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Chapter twenty-six

Rebecca

I can’t wipe the grin off my face today.

Nothing can dampen my spirits. Not even that my morning was jam-packed with treatments, or that I had a meeting run late, which means I won’t get a real lunch break.

Which isn’t a big deal except I realized a few minutes ago I left my lunch at home, so I’ll have to survive off whatever snacks I have in my desk drawers until my afternoon appointments are done.

If I order food for delivery, it won’t arrive in time for me to eat it now, and I don’t have another break in my schedule until late in the afternoon. But none of it matters.

It’s not like anything out of the ordinary happened at last night’s game. Well, not exactly. Hadley saw me in the hallway when we were both leaving for the arena and asked me to sit with her. Apparently Madison was supposed to meet her but wasn’t feeling well, so she had an extra seat.

I said yes, thinking nothing of it. Until Hadley had to go to the bathroom before warm-ups started, and I took Hazel from her and proceeded to hold her for most of the game.

I didn’t think anything of it at the time, holding the baby of the guy I’m kind of seeing as if she’s mine. No big deal, right?

Except the entire team saw me.

I’m sure words were said among them.

Then Holt came over and I swear there was heat in his gaze .

I tried to play it cool since no one knows about us, but I’m not sure how convincing I was.

Hadley was giving me the side eye during the whole interaction. I’m pretty sure she suspects something. It is what it is, I guess.

Sighing, I rifle through my top desk drawer, hoping to find a protein bar, or at least a packet of crackers to tide me over for the next few hours.

“Hey, Becca,” Holt says.

It’s as if thinking about him conjured him out of thin air.

“Hey, you,” I greet him, taking a moment to check him out. He looks extra handsome today, casually leaning against the doorframe of my office, wearing a pair of dark jeans and a black Henley, the slightest bit of facial hair, like he forgot to shave this morning. “Come in.”

He steps into my office, closes the door behind him, and stalks over to me. I swallow, feeling the air heat between us. He smirks, leaning over and dropping a chaste kiss on my lips before setting a cup of iced coffee, and a takeout bag from the deli around the corner, on my desk.

“For you.” He tips his chin toward the bag.

My heart skips a beat. How’d he know? I glance between him and the bag.

“Thank you,” I finally say.

He takes a seat while I take a sip of my coffee.

“Eat.”

I pull out a container of chicken noodle soup, a Styrofoam to-go dish with a few slices of bread in it, and a small bag of sour gummy worms. I grin, holding the candy up. “Coffee, lunch, and dessert. How did I get so lucky?

“Wanted to make sure you were satisfied.” He winks, and heat rushes to my face. My underwear is ruined at the thought of other ways he can satisfy me. Yep absolutely fucking ruined.

“Eat your lunch, Rebecca.”

“Yes, sir.”

I give him a mock salute with my spoon, and I don’t miss the way his eyes darken. Interesting. I do as he says, taking the lid off the soup and dipping my spoon in. A satisfied hum leaves me at the first taste .

I clear my throat. “What can I do for you?”

He leans back in his seat. “Can’t I drop in and check on you? Bring you lunch?”

“You can. It’s just not something you’ve done before.”

He leans forward, propping his elbows on his legs. “We weren’t together before.”

“That’s what we are? Together?”

“Well, yeah. We’re dating, right?”

“I figured it was casual .” I say before taking a few more bites of my soup.

He growls. “No.”

My heart sinks, but before I can say anything, he’s coming around my desk and tugging me to my feet. He pulls me to him, roughly gripping my hips. He stares at me for a second, his gaze dipping down to my mouth and then back up to my eyes.

“I don’t want to do casual with you.”

“Oh.” My voice is barely above a whisper, my heart racing.

He leans closer to me until his nose brushes mine, and I’m glad he closed the door. He rests his forehead against mine.

“When I’m with you, I feel like I can finally breathe. Like all the weight that’s been sitting on my shoulders is suddenly lighter. Casual implies we’re dating other people, and I don’t want to date anyone else. Just you. We can go as slow as you want as long as we’re exclusive.”

My brain feels as if it’s short circuiting. I can barely comprehend what he’s saying.

“How do you know all of that when we’ve only gone out once?”

“I just do, but if you don’t . . .” He pulls back, putting distance between us.

I don’t think. I simply act, grabbing his face and pulling him down so I can kiss him. He lets out a strangled sound, and I grip his hips, tugging him even closer. My tongue darts out, seeking entrance, and he opens for me, groaning.

Eventually, we pull away, both of us panting.

I take a deep breath. “I have a lot of baggage, Holt. ”

“So you’ve said. Doesn’t change anything.

I have a lot of baggage too, Becca.” He swallows, averting his gaze.

“If it makes you feel any better, I’m scared, too.

” His words come out haltingly, and his eyes dart back to my face for a second before he stares at the floor.

