Page 18 of Miami Ice

“Christ,” he mumbles, rubbing his hand across his face, “youarefreaking Christmas Sparkle.”

“I am.”

He rolls his eyes and focuses on the menu. But I keep my gaze on him, this stranger in front of me, my brain working in overdrive.

I’m going to assume he’s happy when he’s on the ice and playing hockey. I know he’s happy when he’s partying, and well, and I don’t want to think about how happy he must be when he’s hooking up.

Ew.

But he needsjoyin other things.

And although I can’t explain why, I feel determined to help him find it.

Chapter Six

“What’s the meaning behind your tattoos?”

Beckham furrows his brow. The server has just walked away after taking our orders for dinner, and it was, oh, about three seconds before I asked my first question.

“Why?”

“You really don’t know how to date, do you?”

His eyes take on a wicked gleam. “I’ve never had to know how. Dates are completely unnecessary.”

I bet they are in your world, I think wryly.

“And this is a business meeting, Cupcake,” he says, his mouth drawing upward in a triumphant smile. “Not a date.”

Now I’m the one frowning, because he’s right. Sofia might have called it a date, but it’s a business meeting.

“Okay, yes, I’ll give you that one b—”

“How gracious of you.”

“You’re going to make this impossible, aren’t you?”

“Are you annoyed?”

“No, why would I be annoyed?”

Beckham leans back in his chair, studying me with an intense gaze. “Forget Christmas Sparkle. You’re Christmas Sunshine, aren’t you?”

“Beckham! Do you realize how many tropes we’re hitting?!” I say as an idea goes through my head. I begin to tick things offon my fingers. “We’re fake dating—of course, nobody will know that. But we’re grumpy/sunshine and the athlete trope. People are going to eat up our romance! And it’s a Christmas romance, too. When I melt your heart—”

“With a pink Christmas tree,” he adds, rolling along with my script.

“Yes!” I say, grinning. “When I melt your heart with a pink Christmas tree and cookies with sprinkles and tours of light displays in Miami, social media is going to be all about our romance.”

The Swiftie playlist in my head switches. “You need to listen to Taylor Swift’s ‘End Game,’” I blurt out, as I often talk in my stream of conscious. “That can be our song.”

“How did we go from a pink Christmas tree to a Taylor Swift song?”

“Would you keep up?” I tease. “We have to have a song.”

“A song? For a month of fake dating?”

“Well, yes, for our Connectivity Story Share videos. We can use that as our music. We should pick a Christmas song, too. I could go with ‘All I Want for Christmas is You.’”

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