Page 42 of The Sweet Spot

“You are internet famous,” Wolseley said, planting a cup of black coffee in front of me. “Or rather, Vancouver viral.” She laughed at her little joke, and I rolled my eyes and grinned.

“I see pics from last night are making the rounds.”

“Yup. Jill already called me to ask if I put you up to it. I said you enjoyed your time without any coaxing from me.”

She looked so happy, and it made me feel good. I liked to see her happy, and after whatever had gone down with Tangi, ithad been a long time since she’d had a good time. I’d had a fun time too. I knew people would be talking about it, and if any of the guys gave me grief, I’d have a long talk with them. My locker room had a zero-tolerance policy on bullshit.

Dealing with my dad, on the other hand … He’d already sent texts that I hadn’t bothered to read and already deleted.

“I had a blast.”

“I know you did. You were right in on the action. Maybe we need to get you a stage name, find you an outfit, get you some dance lessons because your moves last night were pretty awful.”

I loved the ribbing because it made her laugh even more, to the point that she hummed along as she plated my two eggs, toast with almond butter that she made herself, bacon, and a protein shake. She’d gotten into the habit of making me more interesting ones, which I appreciated. This morning, it was strawberry and kiwi.

“Funny, I didn’t see any of your moves last night.”

“You should have asked me to dance.”

She winked at me with that smile and those dimples, and that’s when it hit. It hit me so fucking hard that I had to stop eating. I took a second to swallow, then I had a sip of coffee.

“Hey, are you okay?” she asked, reaching out to touch my hand. “Was something not good?”

I closed my eyes, suddenly wanting to reach out and grab her hand, but no, I couldn’t. What the hell was happening to me? And then the feeling was gone, and I was relieved. I opened my eyes and smiled.

“It’s all good. The food is great. It was just something I thought about and realized I need to take care of.”

Yup, a lie was good here.

I finished up breakfast faster than I would have liked, then headed to my room to get ready for practice. I’d just gottensome stuff together when Wolseley started yelling my name. In a panic, I met her in the hallway. Her eyes were opened wide, and I couldn’t tell if she was going to give me good news or bad.

“Jan just emailed me! Daniel has settled and won’t be coming after me. Jan has also made him sign an NDA and accept responsibility for his actions! She said that while people could still sue me, she thinks it’s all meritless and that I shouldn’t worry. This is finally over! I can’t believe how quickly she got this done.”

Her hands were balled into fists because she was so excited. I thought she might start jumping up and down, but instead, she hugged me, thanking me over and over again.

She smelled sweet today, almost like honey and lavender. And her hair was so soft as it grazed my cheek. Fuck me.

“That’s great,” I said, breaking the embrace.

“And I owe it all to you. I’m going to insist on paying Jan something. I can’t ask her to do all this work pro bono. And now that I’m making more money, I can afford it.”

I’d have to email Jan before I left for the arena and tell her to accept something from Wolseley so she’d let the issue of payment for services go.

“Good idea,” I said.

She then got up on tiptoes to kiss my cheek. I grasped onto her at that moment, all five foot three of her, and didn’t let her go. I then turned to kiss her full pink lips. I must have stunned her at first, but in a split second, she was kissing me back. I didn’t care that it was a stupid thing to do. I wanted to kiss her, and that’s what I did.

She broke the kiss first, but she didn’t back away. We stood there for a few seconds, her feet planted back on the ground. I saw a hint of a smile, and then she nodded as if having some silent conversation with herself.

“I should get back to work. Delia will be here soon. I’ll see you later?”

She didn’t sound upset, so that was a plus.

“Right. Later.”

As expected, the guys gave me grief, but they also kept it professional. First, I think they were worried they couldn’t joke around with me about it because I wasn’t the type of guy you hung out with for laughs. On that, they were wrong, but I guess I’d never shown that side of me. Second, I made it clear that the Kodiaks locker room was a place for tolerance, and while I’m sure many of them acted like assholes outside the locker room, they sure as hell weren’t doing that inside it.

Ryan caught up with me after practice, and by then, I was over talking about drag queens and my dancing skills, but Ryan had other things to discuss. Namely, Wolseley. I’d been thinking about our kiss all morning, and damn, I hoped I hadn’t spooked her. Her smile told me I hadn’t. But what next? Did we both pretend it didn’t happen, or something else?

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