Page 14 of Netting the Goalie

Something in her voice made me ask, “Don’t you enjoy what you do?”

She shook her head as she unbuttoned her coat.“Oh, don’t get me wrong.I love working for my aunt.And I love what I do.It’s just…”

I walked back to take her coat, trying not to salivate as she stripped it off.“What?”

She shrugged, drawing my gaze down to her chest.Then I gave myself a figurative slap upside the head and dragged my gaze back up.

“It’s kind of isolating.”She shrugged.“It must be nice knowing you’ve got an entire team at your back.”

I laughed.Couldn’t help myself.“Well, it’s kind of like having this huge family of brothers.You spend so much time together that you get to know everybody really well.That also means you get to know themtoowell.We’ve got a good group of guys this season but there’s always a few, you know?The ones you want to strangle when they tell the same damn joke for the thousandth time.Or is always borrowing something and never returning it.And they all know just what to do to get under your skin.”

Her smile made my cock twitch.“ThatI totally understand.I have a big family and there are days I want to strangle them all and days I wouldn’t know what to do without them.It’s tough growing up with four older brothers.”

She seemed to want to say something else but never finished.

“Were you ever able to date?I figure with that many brothers, they’d scare off anyone who tried.”

I waved her toward the couch.She took the hint and sat, toeing off her shoes before curling her feet under her legs.

“My two older brothers were away at college when I started dating and my younger brothers… well, they had their own stuff to deal with.But my dad… He used to be a cop.Want to get rid of a guy fast?Have your dad tell your date he’ll throw his ass in jail if he dared lay a hand on me.Of course, when I told my mom, she read him the riot act.After that, he just glared at every guy I brought home and then my mom would do something to distract him.They’re pretty much the perfect couple.Always have been.”

I laughed.“Yeah, my parents were pretty freaking perfect, too.My mom worked at home so she was always there.Dinner on the table every night, homemade cookies after practice.My dad worked days at the paper plant so he coached all of my teams from the time I was five until I went to high school.”

“Sounds like the American dream.”

I grimaced at how perfect it’d been.“Yeah.I can look back on it now and know that but back then… Man, it felt like I never had a minute to myself.”

She propped her arm on the back of the shoulder and rested her head on her hand.“Do you have siblings?”

“Younger brother and sister.Twins.”

But I’d been the focus of my parents’ life for seven years before my mom had gotten pregnant again.And when it’d become evident that I had enough talent to actually make a career out of hockey, my parents had done everything they could to get me where I needed to be.

“My brother plays too but my sister spent most of her childhoods in hockey rinks and doesn’t play.She’s actually a damn good ice skater but…”

“But what?”

She sounded genuinely interested and I couldn’t not answer.

“Sometimes I think my parents invested a little too much time into me and my sister got the short end of the stick.”

“Has she ever said that?”

Bliss’ voice held a sweet concern that made me want to kiss her.

“No.But I still wonder.”

“Does she still skate?”

I shrugged.“Not a lot.She’s in college.Going for her veterinarian’s degree.”

My brother and I teased Giselle relentless about the fact that she was the only one of them to go to college.But I was damn proud of her.

“Sounds like a smart girl.”

“She is.”

“So if she’d wanted to skate, she would’ve found a way.Right?”

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