Page 54 of Now That We Don't Talk

“I can tell.”

“He can’t stand the public part of the job—all the attention.”

“Oh—so then opposite of you?”

“Exactly,” he says with a hint of a smile. “He is also engaged to his publicist.”

“Ohhh, is that considered a scandal?”

He shrugs. “Maybe. Cooper doesn’t care about that stuff. I’ve always been in awe of how he isn’t affected by what people say about him. I wish I was more like that.”

“You can’t change who you are.”

He sighs. “I guess, but I can try to do better.”

Suddenly a thought occurs to me that Mac may not be as shallow as I believed. Maybe there is more to him than he lets on.

He turns the game back on, and we continue watching as the Tennessee Wolves win by a score of three to two. Surprisingly it kept my attention, despite the wild thoughts of Mac kissing me.

“You did it,” he says. “You sat through your first hockey game.”

“I survived.”

He laughs. “What do you think?”

Ha. I’m thinking a lot of things right now—most of which I’m not saying out loud.

“It was entertaining. Nonstop action and it kept my interest.”

He nods proudly. I’m expecting him to pat himself on the back.

“Wait until you see a game live and in person. You’ll be hooked.”

My brain immediately starts spinning with questions. Is he referring to me seeing one of his games?

“Maybe.”

We both grow quiet for a few seconds until Mac’s the first to break the silence.

“It’s getting late—I should probably go,” he says, sitting up.

Ugh. Is it bad I don’t want him to leave yet?

“Yes,” I say, hopping off the couch. “You need to take all the ice cream out of this house.”

“Nope that was a gift from me.”

I smile. “I appreciate it, but you can’t leave six cartons of ice cream at a woman’s house.”

He shoves his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “Well, I was thinking I could leave them here for next time.”

Next time?

“Are you inviting yourself over again?”

He nods. “I guess I am…would that be okay?”

I chew on my lower lip. While my guard has come down a bit, it’s not completely down. “Sure.”

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