Page 19 of Puck Happens

Unless she changed her mind. Unless she was starting to sense, like I was, that our eventual hook up was becoming inevitable and she needed to take active steps to avoid me. Like not showing up here tonight and not showing up at the rink tomorrow.

Fuck that. She wasn’t going to ditch me entirely, was she?

Oh hell. Maybe she was. I didn’t know her last name or where she was staying.

Nothing.

This was a beach town in August. There could be a hundred places she might have rented, including a room at The Dumont Hotel. Although she didn’t strike me as the fancy hotel type.

How the hell was I going to find her if she didn’t show up?

More importantly, why was I freaking out about it? If she didn’t show, she didn’t show. I was Mr. No Relationship Until My Career Was Over.

There was nothing more going on here, just two people hitting it off. I liked her. She liked me. Our chemistry was off the chart. She was here for a temporary amount of time. It was simple.

Wasn’t it?

The door opened. Liv walked in through pink and blue neon lights and I thought…

Shit. Not simple.

I was too damn relieved to see her. Too damn happy.

I turned away and saw that stupid picture of my dad hanging on the wall. More than stupid, it was a reminder that you couldn’t have everything. You couldn’t do the thing you loved – even if it was in a stupid beret - and have relationships. Family.

You got one or the other, try for both and you lost it all.

Get your shit together Le Coeur. You don’t do relationships. You don’t do feelings.

You do fucking. And you do hockey. That’s it.

Right. This wasn’t about feelings. This was about me getting my hands on her hot little body. That was it.

Phew. For a second there I thought I might have been in trouble.

“Oh good, your girlfriend’s here. Now maybe you can focus on the job,” Wendy said, sliding behind me with two espresso martinis. Another one of her upgrades to the Gull – cocktails.

“You know you don’t pay me, and I can leave whenever I want,” I reminded her.

She smiled and tossed her hair behind her shoulder. “Yeah, but you won’t or I would have to kick your ass.”

“Oh, like I’m so scared of you,” I snorted.

I was totally scared of her, for the record.

“Also, she’s not my girlfriend. This isn’t a thing,” I insisted. “We just like spending time together.”

“Hookay,” Wendy drawled. “Look, I’m only busting your chops. Bar’s cooled down enough you can go have your fun. You know, with the woman you just like to spend time with.”

Wendy was right. The tables were filled with people eating all the chicken wings they could stuff in their face, but there was only a handful of regulars sitting at the bar.

Liv sat in the same seat she had that first night she showed up. This time she was in jeans, a flowy blue top and her hair was down.

Wavy and bright, it fell around her shoulders. Long enough that I could get a grip of it in my fist, but not so long it would get in the way.

I groaned just thinking about it, knowing it was getting harder to shut those thoughts down.

“Hey,” she said, hanging her purse on one of the hooks under the bar.

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