Page 58 of Offside and Off-Limits
Just to confuse things more, there’s Veronica’s second directive ringing in my ears. Watch out for Cade Lennox with his heartbreaker rep.
I blow out a breath. This is like walking a tightrope. One wrong step and I’m done, either losing my job or losing my head with Cade.
Neither of the things are on my To Do list right now.
“So, Hockey 101. What do you want to know?” he asks.
“Well,” I manage, trying to sound like a serious content creator rather than someone whose professional objectivity always seems to melt around this guy. “How about we start with something basic? Like the rules of the game, but not in a dry way.”
“Triple, there’s nothing dry about me.”
I swallow, the way his eyes bore into mine raising my temperature. “Good to know. Let’s start with what a faceoff is and then move onto other terms.”
“Happy to.”
I set up the tripod, my fingers fumbling with the equipment, intensely aware of his eyes tracking my every move. “Why don’t you grab your stick and a puck and skate out onto the ice a little and I’ll get you in frame?”
“Sure thing,” he replies as he rises to his impossible height, stepping through the door, and gliding across the ice. He turns to look at me. “Is here good, Triple?”
“A little closer. And don’t call me Triple on camera, okay?”
“Sure thing,Clara.”
He shifts closer to the camera, and I call out, “Stop! Perfect.Let me get my skates on, and I’ll join you in a sec. Don’t move. Got it?”
He salutes me, his grin wide. “Yes, ma’am!”
I tilt my head to the side and throw him a look.
“Too soon?” he asks with a shrug, his boyish charm oozing right out of him.
“Too soon,” I reply as I sit down and concentrate on lacing up my skates.
A moment later, I press record, step onto the ice, and cover the short distance to him.
“Hey, you’re good at this,” he says.
“Not my first rodeo. I grew up around this arena. I spent many hours here skating around to music with my friends.”
“Tell me it was in a little figure skating costume with one of those tiny skirts at your hips.”
I roll my eyes at him. “Seriously, Cade?”
He holds his hands up. “What can I say? Flirting with you is too fun to resist.”
“Try harder.”
“I make no promises.”
I turn to the camera and begin. “I’m here with Cade Lennox, star winger of the newest team in the League, the Ice Breakers, and a player I know you all love. Cade’s going to take us through some hockey basics in this, our first Hockey 101 video.” I turn to him. “Cade, tell us about the tools you use as a hockey player.”
“This,” he says, brandishing his stick at the camera. “This is a hockey stick. It’s what we players use to push a little black disc around the ice.” He holds up the puck. “And this is that little black disc, aka the puck or the biscuit, as we players tend to call it.”
His personality shines through and I know we’re off to a good start.
“So you push a puck around the ice, trying to get it into your opposition’s net to score points. Correct?”
“There’s a little bit more to it than that, Clara,” he says with a laugh.
