Page 10 of Grace on the Rocks

“Oh ha, ha, Dad,” Emma called after him. “You’re a real comedian.”

She smiled and leaned down to her bag, pulling a book out rather than watching the intermission activity. She was about halfway through it, and carried a second book just in case she finished the first and had nothing else to do. Despite her twenty-two years, her genre of preference was YA novels. For whatever reason, the female protagonists were more relatable and well-rounded in comparison to their older, literature genre counterparts, the exception, of course, being any main character from a Jane Austen novel. But Jane Austen always seemed to be an exception to many things.

This particular story was dystopian which meant that the setting normally took place in the future but instead of society progressing, it seemed to have regressed into a controlled dictatorship or something along those lines. It was about a girl forced to marry a king she wanted overthrown in order to save her family from dying of poverty. In a complete twist, she found herself not only falling in love with him but also with her husband’s best friend and right-hand man who was secretly leading a rebellion against the king. It was the first in a trilogy and even though the love triangle plot was a predictable and tired plot point, Emma wished the second book would be released now so she didn’t have to wait to find out who Ella, the main character, would end up choosing.

However, one thing she didn’t quite understand about a love triangle was the whole being in love with two guys at the same time. Maybe it was because she was an all-or-nothing type of girl, but the mere thought of being in love with two people at once seemed impossible, exhausting, and stressful. If it was true love, could it really be with two people? In all honesty, she just believed the girl was either infatuated with both choices but confused the feeling for love, or was in love with one and infatuated with the other.

Not that Emma had to worry about that. She was in love with no one.

Her father returned and Emma gleefully took the hot dog and water and wolfed it down before the second period began.

When the third period buzzer went off, the fans cheered. The score ended up being five to two in favor of the Gulls. Kyle didn’t score again, but a defenseman did – two of them, actually, as did Matt Peters. Emma stood, but her father pulled her back down.

“I can’t believe you forgot,” he said. “They bring out the top three players.”

“Even during preseason?” Emma asked in confusion, sitting back down.

“It’s kind of a Gulls’ tradition,” Jeremy said. “Even though it’s not the actual season, people at the game vote for the top three players and they come out and get recognition. Ken wanted to make sure that the fans appreciated the players and the players, in turn, appreciate the fans.”

After a few more minutes, a narrow, crimson carpet rolled out from the corner entranceway of the rink, and the Gulls Girls lined up on other side, waving a small, navy blue towel, cheering.

“Number three player of the game,” the announcer began, causing the room to get quiet, “as voted by you is Kyle Underwood!”

The crowd cheered as Kyle emerged onto the carpet, waving to the crowd. He skated over to where Emma stood, pointed at her, and then gently tossed his hockey stick over the glass to her. She caught it with ease, her face no doubt matching the carpet. She didn’t even hear the announcement that Brandon Thorpe was voted number two, along with both cheers and boos, and Chad Westwicke was voted number one, due to the two goals he scored in the second period. In fact, her eyes looked down at the smooth stick, taking in the plain design, the scrawl that was Kyle’s signature. Above it, written in black felt pen, was a question.

Dinner tomorrow? 7 at the Canary?

Emma’s breath hitched. He asked her out. On a stick, yes, but Kyle Underwood, hockey player, had asked her out.

What should she say? First, she needed to figure out if she wanted to go out with him. Emma didn’t know much about Kyle, but she knew she wanted to get to know him more. And The Canary was her favorite sushi joint in Newport Beach. It wasn’t totally exclusive, but it was trendy and normally got busy Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. Luckily, tomorrow was Tuesday, so maybe it wouldn’t be too crowded.

She looked at Kyle, who was looking at her, and she nodded once before looking away. “Wow,” her father said as they started to leave. “Nice souvenir.” Emma recognized her father’s tone of voice. Like she knew her interest in hockey was all Kyle’s fault.

But at that particular moment, she didn’t care.

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