Page 76 of Sven

Natalie: Have a good game

Sven: I’ll get you a goal

Natalie: Get yourself a goal

This is what they did before every game this week. It made her smile. She needed to figure out how to work on this, but she knew she wanted to find a way to see where things could go with Sven. She had never felt like this about anyone before.

She’d dated, of course, having had one serious boyfriend in high school and a serious girlfriend in college, but that was about it. But she didn’t know if Sven had ever done the serious-relationship thing. He was kind of a mess from life with his dad. And then there was, of course, the baby. His life was a mess, but somehow, he seemed to be growing into an incredible man.

The doorbell rang, and Natalie picked up Winnie. Sydney was the first one here.

“Hey, babe,” Sydney said before pulling her into a hug. “Hello to you, cutie,” she said, greeting Winnie. “This place is incredible.” She slipped her shoes off.

“Do you want a tour? You’ve only seen the pool house before.”

“Sure.”

By the time they were done, Alice was there, and it was almost time for puck drop. “I made some buffalo chicken dip, and I have some ooey, gooey bars in the oven,” Natalie said as she made her way into the kitchen.

“This house is really open for as old as it is,” Sydney said as she sat on the big sectional.

“He did a big renovation when he signed his last deal.”

“When did he sign that?” Alice asked.

“I’m not sure. I think he still has some time on it.”

Which was nice when Natalie thought about it. She knew what they were building between them was new, and it was nice they had a few years to figure it out before he had to worry about getting traded.

After the first period, it was still 0-0, but it was time to put Winnie to bed. During the first intermission, luckily, she was tired from a short nap at Tiny Tots.

When she came back down, Alice and Sydney were on the couch looking at something on Alice’s phone.

“That was fast,” Alice said, looking up to her with a smile.

“Yeah, she was tired. What are you guys looking at?”

“I was just showing her one of my new pieces,” Alice said.

“So...” Sydney said, turning to Natalie. “Are you going to tell us what is going on with you and Sven? I know I’ve been super busy with residency, but I didn’t miss the text about moving back in, followed an hour later with a ‘never mind.’”

“What? Does this have anything to do with the escape room situation?” Alice asked.

“What escape room situation?” she asked, looking at Natalie for answers.

“Okay,” Natalie said, sitting down to get comfortable. “So, after the escape room, when he showed up acting like a jealous ass, I told him I was moving back in with Sydney because this wasn’t working out. I would still watch Winnie, but I wouldn’t live here. But then the next day, his dad showed up.”

“Whoa,” said Alice.

“What’s up with his dad?” asked Sydney.

“His dad is a Hall of Famer. In the nineties, he was one of the best, right up there with Wayne Gretzky, but he had a reputation for being kind of an ass,” Alice said.

“Can confirm. Big asshole,” Natalie said. “I’m not going to get into what happened, but I’ll just say it was bad. Sven is an incredible father, and even though he has his douchey moments,escape room included, he’s a good guy... Anyway, after what happened with his dad... I may have kissed him.”

“Hold up. You kissed him?” Sydney asked.

“Well, he kissed me but then immediately apologized and back away and then I kissed him and then we got baby cock-blocked.”

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