Page 10 of Clear Shot

“What are you thinking?” I ask after a moment.

“It’s more like, what areyouthinking?” she counters, searching my face. “I mean, why would you do this for me?”

“You’re my friend, and I know why you don’t want to go back to Slovakia.” We’ve talked about it a lot.

“It would complicate our relationship.”

“I know, but what fun is life without a few complications between friends?”

She smiles. “I suppose there’s that.”

“Look, we can give it a try. A year. If you haven’t found a job that will sponsor you by then, we’ll reassess. Otherwise, we can just go with the flow.”

“Yes, but…” She chews the inside of her cheek. “We can’t tell people we got married for a visa. The government frowns on that, even if it’s done through the team. So we’d have to let the team and almost everyone else think it’s real.”

“I guess we will.” I hadn’t thought about that.

“And we need a prenup—I don’t want anything from you when we divorce.”

“I know that. I’ve already put in a call to my lawyer.”

“You’ve put a lot of thought into this,” she whispers. “Why?”

Now I have to decide just how much honesty is enough. Or necessary.

Do I tell her it’s because I can’t stand the thought of her being married to one of my teammates? Or that I’ve had a hard-on for her since we met?

“I care about you,” I say carefully. “I know you don’t want to leave and, if I’m honest, it’s not a huge hardship. Hockey keeps me busy. You have friends and your brother, and you’ll be job-hunting. If we don’t want to, we wouldn’t have to spend a lot of time together.”

“But that’s just it—wewillhave to. I’ll have to go to games and wear your jersey. We have to hold hands and act like a couple whenever we’re around the team.”

“Is that… a problem?”

“No. It’s actually the opposite.”

Okay, so we’re on the same page even though we’re dancing around the issue.

“So, yeah.” I clear my throat. “That’s the other thing. I don’t want to be a dick, and I definitely don’t want you to feel like you owe me anything, but if we’re going to be together, then we have to be…together.”

“You’re talking about sex.”

“Yes, but more than that, I’m talking about cheating. I don’t want to do that. I don’t want the guys to see me slip away with some puck bunny on a road trip. But at the same time, I can’t go a year without sex. That’s just not, well, Ican’t.”

“Same,” she whispers.

“That doesn’t mean that we get married tomorrow and immediately consummate the marriage. We can take our time, see how we feel about taking that step. I don’t want you to feel pressured into having sex with me. That’s not what I’m suggesting.”

“I know what you mean.” She looks away.

Then we just sit there, the silence growing louder and more awkward with every passing moment.

Because I know she’s thinking about the fact that we’ve always had chemistry. Always wanted to sleep together. Always wanted to see what there is to see.

Neither of us was in a position to go there so we agreed not to.

Getting married would change everything. And not just because we’re married on paper.

“We don’t have to do this,” I say when I can’t stand it anymore. “I just want you to know I’m willing, but if it would be easier for you with someone like Jordan…”