Page 1 of Off Limits PUCK

Chapter one

Allie

Inearly inhale mysip of coffee as I stare at my phone screen. Is this real life? A burst of excitement makes me shift happily in my seat.

I got the job! My dream job as a physical therapist for the NHL hockey team—the Charlotte Eagles. I can’t believe it.

I look around me at the break room. It’s empty, so I let out a squeal of excitement. I love helping my current patients find their mobility again after surgery—it’s rewarding in its own way. But the dream? That’s always been mixing my love for physical therapy with the thrill of professional sports. Ever since that internship at a sports clinic, I’ve had my eye on the big leagues.

I read through the job offer email again, making sure I’m not just making it all up in my mind. Nope. It’s real. The local NHL team really is offering me a job as their PT! I feel anxiety rush throughme. I better reply and accept the job—fast! This is a huge deal! I can’t let it slip away.

Amid my excitement, I write a professional reply accepting the job offer. I word the email carefully, trying to sound much older than my twenty-five years. I can’t afford to screw this job opportunity up—my resume is more than a little lacking in the “experiences” department. This is going to put me in the big leagues, should I ever need future work.

“I’ll need this on my resume when I move out of Charlotte and out west to California!” I whisper to myself.

A stern knock sounds on the door and the friendly face of the facility’s director pops in.

“Allie, your two o’clock is here.” He nods briskly and walks away.

I’ll have to give them my two weeks’ notice. For a moment, I feel bad. Then I remind myself that they only hired me because I was readily available to work and they needed someone fast, but the director made it clear that I didn’t have enough experience to be trusted with their more complex cases.

Working as a PT for the NHL! Oh my God!My brain spins and somersaults as I swing between elation and anxiety.

As soon as the director walks out, I’m on my feet instantly, renewed vigor for my work, my career and my future make me giddy. I walk to the kitchenette sink to put my coffee mug inthe sink and my eyes land on a local newspaper sitting on the counter.

My breath catches as I look at the newspaper’s cover. There he is, splashed across the front page. Jake Williams, star forward for the Charlotte Eagles… and older brother to my best friend, Mackenzie. I stare at the photo of him on the ice mid-action, and the headline bemoaning his shoulder injury from last season.

As a junior PT for the Eagles, I know I’ll be assigned a bench warming player to work with. I would be a fool to think I’d work with Jake. He’s the team’s biggest name and hockey hero, and this is my first time working with professional athletes… but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to having an almost lifelong crush on Jake—an attraction he certainly did not reciprocate given our seven-year age gap. And an attraction I 100% hid from his sister, my bestie! Mackenzie would poke my eyes out if she knew I’d ogled her brother.

I blush, fantasizing about doing my job as a PT, my hands on Jake’s skin, working out the shoulder tension and assessing the best plan for his recovery. I wonder if the headline about his debilitating injury is even true. It’s probably gossip. And I’ll probably do more watching the senior PTs at work and fetching towels and icy hot cream for them than actually doing any work. But it’s a start, a steppingstone for me.

I can’t wait to tell Mackenzie tonight after work! She was the one who told me to apply for the NHL job besides the nearly thirty other jobs I applied to. It’s funny—the NHL physical therapist job was the only one in our home state of North Carolina. Therest of the jobs I applied to were in California or New York, with one even in Hawaii.

I snicker to myself as I go out to meet my client at this temp job. Maybe it’s fate that I stay in Charlotte and work for the NHL team where my crush, Jake Williams, is their star player!

***

“Red or white?” Mackenzie, Kenz for short, asks me, holding up two bottles of wine as I open the door to my condo that night. “We are going to celebrate tonight, girl!” she drawls out excitedly.

“Both,” I reply playfully, laughing and giddy. “I called my mom to tell her all about me working for the NHL and you know what she said?” I pull Kenz into a hug, squeezing her tight.

“The same thing I’m going to say,” Kenz states sternly, pointing a bottle of red wine at me like it’s a teacher’s ruler and I’m in trouble. “Stay clear of the hockey guys. My brother is the biggest player out there—and I don’t mean just on the ice.”

I swipe the bottle of wine and we walk to my small kitchen. I already went over my improved salary and benefits package I’ll get from my job with the Eagles. Saving for a house is something I'm really looking forward to!

Kenz snaps her fingers. “Earth to Allie. I’m talking about guys. That’s your literal favorite topic.”

I snort. “More like yours.” I open the red wine, pouring two generous glasses of the mid-grade red liquid. Kenz’s brother may be a rich hockey player, but she doesn’t accept money from him. “Did you meet any new guys on your latest flight to London… or where did you go this time?”

Kenz is a flight attendant, always meeting new people, including hot guys. She gives me an eyebrow waggle. “I used my day off to go from London to Greece. Holy cow.” She clutches her phone to her chest. “I met a hottie. Well, several, but one in particular.”

“How you don’t get jet lag is beyond me. You literally just landed at what, three this morning?”

She shrugs, opening her phone and flipping through photos. “You get used to it. Jake travels a lot, too, just not so much internationally.”

She rarely talks about her brother. But every time she does, I feel a secret thrill in me. I don’t know why I still have a crush on the guy—it’s so childish! I mean, he is very handsome. He looks nothing like his sister or his parents. Rumor has it he’s the spitting image of their grandfather, a dashing six foot four muscular god of a man. I bite my bottom lip, thinking about Jake’s latest spread in a sports magazine where he gave an interview on how he stays so fit.

There were lots of shirtless photos in the magazine. I may have saved some on my phone… just to learn his workout routine, of course.

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