Page 49 of That Thing You Brew
Deep breath, deep breath, deep breath!
Karter nodded his head. “Mm-hmm. I think you’re right. Swanny, why don’t you go and show her some love with that kiss she promised?”
“Well, I haven’t won yet,” Xavier said smoothly, his brows lifting and his expression turning into one of sweet concern.
He was so cute when he made that face. I couldn’t look away from the screen.
“Let’s see what the judges have to say,” Karter said. The camera panned the celebrity judges as they raised their scorecards one at a time. “Ten, ten, ten, and a ten plus one to make eleven.” Karter turned back to the camera wearing a smug expression as Daniella slid off Xavier’s shoulder to the ice.
She gave Xavier a little shove, and he spun on his skate. I pulled my eyes down from the jumbotron to the ice as he neared me. Bailey’s videographer hoisted his camera into position, and its red light blinked on.
“Kiss her! Kiss her!” The crowd was relentless.
I stepped to the edge of the little carpet and waited. Xavier slowed to a stop gracefully this time and held out his hands. Goodness, he had to be well over six and a half feet tall with his skates on.
I placed my hands in his and lifted on my toes as high as I could. He leaned down, and our lips met in a chaste kiss. I teetered trying to catch my balance, and the crowd gasped. Xavier gave me a gentle tug to tip me his way, and in one smooth move he scooped me into his arms in that threshold carry he seemed to be a pro at.
His eyes locked on mine, and I forgot all about the cameras and Bailey and the crowd. I reached up with both hands to cup his cheeks and pull his face to mine, indulging both of us and our worldwide audience in a lingering kiss.
Karter was saying something about going to a commercial, but I hardly heard him.
Nor did I care. I was insatiable for this man, and at the moment, right now, we were creating another moment, and I didn’t care if the whole world knew it.
Xavier had won the Breakaway Challenge and the hearts of everyone watching what they hoped was the beginning of our love story.
But it was already well underway.
The question was, did he realize it, too?
CHAPTER17
Xavier
The only good thing about the end of All-Star Weekend was that I didn’t have to play on the same team as Dante Leinecker anymore. Who taunts their own teammate? Luckily our celebrity coach for the three-on-three game noticed the tension between us and changed up the lines so we didn’t have to play on the ice at the same time. Penny delivered toffee coffees, and I scored in each of the two three-on-three exhibition games.
Penny had become the sweetheart of the weekend. In addition to the coffees and kisses, she’d filled in for the ASL interpreter during the games when he slipped on the ice and broke his arm during rehearsal. I’d never been so proud of her. I could picture her signing at some of the Edge games in the future.
Each night Penny was in town, I skipped the hotel and went home to my parents’ house. I didn’t want to party or celebrate. I just wanted to be with her and my family. On Saturday, I checked out of the hotel on my way to the arena. There was no point in the team paying for a room I wasn’t using for two more nights.
In past years, all-stars were drafted onto four teams. For this year’s games, players were separated into our divisions to make up the teams, and then the best Western Conference team would play the best Eastern Conference team in the final.
Our Central division team beat the Pacific team and then advanced to play the Atlantic, who’d edged out the Metro division by one goal. We’d won that game and the million-dollar prize, but I already felt like a winner. And Jason, with the most saves among the eight goalies, won a hundred grand, which he promptly donated to Beats & Eats, Lauren’s philanthropy that fed inner-city kids dinner while high school band members played for them.
Later that night, I kissed Penny at her door and went to find my dad. I owed him an apology.
I paused in the archway of the breakfast nook. Dad was at the window, standing next to Penny’s harp, facing the bay. Lights from the ferries and skyscrapers mingled with the twinkling stars to pepper the darkness like the fairy lights I’d hung in my little sisters’ rooms.
I cleared my throat to alert him to my presence. He lifted his hand and waved me over.
We stood there a moment, silence hanging thickly between us. Before he could say anything, I needed to tell him how my perspective had changed about his and mom’s rush to marriage and how I felt about Penny.
“I get it now, Dad. I get why you married Mom so fast and quit the game before you had to. I—I think I’m in love with Penny.”
“I know you are.” He patted my shoulder and pulled me into a side-hug. “Your mother told me. She said, ‘Heiny, that boy looks at Penny like you look at me.’”
I dropped my chin to my chest and smiled. When I was little, I hated it when Mom called Dad “Heiny” in public. It was awkward and cringy, but Dad was so in love he didn’t care.
“Yeah, I do. She’s just … perfect, Dad. Perfect for me. And … I regret the three years we could have had together if I hadn’t been so bullheaded and had asked her out when I first met her.”
