Page 106 of The Nanny Goal

And he does. He brings up food trays and beverages on demand, which is often once Inessa gets a bit more rest.

I try to convince her to mimic me in lying with our heads hanging off the bed, and doing some sinus clearing massages, among other ideas I see on TikTok. She doesn’t care.

The day drags on.

Alexei brings dinner up and we have a picnic in bed, and then he takes over for bedtime while I go to have a long shower.

When I come back, he’s fallen asleep with Inessa.

Gently, I scoop her up and carry her back to her room, so she isn’t breathing on him all night.

And then I go to sleep in my own bed, because hockey comes first, and hockey requires that I keep any potential germs I might have picked up today to myself.

CHAPTER33

ALEXEI

“Did you see that Tilman got fined for firing that puck at you in warm-ups?” Dodaj cackles as he strips off his suit jacket and drapes it over the empty seat in front of us.

We’re both early to get on the plane every road trip. Me, because I’m early for everything. Him, because he likes to strip down to his undershirt because he only has three nice shirts and needs some room to get sorted before everyone else piles on.

I shrug.

The asshole missed, so what do I care?

He stows his garment bag in the overhead bin, the slides in next to me and glances at my phone. “Whatcha doin’?”

“Looking at summer vacation rentals.”

“Ooh, nice.” He grabs my phone and starts scrolling. “God, you goalies are so fucking weird. There isn’t a beach in sight. What are you going to do, some marathon mountain hiking?”

I snatch it back. “Yeah. Me and your mom.”

He stares at me for a long, confused second, then dissolves into uncontrollable laughter. “Arty, no. Just…no.”

I shrug again.

“It’s not…that’s not how ayour momjoke works, bud.”

“You’re laughing.”

“Because that makes no sense. If you want to make ayour momjoke, it’s gotta be about sex. Not marathon hiking.”

“I didn’t say anything about hiking. You did. Why do you want me to make a sex joke about your mom?”

Ty Connor stops at the row beside us and takes his earbud out. “Smash wants you to fuck his mom?”

Dodaj flips him the bird, then looks back at me. “That’s how you do theyour momjoke, though.”

“I’ll tell your mom when I call her tonight about our hiking trip.”

He groans. “She’s never going to Switzerland with you.”

Marsh slows down on his way to the back of the plane. “Who’s going to Switzerland?”

Up the aisle, Armstrong hears that, and his big Scottish head does a sideways tilt that tells me I’m fucked, secret-wise.

“Let’s sit here,” Rusty says to Marsh, indicating the row right behind us.

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