Page 16

Chapter 16

Zeke

I t was a rare day off when I didn’t have practice or training. Although could you really call it a day off when your coach required you to spend the day making sure we had tuxedos rented and fitted for the upcoming team gala? Not exactly how I wanted to spend a day off, but the team’s annual charity gala was important and for a good cause. The money raised supported children’s health and wellness, as well as the growth of hockey in Minnesota.

As a kid who’d grown up in Minnesota and played youth hockey, I had a great appreciation for the Wolves’ foundation. I shuddered to think of where I would be today if I hadn’t had hockey to rely on during my childhood. Being at the ice rink had been far better than being at home.

Before I could endure the tuxedo shop, a coffee was in order.

I stepped into a local coffee shop near my apartment where warm air greeted me, helping to stave off the cold. It may have only been the middle of November, but it looked like we were heading into our coldest months a little early.

I usually stuck to chain coffee shops but on a whim had decided to stop here before going to the formalwear shop. The soft amber lighting, cozy seating nooks, and rich aroma of freshly brewed coffee mingled with hints of vanilla and cinnamon had a calming effect. Maybe I would stay to drink my coffee and take a minute to relax before heading out.

The woman in front of me had medium length golden-brown hair that reminded me of Piper’s hair, although I’d only ever seen Piper’s hair down once, so I couldn’t be sure.

The woman also seemed to be about the same height as Piper, which I personally thought was the perfect height, standing a little taller than my shoulder so her head could fit perfectly under my chin.

I rubbed a hand down my face. Gosh, I was so pathetic. I couldn’t even go out and get coffee without thinking of Piper. Just the mere sight of golden-brown hair made me think of her. She was my weakness. I’d thought I had my feelings in check after our late-night text conversation, especially after her remark about our kiss being fake. But then when I’d seen Jordan, the punk, trying to intimidate his way back into her life, all thoughts of forgetting how she made me feel and that kiss had gone out the window.

That and not being able to keep my eyes from wandering over to look at her every five seconds on the bus ride home. It was like my hands had a mind of their own when they’d started texting her. We hadn’t talked much since, but that hadn’t stopped me from thinking about her or itching to text her. Thankfully, I had been strong enough to not reach out to her for an entire week.

The woman got to the counter, and as soon as she spoke her order, I froze.

This woman didn’t just remind me of Piper—she was Piper.

“Piper?” I asked, hoping I wasn’t wrong even though I knew I wasn’t. I knew her voice. Yeah, yeah, I was pathetic.

She turned around, and sure enough, Piper’s beautiful green eyes looked up at me in surprise. “Zeke?”

I smiled at her in both greeting and excitement at getting to see her, especially outside of work or anything to do with the team. Which…we’d never actually spent any time together that didn’t revolve around hockey.

“Here.” I stepped forward. “Let me get your drink.”

“What?” she asked, still looking surprised at my appearance before quickly adding, “No, I can get it. But thank you.”

“I know you can. But I want to.” I gave her my most charming smile.

She paused but didn’t fight me as she gave me a small smile and a nod in acceptance.

The barista stared at me, a sly smile on her face. “You’re Zeke Lawson.”

“Uh, yeah.” I gave her the smile I used with fans. “Nice to meet you.”

“Piper, you could have told me he was meeting you here,” she accused, but her voice was too happy to be truly upset about it.

Wait. What? How did she know Piper?

I looked between the two.

“He’s not meeting me,” Piper said. “I had no idea he was going to be here.”

“Ooh,” she said in a sing-song voice, rubbing her hands together. “So, this is like some serendipity action.”

I looked to Piper, hoping she’d clue me in.

She gestured to the barista. “This is my sister, Quinn.”

“Ah,” I nodded. “The sister who had a crush on me and knows all about me including my dating life.” I held out my hand. “Nice to officially meet you.”

Quinn brows creased in confusion as she shook my hand. “What? I wasn’t the one who had a cru?—”

“Yep,” Piper blurted out loudly, cutting her sister off. “This is that sister I was telling you about.” She looked at Quinn and gave her a pleading look to go along with whatever story she was spinning.

I bit my cheek to keep from smiling and continued to pretend to buy the story she’d told me weeks ago.

