Page 76 of Fear of Falling

“Just make sure Lan isn’t a dick to her,” Trevor joked.

I grunted in response. We all knew what a grumpy asshole my older brother could be. The lastgirlI brought home, he instantly disliked and made sure we all knew it. I didn’t want to introduce Josie to him if he would act like an asshole around her.

“Maybe I’ll ask her later and see what she says,” I said, as much to myself as to them.

“Look at our boy growing up,” Trevor winked.

“Fuck off.” Rolling my eyes I shoved his shoulder as I started taking my hockey gear off.

Wanting to get out of there as fast as I could, I made quick work of showering before changing into a pair of sweats and a long sleeve shirt. I said a quick bye to the guys, and promised to text them later, then I left the locker room and headed down to the PT office. PT mostly consisted of lots of stretching while two of the team's physical therapists stood by to make sure I did it right. Since I was seeing Asher tomorrow before our away game, I only stayed for half an hour.

Since it was only a little after 11 once I finished, I pulled into the parking lot of a popular coffee shop a few minutes from the practice arena. I didn’t yet know how Josie liked her coffee, so I took a stab in the dark—I wasn’t going to show up to her office empty handed.

The moment I stepped into the coffee shop, I instantly felt eyes on me. The attention wasn’t new, I’d been dealing with it since my rookie season, when my name first started frequenting the sport channels.

The Toronto Knights rookie scored three goals in one game. Boone is the youngest in the playoffs.

Once that started, suddenly the attention turned to my looks. It was weird seeing fan edits of myself circling the internet. Entertainment shows had little to say about my game and more about my looks. Next thing I knew I was offered modeling jobs—specifically in my underwear, as my fan base moved beyond hockey fans.

So, it came as no surprise that half the eyes on me belonged to women. If their boyfriends or husbands weren’t fans, then they’d at least seen pictures of me around the city. I wasn’t lying to Josie when I said women frequently approached me, wanting to flirt and get their own names out there.

I kept to myself as I approached the counter. Ignoring the stares boring into the back of my head, or the flirty way the barista fluttered her eyelashes at me as I ordered two coffees. After paying, I moved off to the side, pulling my phone out to try and look busy.

Should have worn a baseball cap.

“Excuse me?”

Pasting a smile on my face I glanced up. A young kid around the same age as Mateo stood in front of me. “Are you Wyatt Boone?”

“I am.” Seeing the way his eyes widened in awe turned my smile into a genuine one. There was something sweet in seeing a kid starstruck when they met me. I still find it crazy sometimes that it'smewho they are starstruck by.

“Can I get a picture?”

“Of course.”

There was no way I was going to say no to the kid, even if that opened the floor to everyone else approaching me.

As he moved to stand beside me, lifting his phone for a selfie, I bent down, flashing a smile. After snapping a few photos, he stepped back and faced me again.

“Thank you!” The excitement coming off him was almost palpable. “Good luck on Wednesday's game.” With another wide smile, he turned and walked off.

Just as I thought, the moment the kid stepped away, others in the shop approached me. Even if some didn’t know who I was, the moment they saw people taking pictures, they assumed I was someone famous.

For the next fifteen minutes, I took picture after picture with everyone in the coffee shop. More than one woman got a little too close, their hands skimming my stomach or trailing down my arm. I wasn’t even surprised to find the barista wrote her number on my coffee cup when I was finally free to collect my order.

I high tailed it out of the coffee shop and into my car. While I didn’t mind fan interactions, I still found it overwhelming, and I found myself longing to be around Josie more than ever.

Thankfully, traffic wasn’t too bad, and I pulled up in front of her office in record time. I hesitated for a second, only now wondering if showing up unannounced would get her in trouble.

Worst case scenario, I’ll get to say a quick hello, give her the coffee and leave. At least I’ll see her.

Grabbing both coffees, I headed for the front door. The office building housed several businesses, so I followed the signs forFusion Weekly.As I carefully shouldered open the door, I found myself in a foyer. I glanced around, wondering where to go when I finally saw someone walking across the room, staring at their phone.

“Excuse me?”

The woman looked up with an annoyed expression, before her eyes widened slightly as I took a step towards her.

“Do you know where Josie Scott’s office is?”

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