Page 56 of It's Mother-Pucking Christmas!

“I hope you have lots of carrots stocked for your new puck bunny!”

I turned on Erik, furious that he’d talk about Dakota,my future wife, like that.

The defenseman took a wary step away from me.

“All right, College Boy,” Pete murmured. “Save it for the game.”

I tried to calm my hackles.

“She’s not like that,” I spat at Erik.

“Okay, sure, man.”

“We’re going to get married.”

“Oof. Ryder.” Rick shook his head.

“No,” I said as Mike dragged me toward him and shoved me against the opposite wall in the hallway. “I swear I’m not delusional or making things weird.Shementioned marriagefirst. I think she loves me. She said she wanted to marry me.She said it.And now she wants to make us all breakfast.”

The door to the apartment opened. Dakota stuck her head out, toweling her hair. “You boys hungry?”

She looked at the jug of Canadian grade A maple syrup cradled in Erik’s arms. “You didn’t have to carry that over here. Ryder’s got some in the fridge.”

“Ryder’s fridge contains piss-flavored sugar water,” he said flatly.

“It’s Mrs. Butterworth’s,” Dakota scoffed. “Don’t do her like that.”

“You Americans are so crass.”

My teammates crushed through the doorway.

“Damn,” Dakota said when they were all crowded into the tiny kitchen. “Ryder, we gotta get you some better digs. This kitchen is too small.”

See?I tried to silently communicate to the guys.She’s already thinking about our future home.

Dakota tossed the wet towel over the door to the bedroom.

The guys all started in on her as Dakota deftly started mixing up a soupy batter.

“You need more flour in that,” Erik said.

“No, she doesn’t.”

“You didn’t go to culinary school, College Boy.”

“Neither did you, Canada,” Rick retorted.

“This is my grandmother’s recipe,” Dakota chirped. “Modified. She puts whiskey in hers.”

Erik made a strangled noise.

“So,” Mike said after a long awkward pause. “How was your date last night?”

I recognized the glint in Dakota’s eye from when she got into a fistfight with her own cousin at her family party two days ago.

“It was not a date,” I said loudly before Dakota could say something really uncouth.

“Buuut…” Rick said, eyes shifting from side to side. “But you guys…” He squinted.

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