Page 10 of Pucker Up
“Do you play hockey, Matthew?” I slid out of the booth and rested my hand on the boy’s shoulder. He nodded enthusiastically and looked over his shoulder at me. “I do. One day I’m going to play for the Tigers.”
I squeezed his shoulder. “Practice, and never lose that positive attitude. One day, you’ll get there.”
The dad must have taken about five hundred photos. “Thank you.” He shook my hand. “You’re Matthew’s favorite player.”
“No, Gideon is my favorite,” the boy protested.
Goldie clapped a hand over her mouth.
“I love it.” I smiled. “Kids always tell the truth.”
The fans returned to their table and Goldie slid the hundred across the table. “Are you okay?”
I smiled. “Gideon is the number-one player in the east. He’s every kid’s favorite.”
Cute crinkles appeared at the corners of her eyes as she smiled. “But everyone loves an underdog.”
I could’ve swept Goldie off her feet and planted a huge kiss on her beautiful lips. Instead, I reached across the table to grasp her hand. “Goldie, please let me buy lunch. You’ve made my day and I’m going to go to practice with a smile on my face, and an unfortunately huge amount of pizza in my belly.”
“I lost the bet.”
“We can make another one.”
She pulled her hand from mine. “Thank you for lunch, Ace. I appreciate everything you did for Morton today.”
I handed the hundred to the server and told her to keep the change. As I helped Goldie into her coat, another whiff of vanilla made my cock twitch. “I never got to ask you about your name. Let me take you on a proper date. One where I don’t have practice and can drink more than sparkling water.”
Shrugging into my own jacket, I followed Goldie to the door of the restaurant, jogging to ensure that I could open it for her. After the heat of the sunny spot in the warm restaurant, the cold was like a slap to the face.
“Ace.” She turned to face me and extended her hand. “Thank you again for lunch, but I can’t see you again.”
I shook her hand, and a bad feeling came over me. It felt like the end of a business meeting, not a fun pizza date. “Why?”
“You seem like a nice guy, but I don’t date hockey players.”
This time it wasn’t the air that was assaulting me, it was her words, hitting me like a palm to the cheek.
THREE
GOLDIE
Monday wasmy busiest day at school, and I was thankful for the distraction of my classes. A certain hockey player’s face kept appearing behind my eyelids whenever my brain wasn’t occupied with science. Even though I was thankful for the distraction, after a long day of dealing with neuroscience and kinesiology undergrads, all I wanted to do was flop into bed.
Darkness had set in by the time the streetcar dropped me off at the end of Neville Park Boulevard.. The fresh blanket of snow left the world with an insulated and quiet quality, one that I usually loved, but with the silence came thoughts of Ace. I blinked hard, hoping to rid his blue eyes from my mind.
The fingers on my right hand tingled, reminding me of our last moments together. The curt handshake I’d shared with him had left my hand feeling electrified. Mom had warned me about tingles, but I stacked that up as another one of her crazy ramblings. It didn’t mean anything; there had to be a scientific reason why my hand hadn’t felt the same since we’d parted ways. In a weird way, I ached to call my mom to ask her how to get Ace out of my thoughts. To find out how to get his touch off my hand,but doing so would be admitting that I shared her “gift.” I wasn’t prepared to join camp crazy.
My dad’s Yukon was parked in the driveway and as I brushed alongside it, snow fell on the sleeve of my blue puffy jacket. The kitchen lights cast a glow on the laneway that separated my dad’s house from the carriage house where I lived.
The door cracked as I walked by.
“Goldie,” Dad shouted. “Come in for dinner.”
“I’m beat, Dad. I’m going to have a sandwich and hit the hay.” I stretched my arms above my head and yawned. Thinking about Ace Bailey had left me exhausted.
“Come on, Goldie Girl,” a woman’s voice came from behind my father and Mel stepped beside him. “Your dad ordered Pad Thai.”
My stomach growled. “What are you doing here?” I changed course to walk through the door that my dad held open.
