Page 90 of Your Pucking Mom

“No, I mean I want to find out organically. I want to go on dates with you. I don’t want the answers in one night.”

“Alright.” He pulled my waist tighter to him. “Will you go out with me?”

I answered without a second thought. “Yes.”

“Good. Because I have an idea.”

* * *

I’d managed to get up and get to work on time. Even though I was in yesterday’s clothes, I didn’t care because I was in the best mood imaginable.

“You finally did it,” Cassy said as she replenished the pastry case after we’d gotten through the morning rush.

“Did what?” I asked, popping out my earbuds and refocusing on her. I savored the quietness of the cafe. Usually, I had my audiobook playing, but the voices in my head were so loud, replaying last night with Ledger, that I needed nothing else. My headphones blocked out the noise.

“You hooked-up with the dilemma, didn’t you?” I had told Cassy everything when I told her what happened with Austin—cue mini mental breakdown at work. She told me the same thing Emma had, that I had sacrificed so much in life to get here, so I was allowed to date or explore the possibility of being with someone romantically.

“Eh.” I raised my hands like I’d gotten caught. “I plead the Fifth.”

She gave a little chuckle, then shot me a wink before I went back to wiping down the coffee machines. “This is a week off for you after today, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. I was going to spend it with Austin during his bye week, but he insisted that he had to go to the rink a few times to do some social media training and then he’d spend some evenings with me. He doesn’t want a babysitter, but I also can’t?—”

“Isn’t his nineteenth birthday soon?” she asked, and I knew where this was going, so I nodded. “Come on, give him a little slack, then. He’s a kid. He’s supposed to make mistakes and learn to grow from them.”

“I know. I was that age too, but he has so much more than what I had when I was his age. I’d hate for him to ruin it…”

“Stop it,” Cassy said, her tone devoid of the playfulness from earlier. “You didn’t ruin anything. The world brought you to today because of the growth you’re supposed to make to get here. You had to go through what you did in order to become the person you are today. Otherwise, you’d have walked right past the hockey God without another glance at him.” She cocked her eyebrow at me as if to say there was no other conclusion.

It may have sounded a little far-fetched, but her words held some truth to them. Had I wandered past Ledger a couple of years ago, I would have been so consumed with my mother’s narcissism and the trauma I carried around that I wouldn’t have been in the place to explore us.

“It’s his last year,” I whispered as I noticed someone rounding the corner and heading toward the shop. “If I can keep it a secret until the end of the season, then I think we may be okay.”

The bell above the cafe door rang, and we greeted the person who walked in carrying two massive shopping bags, effectively ending our conversation.

“What can I get you?” I asked from behind the register.

The guy shook his head, then pulled a note from his back pocket. “This is for you, Auburn.”

He gave me a slight nod before heading back out as swiftly as he came.

I looked over at Cassy. “How did he know my name?”

Cassy fanned herself with her towel. “Girl. That man plays hockey with your hot captain. Did you see how fine he looked with all those muscles?”

I paused momentarily, in disbelief more than anything, before I burst out into laughter. I shook my head as my fingers gently opened the envelope.

Sunshine—

You wanted to get to know me, so I’ve compiled a list of my favorites, but you also told me you didn’t want me to just tell you the answers, so I will do one better and show you what my favorites are.

Yours

The envelope contained instructions to meet him across the street at the stadium after work, along with a list of his favorites. The blush flushed my cheeks, and I remembered I was in the maxi skirt from yesterday.

As I looked down, cardboard on the other side of the counter caught my eye, so I leaned over, realizing the man had dropped the two big bags. I didn’t remember him walking out without them. I was giddy, practically skipping as I went to see what was inside the bag.

“Pull it out. The suspense is killing me,” my boss demanded.

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