Home Ice (5 page)

“I bet you would win,” Sophie said adoringly to him.

“Not likely,” Jo-Jo said. “501 would trip and slam headfirst into the goal post again or something.” Which was exactly how my young defenseman had ended up with concussion symptoms. It was worse than that, even. Somehow, he’d gotten himself called for a tripping penalty in the process of chasing the opposing player back to the goal, and he’d almost knocked the puck into our net at the same time.

The boys had been giving him shit over it ever since.

The coaches and I had been, too, to be honest, but in a different way. We’d been using this time while he was forced to sit out to remind him to slow down and that he had more time to make his moves than he seemed to think. Sometimes, it was better to take a step back, especially for a young guy like him. Being up here right now might not be fun for him, but it was far better for his future in the league.

Sophie didn’t pay Jo-Jo any attention. Her eyes were only for 501. “You would win,” she repeated.

One of her sisters, who had previously been just as smitten with 501 as Sophie, was now making gaga eyes at Jo-Jo, though.

I said a silent prayer that all my players would remember that these were teenaged girls and, therefore, well out of bounds. Then I chuckled and got up to get a drink, nodding at my assistant coaches, David Weber and Adam Hancock, as I passed them. I’d barely gotten to the back of the room, where we had a buffet table full of drinks, sandwich fixings, and the like, when Paige caught me, stopping so close she almost brushed up against me.

She smelled like sunshine—warmth and fresh air combining into a state of perfection. I’d noticed it earlier, but it nearly knocked me on my ass now. “Can I get you something?” I asked. I should have asked her before I got up to begin with. I just hadn’t been thinking.

She shook her head. “I just wanted… I wanted to thank you. It’s really rare that anyone thinks to do anything for Sophie, let alone for the rest of my girls. I wanted you to know how much I appreciate it.”

“I only did what anyone would do,” I said, but even as the words left my mouth, I knew them to be untrue. She was right. Most people wouldn’t have done what I had, whether they had the opportunity to do it or not. They would look right past this young girl, assuming that they’d offend by offering help where it wasn’t wanted or simply not having a clue what help they should offer. Too many times, I’d seen people completely look past Linnea, ignoring her or pretending they didn’t see her. And it always made me mad. It made me feel inadequate, because no matter how big or strong I was and no matter how much money I made, I couldn’t protect her from the cruelty she’d faced every day of her life, whether she recognized it as what it was or not. It made me hurt for my sister, who was so sweet and always thought the best of everyone she came into contact with, whether they deserved her sweetness or not.

People apologized when I confronted them about it. They were always quick to make excuses. They just didn’t realize they were making assumptions about her, whether they recognized it or not. They assumed Linnea was less than they were. They assumed she wouldn’t fit in or couldn’t do what they were going to do. They made plenty of assumptions.

Because of that, the only thing I would ever assume about Sophie was that she would most likely surprise me at every turn.

“I suppose that’s not exactly true, is it?” I said, once again letting a slight grin creep to my lips. I couldn’t seem to help that when it came to Sophie, the same as when I was with Linnea. The surprising thing was that Paige was starting to have a similar effect on me.

“No.” The look in Paige’s eyes was one I couldn’t quite place. Curiosity, maybe? “No, it’s not the case. Far from it. So thank you. It means more to me than you could ever know.”

“I think I do know,” I said. “If someone had done something like this for my sister, I would have done anything I could to be sure they understood what it meant to me. But regardless of what anyone else would do, I felt it was only right.”

She didn’t say anything, picking up a small dessert plate and putting a few grapes and bits of pineapple on it. My eye once again fell to her hand. Still no wedding ring, not that I’d expected one to appear out of thin air.

“So if there’s anything else I can do for Sophie, anything you and your husband can think of…” I intentionally left the suggestion hanging in the air, waiting to see if she’d answer the question that was eating me alive.

“My ex-husband, you mean.” Not only did she answer me but her eyes fluttered up to meet mine. She was flirting with me as much as I was flirting with her.

I had to hold myself back from doing a victory dance. That wouldn’t be appreciated right now. “Your ex,” I repeated after her. “Just let me know.”

“Why are you doing this?” Paige asked, popping a grape in her mouth. “Are you really just a good guy, and this is exactly what you say—that you were drawn to Sophie because she reminds you of your sister, and that’s it? Nothing more?”

“There might be something more.” Fuck, it had been a long time since I’d tried to banter with a woman I was interested in. I was seriously out of practice. With everything else I did in life, I had all the confidence in the world. I knew what I was doing every step of the way before beginning step one, and I never stumbled or fumbled my way through it. But with this? I felt like a gangly fourteen-year-old boy again, with feet that had grown faster than the rest of me that had me tripping over them with every step I took. “There is something more,” I corrected myself.

“Which is?” She picked up a napkin and folded it, slipping it beneath her plate.

“The truth is, I’m drawn to you every bit as much as I’m drawn to your daughter,” I forced out. “I want to get to know you, Paige.”

A smile crept to her lips despite her obvious effort to keep it at bay. “I’m not sure how I feel about that.”

And that was as good as a punch in the gut—further proof that she already had her hands full without adding a man like me to it. I had no business chasing after this single mother, and I knew it, but damn if I didn’t want to convince her it was a good idea.

