Page 1 of Any Second Now (Fort Collins Blizzard Hockey #2)

ATTICUS

New Year’s Eve

B efore she arrived at my apartment a few days ago to visit my sister, I hadn’t seen Raleigh Hayes in almost a decade.

And now, with the ink fresh on her second divorce, Raleigh’s here and looking absolutely gorgeous in a maroon wrap dress with a dangerously low neckline.

“Sorry, Luce!” I call to my sister. My hockey teammate walks her out of the ballroom where the Fort Collins Blizzard NHL team is having their big New Year’s Eve celebration. I just accidentally knocked into our team captain, who was holding two full glasses of champagne, both now all over Lucy.

And while I didn’t do it on purpose, there’s a bright side: I’m now standing alone with Raleigh.

“Are you going to vomit in a bush next?” Raleigh tilts her head and presses her lips together, her fine blonde hair shifting around her face.

“Will I never live down my first semester of college?” I groan dramatically and squeeze my eyes shut for a beat. “Even though it was twelve years ago and I was a sweet and lonely freshman? ”

Raleigh laughs, her dark chocolate-brown eyes sparkling, and the sound warms me from the inside.

“First of all,” she says when her chuckles die down. “You were never lonely—there were always girls following you around—and second, I’m pretty sure you weren’t sweet.”

“Hmm. You might be right.” I rub my hand on my chin and pretend to look thoughtful. “But all I wanted to do was hang out with my big sister’s friends. Was that so bad?”

They laughed at me back then for tagging along all the time.

But at the first party I went to with the trio of my sister and her two best friends, I stumbled upon a football player who had Raleigh looking very uncomfortable cornered in a dark hallway.

Or maybe I was jealous. I interrupted with the excuse that I was looking for Lucy.

I had a few inches on the football player, but he probably had fifty pounds on me, so I was lucky that he only glared at me before walking away.

After that, I invited myself out with them all the time.

Maybe they didn’t technically need me to protect them, but I needed to know they were safe.

And okay, maybe they also made sure I got home in one piece after a long night of partying, although I often curled up on the couch in their apartment so I didn’t have to drag myself back to my dorm on campus.

A server in all black approaches us with a tray of champagne, so I ditch the empty flutes and grab a pair of fresh ones.

“I promise I won’t spill this on you.” I hand Raleigh a glass and our fingers brush with a sharp tingle as she accepts it.

“Thanks.” She takes a sip and seems to assess me, then shakes her head. “I truly don’t know how you hook up with all the women that Lucy says you do. You have, like, zero charm.” I mock shock as Raleigh downs half her champagne, but she’s holding back a smile.

She’s flirting with me. Thank god. Because right now, I do feel like I have zero charm, even though I’ve never had a problem getting women to take an interest in me.

In fact, I hardly ever have to try. It just happens.

I think briefly about the woman I hooked up with on the road a few weeks ago in Chicago, then the one a month before that in Dallas.

It’s not who I want to be, but it’s who I am.

“Ouch. Zero charm?” My eyes flit down to her lips, my gaze lingering on how plump and inviting they are. I look back up and her cheeks are turning rosy.

Oops. Didn’t mean to be so obvious in my ogling.

“Yeah, when we were in college?—”

“Raleigh.” I step toward her, shrinking the gap between us. “I am not the same person I was in college.”

“You’re not?” She bites her bottom lip and stares up at me, big brown eyes so wide. I force myself not to stare at her mouth.

“Well, are you ?” I don’t know. Maybe I kind of am.

I’ve apparently still got this thing for Raleigh. I would’ve thought that a decade playing professional hockey and getting the money and attention that comes with that would’ve cured me of this unrequited college crush.

I guess I thought wrong.

“No.” She shakes her head, some of the flirtatiousness falling off her face, and her gaze lowers to the ground. “I’m much less optimistic about life.”

Shit. I guess two divorces can destroy someone’s optimism. How can two fucking men have let her get away? And now she’s got that damn hurt look on her face… I reach over and gently touch the underside of her chin, letting my finger linger. Raleigh looks up at me.

“Well, some things are the same,” I say.

I should definitely stop talking. Immediately.

“Like what?” Her voice shakes the slightest bit, and her eyes roam my face.

Like what, indeed. I don’t really have a plan here. Just want to make her sad expression go away .

I lean forward and down until my lips lightly brush against her earlobe. She intakes a sharp breath.

“I still want to kiss you.” I lightly touch her hip in a mostly appropriate way. In a way that if someone looked over at us, they might think I’m leaning in because the music is so loud and we can hardly hear each other.

She swallows as I lean back, and I watch her throat bob.

“Fine then.” Raleigh tips her chin up.

“Fine then?” I search her face. She didn’t just agree to?—

“Yeah. Let’s get it out of your system.”

She did just agree.

My jaw drops. “What?”

“Come on.” Raleigh grabs my hand and turns, pulling me behind her. She deposits her empty champagne glass on a small round table, and I do the same.

Is she dragging me away to kiss me?

No way.

