Page 8 of The Grinder

Chapter Two

“So…I’ve got two tickets to the hockey game Friday night. Wanna go with me?”

Vivi looked up from her drawing table, shock written all over her sister’s face.

“Did you just say hockey? As in ice hockey? As in, you’re going to go to a Redtails game? With actual hockey fans all around you screaming and yelling and having a good time and possibly spilling their beer all over you?”

Aly rolled her eyes at her sister, unwilling to concede that Vivi had a good reason for her shock.

“Yes, I am. And I thought you could come with me since you don’t work tomorrow night.”

Sitting back in her drafting chair, Vivi narrowed her gaze at her and gave her a once-over, pushing rainbow-hued, waist-length hair over her shoulder. “You look like my sister but you’re speaking in tongues. Who are you and what have you done with her?”

Flipping Vivi the bird, Aly spun her sister away from her desk, where she’d been drawing something that looked like erotic fan art of… “Is that the Tenth Doctor and Ianto? Why is the Tenth Doctor kissing Ianto?”

Vivi shrugged. “Why shouldn’t they kiss? I’d watch at least two episodes of them kissing, wouldn’t you? And you’re not getting out of this conversation that easily. Why do you have tickets for a hockey game tomorrow night? You hate hockey.”

Aly wrinkled her nose. “I never said I hated hockey.”

Vivi’s stunning aquamarine eyes widened even more. “I distinctly remember having a conversation where you said something about hockey being a sport played by illiterate farm boys.”

Wincing, Aly shook her head. “I did not.”

Vivi nodded as she turned back to her drawing and picked up her pencil. “Yes, you did. I think you were dating that lawyer wannabe at the time. He was a total douche, by the way.”

That much was totally true. He had been a douche.

“So what if I did. I’m a girl.” Aly pulled the covers up on Vivi’s unmade bed then sat on the edge. “I can change my mind. Come to the game with me Friday night.”

“Why the sudden interest in hockey?”

Aly didn’t answer the question right away. Instead, she let herself look around her sister’s room.

The home they shared technically belonged to their parents, but Aly and Vivi now paid the second mortgage her parents had taken out so they could buy a home in Florida, which was where they now lived full time. Leaving Vivi and Aly with a very nice cottage home in a good neighborhood not far from the hospital where Aly worked. Aly’s decent salary and Vivi’s fluctuating salary as a freelance graphic artist, part-time tattoo artist and part-time waitress allowed them to pay that mortgage and all the bills with no problem.

And the fact that their parents lived a thousand miles away in Florida made it that much sweeter.

“Aly? What’s going on?”

Vivi had abandoned her drawing again and now watched her with narrowed eyes.

“Nothing’s going on.”

Vivi snorted. “Yeah, right.”

Aly finally looked at her sister. “So…I met this guy today.”

A knowing expression now crossed her sister’s face. “Ah. That’s where you got the tickets. Let me guess. He works for the team. He’s their…what? Their accountant? Their lawyer? Their marketing guy?”

Aly couldn’t wait to wipe that smirk off her sister’s face. “Second-line right wing.”

Her sister’s stunned expression made her smile.

“Holy fuck. Seriously?”

She shrugged, as if hockey players asked her out all the time. “He came into the office today with a problem with his bill.”

“Well, damn.” Scrambling up from her chair, Vivi grabbed her laptop off her desk and hopped onto the bed beside Aly.

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