Page 36 of Pucking Sweet

“Yeah, just give me a minute to hit the head,” he replies.

“No, now,” says the attendant. “The lavatory will be open again as soon as we reach our cruising altitude.”

“Fine.” I gasp in surprise as Colton plops himself down in the empty seat next to me. “There. I’m sitting. Are you happy?”

“Buckle your seatbelt, and I’ll be ecstatic,” the attendant deadpans.

Colton grapples for the pieces of his seatbelt, clicking them together. “Happy now?”

The corner of the attendant’s mouth twitches. “I’m dancing on the inside.” He saunters off, calling the all-clear to his crew.

Oh, heaven help me. Now that Colton’s sitting, I can smell his cologne. It’s the same one he was wearing the night he kissed me, all warm and woodsy. I detect notes of leather and bergamot, a hint of orange. Smelling it again puts me right back in my kitchen—my legs wrapped around his hips, my hands on his shoulders, my tongue teasing his perfect lips…

I lean as far away as possible. My shoulder is pressed against the window. “Colton, what are you doing?”

He gestures to the seat. “I’m sitting.”

“You’re sitting by me,” I clarify. “I thought players don’t sit with staff.”

“Doc Price is sitting with Kinnunen,” he says with a shrug. “Compton is sitting with Sanford. Apparently, the Rays don’t obey the time-honored laws of hockey travel.”

I glance his way, trying to keep my tone uninterested. “Yeah, what was that about?”

“What was what about?”

“I saw Rachel talking to Mars…and she was sitting with you?”

He huffs, pulling his earbud from his ear and returning it to its little case. “Oh, Doc Price is just learning about the ins and outs of hockey superstitions.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, Mars is a goalie,” he explains. “If there’s one thing goalies crave, it’s routine. And she was sitting with Mars on our flight out, right? Well, then he played a shutout game, and she tried to move seats. Mars wasn’t having it. He made her move.”

“He made her move? Why?”

“Because he needs to know.”

“Know what?”

“Whether she’s lucky.”

I go still. There it is again, that word.Lucky. Lukas teased me with it earlier—

I wince as the plane hits a bump. Dropping my hand down, I hold tight to the armrest. We’re about to take off. This is alwaysthe hardest part for me. But Colton is here, and I’ll take any distraction. “So, umm, he thinks he played a shutout game because Rachel sat next to him on the plane?”

Colton chuckles. “Probably not. If we lose the next game, he’ll likely let her go. Right now, she’s his unwilling hostage.”

So, not a love connection. That simplifies things for me. I don’t have to worry about spinning anything if their relationship doesn’t go beyond her warming an airplane seat.

I glance up at him. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Do you believe in luck?”

He smiles. “Of course I do. I wouldn’t be here right now if the universe hadn’t granted me at least a little bit of luck.”

“By ‘here’ you mean on a chartered jet, playing professional hockey?”

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