Rushing the Goal
Page 77

“Whoa, killer. We’ve got a game to go to.”
“Hey, not fair. Come back,” he muttered, but she shook her head.
“A kiss—one kiss—and you’re two seconds from doing me right here.”
He thought that over and then shrugged. “Am I supposed to be sorry for that?”
She laughed, rolling her eyes as she pulled away, fixing her shirt. “Give me a good three minutes before you follow.”
He rolled his eyes in an exaggerated fashion and then grinned. “Or I can stick my hand in the pocket of those naughty jeans and walk out there with you.”
She side-eyed him. “Want to piss on my leg instead?”
He scoffed at that as she shook her head, going to walk away. But of course, he pulled her in for one more kiss. A long, delicious one that she felt in her toes. She could kiss this man for the rest of her life and be completely fine with it.
Shit, did she just think that?
Crapola.
This time, he was the one to pull back, kissing her nose and then the side of her mouth before waggling his brows at her. “I think your mom likes me.”
“Good Lord,” she complained before pulling out of his arms and walking away. But she was smiling.
Hard.
Rushing to where her family sat just before Angie took the ice, she climbed the bleachers as Jayden yelled out, “Jeez, did you have to take a shit?”
She stuck her tongue out at him as all the parents around them laughed, and their mother smacked him hard on the arm. He, of course, was laughing like a hyena as their mom complained. “Jayden! Goodness!”
Rolling her eyes, she sat down beside her mother, crossing her legs, and pulling her phone out to text Rick.
“Honey,” her mother said as she typed quickly.
Hitting send, she looked up. “Yeah?”
“Honey, your lipstick is smeared.”
Her eyes widened as she wiped the side of her mouth quickly while her mother eyed her suspiciously. But of course, that wasn’t the end of her embarrassment.
“Hey, Paxton, that red looks good on you, buddy,” Jayden called out. And when she glanced up to see Benji coming up to them, her eyes closed.
Fucking hell.
His brow rose. “What?”
“You have lipstick all over your mouth,” Jayden said dryly as Benji fell into the seat beside him.
“Do I?” he asked, wiping his mouth as Jayden chuckled.
“Yeah, jeez, who were you kissing?” Baylor laughed as Lucy died a slow and humiliating death.
“Funny, the same red that’s on his lips is the same red that was on your lips, well, now the side of your mouth,” her mother mumbled. But Lucy just kept facing forward, praying to God the subject would get dropped. “Wonder why that is?”
Still, she said nothing as Benji asked, “Did I get it all off?”
“Yup,” Baylor said, then leaned forward to Lucy. “Did you want a napkin? Since yours was smeared?”
Pressing her lips together, she wanted to die. “Nope, good.”
When her phone dinged with a text, she thanked God before looking down at her phone.
Rick: I’ll be there when I get there. Don’t rush me. I do have a life.
“Motherfucker,” she murmured as Benji leaned forward.
“Ignore him,” he said, shaking his head. “His life should be his daughter.”
“I know,” she said under her breath.
“You left—”
“Benji, shut up and watch the game,” she demanded and he laughed, leaning back as she shook her head.
Her mother, though, was looking from her to Benji over and over again. Finally, she leaned to Lucy and whispered, “You guys would make beautiful children.”
“Mother, please, just stop,” she begged as Angie lined up for the drop of the puck. Lucy saw her look up, and she waved her hands in the air, yelling Angie’s name. When everyone joined in, Angie beamed before looking back down at the puck. Lucy prayed Angie didn’t notice Rick wasn’t there, but once the puck was dropped, Lucy was sure she didn’t care about anything else but kicking some ass.
“Why are we all the way up here?” Benji asked, but she ignored him, watching Angie.
“I don’t know. I hate sitting so far away,” Jayden complained.
“Come on, let’s go down,” Benji decided, and together they made their way down. Lucy did not watch Benji’s ass that was clad in those damn sweat pants. Nope. She watched her daughter as Benji and Jayden went to stand behind the goal. She wanted to go down there with them, well, Benji. But she knew that her mother would know right away.
If she didn’t already.
Which she probably did.
Damn it.
But soon, she wasn’t worried about that, only about Angie playing. She was one of the fastest, on the line with the Adler sisters, and Shea loved playing them together. They stayed out there a lot. And when Shelli scored, the place lost it like it had been Shea Adler himself scoring. Standing up, Lucy cheered along with everyone else as Shelli and the rest of the girls hugged tightly before heading back to the bench. Two more shifts happened before Angie was back out, skating deep like she had been told by all the NHL’ers she was surrounded by.
“Angie! Sunshine! Look, left, cut left, there you go! Shoot!” Benji yelled, and Angie did, but the goalie blocked her and he clapped loudly. “That’s all right, keep going! Attagirl! Yeah!”
Jayden was right next to him, hollering just as loud, and she thought it was really cute. That is until Jude asked from the iPad, “Who are the gorillas that are yelling for Angie?”