“I’ve heard a lot about you,” Quinn said with a conspiratorial smile.

Piper waved her off. “Not a lot .” She gave Quinn the side eye. “Quinn here has always been prone to exaggeration.”

Quinn narrowed her eyes at Piper. “I’m not exaggerating how much you talked to me about the kiss?—”

“You know what?” Piper quickly turned to me. “I think we should order.” She gestured her thumb behind her. “The line is getting long.”

This time I did let my smile slip. Piper had talked to her sister about our kiss, and that made me very happy.

Quinn took my order—Piper had already given hers—and we moved to the side to wait for our names to be called.

“Sorry about my sister,” Piper said, her stiff posture making me wonder if she was feeling embarrassed or uncomfortable.

“Don’t be.” I smiled, hoping to help her relax. “I’m glad I got to meet her.”

A heavy silence settled between us as we stood there waiting for our coffees.

As the seconds continued to tick with neither of us speaking, I started to grow nervous. Piper and I had never been around each other unless it had to do with hockey, the team, or physical therapy. Even when she had come to my apartment, it had been because of work, and then she’d stayed to make sure I wouldn’t injure myself more.

But now? We were just two people in a coffee shop, and for some reason, I wasn’t sure how to talk to her. It almost felt like a date. But it very much wasn’t.

I had randomly showed up here because it was near my apartment, and she was here because of her sister.

Although I had bought her drink. And now my mind was trying to come up with a reason to sit and talk in one of the seating areas.

“Zeke and Piper!” Quinn called out with a cheery grin, and I couldn’t help noticing how good our names sounded together.

We both took our drinks, and as nervous as I was feeling, I wasn’t ready to say goodbye yet. I just needed to think of something to talk about to keep the conversation going. Then we could naturally mosey over to a nearby table and talk. Sounded simple enough. Except my mind was coming up blank.

Think! I mentally yelled at myself. She was seconds away from saying goodbye if I didn’t say something soon.

“I like your hair down,” I randomly blurted out.

Wow. I wanted to die a little inside. Why had I said that? There were so many other sentences I could have gone with. The most normal probably would have been a simple, ‘How has your day been?’ But no, I had to practically shout that I liked her hair.

She lifted a hand and smoothed down the back of her hair, looking a bit taken aback by my random outburst.

Her and me both.

I worked to school my features, like I hadn’t just word vomited.

“Uh, thank you,” she said with a polite smile.

I inwardly cringed. Why couldn’t I be the cool, suave, confident guy I normally was with women? What was it about Piper that had me spouting off how much I liked her hair?

“You’re probably just not used to seeing it down,” she said, almost like she was trying to help me out.

“Yeah.” I shoved my free hand into my pocket. “Do you want to sit for a bit?” I asked, nodding over to the seating area next to the shelves lined with books and succulents.

“Sure.”

I let out a breath of relief at her agreement as we headed over to a table, taking a seat.

I took a sip of my coffee before I asked, “So, any fun plans for your day off?” That was a much better question. I mentally patted myself on the back.

“No, unfortunately,” she sighed. “I’m dress shopping today for the gala.” She took a sip of her coffee. “What about you? Are you gearing up for the charity gala like Coach Hill demanded?”

I let out a huff of laughter. “Yep. Unfortunately, I have to go tux shopping today. Or, I should say, tux renting . I don’t need to own a tux. I’m not exactly a ‘fancy event’ kind of guy.”

“Really? I pegged you as someone who’d love the attention,” she teased lightly.

I smirked, shaking my head. “Nah. I go, do my part, smile for a few pictures. It’s not my thing, but it’s for a good cause.”

“Same. I’ll mostly be there because the team expects it.” Piper paused before her eyes went wide. “You’re not bringing a date, are you?”

My lips quirked up at the corner. “I wasn’t planning on it. Don’t you think it would be weird if I showed up with another woman after you and I kissed in front of the whole team?”

Her cheeks warmed. “Yeah, if the team thinks we are dating, you probably shouldn’t bring a real date.”

I leaned back in my seat. “No. No real date.” I swallowed looking down at my coffee, focusing on the warmth heating my hands instead of how I literally had no one to bring. “I’m going alone.”

