Page 14 of Conner

Once she made it to the center, she had managed to shake the panicky feeling the dream had left her with and focused on the family skate. Sasha didn't know why she felt so nervous, knowing how to skate wasn't a prerequisite to be good at social media, but she really wanted to prove herself, especially to Conner.

She had this vision of just skating right past him with his mouth on the ground because he thought she couldn't skate. Then he would tell her he was sorry for not taking her job seriously because she was clearly talented at many things. She would just smirk and skate away, but then he would go after her and wrap his arms around her and he would turn her and kiss her.

Woah. That was not what she should be thinking about any of the players, let alone Conner.

She was the first one there lacing up her skates.

Coach Wagner came out next to her, “Sasha, isn't it?”

“Yes sir,” she said, putting out her hand to shake his.

“My daughter tells me you are really improving the Magic's social media.”

“I’m trying,” she said with a smile.

“Well, welcome to the family. That's what we are here,” he said as they both stepped out onto the ice. He stepped out like it was nothing, just as easy as walking. Sasha was pleased that she was able to appear relatively natural next to him.

The first family on the ice was Gunnar Tyson, his beautiful wife, and their six-year-old son and little three-year-old daughter on skates. The image sent little twinges to Sasha's ovaries. This was perfect. She started getting some pictures and taking a few short videos. Before long the ice was getting full of big hockey players skating around with kids.

She was busy taking a video of Ethan, a giant goalie stooping down pulling along a little girl with blonde pigtails, perfect. She got a picture of two little girls in skates sitting on a bench eating popcorn. She had her head down reviewing footage when she heard someone approaching her. Conner McPhee. Her eyes rolled at the same time her heart skipped a beat. He just seemed to put her off balance, and she also wanted to kiss the serious look off his face. And that maybe irritated her more than anything about him.

“Hey, look at you on skates,” he said with a smile skating up to her.

“Yeah, I can stay up,” she said. At that moment, because the universe loved a cruel joke, as she pushed off trying to show off her newly acquired skating skills, she lost her footing. She must have looked like a cartoon character doing the foot shuffle slipping on ice, until Conner reached out and grabbed her.

He grabbed one of her hands and slid his arm around her waist, holding her to his chest. Her whole body pulsed being pressed up against his. She looked up into his hazel eyes and the air around them was electric. Her lips parted and she took in a quick breath. He took a deep breath, still holding her pressed against his body. She was just about to explode.

“Ya okay?” he breathed, his eyes never leaving hers, his arms still wrapped around her.

She just nodded and tried to steady herself enough to skate on her own.

“Thanks, I just lost my footing,” she said breathlessly, still looking in his eyes. Then something happened she didn't expect, Conner smiled. He was always so serious around her, but that smile sent a wave of electricity through her. And she couldn't help smiling back at him.

At that moment Gunnar skated over to her, “Hey, Sasha?” he asked.

“Yep,” she answered, pulling herself away from Conner.

“My wife asked me if you could email me some of the pictures you took today.”

“Of course! I can get them to you later today.”

“Thank you so much,” he said before he skated away.

Conner was still standing next to her, and she wished that didn't feel so good.

“So, you've been here about a month, how are you liking it?” he asked.

“I really like it,” she said.

“I’m glad. Are you from the area?” he asked.

“Nope, I'm from Illinois.” Was Conner McPhee actually being nice to her? This was the most she had ever spoken to him, and she wasn't hating it.

“Oh wow, I went to college in Indiana. I like the Midwest. How long have you been here?”

“About five weeks.”

“Oh really? That's not long.”

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