Page 6 of Hot for the Hockey Player
He now worked at a place called “Unger Wellness.”A multi-therapy healing facility on San Camanez Island, which coincidentally was just a short ferry ride from Seattle.
That sounded way better than LA.A quiet, relaxing little island where I could rest and recoup while getting world-class physiotherapy?
Sign me up!
I called Unger Wellness immediately, only a little groggy from the pain meds, but promised to have Dr.Avery send the referral posthaste.
Once I had my initial visit scheduled, next on my to-do list was to find a place to stay.
While several of the seasonal swankier places to stay on the island were closed down for the winter season, there was some availability in a modern, albeit small, cabin right on the beach.And these cabins were also located on the same property as the Sound Bites Pub and San Camanez Brewery.
Maybe it was the adrenaline, maybe it was the painkillers, but excitement flared inside of me at the idea of getting off the mainland for a bit.Even though I was seriously worried about my career.
With a former NHL player for a dad and two older brothers also in the NHL, the skates I had to fill were enormous—and I never seemed to measure up.Even though my feet were the biggest of the four of us.
San Camanez Island was touted as being this place of solace, tranquility, and respite.A little slice of heaven just outside the city.And I needed that.I needed a break.I needed to regroup and decide where I wanted my future—my career—to go.And if I was willing to sacrifice my health for that career.
Something told me San Camanez was just the place for that to happen.
CHAPTER THREE
Gabrielle
Iwasnormallyfarmore prepared for dinner than this, but Laurel—my eleven-year-old—politely requested chicken parmesan, and I never missed an excuse to add cheese to a meal.But when I went to get my dredging station ready, I discovered my house—and adjacent cousins’ houses—completely void of parmesan, not even a Kraft shaker bottle of the crumbly, fake abomination.
It was probably Damon.That kid had the appetite of a linebacker, and I’d caught him more than once carving off a chunk of cheese—not a slice, but achunk—and gnawing on it like a starved mouse as he played video games.
Which was why at four-fifteen, I found myself at the San Camanez Island Town Center Grocery Store in the cheese section, and talking myself out of the round of smoked gouda that was outrageously priced at fifteen dollars for the piddly size of it.
The things we did for our children …
I knew the parmesan was going to cost me a limb, but I was prepared for that.I also knew better than to shop on an empty stomach.I frequently boasted to my cousins that I could go to the store and not deviate from my shopping list at all; unlike Raina, who almost always came home with a new houseplant, or Naomi, who never skipped buying a chocolate bar from the checkout line.
But damn, that brick of smoked gouda looked good.It was a weakness of mine, and I had very few weaknesses.My kids, and smoked gouda.That was about it.
With the parmesan in one hand and the smoked gouda in the other, I sighed hard, frowned, and put the gouda back down.I spun around before I changed my mind, and smacked into the hard chest and basket of someone who smelled deliciously manly.My parmesan landed on the grocery store floor with a dullthud.
“Oh, sorry,” I said, stepping back and bending down immediately to grab my cheese.Only the brick wall I rammed into also had the same idea, and we bonked heads.
“Ouch!”we both said at the same time, standing back up with the cheese still on the floor.
I rubbed at the top of my head, seeing more stars and little birdies in my vision than anything else.“Are you okay?”I asked.
“Mrs.Campbell?”
I blinked a few more times until things got less fuzzy and that’s when I realized that the delicious-smelling mountain of muscle I collided with was none other than Maverick Roy.
My jaw dropped as my eyes raked him from head to toe and back again, lingering a little too long on the tightness of his dark-gray Henley and the way it hugged his body.When I realized what I was doing, I shook my head and blinked some more.“M-Maverick.Hi.”
The floor may as well have been made of super glue because when he smiled, I couldn’t move a muscle.“Hey.How are you?”He leaned forward and wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug.
I hugged him back.
Big mistake, that hug.
Big.
Huge.
