Page 16 of Hat Trick Holidate

Loves to experiment.

Wants a ready-made family

Wants to live in an old, small house

There can’t be a woman in Atlanta like this.

six

EMMALINE

Gotta lovebumper to bumper Atlanta traffic with people trying to weasel their way between two cars with no more than a foot between them. Horns blare and brake lights flash. By the time I meet my brother for lunch, my nerves are shot.

Roman sits outside a table that’s much too small for his long legs. A bread bowl of squash soup is waiting in the empty spot beside him.

“Sorry I’m late.”

“You should have listened to your big brother and left earlier,” he says as he gets up and hugs me. “Are you ready for your first day?”

Placing the straps of my purse over the chair, I huff. “Yeah. I wish it were full-time.”

“I don’t want you working full time. I need you at my games.” With his hands wrapped around a large turkey sandwich, he takes a bite and chews. “Besides, the wife ofone of my teammate’s has started a dating app, and we’re going to be two of their beta testers.”

I’m in the middle of slurping my autumn squash soup and choke. “You’re joking right?”

“Nope. It’s anonymous, no photo trolling. No one will know I’m a professional athlete, and you’re doing it with me. We can laugh about it later. Or we’ll find the love of our new lives.”

I pinch a piece of the bread from the bowl and dip it into the soup. Using a dating app has never entered my mind. Most seem to be for hooking up, and that’s not what I’m looking for. And I do understand my brother’s anxiety about people wanting to date him for his hockey fame.

“When they meet you, they’ll know.”

Hesitating, he puts his food back on the plate. “This is Georgia. Their college quarterback is more well-known than any hockey player, except maybe Cross since his dad is the NHL commissioner, and Wynward who won the MVP. They might know them. But I’ve been playing in California. It’s Reed Cross’ wife who started the app, Real Life Dating.”

He takes out his phone and shows me the app. “See, you can put in what you don’t want. For you, check no hockey players.”

I lift an inquisitive brow as I think about Bryce Wynward lighting my body on fire one week after Grant gut punched me on our wedding day.

The moment Bryce gathered his new daughter from me, I knew it was him who I shared the most epic night of my life.

The scent of cedar and eucalyptus infiltrated my senses and sent flashbacks swirling through my brain of ournight together. As he stood up, I breathed in his scent, letting it envelop me like a warm blanket.

“No hockey players, check. What else are you going to forbid me to say or do? I’m twenty-nine. I think I can speak for myself.”

“Download it and let’s fill it out together.”

There’s no arguing with Roman when he gets an idea into his mind, so I download it. “If I go on a date with a one-eyed creepy guy who carries around nude magazines, you’ll pay the price.”

He chuckles. “Don’t worry, sis. I’ve got your back.”

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