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"Okay..." I trail off, chewing on where I should start. "I was born in Broussard, Louisiana. Small town in Acadiana, nothing to write home about. It was home for a while, then we moved to Texas to live with my Aunt Teresa for a while."
"You and everyone else, huh?"
"Yeah," I laugh. "Me and everyone else. But once Jake was old enough, he took care of me and we got a place of our own...then when I graduated high school, I went to LSU and he went to work offshore."
"Educated girl," he says with a grin.
I slide my eyes over to him. "Couldn't you tell?"
"Of course I could," he says. "You're smart as shit."
"You didn't go to school?"
"It wasn't for me," he says. "I was always more the blue collar type--and from the time I was a kid, hockey was in my blood. I always knew it was what I wanted to do, so I stuck with it, even if it didn't always work out for me."
"It doesn't pay much in the junior league, does it?" I ask.
"Nope," he says. "Sure doesn't. That's how I met your brother."
"Did you work offshore?"
He nods. "On and off. I've done some work down in the Gulf, actually--it's where I first met Jake."
"Did you like Louisiana?"
"It's a good place," he says. "Good people, good food. No place to raise a child."
"And have you always wanted kids?" I ask, blurting out the question before I can think of the repercussions.
He looks back at me. "Never...until I was inside you."
I bite my lip as I look over at him, halfway wanting to laugh. "That shouldn't sound as romantic as it does."
He laughs. "What can I say? You've got the kind of pussy that makes a man want to settle down."
"That's awfully sweet of you," I say. "Especially after I basically called you a player."
"Can't blame a guy for tryin'," he says with a laugh.
"Someone warned me that you might be a hard man to pin down," I say.
"They were right."
"How much longer do you have with the Pucks?"
That seems to touch on a nerve, and Johnny shrugs half-heartedly. "I'm honestly not sure. There's been all this buzz around my career taking off, and I have to admit I've heard from a few agents--off the record, of course."
My eyes widen. "Right. What's stopping you?"
"They're mostly on the east coast, midwest," he says.
"And what's wrong with that?"
He looks over at me with those icy blue eyes. "Well...you're in Fern Hollow, Birdie. And ever since I fucked you that first time, I don't exactly want to leave."
I can feel my cheeks going red. "Oh."
"Yeah," he says. "Oh."
