Page 60 of Three Pucks and a Baby

There was something to be said about older women. That’s all I could think of to explain the hold she had on me. But it wasn’t just about fucking her. I found myself just wanting to hang out with her, which sure as hell wasn’t something I usually experienced. I’d actually had a good time with her at The Dive and on the ice. Although I wasn’t much of a talker with women, it seemed to come so easily with Vivian.

At the moment, there seemed to be only one small obstacle to being back in Vivian’s presence, and that wasn’t being at practice. It was the fact that she hadn’t texted me back.

When she left yesterday morning, everything seemed fine. Sure, she seemed to be fighting the usual morning-after jitters, but she definitely wanted more from us. That was evident when she was afraid of kissing us for fear of ravishing us.

But when I did my due diligence with an aftercare message, it had gone unread.

The three other texts went unread.

When I checked with Grayson, the same thing had happened to him. Normally, it wouldn’t have bothered me like it did. But this was Vivian.

As a puck sailed past me into the net, I growled. Dammit, I’d let my thoughts of Vivian distract me, blowing my block streak.

“Can’t win them all, Novak,” my teammate, Jamal, mused as he skated past me.

“Fuck you,” I grunted, which caused some of the guys to laugh.

“All right boys. Hit the showers,” Coach Murano bellowed.

After punching one of the goals in anger, I started off the ice. Grayson skated up to me. “What the hell happened with that last puck?”

“Don’t ask,” I grumbled.

“Touchy, touchy,” he teased.

“I will lay you out, jackass.”

Bennett laughed as he brushed past us. “Better leave him alone, Gray.”

As the others started into the locker room, I pulled Grayson away from the crowd. “You’re seriously going off on me because of one comment?”

“No, that’s not it.” When I was sure we were alone, I asked, “Has Vivian still not responded to any of your texts?” I asked.

He shook his head miserably. “Not even some of the funny memes I sent her.”

Okay, so that was a new one. “What do you think is going on?”

“She might be busy with her book.”

“Oh right. The one on that weird Tudor illness.”

Grayson and I exchanged a look. I knew exactly what he was thinking. We’d been paying attention when Vivian talked. That was truly uncharted territory for us. In our defense, most of the girls we were with regaled us with sorority stories that were boring as hell. Although I wasn’t much of a fan of history, something was intriguing about the way Vivian spoke about old dusty dudes from the past.

“You know, she could be feeling embarrassed about what went down and doesn’t know what to say,” Grayson suggested.

“That’s a possibility.”

“Maybe we should check on her in person?”

“You’re not seriously suggesting some lame-ass idea like stalking her down to the library?”

“Do you have a better idea?” Gray countered.

Glowering, I replied, “Unfortunately no.”

“Look, if you don’t want to check your ego, I’ll go by myself.”

While I didn’t like the idea of the two of us checking on Vivian, I liked the idea of just Grayson going even less. “Fine. We’ll go.”

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