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I hear the crowd around me start to cheer toward the tunnel, and when I look over, Ryker is standing near the end of it, his gazed fixed on me with his helmet in his hands.
He flashes a disarmingly beautiful smile towards me and my belly flutters with excitement. Between all the fans he could be looking at, he’s staring straight at me.
He gives a little wave and then pulls on his helmet and skates out onto the ice.
A warm blush spreads across my cheeks, physical evidence of the emotions going on inside me. Ryker's focused attention, in front of hundreds of adoring fans, sends a thrilling yet unnerving shiver down my spine.
Though I don’t enjoy being in the spotlight, opting for being behind the scenes, like the elaborate weddings I plan, Ryker’s attention sparks a feeling of being singled out and special. Something no one’s ever made me feel before. Or, at least not at this level.
“Well, someone has a new fan,” the woman sitting to my right says, leaving over and giving me a playful elbow.
“Huh?” I ask. “I wouldn’t really consider myself a fan—”
“Oh, no, honey. He’s the fan,” she says looking over and smiling at me. She looks a few years younger than my mom with a daughter in her early teens, both of them in jerseys that say AISA on the back. The goalie if I remember right from the game Shawnie and I attended. “I’d say he is totally smitten with you.”
“Totally smitten,” her daughter agrees with a nod, cramming a handful of popcorn in her mouth while keeping her eyes fixed on the players skating rounds on the ice.
The freshly smooth ice is now chewed up by their expertly applied metal skates.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him do that in a game,” she says, squinting as if she’s trying to recall another instance but coming up empty. I think the captain has a crush on our girl here,” the woman says, smiling over at me.
She and her daughter giggle together at the thought of it and I can’t help but chuckle at their contagious enjoyment.
“We’re still getting to know each other,” I blurt out honestly and then instantly wish I hadn’t.
If we get engaged tonight, I'm sure she'll find my comment odd.
“New or not darlin’, I love seeing big hockey players falling hard. Good for you honey,” she says and then reaches over to her daughter and takes a handful of popcorn.
She switches her attention back to the players on the ice.
Ryker? Falling hard?
I don’t think so.
I join them in turning my attention back on the ice… my eyes locking on him and only him as he skates. His movement so technical but fluid at the same time.
“Hawkeyes fans,” the announcers booming voice comes over the loudspeakers. “… here is your Hawkeyes starting lineup.”
The jumbotron sparks to life with bright colors graphics and the crowd around the entire stadium start cheering.
A few players are called out and their team picture flashes onto the jumbotrons. I don’t know any of these players yet, but after tonight, I’ll probably have to become familiar with it all in order.
I might be the captain's fake wife but I need to play my role and know just as much as any real wife of a player would. What if the immigration officer asks me about questions that, clearly, Ryker’s wife would have the answer to?
“Number 19,” the announcer calls out in his deep voice. My heart thumps wildly against my chest at hearing Ryker’s number. I’m taken by surprise at how I’m affected by it. “…Center Forward and your captain, Ryker Haynes!”
Chills run down my arms at hearing his name over the loudspeaker.
The fans go wild and I don’t know why but a puff of pride sweeps over me at the thought that in a few short days, real or fake… that man might be my husband.
The gravity weighs heavy, but then Ryker skates by pointing his hockey stick toward me, and suddenly, the nervous energy turns into excitement.
This isn’t a real relationship and we’re both here to get what we need out of this arrangement, but the small things he’s already doing to let me know he’s watching me and knows where I am at all times is an unexpected sweet gesture.
The woman next to me chuckles and elbows me lightly again.
As the game starts, my eyes don’t leave Ryker for even a second. I know exactly where he is on and off the ice at all times.
