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“Calico Cove does this start of the Fall season event. I think I’m going to go.” I was playing it very cool as I shoved the garbage in the plastic bag.
“You should go then.”
“I think you should go too.”
She gave me that look. “Dillon…”
“No, hear me out. We’re not going to go together. I’m just letting you know that my home town, a town you have visited and loved, is having this Fall festival and given that you’ll also have a few days off this weekend, you might want to check it out. Just as a fun Maine thing to do.”
She eyed me suspiciously and so I brought out the big guns.
“There will be games.”
“Games?” she asked, her eyebrows lifting.
I nodded. “And prizes.”
“Prizes?”
“Contests galore, where you can win things.”
“Win?”
I laughed. “You’re like one of those TikTok dog videos where the owner says all the dog’s favorite things and their head keeps tilting back and forth.”
She scowled. “Am not. What kind of prizes?”
“Stuffed animals, free baked goods from Bobette and Belle. All kinds of stuff.”
All kinds of stuff…away from here. From the job. From Novek. Fucking Morgan. I saw that realization hit her. What I was really suggesting.
Beneath that thin tank top she wore, her nipples beaded up and I groaned low in my chest.
“Say yes,” I growled.
“Maybe.” She said, because she loved to torture me. “Maybe.”
“Good,” I said, knowing maybe wasn’t maybe, it was instead yes. I played it very cool, but inside I was doing her ridiculous double fist pumps with the over-the-top kicks. “Then maybe I’ll see you there.”
11
Dillon
We crashed into the locker room, the guys giving each other some good-natured hell.
“How many was it?” Skalsberg asked Smith, pretending to be confused. “I lost count. I blocked so many shots I should be getting part of your salary.”
“Yeah,” Smith shot back, taking off his goalie mask, his red hair plastered to his forehead. “If you’d blocked that well during the Calgary Games we might have beaten them.”
The boys oohed and I collapsed onto the bench in front of my locker listening to Novek spout off about how many goals he got in the scrimmage.
“O’Rourke got just as many,” Coach said, coming in after us. The boys looked over at the rookie, who shrugged but was smiling. “And he beat just about everyone down the ice, every shift.”
“What can I say?” He said, standing up to peel off his pads. “I’m listening to Coach Branch.”
Novek said something in his native language and a few of the guys who understood laughed.
“If I have to speak English,” Skalsberg said, with his thick accent. “So do you.”