“But I want to try. Will you be brave with me?”

I study him. Taking in his words. Noticing the vulnerability on his face.

Shit, she really did do a number on him.

I’d kind of gathered that, but I’d never stopped to think how much.

I really do like him, as much as I’ve tried to tell myself I shouldn’t, and that I can’t, it hasn’t changed how I feel about him.

If he can be brave, so can I.

“Yes.”

“Good.” He lets me go and steps back. “Eat your lunch,” he says as he walks around my desk to retake his seat, and I don’t miss how he adjusts himself.

I sit and focus back on my food, since now I’m down to ten minutes before my next appointment.

“I’m meeting with a realtor tomorrow to check out a few houses,” he says, breaking the silence. “Will you go with me? I’m shit at picking out things.”

“Why don’t you ask Hadley? I’m sure she’d be happy to give you her opinion.”

“Because she’s even worse than I am. She’d say yes to the first house we saw. Besides, it’s your opinion that I want.”

I swallow a spoonful of soup. “Why? Why do you trust my judgment? You barely know me. How do you know I won’t have terrible opinions? What if I hate all the things you love in a house? Or like all the things you hate?”

He taps his temple. “Call it goalie intuition.”

I laugh. “That’s a bullshit answer. Try again.”

“Because I want a woman’s opinion, and you’re the woman I’m closest to.” He holds up a hand. “And before you say Hadley again, I love my sister, but she’d end up convincing me to buy a fixer upper because it would be fun to fix up. ”

“I’ve never bought a house though. How the hell would I know what’s good, and what’s not?”

He shakes his head at me. “That’s okay, we’ll figure it out together. If I’m being completely honest, I just want an excuse to spend time with you.” He gives me a boyish grin, and my heart skips a beat.

“Oh,” I squeak out. I was not expecting that. I take a sip of my coffee, pulling myself together. “Fine, if you really want me to go with you, I will. But I can’t promise I’ll have any good opinions.”

“That’s okay. And I promise to feed you afterward. Your choice of what that is.” He smirks at me, and I can’t help but think about having something else in my mouth. “Becca,” he growls, as if he can read my mind.

“Yes?” I ask innocently, batting my eyelashes at him.

He shakes his head. “You’ll be the death of me.”

I giggle. “You started it.”

“Does ten work for you?”

“Works great.”

He stands up. “I’ve gotta go and get to a workout.”

“Thank you for lunch.”

“Of course.”

He gives me one more kiss, before walking out of my office.

“Knock, knock,” Sutton says from my doorway a couple minutes later as I’m finishing my lunch.

“Hey.” I glance at the time on my computer. “I’m expecting Dr. Walt in about two minutes.”

“That’s fine. This won’t take long. Want to explain this?” She pulls out her phone and clicks on something before turning it so I can see what’s on her screen.

My mouth drops open. It’s the team’s Social account, and the picture posted is from last night’s game, when Holt came over to say hi to Hazel and me. Anyone not familiar with us would think he was greeting his wife or girlfriend based on the look on his face.

“Well.” I clear my throat.

Sutton lets out a laugh. “I’m giving you a hard time. It’s sweet.” She locks the phone and tucks it back in her pocket before leaning back in the chair and crossing her arms. “How’d you warm up the grumpy goalie?”

My face heats, and I start to tell her that I did no such warming up of the grumpy goalie, but that would be a lie.

I sigh, unsure of how to answer her question.

What Holt would want me to say to her. We didn’t really talk about if we were going to tell people.

It’s bound to get out, if they all don’t already know.

We’ll have to tell HR, that much is definite.

But otherwise, I’m in uncharted territory here.

I swallow, meeting her gaze. “It’s new. We’re hanging out. Getting to know each other outside of work.”

She tilts her head, studying me, and her eyes light up when she notices the empty coffee cup from earlier. She leans forward, reading it, and I realize it has Holt’s name on. “It’s sweet. I’m happy for you. Happy for him.”

“Who are we talking about?”

I half groan, half sigh when Wes saunters into my office.

“No one,” I answer as Sutton says, “Abbott.”

Wes chuckles, rocking back on his heels. “I was just about to ask you about that. Since Holt is so tight-lipped, he won’t say anything.”

I glare at him. “Don’t you have a workout you should be doing? Game footage to review? Skating to do?”

“I have a few minutes,” he says.

This team sure is fucking nosy. Holt wasn’t kidding when he told me they were.

“Am I interrupting?” Dr. Walt asks from the doorway.

Thank goodness.

“No.” I give Sutton and Wes pointed looks. “They were on their way out.”

Sutton gets to her feet. “We’ll talk later,” she says before following Wes out of my office.

I don’t answer her, instead focusing on what the doctor is telling me about one of the defensemen whose MRI results came back.