Page 190 of Waiting Game

“There’s no fire,” I call out.

“You should have told me. I could have gone to your apartment!”

My nose crinkles. “I like your place better.”

“I could have brought Betsy with me!”

“Could you have packed up the apartment as well?”

When she skids to a halt at the top landing and can frown at me, she asks, “Youreallylike my apartment?”

“You have that window seat I love, plus it smells nice.”

“The smell is in a bottle and you could have a window seat too.” She takes it slower now that she can see I’m okay, just leaning heavily on a stick. “What’s the damage?”

“A week off to let it heal properly.”

“Awholeweek?”

My eyebrows waggle.

“But, wait, isn’t Gagné still benched?”

“Different positions. I thought you were learning about hockey?”

If a sniff can be nasty, then hers is.

Smirking, I explain, “Gagné’s different. He’s on the Long Term Injured Reserve, notbenched. That means he’ll be out for ten games or more.”

Nodding her understanding, she stares at the bags I brought with me. “What do you have here?”

“I got two of my billet bros to sign some gear for you. Matt gave me some padding as well. It got sliced up in the game. You can always throw it out, but he did sign it.” I point at the tray. “This, Noah assures me, is good shit.”

“Noah?”

“Gracie’s baby brother.”

Her chin tips in understanding. “What is it?”

“Something called Hummingbird cake. I had it a bunch when I was in Dallas; it’s good but this place he gets it from is ten-out-of-ten so he brought me some to try. Because I’m a fantastic boyfriend, I decided to wait to sample it with you.”

I use that label intentionally—just to see her response.

She doesn’t flinch or anything. Not that I figured she would react with horror to the label—she got that out of her system in Nashville—but her smile comes as a surprise.

A nice one.

She tears the seal and pulls back the silver foil to stare at the gooey frosting on top. “This looks good.”

I hum. “He bought me this to try after telling me that Texas sheet cake was better than Deep N’ Delicious, but I told him that he’s Satan reincarnate. This was his penance.”

“You said a whole bunch there that I don’t understand.”

“When we visit Canada, you can try it then.”

She blinks. “When?”

I clear my throat. “If?”

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