Page 38 of Icebound Hearts

He shoots me a quizzical look. “Miss what?”

“Dating. Sex. That sense of connection. I mean, you can obviously take care of your…” I flush a little. “Your needs yourself, but human interaction is kind of an essential part of life for most people.”

Sawyer pauses, setting down his knife. He stares down at the neatly sliced tomato in front of him, then nods slowly. “Yeah. I guess… sometimes I do.”

His voice is low, deep and gravelly, and it tugs at something in my chest. I have the strangest urge to reach out and rest my hand on his, just to feel that connection I just talked about. To remind him—or maybe to remind myself—that none of us are as alone as we sometimes feel.

But I don’t do any of that. Instead, I rap my knuckles on the countertop of the kitchen island thoughtfully, chewing on my lower lip.

“You know what? I’m going to help you get back out there.”

He shoots me a sideways look. “What?”

“I’m gonna help you date again.” I arch a meaningful brow at him, glancing down and then back up. “Seriously, you need to get that player back on the ice.”

He snorts in amusement at my choice of words. Then he shakes his head. “It’s nice of you to offer, but you really don’t have to do that.”

“I know, but I want to. Consider it my way of repaying you for helping me out with this job.”

“But I’m paying you. You don’t have to repay me for anything, that’s not how employment works. And anyway, you already told me thatyoudon’t date and have no interest in finding anyone. So, no offense, but how exactly are you gonna help me do it?”

I grimace. “Ouch. Okay, you’ve got a point there. But hear me out: what if we did it together?”

Sawyer’s head jerks back in surprise. “You mean, like, the two of us dating?”

My stomach flips over itself, and I shake my head quickly. “No, no! Not like that. I meant if we both tried dating other people together. Like, at the same time. It’s always easier to do something hard when you have someone doing it with you, right?”

He continues to stare at me, his expression inscrutable, until I sit down on one of the stools at the marble-topped island and pat the empty one next to me. “Come on. Sit down. We’ll start right now.”

“Start what?” he asks, although he does pause his sandwich prep to stride around the island and sit cautiously beside me.

I pull my phone out of my pocket and hold it up to him.

“Making our profiles.”

Sawyer makes a sour face. “You mean for dating apps? I haven’t ever used one of those damn things, and I’m a divorced single dad who’s?—”

“—also a super famous hockey player, and an amazing father. Besides, you never know what kind of people you might meet until you try.”

I give him a pointed look, then swipe to unlock my phone. I already have a few of the apps downloaded, but they’re stuck in a folder I never look at because I gave up using them forever ago—before my life in Chicago blew up.

I tap to open the most popular app and immediately get a notice that my account’s been deleted due to inactivity. I laugh and flash the screen at Sawyer.

“Well, that’s convenient, isn’t it? Looks like I have to start over fresh whether I want to or not. So, what do you say? You make a profile for me, then I’ll make one for you. I’m game if you are.”

I tap theCreate New Accountbutton and hold the phone out to him, but Sawyer just stares at the cursor flashing on the screen.

“This is crazy,” he murmurs as he finally takes the phone from me and starts pecking at the keyboard to enter my name.

“Just crazy enough to work,” I say with a smile, resting my elbows on the smooth surface of the island.

“Yeah, we’ll see about that,” he grumbles, but his fingers don’t stop typing.

Chapter 13

Sawyer

A hand claps on my shoulder, startling me on the bench where I just finished packing my gym bag. Noah smiles at me when I turn to face him, his hair still wet from his shower after practice.

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