Page 78 of Hockey Halloween
“That is all I ask.”
I could do that. No problem. My shoulders dropped, and the tension eased out of my body. Then my eyes widened. What had she said? That I loved him? I looked through the doorway to where he was helping his dad set the table. He raised his brows, checking if I was good. I nodded.
Tonight, I’d tell him those three big words. Maybe it was fast, but I didn’t care. With his mom’s approval, I was confident that I’d be here for a while. And someday, I’d be more than Larry Han’s girlfriend.
About the Author
Kim Findlay, former English major, was seduced to the dark side (accounting) by mundane issues like paying bills, until her husband enticed her to throw off her business shackles and sail off into the sunset to write romance novels. After living in the Caribbean for seven years, five on a boat, two in Sint Maarten, her next adventure has taken her to France. Bucket list accomplished! You can find her at www.kimfindlay.ca
Broom Stick by Cathryn Fox
Broom Stick
CATHRYN FOX
Copyright © 2025 Cathryn Fox
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage, A.I. programs and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Edited by Alyssa Palmer
Trope: Unrequited Love
Costume: Wonder Woman
We’ve been best friends forever. The kind of forever where I know his coffee order, his worst breakup story, and the scar on his jaw from peewee hockey.
Back in high school, I told him I liked him. He didn’t feel the same. We got past it. We always do.
Now he’s an NHL star, and I’m tagging along to a Halloween party full of WAGs and teammates. I’ve never gotten over him, and just when I think it’s time to move on—maybe with one of his teammates—the fortune teller says something that sticks with me.
So, I do something reckless. I ask him to pretend to be my boyfriend—for one night. To make someone else jealous. He agrees because that’s what best friends do.
But I’m not trying to win any other guy. I want him to see what’s been right in front of him all along. To feel the spark I’ve never stopped feeling. And it’s working. Until he kisses me like he means it…
And whispers something that ruins everything.
Gunther
If that idiot had even one working brain cell, he wouldn’t be laughing with my girl.
Okay, technically Paisley isn’tmygirl. She’s my childhood best friend visiting me here in Boston. But if Jaxon thinks I’m just going to stand here and watch him flirt with her like he’s auditioning for The Bachelor: Dumbass Edition, that grinning mouth of his will be having a different conversation…with my fist.
Don’t get me wrong. I like Jaxon. He’s my teammate. Talented forward. Nice guy. But the dude has more women in his phone than Noah has goals this season, and he’s currently leading the team. Those damn dimples are a weapon of mass destruction, and somehow they’re working their magic on Paisley.
Paisley.
Brilliant, grounded, no-bullshit Paisley. She plays four instruments and writes symphonies, for crying out loud. Not flirty Instagram captions. She doesn’t play games and is not the kind of girl who falls for a smile and a wink.
Or at least…I didn’t think she was.
But maybe I’ve been sending the wrong message. Maybe sayingwe’re just friendson repeat made the guys think she’s fair game. Maybe I’m the idiot here.
One thing is for sure. I’m not changing the story tonight. No matter what’s boiling in my gut, no matter how badly I want to storm over there and stake a claim I have no right to. I won’t risk what Paisley and I have.
