Page 39 of Icebound Hearts

“Everything okay?” He lifts a brow. “You seemed lost in thought.”

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine.” I nod and stand, hoisting the bag over one of my shoulders, but Reese has picked up on the conversation and turns to face me.

“You sure about that? You were all over at practice today. That’s not like you.”

“I noticed that too,” Noah agrees, but I just blink at them both.

I don’t want any of the Aces knowing what’s going on between me and Violet—least of all Reese. He’d kill me right here in this locker room if he knew that several days ago, his sister was basically grilling me about my cock piercings and cheerleading me to have sex again.

Fucking hell, she hadnoidea how crazy she was making me. Having her walk in on me while I was jerking off to the thought of her was bad enough, but the way she asked me about mypiercings with that curious glint in her eye did nothing to help erase the dirty thoughts about her from my mind.

I shake my head, both to clear it and to deter the guys. “It’s nothing. I’m just a little stressed about house hunting.”

There’s no way in hell I’m about to tell any of them that Violet and I set up dating profiles for each other recently. Or that she walked in on me with my hand wrapped around my cock. The less my teammates know about any of that, the better.

Noah raises his eyebrows at me. “House hunting, huh? That’s news to me. You haven’t secretly been traded to another team, have you?”

I shoot him a look. “Don’t be ridiculous. No, I just think it’s time to get out of that house. There are way too many memories of Miriam for both Jake and me, and I think it would be good for him to live in a more kid-friendly neighborhood.”

Noah claps me on the shoulder again. “Good for you, man. After all the shit Miriam put you through, I can’t believe you’ve stayed in the house this long.”

“Yeah, I would’ve been gone right after the divorce if it was me,” Reese agrees.

“Easy for you to say now, but you might not have felt that way if you were actually in it. Uprooting your kid right after something traumatic like that isn’t exactly an easy decision to make. But I think we’re both ready now.”

“Yeah, I get that. I guess I’ve never gotten a divorce or had a kid, so I should probably shut my mouth.”

“Good idea,” Theo chimes in, grinning playfully. “That’s a lesson I’ve had to learn the hard way.”

“But apparently the lesson still hasn’t sunk in,” Grant, our grumpy, typically quiet goalie, fires from another bench at the back of the room, and the whole team erupts in laughter.

“Oh, he’s got jokes now, huh?” Theo rolls his eyes at Grant, whose face is set in its usual stoic mask. “I liked you better when you were quiet.”

“We could say the same for you,” Noah points out, and everyone laughs again. Even Theo chuckles.

“Alright, I’m out of here before Theo and Grant start doing dueling stand-up sets. See you guys,” I say and head for the door.

“Good luck with the house hunt!” Reese calls after me, and I wave at him without turning, despite the twinge of guilt I feel in my gut every time he speaks to me these days.

It’s fine, I tell myself.Nothing has even happened.

And it never will.

Jake and Violet are watching TV in the living room when I get home, some new cartoon that Jake loves. It’s weird how quickly she’s become a kind of fixture in the house, something I expect to see when I get there, and that makes me feel out of place when she isn’t.

Violet turns on the couch and smiles at me when I walk through the front door and Jake scrambles off the couch. “Hey. How’d practice go?”

“Daddy!”

Jake interrupts before I can answer, throwing himself around my leg like he always does. I ruffle his hair.

“Not great, but at least there weren’t any stakes. Better I have an off day during practice than during a game. I can’t afford another one of those,” I say, thinking back to the awful game we played against the Falcons in Chicago. “Are you two ready to go look at some houses?”

“Let’s go!” Jake nods, then looks up at me with wide, excited eyes. “Daddy, can I have a whole floor to myself in our new house?”

I laugh and shake my head. “If anyone’s getting their own floor, it’s gonna be me, buddy. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

“Aw, okay.”

---