Page 53 of Crossing Lines

My chest pinched.Minnesota?I hadn’t thought about him going home when the school year ended. But he had a point about the rest of it. We were expected to at least go to the Frozen Four, and with the team playing as well as it was, we would. I blew out a long breath and rubbed my forehead. Fuck, this was complicated. “Let’s just be more careful, eh? I’ll get an extra keycard for my place, and you can come in without me being there.” I sipped my whisky. “If anyone asks, you can say you’re visiting another student or something. There are lots of students living here.”

“Or my study group.” He freed a soft chuckle. “That sounds reasonable, and I don’t have to name anyone.”

“Yeah, okay.” I sighed. When would we see each other again? I couldn’t say I didn’t miss him already. “So, what’s your schedule look like this week?” We needed to start talking about this summer too. Our schedules might force us to move a little quicker than normal in our relationship if we wanted to stay together.

“How about Wednesday night? It worked out well last week,” he said in a steady voice.

“Sure. Let’s do that.” I knitted my brows. “We should probably drive separately from now on, though.” I twisted my short glass on the coffee table, the whisky almost gone. “I’ll find another nice restaurant in Phoenix. Does that sound good?”

“What if we DoorDash some food to your place and stay in?” He freed a quick chuckle. “I just want to spend time with you.”

With a grin creeping over my lips, I said, “Yeah, that sounds nice.” Okay, we had a plan. Sort of. “So, don’t worry about me, and I’ll see you at practice tomorrow.”

“Okay. See you. And be careful.” He huffed a breath. “Bye.”

“Bye.” I hung up the phone and placed it on my coffee table. Shit, why did it have to be so complicated? I wished I’d never met Owen.

Wednesday, I sat in the coaches’meeting room at our long conference table with everyone, working through our strategy for our next home game against a team from Alaska. Patterson’s agenda switched to scouting.

“Have you heard from Shannon?” Patterson focused on Finley.

“I have. He liked what he saw from Boehm at the game last week and wants to set up a meet and greet with one of their forwards coaches.” He skimmed his finger along the edge of hislaptop, then glanced at me. “Would be nice to have Boehm in your hometown this summer, huh?” He quirked the corner of his mouth.

What the fuck? My gut tightened. Did he know about me and Jonah too? “Sure, I suppose. At least he wouldn’t be alone up there, eh?” I gave him a charming grin.

“Yeah, I’m sure you could show him around.” He snickered and tapped on his laptop. “Anyway, I’m setting something up for next week.”

My heart soared. Jonah could do this. I knew it. He was the right man for their team. He’d fit right in.

After spendingpractice doing my best to ignore Jonah and focus on my own guys, I sat alone at my desk and fingered the extra keycard in the pocket of my team sweats. I had to get this thing to Jonah without anyone else seeing. Maybe I could leave it for him somewhere? But where? I picked my phone up from the desk to text him.

Ryan

Where can I leave this keycard for you?

Janet

In my hand?

Jonah stood in the doorway, all showered and wrapped up in a thin gray sweater and form-fitting jeans, beaming at me. “Hey, Coach.” He glanced behind him, then held his hand up. “Toss it.”

“You shouldn’t be in here,” I whispered to him, shaking my head. God, he wasn’t getting it. I threw the keycard his way.

He caught it and stuffed it into his back pocket. “See you later.” As Archer strolled by, he joined him and sauntered off.

Finley strode to the doorway, looking at papers he held in his hand, and stopped. “What was that about?” He arched a brow.

“What? Nothing.” I’d feign ignorance.Again. I closed my laptop and bent over in my office chair to slide it into my laptop bag.

“What did you just throw to Boehm?” He set a hand on the door jamb and shifted his weight, then pointed his papers at me. “Is he coming around trying to get intel from you on Shannon?”

Perfect. I stood with my bag and slung the strap over my shoulders. “Yeah, he’s asked me a few things about him and the team. I told him he needed to talk to you about it.” I walked toward Finley, and as I stepped past him, I patted him on the shoulder. “I’m not his coach. You are.” I strolled down the hallway. There, if Finley questioned if there was something between us now, he might think twice about it being a problem.

After driving around my garage,looking for Owen, I parked and made my way to my apartment. Thank fuck the guy wasn’t around. The parkade creeped me out now.

I stepped inside and dropped my laptop bag next to the kitchen island, then snuck my phone out of my pocket and sat in the corner of my sofa. I hadn’t spoken to Mom in a few weeks and should call her. Besides, I had some time to kill before Jonah showed up. I tapped on my phone to ring her and set it on speaker.

“Hello, Ryan. Nice to hear from you.” Her voice was cheery.

---