Page 39 of Pucker Up
FOURTEEN
GOLDIE
The screensin the owner’s box took up an entire wall. After the action on the ice below ended and the Zambonis started their slow passes, I turned my attention to the after-game interviews.
“Here, Zooey.” Mel handed me a glass of wine. “Lucky you weren’t holding this when your face was plastered on the jumbotron, or else we’d both be wearing a nice Shiraz.” She brushed at my hair. “You still have popcorn everywhere.”
As I stood, an itch between my boobs told me that Mel was right. I stuck my hand down the neck of my T-shirt and retrieved a piece of popcorn that had been stuck on my bra. I popped it into my mouth, chasing it with a sip of wine.
Mel shook her head and laughed. “Only you, Goldie Girl.”
The rest of the people in the box, the owner of the team and his wife, along with a few other business-type people had kept away from me and Mel, especially after the popcorn explosion incident. That and Mel talked through the entire game, asking questions about everything.
“Which one do you think is the hottest?” She sipped her wine as the cameras followed the players exiting the ice.
“I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to say.”
“Oh, come on.” Mel elbowed me and my wine swirled precariously close to the edge of the glass. Before she could execute her self-fulfilling prophecy of me wearing the Shiraz, I downed the entire glass. “I’m not asking for details from their report, or what your opinion is on their skill. I mean, as the coach’s daughter, you probably can’t talk about stuff like that…” she said a little louder than necessary, then whispered, “in public.”
“I’m quite sure the only thing I can talk about is how my dad isn’t going to give you another ticket to the game if you don’t actually watch it.” My stomach growled and I wished that I hadn’t spilled all of the popcorn.
Mel pursed her wine-stained lips and then grinned. “I totally watched it. That player with the cute hair sticking out from under his helmet scored two goals.”
Ace. The guy who scored the goals and my answer to who was the hottest on the team. Most women would’ve said Gideon, or maybe even Ethan. But, as I’d gotten to know all of the men on a one-on-one basis, there was only one who made the world go into slow motion. Only one who made my heart feel like it belonged in a hummingbird’s chest, only one who made me want to break my rule about dating players.
“That’s called a hockey flow,” I said. “Somehow, they’ve made mullets cool again. My dad had one when he played, and now they’ve come back in style.”
“Your dad had hockey flowy hair?” Mel’s eyes sparkled. “I can’t picture that.”
“Hockey flow, not flowy,” I corrected. “And yes, he also grew a huge playoff beard.” As a coach, my father was always clean shaven, and I found it hard to picture him any other way now.
“I’d like to see some photos of Grizzly Swanson. You know what they say about beards.” Mel’s words were starting to slur.
I hoped she wasn’t going to say what I thought she was going to say. It felt like the owner’s box had gotten a lot quieter. “Never mind.” Mel gestured with her hand, the last of the wine sloshing around before she finished it off.
Thankful that my best friend hadn’t said anything about beards and inner thighs in front of my father’s boss, I started to wonder if Mel should ease up on the drinking. She had been saying crass and wildly inappropriate things all night.
Captions marched along the bottom of each screen and my eyes were drawn to the ABT feed. The sportscaster, a beautiful woman name Jenny Kim, was interviewing Ace. His smile lit up the screen as she presented him with the towel and he draped it around his neck, the lettering of the logo matching the blue of his eyes.
He gave the usual responses to her questions, all with a smile on his face. At twenty-seven he had slight crow’s-feet at the corners of his eyes and his cheeks were permanently dented with dimples. That smile of his was shaping his face in the best way possible.
As if reading my mind, Mel pointed to the screen. “He looks like the older brother.”
“He’s not.” My eyes were glued to the TV, taking in the words, hearing Ace’s voice as his lips moved soundlessly on the screen.
Jenny Kim asked Ace about the first goal he scored and why he shot at Bellamy’s good side.
A pretty girl told me that she’d go out with me if I did.
I blinked hard, hoping that the words on the screen were a figment of my imagination, but when I opened them, they were still there.
Jenny’s eyes went wide and she looked like she was lost for words. My lips drew into a line—he shouldn’t have said that on National TV—but I couldn’t stop the wave of heat that had swept from my face to my belly.
“Oh my God.” Mel grabbed my arm, but I wasn’t able to look away from the screen until his interview was finished. The sounds of the room started to come back into my world and I turned to face my friend.
“You’re the pretty girl, aren’t you?”
“Shhhh,” I hissed and gave a nervous glance around the room. It was unnecessary. Everyone was in their own world, eating the expensive buffet and congratulating each other with the surprise Tigers’ win.
