Page 24 of Loving Ladybug: Part One
“I’m hesitating because there’s a sixty-three percent chance that if I text him that, when I get home they will be in my living room even though he doesn’t have my new address. That’s just how he is. Also, he’s teasing. He actually swears by naked moon yoga, country line dancing, axe throwing, and fishing.”
He leaned in and whispered, “Goalies are weird.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Sometimes I do yoga in the park.”
“I know tennis is good for hockey players. But I never learned,” he confessed. “All my friends play golf.”
“I learned tennis as a kid, mostly to annoy my sister, who was fantastic, though I usually played with my mom.” A little pang shot through my heart. My sister had been as good at tennis as I was at hockey. Better probably. She was now mated with kids like a good little omega. Though she alsolovedher job. I hadn’t talked to any of my siblings in a long time.
Tenzin sent Cooter a text.
Tenzin
I’m going to tell your wife.
“Cooter’s wife is beautiful, right? Super smart. Nice.” Every PHL goalie I knew that was in a relationship had a partner who was smoking hot and majorly accomplished.
Cooter
Who do you think pays?
“Cooter doesn’t have a wife. We made her up. If she was real, oh, the things we’d tell her,” he laughed. “We had the rookies going for almost the entire season last year. Got them convinced she was this smart, pretty woman who could wrestle a bear, catch fish with her hands, scale walls barefoot, and swear with the best of them.”
“Sounds like a woman I’d like to know.” I laughed.
“Do you like line dancing?” His head ducked, and I realized there was a twang to his voice, like he’d lived in the south once.
I blinked. Line dancing? “I’ve never tried. I’m not sure you can do that in New York.”
A family came over and I helped them get skates and glow sticks. When I finished, Tenzin was still there.
“Don’t you want to skate?” Not that I minded him hanging out with me.
“Mostly I came for the company. While I had a great day, I came home and suddenly I didn’t want to be alone. I’m not getting you in trouble now, am I?” He looked over at the busy rink.
Aww.
“It’ll be fine, Tens,” I assured. “No one will care as long as I do my job. Can I call you Tens?”
He smiled. “Sure. Not many people call me that anymore.”
“Oh good, I wanted to check in case your ex called you that.” I got some more glow ears out from under the counter.
“Is there anything I shouldn’t call you?” he asked me.
I thought for a moment. “I don’t like being calledWendel. Austin’s, I mean, my ex’s, friends always called me that. They’re asshats. Most UNYC hockey players are.”
Also, the nicknameWendelwas dumb. I wasn’t a Gwendolyn.
“That’s not where you go, right?” Tenzin leaned up against the end counter, so he wasn’t blocking it.
“No. My ex went to UNYC. I go to NYIT, who has a rivalry with them.” The local state university versus the old fancy private one.
The main reason Austin pushed me to transfer to NYIT wasbecauseit was so prestigious. I didn’t care, but Austin seemed to think it would help me in the future.
Tenzin nodded. “I attended Crestdale.”
“Crestdale? Color me fancy,” I grinned. Crestdale was a prestigious, but bohemian private university on the west coast over in the Bay Area. Their mascot was an avocado, and they threw fake rats onto the ice every time their hockey team scored.
