new exhibit at the ROM I've been wanting to see."

She wants to go to a museum on her day off? I press a hand on her lower back and try to get away from the stampede of the guys bolting through the PT room to get the heck away from each other. As we walk far enough down the hallway away from prying eyes, I gently grab her wrist and pull her in close. "I missed you today," I murmur before kissing her softly. Emily laughs between each caress of my lips on hers.

“I’ve been less than fifty feet from you the whole morning.”

“I missed you just the same. After an hour of dudes falling into my arms, I’m gonna need some physical decompression. Preferably involving your lips.

I lean down and capture her mouth again. She sighs into the kiss, sending tendrils of awareness down my spine. Her lips are so soft and she tastes like sugar.

“Mmm. Delicious. What have you been eating?”

“Somebody brought in a box of Tim Bits.”

Heaven. I can’t remember the last time I ate a donut. I take another taste before trailing my way down the column of her neck, sprinkling hot kisses all over her skin. One hand cradles the back of her head while the other presses against the small of her back, drawing her closer.

“I have an idea,” I say, nibbling at her earlobe. “And I’m just spitballing here… we can go back to my place and practice some of the bonding activities I learned today. But with fewer clothes.”

Her whole body shivers, and I think for a moment she might slide into a puddle on the floor, but then she playfully shoves my chest. “How about somewhere very, very public where we’ll be forced to behave? Like… the Distillery District. I haven't been in a while.”

That sounds a thousand hundred percent less exciting than having Emily all to myself. But in all honesty, I’d go anywhere as long as she’s with me and I can call her mine.

"What's in the Distillery District?" I ask.

"Cute shops, galleries, restaurants," Emily lists off excitedly. "There's an old whiskey distillery you can tour, too."

I like whiskey. But I can’t drink until after we win championships. Plus, I try to avoid places where the fans might recognize me, especially after the Memorial Cup fiasco.

“Hmmm. Sounds touristy.”

She perks up with a new idea. “Oh I know! What time does Cyrus get off school? We can take him to the Science Center.”

“He would love that.” And I love Emily for suggesting it. As much as I’d love Cyrus to take after me and play hockey, I’m over the moon proud to have a brainiac brother. Science is his jam. Who cares about getting recognized? I’ll wear an ugly hat or something.

I take the opportunity to steal another kiss, cupping my hands behind her jaw, brushing my thumb across her cheek… slow and tender.

I love you.The words are practically dripping from my lips as I kiss her. I want to tell her out loud. I want to sweep her in my arms and wife her up right now. But I’m afraid I might spook her so early in our relationship.

Once I part from her, I brush a loose strand of hair from her face. “Question. Are we still doing thefriends-with-benefits-that-aren’t-really-benefitsthing?” I ask. “Because this feels an awful lot like we’re dating now. Just sayin’.”

She opens that beautiful mouth to respond, but then, Nancy Lambert power walks by and spots us.

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