Then, picking up a glass of water, she turned to go back to her seat.

I put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her, before I could think through what I was doing. In fact, I didn’t want to think it through. I’d acted without planning every tiny detail when I’d invited her and her daughters to join us for the day, and so far it had turned out better than I could have imagined even if I was faltering at every turn. Maybe I needed to be spontaneous more often. Maybe it would be good for me.

Maybe Paige would be good for me. And maybe I could be good for her.

She glanced up at me, her brow arched. “Yes?”

“Do you and your girls have plans tomorrow?” I asked. Her lips formed a perfect O, but she didn’t immediately turn me down, so I pushed through. “It’s still the weekend. We’ve got an afternoon game. I’d like you to come as my guests. If you want. And if you don’t have other plans. We could maybe have dinner after.”

“I…” She looked as lost as she sounded, as if she was as out of practice was I was.

But then one of her girls—probably the oldest one—came over to the buffet table and started fixing herself a plate. She glanced up at me. “Did you just ask my mom out on a date?”

“I did.” I kept my eyes on Paige while I answered her daughter.

“What she means to say is
yes
. And by the way, she likes tulips. Yellow ones.”

“
Zoe
,” Paige said in a very mom-like voice.

“What? You do like tulips.” Zoe gave me a cheeky grin. “Can we hang out with 501 during the game?”

WITH MATTIAS’S HELP
, I managed to extricate Levi from Sophie’s exuberant grip and guide all of my girls toward the parking garage after the StormSkillz event came to a close. Mattias came with us, actually, walking along beside me while my daughters raced ahead in a torrent of squeals pitched so high that only a dog should be able to hear them.

“You think they had a good time?” he asked me, the deep rumble of his voice a pleasing contrast to their excited chatter.

I chuckled. “I doubt they’ll stop talking about it for a month.” Even as I said it, Sophie turned her head to look at us over her shoulder, her smile as sweet as I’d ever seen it. Her eyes were all crinkled up, and her cheeks were flushed with exhilaration. She looked like she might never be able to stop smiling.

“That’s good.”

“Good, yes, but they might drive me insane with it before the month is out.” In a good way, though. Sometimes I complained about how excitable they could be when it came to boys and their crushes, but really I wouldn’t change it for anything.

“I guess I’ll have to make that up to you,” he said, and my butterflies returned.

They kept coming back, each instance stronger than the last, when he did even the smallest thing. Sometimes it was when he would smile at me with that panty-melting look in his eye. Once, they’d fluttered to life when he’d entertained Sophie while Levi escaped for a few minutes, answering every question she put to him as though it was the most important question he’d ever heard. Another time, the flutters caught me unawares when he took the time to explain what icing was to Izzy.

How pathetic was it that this man could turn me on simply by taking an interest in my daughters? But it was the truth. He’d paid as much attention to each of the four of them as he had to me over the course of the afternoon, and he’d even taken a few moments to talk to his players and give them instruction for their own play based on some of the games and drills taking place on the ice below us. If I wasn’t careful, I might find myself falling for this man, and that wasn’t something that fit well in my plans.

“They’re growing up too fast for me,” I admitted. “When they were little, there were times I couldn’t wait for them to grow up. Three was always a rough year. Whoever decided the twos were terrible must never have met a three-year-old. I didn’t think I would escape their threes with all of us being alive and intact.”

Mattias chuckled. “But here you are.”

“But here we are, and they’re teenagers. I think I blinked one day and they were practically adults. Now I regret all those moments I wished they would hurry past those difficult stages, and I’m praying they’ll slow down.”

“Sadly, I don’t think it works that way.”

“No, it doesn’t.” I glanced up at him and caught him staring at me in the way he had that made my heart race, and I quickly looked ahead again. “What about you?” I asked to deflect my own attention away from the overwhelming
awareness
he brought out in me. “Do you have kids growing up too fast? Or maybe already grown?”

“No kids. Just my sister.” His arm brushed against mine, and I broke out in gooseflesh. He didn’t react to the contact. “Linnea has a boyfriend, my mother tells me. He’s got DS, too. He works in the mail room with her and asked her out for ice cream after work one day. Now they’re talking about how they want to live together.”

“Oh, wow. Have you met him?”

“Many times. They’ve worked together for years. They’ve been friends for a long time.”

“And do you like him?”

“As a man? Sure. As a man my sister is living with?” He laughed and shook his head. “It’s hard to wrap my head around it, is all.”

Since the thought of Sophie dating someone gave me hives, I could understand that. “Has she dated before?”

“There was one,” he said cautiously, making me wonder what had happened with that first boyfriend. “It’s been a while, though. And I want her to be happy and have love in her life, but I can’t help but worry. I mean, it was only a few years ago that she moved out of my parents’ house to live in a group home.”

“But she’s done that,” I said. “And she’s fine. Right? She has a job. He does, too. You don’t think he’s trying to take advantage of her, do you?”

“No, it’s nothing like that,” he rushed to say. “I just never thought she would live on her own, let alone with a man. She keeps surprising me. In good ways.”

The girls were already halfway down the escalator. Mattias put his hand on the small of my back as I stepped onto it in a slightly protective yet somewhat possessive move, and I had to fight the urge not to inch closer to him.