Page 6 of The Cupcake Cottage

He joined her at the white fence overlooking the pastures that ran into the Texas hills beyond the Wylder’s backyard. Behind them and across the lawn, strings of lights lit up the stone patio at the back of the sprawling ranch house as dusk slowly settled in. The yard was filled with what seemed like half of Sweetheart Creek, here to celebrate Karen and Myles’s engagement. Her friend and her ex-boyfriend. She was happy for them both but couldn’t help wondering when Cupid was going to get around to finding someone for her, too.

Although these days Cupid would need pretty fast wings to catch up with her. Life had become a blur—and even more so since she’d stood up for Maverick in front of the PR team.

“Hey, it’s not every day a small-town bumpkin gives an NHL publicity team from New York what for—and lives to tell about it.” Maverick was all grins and as handsome as ever in his suit jacket, jeans, and cowboy boots.

“Maybe I’m more than meets the eye.” She gave him a playful jab in the ribs while batting her lashes. Truthfully, she was still embarrassed by the outburst. The PR team had wanted to talk strategy about her wardrobe as Dezzie’s handler. She’d been dressing like a puck bunny with a Dragons jersey tied at the waist, tight jeans, boots, and a Dragons cowboy hat at the home games, but they’d decided they wanted a princess. As in, a full-out princess to fulfill the dragon fairy-tale theme—and they were going to spread that theme throughout the entire arena.

Seriously? NHLers with a princess mascot? Were they writing the book on emasculation? As if the Dragons didn’t already have enough stacked against them as the worst-ranked, newest team in the league.

So, with little more than a thought beyond how embarrassing it would be for a man like Maverick, she’d opened her big mouth and told them exactly how she felt they should do their jobs. Then, once her brain had caught up with her, she’d excused herself, certain she was fired—only a few days into her new job.

“That’s why I told Miranda to promote you to the ticket holder experience manager.”

“Wait. That was you?” The promotion that had resulted from her rant had stunned her. But to know that Maverick had helped orchestrate it? That made her weak in the knees. Nobody had ever done something so incredibly sweet for her before. Or thrown her so far out of her skill set. She literally had no credentials and was in charge of hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandising and events for fans.

She had ideas, sure. They were so obvious to her—like team-sponsored tailgate parties with lots of free swag before games—but everyone was grabbing at them like they were pure gold. She was certain they’d soon discover she was just some high-school graduate, country bumpkin who didn’t really belong there.

“Anyone who shoots down a princess theme earns my loyalty,” Maverick said. “Trust me.”

His look suggested that the PR team had tried to get him on board with the princess-and-the-dragon theme as well.

“Didn’t I earn your loyalty years ago?” She gave him a sassy look, hands on her hips.

“Nope.”

“Not even that time I pretended to be your girlfriend so that gal would take a hint during World Juniors and stop throwing her bra at you whenever you left the ice?”

He laughed, shaking his head. “That was so embarrassing.”

“Funny though.” He’d turned such an endearing shade of red each time. And here, almost fifteen years later, he was still running through that same color spectrum just talking about it.

“Do you know how mad Myles got at me because I borrowed you like that?”

“I don’t think he expected you to hold my hand.”

“At least I didn’t sneak a kiss.”

His gaze traveled to her lips, and she leaned against the fence, trying to block out the image of what it might feel like to kiss this handsome man.

Their eyes met and they shared a smile at the memory of riling up Myles. It had been so easy sometimes.

“Thank you for…” There were so many things on her list she didn’t know what to mention first. Starting with the fact that he could look past the stigma of her being a former beauty queen, and might actually believe she had a few rocks rattling around in her head. But even bigger than that was that he’d stood up for her. He’d believed in, and trusted her ability to do this new job—a big and important one. One that would undoubtedly reflect on him and the team in some pretty big ways.

“Yeah,” he said, looking bashful, “don’t worry about it. Us Sweetheart Creekers have to stick together.” He gave her a friendly nudge, then leaned against the fence beside her, his back to the party. He was so close, his arm brushed hers. What would it feel like to be held by him, to place her arms around those broad shoulders and lean in, hear his heartbeat through his shirt and all that muscle?

He idly held a bottle of beer in his hands, picking at its label. Daisy-Mae figured the drink was a prop to ward off drink offers, seeing as the hockey season had started three weeks ago.

“Well, I appreciate you vouching for me. A lot.”

“Just keep me out of tutus and tiaras and we’ll call it even.” He gave her a smile that felt all-knowing. Like they were friends. Like they could keep each other’s secrets and had inside jokes to laugh at. Which they were, and they did. But they didn’t hang out together without Myles. And now that Myles was getting married, she didn’t foresee many more moments like this with Maverick unless it was at a work function.

She smiled and clinked her bottle against his. “It’s a deal.”

“I’m still not sure what we’ll do with you at the rink, though.”

Her heart dropped. “What do you mean?”

“You’re an incredible distraction to the players.”

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