Page 30 of Sven

“Whyyy?” he drawled out in a fake Southern accent.

“Oh, hush,” she said, giving him a dirty look.

“I’ll be right back,” he said, winking at her before he turned to take Winnie upstairs to put her to bed.

13

Natalie

Natalie watched Sven disappear up the stairs. She tried not to let her eyes linger too long on his perfect round ass, but, damn. Never had she been around someone that attractive in real life. She sat with her phone and started scrolling. Before long, Sven came downstairs.

“Well, that didn’t take very long,” Natalie said.

“No, she was tired.”

“So, how did today go? Do you have any questions?”

“No, Ms. Malone was helpful with house stuff,” Natalie said as she stood.

Sven went and sat at the kitchen table, and Natalie followed him there. He pulled out his phone. “Here, I’m sending you our schedule, so you’ll have that.”

“Got it,” Natalie said as she checked for the text.

“I’ll have other practices and obligations that pop up, but that is it.”

Natalie looked at the list. It was packed with practices, games, and work-out sessions. “Wow, you have an intense schedule.”

“Yeah, the season can be pretty hectic. The one I’m sending over now is from my agent’s office. This is all my sponsorship meetings and photoshoots and all that stuff.”

The more she examined, the more she understood the complexity of his schedule.

“So, that’s most of it, plus other team obligations. I’m sent a schedule every week, so I’ll share that with you as soon as I get it.”

Natalie nodded, still poring through the schedule.

“Maybe living in the pool house isn’t a bad idea,” she thought.

“What was that?”

Oops—she’d said that out loud.

“I guess I didn’t quite fully comprehend how busy you would be. Maybe I should reconsider the pool house. It might make it easier for both of us, all things considered,” she said, gesturing to the schedule.

“It’s up to you. It would make things a lot easier, but it is whatever you feel comfortable with.”

She thought about it. She did feel comfortable around Sven. He’d been nothing but a professional, and he clearly cared about Winnie... but...

“What about her mom? When will she come back from the trip?”

Sven hung his head and took a long breath. She wasn’t sure she was going to like what was coming.

“I supposed I was going to have to tell you this at some point in time, so I guess it’s now or never.”

Uh oh, was this the other-shoe to this-too-good-to-be-true situation?

She watched him carefully as she blew out a breath and ran his hand through his hair.

“Do you follow hockey?”

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