Page 136 of Stick Side
“Perfect,” Knight guffawed. “That means you have lots of experience dealing with people at Richie’s intellectual level.”
Ben guessed the rookie’s comment was payback for Richie’s tendency to call him a kid.
Richie scowled at Knight. “You’re on such thin ice, kid,” Richie warned, though Ben wasn’t sure how serious he was.
Richie continued glaring at Knight while he reached into his back pocket and extracted his phone. “Here,” he said, passing it to Annie across the table. “Plug your number in there so we can sort out the details.” He stopped glaring at Knight only long enough to make sure he was actually passing his phone in the right direction.
Melody shifted until her lips were right up against the shell of Ben’s ear. “Well, this certainly ought to be interesting,” she whispered for his ears alone.
It most certainly would, Ben agreed, but he simply nodded.
Ben felt awash with contentment as Melody snuggled into his embrace and sat back to enjoy the conversation with his teammates following their 1–0 win against the Penguins. He bent his head down so that the crown of Melody’s head was caressing his cheek, her long silken stands cool and soft against his stubble-roughened skin.
He didn’t fight his happy sigh. Everything was right with his world when she was cuddled up against him, and he didn’t care who knew it.
As Ben watched Annie hand Richie back his phone, her number presumably now programmed into it, he couldn’t help but wonder. They certainly weren’t an obvious pairing, but stranger things had happened.
Maybe romantic lightning would strike again for the Challengers and Richie would get lucky in love. If it did, Ben just hoped Richie would be able to get his head out of the past for long enough to allow that love to take root and flourish.
Having the right woman to love added a special sweetness to life. Now that he’d found it, Ben couldn’t imagine anything better.
