Page 196 of Risking the Pucking Defense
“I’ve got to get to the arena. Go back to sleep.”
“I don’t want you to go.”
A smile crawls across my lips.
“How do you think I feel when you have a road game?”
“You miss me when I’m gone, baby?” he asks. I don’t need to look back to know he’s grinning, I can hear it in his smile.
“A little,” I confess, twisting around to kiss his cheek. “Sleep. I’ll be back in a few hours.”
“Who says I’ll still be here? I might have very important things to do and people to see.”
“Do you?”
“Nope, free as a bird.”
“You’re an idiot.”
“Yeah, but you love me.”
My breath catches at his words, and his eyes fly open.
“I-I-I didn’t mean—”
I press my fingers against his lips just like he did to me last night.
“I’m starting to think I might,” I whisper.
I swear time stops, because his reaction happens in slow motion. His eyes widen, and his lips part before they curl into a smile.
“Hails?”
“One day at a time, yeah?”
“You can have as many days as you like,” he promises, giving me a kiss when I lean down for one.
Before he can deepen it and convince me to stay, I pull away and force myself to walk across the room.
“Hails?” he calls, stopping me in my tracks.
I look back over my shoulder and find his eyes. “I think I do, too.”
55
HAYDEN
The sun warms my skin, and the scent of grilled meat floats around me, ensuring my stomach growls loudly. I had a plateful of salad from the huge buffet table not so long ago, but it wasn’t enough.
I’ve got almost all of my favorite people around me, the sun is shining, and there’s the promise of more food than I could eat in a week.
But it’s not quiet perfect.
Someone is missing.
No matter how hard I tried to convince Hailee that she would be welcome at Coach’s pre-season barbecue, she held firm and refused to come.
I get that she feels awkward. Only Bea and Rett know about us being together. And I will always respect her wishes to keep it a secret for as long as possible. Now I know what she was hiding, I understand her need to keep it discreet even more.
