Page 90 of Grumpy Darling

Grayson’s flirting had just made it a little hard to think clearly today. Then Damien’s invite had taken me by surprise. If, by some miracle, he asked me out again, I wouldn’t make the same mistake.

“I didn’t know he was going to ask me out,” I told Bonnie. “Next time I’ll be ready.”

“Good,” she replied. “At least we can be thankful you didn’t have a drink in your hand this time.”

“That is one upside.” I pushed through the front door of the arena and shivered as I stepped into the cold evening air.

“I’m almost to my car, Bon. I better get going. But I’ll get these interviews written up and have them back to you tomorrow.”

“I can’t wait to read them,” she replied. “I’m especially intrigued by what Coach Ray had to say. He’s notoriously hard to pin down for an interview.”

“Wait, I was supposed to interview him too?”

She groaned. “Yes, of course! I put his questions in your notebook after the ones for the team.”

“Uh...” I was pretty sure she hadn’t. I started flicking through the notebook and sighed when I found the page of questions for Coach Ray.

“It’s the lead-up to the playoffs, so the Athletic Director took a lot of convincing to let us do this,” Bonnie explained. “He was worried about the players getting distracted. The only way I could make it sound more legit was by telling him we’d also be interviewing Coach Ray.”

I was tired after interviewing the entire hockey team, and I wasn’t thrilled with the thought of sitting down for another round of questions with the coach. But I didn’t want to let Bonnie down. I turned to head back inside. “Okay, okay. I’ll go get his interview.”

“Thank you!”

“But if I find any questions about his underwear in this notebook, you had better believe I’m defriending you for good.”

All I received in reply was the sound of Bonnie’s wicked laughter before she ended the call.

Chapter 22

Paige

Thankfully, there were no inappropriate questions for Coach Ray. It ended up being a very standard hockey interview. We covered his experience as a coach, his thoughts on the season so far, and his plans for the playoffs. I’d actually found it really interesting, if a little less fun than my time with each of the players.

The whole thing took longer than I expected though, and it was late by the time I arrived back at the Darlings’. As I walked through the front door, I was surprised to find the house quiet. It was usually abuzz with noise, and it was rare not to hear sounds of the boys shouting, fighting, and laughing—or at the very least, the TV blaring, video games firing, and music thumping from Cammie’s room. Right now, it was so peaceful I suspected I might be alone.

“Hello?” I called out.

“In here!” Gray replied.

I took a moment to try to dislodge a flurry of nerves that erupted in my chest. I hadn’t felt quite like myself since the interview with Grayson, and I didn’t know how long I could keep acting like everything between us was normal, especially if it was just the two of us here.

I followed his voice to the kitchen. “I thought you left before me,” he said as I entered the room. “What took you so long?”

“I had to go back to...” My voice trailed off as I realized Grayson was standing by the counter with an array of ingredients laid out in front of him. “What’s going on here?”

“Dinner.” His deep voice was gruff. “Mom has a flat tire so I’m getting it ready. Want to help?”

I snorted with disbelief. “Uh, are you really ready for round two of my cooking? I may have enjoyed the process, but we both know I was a disaster.”

“Well, consider this a coaching session then. We’re making pizza.”

“You can’t cook,” I scoffed, but quickly began to doubt myself. “Can you?”

“Looks like there’s more than one thing you don’t know about me.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.” I think I needed to see Grayson cooking to believe it.

“So, why did you have to go back?” he asked as he turned to take something out of the fridge.

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