Her head tilted to the side, a look of surprise mixed with confusion. “Really?”

“Yes, really. Why does that surprise you?”

She shrugged, looking down at her coffee. “I figured you’d have a line of women waiting to go to the charity gala with you.”

I suppressed a smile. “There is no line. And if there was one, I wouldn’t be interested.”

She looked up at me. “Oh.” Her eyes brightened at my statement, and I wondered if she liked my answer. “And no family you want to bring with you?”

Her question was innocent, a natural continuation of where this conversation would go. A lot of people who didn’t bring a date would bring a family member or two. She didn’t have any idea that her question had hit a sore spot I usually tried to ignore. Instead of brushing it off with a simple no like I would have with anyone else, I found myself wanting her to know more about me.

I shook my head, my gaze drifting to the steam curling up from my coffee. “Don’t have any. My parents bailed when I was a kid. Left me with my grandma.”

My blunt answer probably came from a lack of talking about it, but how else could you tell someone that you had been abandoned as a child—and keep all emotion out of it? Bullet points seemed like my best option.

I didn’t need to see her face. I could hear her surprise. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” A few moments of silence passed before she continued. “That must’ve been hard,” she said gently.

I couldn’t seem to look at her. “Yeah.” My voice was quiet. “My grandma wasn’t exactly thrilled about it, either. She raised me, but she never let me forget I was a burden. Always made it clear she didn’t want to be stuck with me.”

Quiet hung in the air between us, but it didn’t feel awkward. It felt safe, somehow. Like she was patiently waiting for me to continue if I wanted to, like she was waiting for me to choose how much I wanted to share.

“When I started playing hockey, it was the first time I felt like I belonged somewhere,” I admitted. “The rink became my home. The team…they were my family. Still are, I guess. But teams change. Guys get traded. Retire. You learn not to get too attached.”

Silence greeted me once again, and I couldn’t look at her. I didn’t want to see the pity in her eyes. I felt naked, vulnerable…embarrassed.

“Zeke…”

I waved her off, my usual smirk reappearing like a mask. “It’s no big deal. Just the way it is.”

She didn’t look convinced. She reached across and placed her hand on my arm. “If there is one thing I’ve learned about you in the past several weeks, it’s that there’s more to you than being a hockey player,” she said softly. “And you’re not as alone as you think.”

My eyes flicked to hers, something unreadable in their depths. For a moment, neither of us spoke, the noise of the coffee shop fading into the background. I wasn’t sure what she meant by that. Was she suggesting that our relationship was more than just therapist-patient, that there was more to our fake dating? I was feeling something for her that I wasn’t used to, that I couldn’t even seem to put a name to, but maybe I was overthinking it, and all she meant was that we were friends. She was a friend I could count on.

No matter that I had no interest in being just friends with her. That was something I did know for sure. Except in reality, I wasn’t sure I could be any more than that. This whole thing was too confusing. It was as if I was playing some kind of emotional ping pong game. One second, I was flirting with her, the next I was trying to keep things platonic, the next we’re fake dating, and now I was opening myself up to her in a way I’d never done with anyone.

I obviously had no clue what I was doing, and the safest thing to do now was to shut all this down until I could better figure out what the heck was going on with me.

I cleared my throat, breaking the spell. “Thanks,” I muttered.

Piper gave me a small smile, removing her hand and taking a sip of her latte, oblivious to my internal freak out. Thankfully, she didn’t push for more.

But I couldn’t shake the feeling that this conversation had shifted something between us. Something I wasn’t sure I was ready to face. I had let her see a side of me that was hidden from the outside world. And although we hadn’t gotten into the details, it had been a big deal for me. I still couldn’t figure out why I had told her. Was it the nerves? Had I gone from talking about her hair to telling her about my lack of family connection all because she made me nervous?

Up until I’d met Piper, it had been easy to keep women and relationships at bay. I hadn’t had a single person even tempt me to go back on my vow to never let anyone get close to me again—and especially to fall in love again. But Piper had a way of making me feel comfortable, at ease, with an effortless connection between us that called to me in a new but enticing way. I couldn’t ignore it.

And despite my attempts—albeit lame attempts—to not fall for my physical therapist, I was worried I was already headed down the steep slope that led to me falling for Piper.