Page 85 of A Whole New Trick

Damn. Carter lives in Rose Hill, too, and he has a decent amount of land, but the Caldwells have more.

“What do your parents do for a living?”

“Dad is a coach. Mom is in finance.”

I whistle under my breath. Finance. Aka, loaded.

“I never knew your family was rich.” Her tiny apartment in a less-than-safe part of the city hints otherwise.

“My family is comfortable,” she replies, then shoots me a pointed look. “And before you make a snarky comment, may I remind you that you’re a multi-millionaire.”

I hold up my hands innocently. “I wasn’t going to say a thing.”

“Sure.” She smirks, following the curve that takes us up the green hill blooming with wildflowers.

It’s nice to see Morgan joking around. Things have been tense these past couple of weeks. Not that our relationship has suffered. We’re still spending a ton of time together, and our physical connection is out of this world. The only nights we’ve spent apart are when I’m traveling with the team. The momentI’m back in town, she’s the first person I call. And with her permission, I head straight to her place.

But while our relationship has progressed smoothly, an undeniable cloud has been hanging over us—more specifically, over Morgan.

I assumed she was worried about how my altercation with Aaron would impact the team, but I was able to return to play for game three in the second round of playoffs. With some incredible blocks by Cam and an impressive offense as a team, the Ranchers won the next four games, earning our spot in the Conference Finals.

Now, I have four days off before our first game against the Colorado Knights. The next few days are packed with team meetings to discuss strategy and practice new plays and defensive maneuvers we think will work best against the fast-paced Knights.

But for today, I want to have a nice day meeting my girlfriend’s family. I want to take a small step toward becoming a fixture in her life by earning her parents’ approval.

But with Morgan’s current state, I’m not sure my plans will come to pass. I can’t think of what else could be bothering her.

The shit with Aaron was handled quicker than I could have hoped thanks to the Ranchers’ internal investigation uncovering evidence of Aaron sexually harassing one of the interns working with the trainers. The prick chose to resign before things could get messy and opted out of pressing charges against me on the same day.

That was a damn good day.

Morgan and I have had a lot of good days, but until whatever’s hanging over her is cleared away, I worry our days won’t ever be great.

“Anything I should know before I enter the lion’s den?” I ask with a grin, hoping to take her mind off of whatever’s dampening her mood.

Morgan purses her lips. “Maybe don’t ask my dad about his hockey career?”

I nod. Warren Caldwell is one of my idols, but his career was short—much shorter than he would have wanted. I wasn’t planning on bringing it up unless he did.

“Got it. Anything else?”

“No.” She smiles. “Just be your charming self, and you’ll be fine.”

“You think I’m charming?”

“You know you’re charming.”

I take her right hand off the wheel and kiss it quickly. “Only for you.”

“See?” She chuckles, but her expression softens as she rolls to a stop in the wide driveway. “Charming.”

I kiss her hand again and then hop out of the car, jogging around the front to open her door.

“Thank you.” She takes my hand, and I help her out.

“It’s what a charming boyfriend does.” I wink.

She laughs.

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