Page 36 of Let It Be Me
“None. Okay, we’ll say we kept running the same trails and you decided to man up and ask me to run with you one day.”
“Man up?” I ask with a smile threatening to break through.
“That’s what I said,” Sarah teases and scoots around in her seat. “And then you were captivated by my charm and sweat and asked me out the next time we ran into each other.”
I snort and gently boop her on the nose before getting up to take our dishes to the dishwasher. I put the leftovers in a container and set the pot and pan in the sink to soak.
“Do you need any help?” Sarah asks as she stands up from the table.
“Nope. Go sit your cute butt on the couch.”
“Fine,” she says with a huff. “But just so you know, I hate being told what to do. I’m only doing it because I’ve been dying to plop on your couch.”
I shake my head with a smile and watch as her ass sways on the way to the couch. Thank goodness doing the dishes will allow time for Little Riley to calm down. I watch as Sasha makes her way to the redheaded beauty on my couch and drops in her lap. Traitor. At least Pixie is more wary of her so I don’t have to worry about her feline betrayal.
“So you helphim get the puck into the goal?”
I pulled up an older hockey game to teach Sarah about the sport. She’s picked up on it fairly quickly and I like that she’s not blowing smoke up my ass by feigning interest.
“Mm-hmm,” I try to keep my focus on the game and off of her. But I like watching her face when something happens. The genuine excitement lifts her eyes and cheeks as she smiles bigger than I thought possible.
“I thought football was a violent sport,” she observes as a guy is slammed into the boards.
“Please. Like they could take a hit like we can.”
Both sports are equally as tough. But hockey is a lot more dangerous than football. All it would take is a skate going into something it shouldn’t and unfortunately it’s game over for us.
Sarah turns her attention to me. “Have you broken your nose?”
“Once in high school and then once my first game with Columbus.”
“Any other injuries I should know about?”
“You can do a thorough search of my body if you really want to find out.” The last word just leaves my mouth when a pillow crashes into my face. My laugh travels up my throat and out into the open. I pull the pillow from my face and come face-to-face with a scowling Sarah. Clearing my throat and tossing the pillow to the side, I lose the remnants of my laughter. “Any other injuries? Well, besides my broken leg when I was a kid and the broken nose, no other injuries that I know of.”
Sarah narrows her eyes at me and turns back to the old game. We sit in comfortable silence through the rest of the game. She asks me necessary questions about how my position works, subs, face offs, penalty boxes, and hat tricks. We watch one more game until I see her start to fade.
I turn off the TV and stand up, holding my hand out to her. “Let’s go sleepy-head.”
She looks at my hand like it’s covered in needles before placing hers in mine. I pull her up and send her off to my room. I finish up the closing down of my living room and kitchen, feeding the cats, and when I’ve done everything as thoroughly as I can, I realize I can no longer avoid my room. Shaking out my hands, I walk towards my bedroom. I’ve never had anyone stay the night who wasn’t one of my teammates when they decided to crash. But they slept on the couch and my worry was non-existent with them. So having Sarah in my room, sharing a bed with her, freaks me out.
I shut off the last light and stroll into my bedroom as carefree as possible. My steps falter when I see her tucked in on the free side of my bed. I tell myself to not think of it as her side of the bed. But it’s hard when I see Sasha once again cuddled in the crook of Sarah’s arm as the blue light from her phone illuminates her face.
“If I were a jealous man, I’d say something about my cat velcroing herself to you.” I tell her as I close the door to a crack.
Sarah shifts her eyes to me and smirks as she leans down to kiss Sasha on the head and pull her closer. “Good to know your masculinity is firmly intact.”
I pull my shirt off and exaggerate the stretch of my body. When it’s off my body I toss the fabric at her head and head into the bathroom to brush my teeth and empty my bladder.
As I crawl into bed, I try to pay attention to if she’s nervous. Either Sarah has an incredible poker face or she’s completely unaffected.
“Riley, your tenseness is clashing with my aura. Relax,” she tells me as she continues to scroll but I stay plastered tothe edge of the mattress. “Have you never shared a bed with a woman?”
I brush her off and scoff at her insinuation while I fluff my pillow.
She lets out a breath and I hear the tapping on her phone from her manicure. “Fine. Walk me through your game day routine.”
“What do you know about game day routines?” I ask and turn my head towards her although the pillows we’re both lying on blocks half of her beautiful face.
