He lets out a “woo hoo!” before scooping me up and swinging me around. I can’t help but laugh and squeal. My hands fall to his shoulders to steady myself and I pause. Whoa…that’s some solid muscle right there.
When he stills and gazes at me. “Thank you for making this happen. I owe you.”
The low growl of his voice catches me off guard. That’s when I realize how tightly he’s holding me…and that his arms are braced around my ass.
Our gazes are locked as I hold my breath. A hard swallow moves down the length of his thick, throat. For a second all I can focus on is the feel of his hard, firm body against mine, how good it feels…
“We should start planning,” he says.
I snap out of whatever dreamy daze I was just in. “Right.”
I start to wiggle and he sets me down, then follows me out to the living room. I pull up my laptop and for the rest of the evening, we hammer out all the details…and all the while I ignore that borderline sexy moment that just passed between us. We’re housematesandcoworkers now, nothing more.
Chapter14
Theo
“Don’t be nervous.”
Maya’s comment catches me off guard as zip my coat up.
“I’m not nervous,” I mutter.
I grab my skates and throw the bag of equipment over my shoulder, then head down toward the pond.
“You’ve checked your phone about a million times this morning,” she says while walking behind me. “Don’t worry, they’ll show up.”
I huff out a breath, focusing on the sound of the snow crunching under our boots as we walk toward the frozen small pond at the end of Ingrid’s property.
“Hey,” she says softly before gently grabbing my wrist and stopping me in my tracks.
She pulls me to face her. I take in the way her deep brown eyes shine with sincerity.
“I mean it. You’ve played hundreds of games in front of thousands of hockey fans shouting at you. This is playtime with a half-dozen kids. It’ll be easy and fun.” Maya offers a small, sweet smile that quells the churn of nerves in my stomach.
Together we walk the rest of the way to the pond, unload the bag, and get all the equipment set up.
My instinct when I’m feeling nervous or uncertain is to joke, but I don’t want to do that right now, not when Maya is being so kind and supportive.
I look over to where she’s setting up tiny orange cones along the edge of the frozen pond a handful of feet away from me.
“I guess it is kind of weird that playing in front of a packed stadium doesn’t unnerve me, but the thought of screwing up in front of these kids does.” I let out a nervous laugh.
Maya looks up from her spot and offers yet another kind and reassuring smile that sets my nerves at ease…and does something strange to the center of my chest.
“It’s not weird,” she says. “It’s what you’re used to.”
I move to set up the tiny goal that I brought down earlier in the morning at the edge of the pond. “I just want this to go well. How much of an asshole would I look like after begging my teammates to bring their kids to this weekend hockey camp and their kids end up hating it? Or what if something goes wrong? I’ve got a lot a lot riding on this.”
When I look up, Maya is staring at me with a thoughtful expression.
“What?”
She shakes her head and looks down, a small smile on her face. “Nothing.”
“No, tell me.”
She pauses for a second. “It’s just…I thought that you were going to say how worried you are about how this will affect your image. But you want this to be good for the kids.”