That’s not what’s happening.

But she’s leading me around the small stage and DJ stand to a dark nook where there’s no people, just tangles of cords and empty bins. She only stops when we get to the wall, where she spins around, still holding my hand.

“I might be a little drunk. But I want to forget things tonight.” Her hand trembles almost imperceptibly in mine. “And kissing you might help me do that. Maybe I can spend the next year regretting this kiss instead of my marriage, who knows.”

I press my lips together to suppress a grin, then lean a hand against the wall above her head and dip my chin down toward her.

Raleigh’s lips are a deep pink, her red lipstick long worn off, but her natural color is just as sexy.

I push a strand of her hair, curled for the dressy New Year’s Eve celebration, off her forehead.

My fingers graze the side of her face and my heart thumps in my chest like a bass drum.

A slight flare to her nostrils shows our proximity is affecting her as much as it’s affecting me.

Thank god for the drinks I had—the ones that Coach Jackson and our team captain will make me regret tomorrow. It’s pathetic, but I want to project confidence, and the alcohol is helping. I’m a star NHL player, but around Raleigh? I feel anything but confident.

“You sure, Raleigh?” My voice practically cracks. I sound like a teenage boy. Fuck.

“It’s just this one time.” Raleigh puts her hands lightly on my waist. “Because it’s New Year’s Eve and the night feels, well, kinda special.”

She’s right. There is something in the air. It crackles around us. There’s still a whole damn party going on in this ballroom, but I’d also believe it’s just me and Raleigh standing here tucked behind the stage of an empty room.

“Once, and never again.” I nod.

“Never again,” she says, but neither of us move. A crooked smile crosses her face.

“Don’t be chicken, Atticus.” She tugs at my waist.

I chuckle. “I’m not chicken.”

The things I want to do to this woman. My eyes flit to her bare neck and the deep V of her dress, which dips between her breasts.

But this is Lucy’s best friend.

Someone I’ve known for so long. This is a line I’ve always wanted to cross, but never dared. There are a lot of reasons this has never happened. And for a guy who never gets involved with any woman, kissing Raleigh is anything but simple.

“Atticus. You’re overthinking. That’s my job,” she huffs.

She’s not wrong. I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about women because I don’t spend a lot of time dating. Or any time, really. Raleigh’s always been methodical and clinical in her decision making.

“I’m not overthinking.”

I’m definitely overthinking.

I let my gaze settle on her lips. Why am I hesitating, besides all the reasons I just went over in my head?

“Since when do you overthink kissing someone?” Her hands leave my waist and she crosses them on her chest. “I mean, all the girls you hooked up with in college. There was a different one every weekend. I don’t know how you got them to hook up with you, besides the whole tall hot hockey player thing, but there were plenty of your type in college?—”

I stop her mid-sentence by crashing my mouth against hers.

Fuck, I meant that to be way sexier, way more romantic, because I’ve been thinking of kissing Raleigh since I showed up at James Madison University at eighteen years old and now it’s happening and it’s the only time it’ll ever happen and I’m stuck in my fucking head.

I nudge her back against the wall with my free hand.

A moan escapes her throat and she wraps her arms around my neck, arching forward to push her body flush against mine. My heart races with the full contact.

I step forward and press her harder against the wall, deliciously trapping her, letting my tongue slip into her mouth and tangle with hers.

This is too good. Too much.

This is Raleigh.

One of my sister’s best friends.

The woman I’ve had a crush on for over a decade.

I reach both hands down and cup her ass, then lift her so she’s up against the wall at my height. If she weren’t wearing a dress, she’d wrap her legs around my waist, I know it.

I need more time, privacy, a hotel room… I’m hard as a rock and she’s pressing herself against me, and we need to get out of?—

She pushes me away and gasps, her eyes wide, her lips parted, cheeks flushed.

“Hey,” I say and kiss her again, this time more gentle.

“Put me down before someone sees us,” Raleigh says, her voice wispy and shaky, and as I stand up straight and let her slide down my body, I realize this is the end of it. She won’t be sleeping in my bed tonight, she’ll be sleeping in the next room with Lucy and their other friend.

She meant it.

Just this once.

I set her on the ground but press my hands on either side of her against the wall. I don’t want to let her free.

“Are you going to keep me trapped here all night, or can I go find Lucy and January?” She smirks up at me and gently pushes against my chest. I love the feel of her palms on my pecs.

“They’re gonna know,” I growl.

“No they’re not.” But Raleigh rubs her mouth as if to check for smeared lipstick or swollen lips. “They’re both preoccupied.”

She ducks under my arm and away from me, but stops before she’s five feet away.

“Did you get it out of your system, frat boy ?” she asks, looking back over her shoulder.

I chuckle. “Sure, chicken .”

“Good.” Raleigh smooths her hair down.

“But you know I wasn’t in a frat.”

“Whatever.” She shrugs and presses her lips together. “And Atticus? This never happened.”

Then she disappears.

Of course, we should act like this never happened.

It’s not like I’m a relationship guy.