Page 59 of Hot for the Hockey Player
Growling, I tossed back the rest of the wine, stomped to the kitchen, and rinsed out the glass.Then, because I was anal-retentive about shit, I dried the glass and put it away.No sense leaving things in the dish rack when I could take another fifteen seconds to just dry them and put them away.
Then, I brushed my teeth, washed my face, and went to bed.I stared at my closed bedroom door, then shifted my gaze to my nightstand drawer where my vibrator sat, all charged up, in its purple satin bag.Then glanced back at the door.Then at my nightstand.
With another growl, I locked my door, stomped over to the nightstand, pulled out my toy, and climbed into bed.
Maybe all I needed was a good orgasm, then I would be stress free and able to stop thinking about Maverick and what he might or might not being doing with Penny.
But of course, all I could think about was Maverick the entire time, and when I squeezed my eyes closed and pictured his sexy, crooked smirk, I exploded.
Motherfucker.
“So you’re having hot flashes when, exactly?”Dr.Justine Brazeau asked, as I sat in her office during clinic hours on Monday morning.Justine hadn’t been on the island for very long, but she was already a friend to everyone.Half Chinese, half French Canadian, she looked an awful lot like Lucy Liu and, in my opinion, was one of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen.She was also in a long-term relationship with Bennett McEvoy and lived on the McEvoy property.And while she was a surgeon back in Seattle, she went back to her GP roots, and joined the practice on the island after falling in love with Bennett.
She removed the blood pressure cuff from my arm, then peered into my ears with the funky little cone-shaped thing with the light on it.
“It’s random,” I said.“I … I don’t knowexactlywhen.”
She checked my other ear.“Night sweats?”
I shook my head.“No.”
Her brown eyes narrowed.“Any other symptoms?Irregular periods?Vaginal dryness?Difficulty sleeping?Weight gain?Mood swings?Frequent headaches, or muscle and joint pain?Brain fog?”
I shook my head again.
Pursing her lips, she tapped her chin with her index finger.“You’re still a little young for perimenopause.I’m not ruling it out, but forty-one is at the early end of the spectrum.Walk me through your last week.How many times do you think you got a hot flash over the last seven days and when did it happen?”
I shrugged and glanced at the drop ceiling and overhead LED lights.“Um … maybe like four or five times.”
“When did they occur?Were you doing something specific?”
I averted my eyes and my cheeks grew hot.
“Gabrielle?”She gently reached for my hand and gave it a squeeze.“You can tell me.Did something happen?”
Clenching my molars, I fixated on the muscular anatomy poster pinned to the wall, and my knee started to bounce.
Justine pressed down on my thigh with her other hand and moved her body to block me from seeing the poster.“Gabrielle …”
“It’s perimenopause, I know it.Okay?It’s not him.It’s just a coincidence.I’ve never gottenhotaround a guy before.So it doesn’t make sense that it’s happening now.There’s something else wrong with me.I’m going throughthe change.I’m fine with it.You can just write me a prescription for vagina estrogen cream or whatever, and I’ll be on my way.”
Justine’s lips twitched and she scratched at the side of her head.“Who?”
I rolled my lips inward and shook my head like a child unwilling to tell their parents just who kicked the soccer ball in the house and knocked Grandpa’s ashes into the fish tank.
She tilted her head to the side.“Perhaps the attractive young man who is currently staying in one of the cabins?”
My eyes went wide.
“It’s a small island.”
“Oh my god!Are people talking?It was Jolene, wasn’t it?That woman needs to have her lips stapled shut.”A sickening pit opened up in the depths of my belly.“What are they saying?”
“Nobody is saying anything.But Idolive on the same property where he’s staying.And I was at the pub with Brooke, Chloe, and Vica Friday night when Maverick came in.He sat at the bar and chatted with Logan.Jillian was our server and told us he’s a family friend of yours.So I’m kind of putting the puzzle pieces together.”
I wasn’t ready to take that answer as good enough.“But nobody issayinganything, right?Like nobody thinks he’s … he’s visiting my family for any other reason than to just visit?Than to spend time with the kids?”
“Ishe?”
