walked quickly toward the exit with his head down.
“How did you know she was going to do that?” Krista asked.
“Lucky guess,” Alex said. “I’m gonna grab a quick lunch. There are sandwiches, chips and drinks in the back room. Want to join me?”
“I can’t,” she said. “I’m going to relieve my mom at the ball crawl. She needs the break more than I do.”
“Good luck convincing her of that,” Alex said.
“Oh, I’ll do it,” Krista vowed. “I can be very persuasive. It’s a Novak family trait.”
She sashayed away from him, her elf dress swishing as she walked. He watched her until she rounded an aisle and was out of sight, helpless to look away.
If she carried through on her threat to proposition him, he wasn’t entirely certain he’d be able to resist.
Especially if she added persuasion into the mix.
RAYNA NOVAK HURRIED through the parking lot to the flat gray building, her scarf shielding her face from the wind. She pushed through one of the double glass doors, expecting to be enveloped in warmth. Then she remembered.
An ice hockey rink was not the place to go in the winter if you wanted to be cozy. She unwrapped her scarf, slipped off her gloves and followed the sounds of men’s voices and blades sliding on ice.
Peering through the glass that partitioned off the rink to the scoreboard, she determined the ice hockey game was tied at two goals a piece in the third period.
A team of men in mismatched dark hockey sweaters, some with numbers affixed with masking tape, skated against players wearing white.
The swiftest of them wore the number seven because he claimed it was lucky. He stole the puck at the center line and streaked toward the goal with two much slower defenders in pursuit. He faked left, shot right and missed the goal entirely.
He swore, loud enough that Rayna heard from off the ice.
“Showing off for your girl doesn’t count unless you finish, Trey,” one of his teammates yelled.
Trey ignored him and narrowly lost out to an opposing player as they both chased down the puck.
Trey Farina’s girl.
Rayna supposed that was who she was. They’d been dating for about a year even though neither she nor Trey had ever discussed where their relationship was headed. They hadn’t agreed to be exclusive, either. They just were.
Rayna shivered. She hugged herself, not sure whether her tremble was from the cold or from what she had to tell Trey. Rayna had only found out herself that morning, a few minutes before her absentee sister woke up. The revelation had consumed Rayna so that she’d barely been able to perform her duties at the dentist’s office today.
In an alternate universe, she would have confided in Krista. An alternate universe where her sister was a friend rather than a stranger she hadn’t seen in eight years.
“Rayna, over here.” A petite woman in her twenties with a mass of curly red hair motioned to Rayna from mostly empty silver bleachers. Her name was Mimi. She moved over, patting the metal surface beside her.
“Trey’s having a good game,” Mimi told Rayna as she sat down. “He scored one of the goals and assisted on the other.”
“How about Bob?” Rayna asked, referring to the woman’s husband.
Mimi laughed. “Scoreless, the same as always. What are you doing here anyway? I thought you were too busy at the dentist’s office to come to the games.”
Rayna wouldn’t be here today, either, if she didn’t need to get Trey alone, a nearly impossible feat. He lived in a house with three other guys, one of whom was always around.
“The office closed early today,” Rayna said. “I stopped by to remind Trey he’s supposed to come Christmas caroling tonight with my family.”
“Smart girl,” Mimi said. “There’s already talk of going drinking after the game. You’ve got to keep your guy in check. That’s why I’m here.”
A tremendous shout erupted from the ice. Arms up-raised, Trey stood in front of the net and a sprawling goalie. The referee signaled a good goal with a tomahawk chop of his arm. Trey’s teammates on the ice mobbed him with hugs.
“Applaud,” Mimi told her. “That way Trey will think you saw him score the winning goal.”
Less than a minute remained in the game. The trailing team pulled its goalie to get an extra skater on the ice, but this was low-level ice hockey. The offensive players weren’t skilled enough to keep control of the puck. The buzzer sounded, signaling the end of the game.
Trey let out a victory whoop. He skated past Rayna, stick raised in the air. She smiled and gave him a thumbs-up. While Trey went through the postgame handshake line, Rayna walked to the spot where the players came off the ice.
Trey finished shaking hands with the opposing team members first and skated full tilt toward her, executing a hockey stop before he reached the exit. Ice shards sprayed in the air.
“Woooo-hoooo!” he cried.
He stepped onto the threadbare carpet. Trey wasn’t the best-looking man Rayna had ever dated, but his looks were compelling. Thick brown hair, blue eyes that danced with excitement, well-shaped lips that were almost always smiling.
Rayna thought she’d fallen in love the first time she’d seen him, when he’d sauntered into the dentist’s office for a checkup.
“Did you see that goal?” Trey yelled.
Before she could answer, Trey bent down, swept her into his arms and kissed her. She had to stand on tiptoe because in his skates, he was about three inches taller than normal. His cool lips sent hot sensation sweeping through her—nothing new. She always reacted to him that way. She never wanted his kisses to stop, either, though they inevitably did.
“Mimi said you had two goals today,” Rayna said.
“It was a good day at the office!” Trey didn’t actually work at an office. He was twenty-two, a year older than Rayna but not as sure what to do with his life. He was currently working as a manager at a trendy clothing store and talking about going to bartending school. Sometimes when Alex and his father were particularly busy, Trey helped out at Costas Landscaping.
“I’ll shower and change clothes,” Trey said. “Wait for me, okay?”
“Sure.” Rayna moved toward the now-empty bleachers and took a seat. She wasn’t sure where Mimi was but Trey had stopped outside the locker room to drink at the water fountain.
Trey’s teammates skated off the ice, laughing and talking. None of them looked toward the bleachers, probably because they typically had so few fans in attendance.
“You’re really not coming with us, Bob?” the stockiest player asked Mimi’s husband.
“Can’t,” Bob said. “Mimi has plans.”
