Page 53 of SlapShot Sweetheart

“And where is everyone?” she asked as he sat down opposite of her, immediately reaching for her hand across the table. His fingers met hers, and she couldn’t help but smile at the way he rubbed her knuckles. It wasn’t graceful or delicate but simply him, pausing over each knuckle as if to memorize her hand blindly.

“Everyone that matters is ‘ere,” he whispered, holding her eyes.

“What?”

“I bought out the place for the evening because I wanted to recreate our first date without any distractions or mistakes.”

“Aww,” she chuckled tearfully, smiling tenderly at him. “No tooth inLa Poule au Pot?”

“Oh, ‘ang on and…” he blurted out, pretending to reach up into his mouth – before smiling tenderly at her. “I’m not late, no tooth, no T-shirt, no blood on the napkin… just us in this lovely place, together.”

“Whatever shall we do then?”

“We could start over from scratch and take our time falling for each other.”

“But what if I don’t want to start over?”

“You don’t… you don’t want to start over?” Theo paled at her words as he looked at her in concern.

“No,” she whispered softly, reaching across the table to take his hand in hers once more. “I kind of like how strange things have turned out between us. We’ve become friends despite all of it, and I would hate to lose that or those memories.”

“Moi aussi… me too,” he breathed, not holding back. “I love ‘aving you in my world, Aimee.”

“Same here,” she confessed, smiling at him. “I look forward to seeing your smile or hearing you drop your ‘H’s when you talk.”

“I look forward to sneaking another kiss…”

“It could ‘appen,” she replied, teasing him just to keep from tearing up at this emotional moment that seemed to be growing between them. “But you know what I would love first?”

“What?”

“For you to hold me close and dance with me, since we have the whole place… and eventually eat dinner,” she chuckled. “I’m hungry – aren’t you?”

“Oui,” he grinned, rising to his feet and holding out his hand to her – before looking off to his right and signaling someone. Theo pulled her into his arms, holding her, as he pressed his forehead to hers, slowly moving to the faint music coming from the speakers in the distance as they moved to set the table without disturbing them.

She couldn’t help the sigh of happiness that escaped her at feeling his arms around her, holding her in the way she had dreamed of after that amazing kiss the other day. She had always wanted something special, something incredible for herself – but never imagined it would be some brash, temperamental hockey player who seemed to do everything to extremes. Theo played the game with fervor, fought on the ice with wild abandon, and she knew at that moment that he would love her the same way when he gave away his heart.

And with that thought, she angled her face upward, moving slightly to kiss him. The way he drew in his breath always gave her this wild clench in her tummy, like someone spotting a miracle or experiencing something heady… and this was no different. His lips caressed hers, coaxing and loving, as he took his time kissing her with such longing that it brought tears to her eyes.

“Watch out…” he breathed softly against her lips.

“What’s wrong?”

“I feel something in French coming…” he chuckled easily, playfully rubbing his nose against hers before dropping a kiss on the end of it.

“Just say it… in English,” she smiled, moving to hug him closely, before Theo began whispering in her ear.

“J'ai peur de te dire ce que je ressens. Comment puis-je te dire que je rêve de toi, que j'ai envie d'embrasser tes lèvres et que j'aimerais que tu comprennes à quel point je t'aime. Je ne peux pas imaginer un monde sans toi, Aimee…”

“Wow,” she marveled, feeling emotional at just hearing the longing and intensity of the foreign words. “What did you say?”

“I cannot…” he replied, shaking his head quickly

“Why not? It’s just me…” she protested faintly and remembered when he admitted to being scared. Her eyes met and held his, realizing this was the same.

He was truly afraid of telling her what he had just said, which meant it came from someplace vulnerable deep within him. Her guy would start fights on the ice with guys bigger than him, talk a lot of smack with his friends, and play hockey aggressively – but when faced with something so personal, he shut down. He obviously felt strongly and was frightened to face her reaction or admit it.

“Because it’s you, Aimee…”

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