Page 38 of Keeping it Real

“TMI.”

Freya laughed before yelling at the boys to wait before crossing the street.“Are you aware that goalies have the most stamina of anyone on the team?”She bumped Sheridan’s shoulder at the mention of stamina.“They are the only player out on the ice for the entire game.Everyone thinks they are just standing around when really they are laser focused on the puck at all times.They maintain their crouch for nearly sixty minutes.You wouldn’t believe what that kind of discipline does to their thighs.Mmm.”

Damn the woman.Now she was picturing Alek’s thighs.

“Hadn’t ever thought about it,” she lied.

Freya tsked before muttering something in Swedish.She followed it up with, “The man has no sense.”

Sheridan didn’t have time to decipher the other woman’s comments because Hattie was suddenly straining at the leash.The dog let out a low growl as voices rose ahead of them.One of them belonged to Finn.

“Whatever you do, don’t let go of her,” Sheridan commanded as she handed the leash to Freya and rushed ahead.

“You take that back,” Finn shouted as he shoved a boy twice his size.

The bigger boy laughed.The group of tween trick-or-treaters had Gunner and Finn surrounded.

“Bergeron sucks as a goalie.”The older boy got right in Finn’s face.“He couldn’t keep a bus out of the net if he tried.The team wasted their money on him.”

Finn dropped his bag of candy to the ground, its contents scattering around his feet as he gripped the hockey stick with both hands.

“Hey!”she shouted.She reached for the hockey stick before Finn could do something foolish.“What’s going on here?”Although it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out.Finn’s aggressiveness, though, was going to take some deep thought later.

The older boy sneered.“Oh, look who needs his mommy to rescue him.”

“She’s not my mom!”Finn shouted.

Sheridan flinched at the ugly defiance in his voice.

“She’s Bergeron’s girlfriend,” one of the other boys interjected.“I saw her in his jersey on opening day.”

She groaned as the group of boys chorused their surprise.

“Finn, you and Gunner go with Freya,” she ordered.

“Yes, ma’am,” Gunner murmured while Finn gave her a contemptuous look.

“Now,” she mouthed at him.

His shoulders slumped as he trailed his friend.The older boys snickered.Finn spun around and slashed his hockey stick through the air.Fortunately, Freya had the reflexes of a goalie.She was able to deflect the stick so that it smashed into a pumpkin lining the walkway instead of one of the boy’s heads.The boys charged at Finn.Hattie’s growl stopped them in their tracks.

“Whoa!That dog is gonna bite me!”one of the boys cried as the entire group took a giant step back.

Sheridan stepped between the dog and the group of hoodlums.“Hattie, sit,” she commanded.Unlike Finn, she complied immediately.“The dog is very protective, but she won’t bite unless you give her a reason to.Let’s not.Why don’t you guys move along and finish your trick-or-treating?”

The boys held their ground.Sheridan sighed as she crouched down and picked up Finn’s pillowcase.She was scooping up the strewn candy when a pair of large tennis shoes appeared on the sidewalk next to her.Craning her neck, she looked up to see a man holding a beer, leering at her around the cigar in his mouth.

Too late, she realized her coat was gapping open, and the man had an unobstructed view right down the meager blouse of her costume.She shot to her feet.Finn would have to sacrifice some of his candy for the cause.A crowd had gathered around them, most of them with cell phones pointed in her direction.All of them getting an eyeful of her ridiculous costume.It was no use buttoning up her coat now.

“Is there a problem here, Brett?”He directed the question at the pack of tweens while his eyes never left Sheridan’s cleavage.

“Only that the kid is wearing a Bergeron jersey,” Finn’s main tormentor replied.“The guy sucks.”

Feet shuffled behind her, presumably Finn.She prayed Freya had a firm hold on him.

“I agree,” the dad said.“But he’s a baby.He doesn’t know any better.”

“Like father, like son,” Sheridan mumbled as she turned away.

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