Page 28 of Pucking Your Best Friend

“You forgot hot.”

“Maddie! I’m serious. Those dates are exhausting.”

“It’s okay, I know what you mean,” she replied, laughing and hitting his leg with a pillow. “But, Matt, that’s the reason I started Match Me! in the first place: To give people like you a chance to find something long-term. Not something that’s doomed to fail.”

“Yeah, but normal women won’t sign up because of me.”

She opened her mouth, astonished. “What makes you say that?”

“Because normal women never hit on me. Normal women want something…normal.”

“You’re normal!”

He gave her a wry look. “My work hours are impossible, Maddie. I’m always gone. I can rarely eat out without being chatted up by a fan.”

Okay, he was right about that. Still. “Normal women like you, too,” she promised, amused, because the idea that it might be true was absurd!

He frowned doubtfully. “No one has yet.”

She snorted. “Nonsense.”

“No,” he said, seemingly surprised. “It’s the truth. The onlynormalwoman who didn’t idolize me because I’m a hot hockeyplayer, with whom I had something like a date…” He blinked — then grinned. “Well, the only woman in that category was you. And you didn’t like me.”

Stunned, she opened her mouth. That couldn’t be. “I was theonlyone who treated you normally?”

“Yep.”

“You haven’t datedanyonewho didn’t treat you like a famous, hot guy, and put you on a pedestal?”

“Nope.”

God, that was awful! Matt couldn’t seriously believe that he wouldn’t be attractive and appealing if he didn’t play hockey. She couldn’t let that stand.

“Well,” she replied lightly, smiling and squeezing his shoulder. “Then you don’t have to worry, because of course I liked you.”

He whipped his head around to face her. Blinked, opened his mouth, and blinked again. “What?”

She had to laugh and elbowed him in the side. “Don’t look like that. It’s no secret. You were funny and intelligent and, of course, hot back then. Nobody could resist you. I was certainly no exception.”

“But…” He was still blinking, looking as if she had hit him right between the eyes. “What the hell are you talking about? You didn’t like me. I tried to kiss you, Maddie, and you wouldn’t kiss me back.”

Her cheeks turned pink and she swallowed. Yes, she remembered that very well. “It wasn’t because I wasn’t attracted to you. To be honest, I was a little torn. If I hadn’t promised myself that I only wanted something serious or nothing at all, I probably would have slept with you that very night. But we wanted different things and…it was obvious that we would be better off as friends.” She was right about that, wasn’t she? They were great as friends! “So, you don’t have to worry at all thatnormal women might not like you, because I’m the most normal thing out there.” She looked at him encouragingly.

Matt, however, didn’t seem convinced. His forehead was furrowed and his eyebrows met above the bridge of his nose.

“It’ll be fine, Matt,” she assured him. “The whole thing won’t be unpleasant at all. Now eat – your food is probably cold by now. Do you want to watch something? You can choose. You’ve earned about half a year of favors from me.” Tonight, he truly was a hero and, for the first time in weeks, Maddie had the feeling that everything might be okay.

Chapter 7

Nothing was okay.

Nothing felt right anymore.

Everything was…wrong.

Matt had slept restlessly and had been awake for hours. He stared at the ceiling and could swear he heard every creak of Maddie’s mattress through the wall. It was impossible to nod off again. His thoughts were racing and tumbling, and he felt dizzy when he tried to concentrate on her.

Then you don’t have to worry because of course I liked you.

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