Page 43 of Score Her Heart

Brad raised his eyebrows, and I put my phone away so I wouldn’t be distracted any longer. Brad was still smiling at me. “So…I’ve never been to a hockey game before. You think you can teach me?”

“Do you want to come over and watch the game with me?”

He nodded. “Yes, because I really think you need a break from writing tonight. You need to relax.”

* * *

One thing my agent Brad didn’t understand was that watching hockey was the least relaxing thing in the world for me. Especially when I was a rabid fan, and I was watching my husband take too many goddamn penalties and getting checked into the boards a little too hard. I took a swig of my beer, and my eyes darted across the flatscreen TV, watching the players shuffle down the ice.

Brad took another slice of pizza from off the coffee table. I had invited Katie over too, and they were arguing about whether my life was playing out like a fake marriage trope or a marriage of convenience trope.

Dicks.

“What position does your man play again?” Brad asked with a sparkle in his eyes.

I flicked him off. “Riley’s a D-man.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Brad asked with a laugh.

I shook my head. “Defense or blueliner.”

“It’s why he’s so big,” Katie joked.

I laughed.

Riley was a solid mass of muscle in front of the net, but he wasn’t the biggest guy on the team. He was a skilled skater and good at getting in front of the offense. I watched number twenty-two skate across the ice into the face-off circle. Benny was the biggest player on the team, and on skates, he looked way taller than his six-foot-four height.

I pointed at the screen. “Riley’s not even the biggest guy on the team; Benny is.”

“He’s dreamy,” Katie cooed.

I shook my head at her. “Calm your tits; he’s taken. I think. He’s the one who helped me move in here. He seems like a total sweetheart. He’s Riley’s best friend on the team.”

Brad whistled as he looked around the place again. I was aware that Riley’s condo was impressive. From the granite countertops to the wide windows with the nice city view, he did live in luxury. It was so weird that I was also living here now.

“He’s worked really hard all his life for these millions,” I defended him.

Brad held up his hands. “Hey, I didn’t say anything. So explain it again, how do you have an offsides in hockey if it’s like, you know, on ice?”

I ignored his question because I saw Riley get checked hard into the boards. Right in the fucking numbers. Where was that fucking penalty?

“Shit!” I yelled.

Brad and Katie scanned the TV to see what I was seeing. “What happened?” Katie asked.

“Riley took a bad hit,” I yelled, not particularly at them.

I chewed on my nails. I loved this sport, but I worried so much about the damage it could do on the players. Especially now that one of those players was my husband. Riley had minor injuries throughout his career, but being the person on the sidelines watching him wreck his body, I was afraid for him.

“Is he gonna be okay?” Katie asked.

I nodded, but I wasn’t that confident as I watched Riley hop onto the bench for the shift change.

I loved watching Riley play hockey. I spent most of my life watching him on the ice, and it always made me so proud to see his accomplishments. I watched his big body tear across the ice, and I could almost hear the delicious sound of his skates biting into the surface. I loved the sounds of the game, that scritchy-scratchy noise of blades and the thwack of the puck into the netting. Watching hockey on TV was fine, but it was nothing like live hockey. I could have asked Riley for tickets tonight, but I didn’t want to overstep my bounds. I knew I was a wife now, and I should be in the wife’s room or whatever, but I wasn’t sure if his teammates even knew he was married. Maybe he took his ring off when he left. We hadn’t really talked about it.

I jumped and cheered when I saw Riley block the shot and the Bulldogs get possession of the puck. Noah Kennedy had the breakaway and scored the game-winning goal. “Fucking right, baby, that’s how you do it!” I exclaimed.

Katie and Brad laughed at me. Brad shook his head. “You really are a hockey fan.”