Page 32 of Married Into Love

“Well, crap. How am I supposed to argue with that?” Especially when I was crazy forhim,too.

He grinned at me before bending down to finish lacing up his skates. “Youaren’t.”

“Since it’s our anniversary and I’m married to such a softie, I guess I’ll let thatslide.”

He picked up a small towel off the bench next to him and snapped it at my ass as I jumped out of the way, giggling. It took him about five more minutes to finish getting ready, and then I followed him out to the bench and watched while he and Greg skated. I wasn’t on the ice, but it was still freezing and I was glad Alec had talked me into bringing a sweatshirt and a jacket, plus the socks and gym shoes he’d urged me to wear so my feet didn’tgetcold.

The guys ran through a bunch of drills, skating hard and passing the puck back and forth so fast that it was hard for me to keep up with where it was on the ice. Alec came over to the bench several times for a drink of water and tried explaining some of the basics of hockey to me. It seemed awfully complicated, with rules for when you were allowed to pass the puck over one of the blue lines and how many lines it could cross at a time. Before we left, I’d already decided to watch some videos online and check to see if there was aHockey for Dummiesbook out there for me to read since I could use the extra help if I was really going to make a go of it as ahockeywife.

“I’m starved.” Alec patted his stomach as we walked out the arenadoors.

“Starvedstarved? Or professional athlete who needs to eat healthy after a workoutstarved?”

“Why? Do you have something specific in mind?” he asked as he pulled out his phone to call forthecar.

I placed my hand over the screen to stop him and grinned. “Ido.”

“Why don’t I trust that smile ofyours?”

“Because it’s my I-really-want-a-double-double-with-fries smile?” I blinked at him and puffed my bottom lip out in a pout. “Pretty please? I promise to skip the grilled onions I usually get on myburger.”

“You sure you want lunch from a fast food place on ouranniversary?”

I grabbed his hand and led him towards Park Avenue so we could circle around New York-New York to head down Tropicana. “Yeah, but it isn’t just any fast food place. It’s In-N-Out.”

“I’ve never beentoone.”

“Well, then consider this part of your anniversary gift because In-N-Out is an experience everyone has to try at least once in their life.” My gaze dropped to his abs. “I just hope you don’t get addicted on your first visit or else you’re going to have to do a heck of a lot more skating sessions with Greg to work off all the double-doubles. Although, I think you can order it off-menu with lettuce instead of the bun. They have this not-so-secret menu that all the locals order from. Except for me today since I promised to skip the grilled onions on my usual animalstyle.”

“Get the onions,” he chuckled. “I’d hate for you to miss out when you sound so disappointed. I’ll just get them onmine,too.”

“Yay!” I did a little hop in celebration, and almost tripped over my feet when my cell rang. It’d been mostly silent over the past week. Ariana hadn’t texted much, but we met up for dinner with her at the hotel a couple of times. I didn’t have an employer who needed me for anything. I’d cancelled my classes before I met Alec. I’d been too busy trying to keep our heads above water for my friendships from high school to survive graduation. And my mom wasavoidingme.

Or at least she had been since it was her number on the screen when I pulled my phone out of mypurse.

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