Page 64 of Blocked Shot
“Good,” he murmurs. “Because I’m not going anywhere.”
CHAPTER 30
NATALIE
The drive into Hartford is slow, slush kicking up under the tires as Natalie carefully maneuvers through streets still lined with remnants of the storm. The city is coming back to life—traffic signals flicker overhead, sidewalks have been cleared, and plows rumble down the side roads, pushing away the last of the snow. Jake sits beside her, quiet but relaxed, his fingers drumming absentmindedly against his thigh as they approach his apartment building.
Natalie pulls up in front, shifting the car into park but keeping her hands on the wheel, gripping it a little tighter than necessary. This is it. The end of their little world.
Jake doesn’t move right away. Instead, he turns toward her, gaze heavy, unreadable. “Come up with me.”
She exhales a soft laugh. “Jake, I should?—”
“Spend the night. You should spend the night.”
She blinks at him, startled by his firm insistence. “Jake?—”
“Just one more night,” he murmurs. “Before everything goes back to normal.”
Normal. She doesn’t even know what that looks like anymore.
Her fingers loosen on the wheel as she turns to look at him fully. He’s watching her like he’s afraid she’ll slip through his fingers thesecond he steps out of the car. And maybe she will. Maybe that’s what scares her, too.
“One more night,” she repeats softly.
His expression shifts, relief flickering through his eyes, and then he’s already reaching for the door handle. “Park in the garage. I’ll meet you upstairs.”
By the time she lets herself into his apartment, shrugging out of her coat, Jake is already inside, adjusting the thermostat. The space is dimly lit, familiar now.
“I think you just like bossing me around,” she teases as she sets her bag down.
Jake smirks, stepping toward her, crowding into her space enough to make her breath hitch. “And yet, here you are.”
Her heart thuds. “Here I am.”
They slip back into the rhythm of the last few days. He tosses her one of his sweatshirts, and she pulls it on, hugging it to her chest. It smells like him—clean, warm, unmistakably Jake.
The apartment is quiet except for the occasional honk from the street below and the distant hum of the heater kicking on. The storm cleanup may be carrying on outside, but within the apartment walls, the moment still belongs only to them.
They order takeout, Jake starts a load of laundry, and when she stretches out on his couch, he settles in beside her, one arm draped across the backrest, fingers brushing absently against her shoulder.
“So what now?” Natalie asks softly, looking up at Jake.
“I’m seeing the team doctor tomorrow. He’ll tell me if I’m fit to skate. No contact of course,” he explains, seeing her alarm.
“The team should be home tomorrow.”
He scrubs his hands across his face and looks away from Natalie, as if searching for the right words. He exhales through his nose, his expression thoughtful. “The guys had a brutal road trip.”
Natalie looks over at him. His voice is calm, but she can see the tension in his jaw, the way his fingers tap absently against his thigh.
“How bad?” she asks, even though she already has an idea. She’d checked the scores and texted with Jesse once she got cell service back.His gruff, one-word replies told Natalie he was in no mood to talk about it.
“Bad,” he confirms. “Lost all three. Long bus rides, back-to-back games. I need to check in with Jesse and the other rookies, make sure they’re okay.”
The mention of Jesse lands between them, delicate but unavoidable. Jake’s careful with it, like he’s testing the waters, unsure how much weight it still holds. Natalie’s stomach tightens, but she forces herself to exhale, to smooth over the tension before it settles.
She knows Jesse. Her fiercely competitive brother is probably taking the losses harder than most. And she knows Jake—how he takes on the weight of the younger guys’ mistakes, how he’ll carry their disappointment like it’s his own.
