Page 4 of Something Like That

Mom? There's no way that woman was Em’s mother. He’d eat his skate laces if she was any older than thirty.

The woman smiled, and it damn near felt like the sun bursting through the clouds. Her features were on the plain side—her nose a touch too long, her jaw a tad too square—but that smile, that smile could light up any dreary, grey Seattle day. “Honey, I thought you were going to head home after practice?”

“It’s not really practice if I have to sit in the stands and watch.”

“Well, whose fault is that?” She tapped the cast on Em’s wrist with her finger.

Em gave an exceptionally dramatic sigh, the kind that came with an arm across the forehead and a B-movie swoon. He snorted.

It only took a moment for Em to recover from the drama, and then she grabbed her mother's arm and dragged her across the room. “Do you know who this is?”

The woman stepped around the bags on the floor. “Yes, he’s my next appointment.” She gave Em a gentle nudge toward the chairs and held out her hand. “Mr. Sadler, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Alex Dumont.”

Alex held her hand out toward Nick. She was smiling, but it felt a little brittle. The shock on his face would have been funny, if she wasn’t so darn nervous. Most folks expected her to be a man, given the male-dominated nature of the strength and conditioning business. Having an ambiguous nickname helped with the misogyny. At least until they came face to face with her.

He shook her hand. His warm palm completely engulfed hers. Hopefully, hers wasn’t too sweaty. Boy, he was tall. She had to tip her head back a touch to look at him. He almost made her feel petite, which was impressive, given she was five-foot-nine.

“It’s nice to meet you, Alex.” He’d managed to wrangle his surprise under control, his expression smoothing into a neutral one. His emphasis on her name gave him away, though. Good. Maybe if she kept him off-kilter, he wouldn’t notice her nerves.

And he obviously didn’t recognize her. Which was fine, and totally didn’t cause a little seed of disappointment to sprout in her belly.

“You, as well, Mr. Sadler.” There, that sounded nice and professional.

“Please, call me Nick.”

“Alright then. Nick.”

Em coughed, which was so phony, it was beyond funny. Alex barely refrained from rolling her eyes. “And I assume you’ve met my daughter, Emily?”

He looked over at Em, who gave him a little wave. Her cheeks and ears were almost fuchsia. Oh, goodness. Was she crushing on him? Already? So not appropriate, although not surprising. He was one of her favorite players.

Alex had doubted—very highly—that the Nick Sadler in her calendar was the professional hockey player. People had the same names as famous people all the time.

Not that she’d told Em anything about the appointment, because that would be inappropriate. Apparently, she’d been wrong, though, because he was that Nick Sadler. Hockey-god extraordinaire.

Although, honestly, whatever was going on with Em right now—she wasn’t quite sure what it was—it was a nice change. She didn’t know when a demon had taken possession of her sweet girl, but over the last few months, Em had become moody and quiet and just generally uncooperative. This was the smiley-est she’d been in weeks.

“Yeah, she and I talked about the curve of her stick.”

“And, he taped it for me.” As if to prove the point, Em picked up the stick and held it out, waving the newly taped blade in Alex’s direction.

“I see that.” Alex pushed the stick out of her face and turned back to him. “Thank you so much. For your help, I mean.” She wiped her sweaty palms on her pants. “You know, with Em.”

Okay, Alex, time to shut up and act like a professional.

And get this wrecked train back on the tracks. “If you’ll come this way, Mr. Sadler, we can get started.” She turned and headed back through the door she’d just come through.

“Nick,” he said.

He was so close behind her she could feel the heat radiating off him against her back. Goosebumps trickled down her spine, making her shiver. There was a part of her that wanted to sink back into that heat and soak it in. Which was ridiculous. It had been a long time since she’d felt so fuddled. And she refused to acknowledge the fact she hadn’t felt like this since the last time she saw him.

Nick Sadler.

Long before he was a hockey legend, he’d been a shy teenager who’d needed a biology tutor.

Nope, not thinking about that right now.

She entered her office and made a beeline for her desk. Maybe if she put some space between them, kept him on the opposite side, she’d be able to focus. It was obvious he didn’t remember her, and there was no way she was mentioning their history.