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I sat through the inane questions. Yes, we were aiming for a Cup win. No, I didn’t have any injuries from Rusket’s hit. Yes, I thought the team was in the best shape it had ever been in.
None of that was a lie, but damn, these press engagements were taxing as fuck.
When I finally made it to the family room, I didn’t miss all the eyes on Devan and Nova. The expressions were speculative.
Nova was holding Huey, rocking him gently, and I couldn’t keep the goofy, lopsided smile from my face. I bounded up to them and hugged Nova and Huey gently. “Did you like the game?”
“It was so violent,” she whispered, her eyes wide.
Ah crap.
“I fucking loved it. It was brutal. Is it always like that?”
Both my eyebrows rose, and my eyes must be as wide as hers right now. Not what I thought she’d say.
Devan snorted. “Turns out sweet little Nova has a bit of a violent streak.”
She waved a hand. “Please. So it’s fine for the beer-bellied old guy behind us to hoot and holler when River did that thing with his gloves, but if I enjoy men fighting, it isn’t feminine?”
Devan held up his hands. “I didn’t say it wasn’t feminine. I just said you were bloodthirsty.”
She lifted a hand to rub the bruise on my cheekbone from Rusket’s shoulder. “I don’t like that you got hurt, though.” Her mouth fell open as she looked behind me, and I had a feeling I knew why.
River looked like shit. His eye was black and swollen, and he had some butterfly bandages on his eyebrow.
“I take it back. I don’t like it at all,” she whispered to me, before turning to River. “You look like you went ten rounds with a gorilla.”
He snorted and held his hands out for Huey. “You aren’t wrong.”
When she handed over the baby, I heard the collective “Awww,” from all the women still loitering in the room. The baby did kind of look cute in the giant arms of my bestie.
“Slept through the whole thing,” Devan told us. “Didn’t even wake up when you scored that goal in overtime and the crowd went fucking nuts.”
I stepped closer to Nova, tucking her under my arm. She just fit so nice; I liked hugging her. I didn’t want to look into it more than that. Nova was tense beside me, but eventually relaxed into my side. “He’s going to be the best little hockey fan the NHL has ever seen,” I told her proudly. “Let’s get out of here. I need to go home and eat enough food to supply a high school cafeteria.”
Not that there was anything cafeteria-like in our fridge. That shit was all nutritionist-approved, superior macro-fuelled diet. There wasn’t a single Twinkie, let alone pizza and chicken nuggets.
Still holding the baby, and grabbing his game bag, River led the way out of the room like we weren’t the center of attention.
“The game was great, but next time, we’ll wait for you in the parking lot,” Nova whispered as she walked beside me. “That was intense.”
“Whatever you want, as long as you keep coming,” I murmured in her ear, keeping her tucked tightly under my arm as we walked out. There was space between our bodies, so it was more friendly than anything, but I wondered if that’s how everyone else saw it too. As we walked through the back entrance of the arena to the parking lot, I pulled her closer. “You look real good in my jersey,” I whispered in her ear and was rewarded with a deep flush of pink to those gorgeous cheekbones.
I didn’t say she’d look even better out of it, but picturing peeling her out of my number made my dick achingly hard. One thing was for certain, though—I wanted Nova Stone, and I was pretty sure she wanted me too.
ChapterFourteen
NOVA
I’d never beenone to obsess over pro athletes. Honestly, before like a month ago, I would’ve been hard-pressed to name one professional sportsperson who wasn’t Wayne Brady. Or was it Tom Brady? Whatever.
But now, watching those guys slide around on the ice like wrecking balls with knife feet? I finally understood. They weren’t just fit and hot. They were commanding. They were the most primitive kind of attractive, the type based on raw masculinity and not much else.
Well, not Rigby. My attraction to Rigby had a little to do with his physique and a whole lot to do with the fact he was a beautiful damn human, from what I could see.
However, the family room where we met them afterward had been intense. Not to mention, all the wives and girlfriends were dauntingly beautiful. Like, supermodel beautiful. There was actually aVictoria’s Secret model there; I’d recognized her from social media. Their collective gaze had weighed and measured me, and I’d been found wanting. I could feel it in my bones.
So after we got home, put Huey to bed and ate some kind of meal kit food that you reheated in the oven, I was more than ready to be in my own bed. Not to sleep, though.
