Page 276 of Branded
The wry question had Jules going still beside me.
“Yup! Every game.”
I glanced at her, saw her cheeks had gone pink and she wouldn’t meet my eyes.
Hmm.
But Ethan had perked up again, clearly already over the awe. “She said I could be a hockey player when I grow up if I practice hard.”
My brows rose. “You play?”
A nod that was almost bobblehead-esque. “Yup,” he said, the p at the end popping.
I opened my mouth to ask what position, but Jules straightened, announced, “We should let Cas get on with his day.” One more scratch to Sparky’s head. “Come on, bud.”
“Maybe we can go skating sometime,” I blurted, seizing the opening less than gracefully (though at least it wasn’t a yell this time). “Shoot some pucks around,” I said, “and I could give you some pointers if you want.”
“Really?” Ethan asked, his eyes wide, the awe back. “You and me?”
“Yeah.”
“Whoa.”
I grinned, full-out. “How about your mom and I talk it over, okay?” I said, catching a look at Jules’s expression and knowing this would take careful navigating on my part. “See if we can come up with a time and day that works.”
“Whoa.”
That final whoa finally unstuck Jules and she laughed softly, shaking her head. Though the look she shot me told me it wasn’t all amusement in her reaction. She knew she’d been had, at least in this situation. And I, for my part, was trying to not fist pump like a moron at having secured a little more time with her. Plus, Ethan was fucking cute, and I liked kids, liked teaching kids, too. It wouldn’t be a trial to spend a little time on the ice with him.
“Come on, bud,” she said, brushing off her hands. “Cas and I will talk later. But, for now, you have a date with your homework and then the bathtub.”
“Aw, man,” Ethan muttered, but he still scooted away from Spark, who seemed to have fallen asleep under his careful attention, and stood up.
Sparky didn’t move.
“What are you going to do now?” she asked after I had tugged lightly on the leash, called my pooch’s name, and Sparky still didn’t bother to so much as open his eyes.
I shrugged and did what I always did when my pup had had enough of his walks?—
I bent and scooped Sparky up.
Jules laughed, and it was a real one this time, and it was so fucking beautiful that every nerve in my body shot to attention.
Ethan’s eyes were wide, and he said his trademark, “Whoa,” though this time it was a whisper.
“You do this every time?” she asked.
I shrugged again, albeit with arms full of golden floof. “He’s old, and he gets tired.”
A softening in her face, one that set my heart pounding.
She leaned in.
I held very, very still.
She pressed her lips to Spark’s head and my pooch sighed in contentment.
Then she looked up at me, studied me for a long, long time, and her face went a little soft (I thought, I hoped) as she said again, this time softly, “We’ll talk later.”
