Page 52 of The Puck Stops Here

Bugger. She’d been so distracted by the twins she hadn’t sent her daily greeting.

‘Sorry…’ She put the phone in the crook of her neck as she slid open her wardrobe. ‘All’s good.’

‘How’s the new article going? Are those ice hockey players really as huge as they appear on the TV?’

She laughed. ‘It’s going, and yes.’

‘And the dating pool?’

‘Mum!’

‘What, darling? You’re working in a male-dominated environment, you can’t blame a mother for hoping her daughter might meet her match.’

‘I’m working,’ she said, shoving her exercise gear into a bag. ‘Not hunting down a husband!’

‘Well, you know, I was working when I met John and?—’

‘Yeah yeah, I know, and John’s a wonder.’

A wonder that he’s still around after a few months,Astridcouldn’t help thinking.

‘Heisa wonder.’

Astrid was being sarcastic, her mother wasn’t.

‘And I’m not giving up hope that one day you’ll bring someone home. I really thought that Chase?—’

‘Mum!We had this conversation at Christmas.’

She’d only mentioned Chase to get her mother to quit nagging and it had backfired spectacularly because months down the line she was still bringing him up. She would quit if she knew the full horror ofthatrelationship, but there was no way Astrid was going to tell her. Far better to let her think her daughter had ‘self-sabotaged’ yet another relationship…

‘And we’ll have it forever more because I’m worried about you. I’m worried that it’s my fault you?—’

‘It’snotyour fault!’ She zipped the bag closed and straightened. ‘You don’t need to worry about me. And I don’t need a man to make me happy.’

‘What about a woman then, because I’m?—’

‘Mum!’

‘Okay, okay, I’m shutting up. I’m just glad you’re alive.’

And tomorrow, Astrid would make doubly sure she messagedbeforeher mother could ring if this was how it would go.

* * *

Blake sensed her enter the rink. He couldn’t see her yet, but her presence rippled down the ice, the guys shifting in their stance, heads turning…

Everyoneknew who she was and why she was here. Not that they cared about the latter. She was new and she was hot and the team’s WhatsApp group had blown up with surreptitious pics and lewd banter from the off.

He tightened his grip on the stick. Bunch of damn hornballs, every last one of them.

Even Danny had stirred the pot.

Not Blake though. He wasn’t getting involved. And Aiden had been noticeably quiet too.

He eyed his brother now as they ran through their drills, weaving through the cones and passing the puck down the ice in flawless rhythm. Matching Ice’s burst of speed, he sent the puck into the crease, and his brother tipped it in with precision. He broke away, his gaze flicking to the edge of the rink, and there she was, Coach at her side.

‘Distracted?’ Aiden said, spraying ice as he came up to him.

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