Page 41 of Zero Pucks

“Uh. It wasn’t any of your business?” I said.

Before I could go on, a tall woman with dark hair approached. It was too dim for me to make out details of her features, but I could see her holding a thick menu, and when she spoke, she sounded nervous.

“Braille menu?” She directed her question at me since most people thought I was the blind one. My cornea was scarred to hell, and everyone was surprised I could see anything out of it.

“That would be me, darlin’. Right here, thank you,” Jonah said, doing a little sensual pat on the space in front of him.

She swallowed heavily as she set it down. “Can I start drinks?”

“Scotch,” Jonah said.

“No. Do not give him scotch. Doing that is like giving a Mogwai food after midnight.” She shot me a confused stare. “It’ll turn him into a gremlin.”

Jonah grinned and shrugged.

“Three waters,” I said. “And the gremlin will have a sweet tea.”

She swallowed heavily again, said nothing, and nodded before walking off.

“I think you broke her,” Jonah said.

“No, you did. Stop doing your weird flirting for like ten seconds.”

He scoffed but set his hands on the menu and began to read. “Why didn’t you tell me this place was expensive,” he groaned.

“You picked it.” I held the menu up close to my face and scanned the appetizers. Jesus, seventeen bucks for calamari? “I’ll get soup and water.”

“Nah,” Jonah said. I felt a dull thud and realized he’d kicked my prosthetic shin. “It’s on me today. You came down with amnesia and got a random weirdo stranger for a husband who stalked you. You deserve a nice meal.”

I hated that he was technically right. I had alcohol-induced amnesia, even though that was my fault. And Amedeowasrandom and a little weird, but that was part of his charm. I had no business crushing on him, but it was hard to help it.

God, I kind of missed him. We were supposed to be together today, but his work had him canceling on me, and I felt a little rejected. I believed him, but a small, quiet, ugly part of my brain kept saying it was a lie. That he was just making excuses not to see me again.

My phone buzzed loudly, interrupting my spiral, and I held it close to my eye to read the name on the screen. “It’s Ford.” I didn’t bother reading it. He was a huge stickler for not texting and driving, so I knew if he was texting, he had to be in the parking lot. “He’s here.”

“Took him long enough,” Jonah grumbled.

The server appeared right then with drinks and set them down without a word. The only real mistake she’d made so far.

“Tea is at your two o’clock. Water is beside that,” I told him.

He pulled a face as his fingers settled over one line of braille. “Why do they do that?” It was rhetorical, so I didn’t answer him. “Anyway, I think I’m gonna carbo-load for the game tonight. Oh, which reminds me. This is a bribery lunch.”

I stared at him. “Uh? What could you possibly need to bribe me for?”

“A job.”

“You have a job. You literally work with me.”

He scoffed and folded his hands under his chin. “Am I giving you puppy dog eyes?”

I squinted. “Sure.”

He grinned. “Great. I want you to be the new coach for the Legends.” The Legends, meaning his team. Hisprofessionalpara-hockey team. With a professional salary and everything.

I made the mistake of taking a drink when he asked that, and I spit water all over my front. “What happened to Reid?”

Reid had been the Legends’ coach for as long as I’d been around. He was a good guy—he’d been in the AHL until a well-timed puck at a practice clocked him across the rink when he wasn’t wearing a helmet. His blindness was cortical and took him out of the running of ever getting picked up by the NHL.

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