Page 100 of Lucky Mother Pucker

Once we finish the wine, I head back to the house. When I walk in the door, Leo is sitting on the couch, looking at his phone. Wally’s head is in his lap, and Leo is gently petting his tummy.

My heart flutters seeing the two of them cuddled up together.

Leo looks up and smiles at me. “Hey.”

I almost trip over my own feet while kicking off my sneakers. He’s wearing a gray Hollis U hockey T-shirt that shows off his biceps and the muscles in his shoulders.

His massive, muscled quads poke through the joggers he’s wearing. And he’s wearing a baseball cap backwards. He reaches up and takes it off for a moment while he runs his thick fingers through his dark hair.

I swallow. He looks so good. He’s got that deliciously messy, just-fucked look going on, and it’s driving me wild.

I clear my throat and tear my gaze away from him. I pretend to fuss with my sneaker lace. “Hi.”

“Did you have to work at the diner?” he asks.

“No, I was hanging out with Briar, Poppy, and Anna.”

The corner of his mouth hooks up in a sexy half-smile. “Girls’ night. Sounds fun.”

“Yeah, it was.”

Leo gently pats Wally’s tummy, who yawns and blinks sleepily. I walk over and kiss the top of his head. When he barely moves, I laugh.

“Wow. He’s really relaxed.”

“Wally and I had a guys’ night in, just the two of us,” Leo says, grinning down at him. “We had a blast, didn’t we, boy? We went for a walk, and he supervised me from the couch while I did push-ups.”

I chuckle and sit on the end of the couch.

“So. Did you ladies braid each other’s hair and tell ghost stories?” Leo jokes.

I laugh. “Is that what you think women do when we hang out?”

He shrugs and smiles. I laugh harder. It feels good to talk and joke with Leo like this. The aftermath of our post-kiss conversation was a little awkward, but now things feel normal again.

“They were helping me with some work stuff. Evan and Paula want me to practice stretching and sports massage techniques so I can assist them when they train the players. So I was practicing on them,” I say.

“Oh, cool.”

“Yeah, I’m excited to do more hands-on stuff at work. I just don’t want to mess it up.”

He smiles. “You’ll do great.”

Leo reaches his arm up over his head, wincing softly.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he says through a breath. “We were in the middle of a scrimmage at practice this morning, and Blake caught me in the ribs with the edge of his stick.”

“Ouch.”

“I’ll live.”

“Are you sure it’s not a bruised or broken rib?”

“One of the trainers looked at it, and he said it’s just muscle soreness. It’ll go away after a day.”

“You should have seen Evan or Paula. They would have massaged it for you.”