Page 9 of A Scoring Chance

“Don’t commit murder before I get there.”

“I make no promises. Love you.”

“Love you, too,” I respond before shoving my phone into my back pocket and climbing off Bluebell. I wrap her reins around the post outside the stable and get to work. After removing the saddle and bridle, I give her a good brush down before leading her toward her stall for the night. I make sure she has everything she needs to have a good night’s sleep before closing the stall door behind me.

“Night, Bluebell. Sweet dreams.” I smile as Bluebell neighs, and I head back toward the front of the barn. On my way out, Igrab the tack and my saddle to return to their proper place. Mr. Matthison is on his way toward me as I shut the door.

If you were to imagine a cowboy in your head, that’s exactly how he looks. He’s wearing a pair of faded Wrangler jeans tucked into his boots and a flannel shirt. The outfit wouldn’t be complete without his worn brown cowboy hat, the brim positioned perfectly to shade his eyes from the setting sun because God forbid he step foot out of the house without his hat on.

“Headed out for the night?” he asks, his silver walrus mustache turning up at the corners as he smiles softly.

“Yeah. Darius has his first hockey practice tonight, and there is a parent meeting. Don’t want to miss any important information.”

“Well, I won’t keep you. Have a good night.”

“Good night, Mr. Matthison.” I wave at him over my shoulder before jogging to my car.

The moment I’m inside, I pull the visor down and check my locs for hay, picking a few pieces out and dropping them out my window. Once I’m pretty sure it’s all out, I reach into my bag and grab the body spray Alise insists I keep for moments like this. I circle my head, ensuring to spray it a few times to mask any unwanted animal smell, before dropping it back into my bag. Pulling my shirt to my nose, I inhale deeply, ensuring I smell like apples instead of livestock, before turning the car on. Thankfully, the rink isn't too far as I pull down Matthison Farms' long drive and turn right onto the main road heading toward town.

I pull into the parking lot with three minutes to spare and rush inside. I come busting through the double doors like a bull in a china shop, but no one even looks in my direction. The entire rink is packed, every person focused on whatever is happening on the ice. This Cooper Hendrix must really be as bigof a deal as Alise said because this seems a little excessive for a twelve-year-old hockey team practice.

“I’m never going to find Alise in this mess,” I mumble to myself, pulling out my phone and dialing her number.

“Are you here yet? Please tell me you are,” Alise whines, causing me to giggle.

“I am, but I doubt I’ll be able to find you with all these people here. Who knew practice would be so on and poppin’?”

“Oh, this has nothing to do with watching practice. Everyone wants a free show. Tickets to the Timberwolves games are scarce.”

I move closer to the ice as the loud shrill of the whistle fills the area. The deep baritone of the coach echoes around the arena. “Two laps.”

I watch as the players take off around the ice. Their arms are pumping back and forth, their sticks gliding across the ice as they make it around the net and head in my direction. My eyes scan the pack, searching for Darius, instantly looking for his curly hair, but I come up short. All the kids have the same black jersey with numbers on the back, black pants, and helmets, which makes it almost impossible to tell them apart. I vaguely remember him saying something about position numbers, but honestly, I wasn’t listening. My job is to get him to and from practice and games, nothing more. If I pick up a few things along the way, so be it, but sports really aren’t my thing.

There’s an older gentleman standing in the center of the ice, watching the boys make their way around the rink for a final time. I can’t see much of his face, just a glimpse of his chiseled jawline before I hear someone shout my name. Spinning around, I catch sight of Alise waving her hands wildly over her head, motioning for me to come towards her. I smile and wave back before making my way toward her, excusing myself as I walk by each person.

“You’re just in time. Coop just got here.” Alise wraps her arms through mine before pointing toward the opposite corner. Just as I look up, everyone in the crowd cheers loudly. A cacophony of noise batters my senses as I notice a man gliding across the ice. He has a pair of grey sweatpants on and what I presume is a dark green hockey jersey. There’s a gigantic wolf layered over two hockey sticks in the center, the same as the boys’ jerseys, and a large C on the left side of his chest. His head is cast down, but I notice his lips moving slightly, as if he’s praying before he comes to a stop near the older man. The two embrace, and my eyes widen in shock.

“Umm, Alise,” I whisper, tapping furiously on my friend’s arm. My cheeks heat with embarrassment as I duck my head, allowing my locs to cover my face. “Alise.” I can’t believe this is happening. I would love nothing more than for the earth to open right now and swallow me whole, but I doubt I’m that lucky. How could I have missed this? Sure, Alise always talks about Coop, but how am I supposed to know that is his name? She has nicknames for everyone, but Coop doesn’t always have to equate to someone’s name being Cooper, right?

I tug on her arm a few more times to get her attention before she finally turns toward me, annoyance clear on her face. “What the heck is wrong with you?”

“ImetCooperthismorningatthecattlecrossingandmayhaveflirtedwithhim,” I mumble softly, looking around to make sure no one around us heard me.

Unlike Alise and about 90 percent of the population of Redwood Falls, Oregon, I didn’t grow up here. When my dad lost his job, my parents knew we needed to get out of Detroit for good. They made an adventure out of it, taping a large map of the US on the wall of our tiny living room, and asked Imani and me to choose where we wanted to live. We all agreed we wanted to see the ocean, so Dad started looking for jobs. He snagged ajob at a steel company in Portland, and we packed up the U-Haul and headed west. Imani and I begged to live in the heart of the city, but Mom and Dad wanted a house with a backyard, so we ended up in Redwood Falls.

The closest I’ve ever been to a hockey game is whatever is playing on the TVs at The Pit Stop whenever I’m working. I have no idea about any of the players or even what they look like, so how could I have known that the incredibly gorgeous man with soulful chocolate brown eyes that I flirted with this morning was Cooper Hendrix?

“Repeat that, please.” Alise’s body stiffens in my arms as her head slowly turns in my direction, her eyes narrowed slightly.

“No.”

“Yes, because there is no way in hell that you could’ve already met Cooper and not spilled the tea.” Alise’s voice raises slightly as I cover her mouth with my hand. The last thing I need is to grab someone’s attention. It’s bad enough that I flirted with him, but it’s even worse that I had no freaking idea who he was. He must have gotten a good laugh out of that.

“I ran into him at the cattle crossing today. He was waiting for the herd to finish crossing the road.”

“Okay. I still don’t see a reason for you to be freaking out right now.”

Alise doesn’t know. I don’t flirt… ever. I don’t have time for relationships between work and taking care of Darius. But there was something about the way Cooper was looking at me that made me want to know more about him, even if he was just passing through town. I felt like the most beautiful woman in the world, a person, someone who deserved to be noticed and not blend into the background. So, instead of blowing him off like I usually do I flirted back, or at least in my mind, I did. If I’m being honest, I don’t have much experience with the opposite sex, but would I have done the same if I knew who he was? I don’t know,but that doesn’t matter because the one thing I know about Cooper Hendrix is that he’d never be interested in someone like me.

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