Page 11

CHAPTER 11

Fake Dates

LUCY

“ A fter you talk to him, I will.”

The more I think about it, the more I realize Atticus will get it. He really will. I bet he’ll be completely on Team Piss Off Dad.

“Lucy.” Kellen holds his arm out, and I bump right into it.

“Wait, do you think we should do it together?”

Atticus will probably hate it at first, but we can win him over. I know it. Just have to come up with the right pitch.

“Shhh.” Kellen doesn’t move his arm out of my way.

“What?” I swing my head to him, about to make a comment about shushing me, but he’s looking around us intently.

“There.” He points to the ground.

I follow the line of his finger, and my eyes land on a snake.

A rattlesnake.

Nestled partly in the brush, it’s curled in a neat little pile, its head in the center poking up and pointing right at us, its shaker upright and making that noise.

Am I snake expert? No, no I’m not. But this snake is holding up its damn tail and rattling , so I know it’s a rattlesnake .

And we’re about three feet from it. By the looks of it, the snake is not impressed with our arrival. I bend down and scoop up Bear.

“Good thinking,” Kellen says quietly. “Now don’t let that dog out of your arms.”

“I’m trying not to.” My teeth are clenched, my voice shaky, and Bear is squirmy. “Are we going to getting eaten by a poisonous snake?”

“Venomous.”

“What?”

“Back up slowly. We’re too close.” Kellen’s voice is calm and steady.

“Too close for what?” I whisper. Oh my god. Too close as in we’re going to get eaten by a poisonous—venomous—snake. Why am I in Colorado again??

I take a step back, but Kellen doesn’t move.

“Get right behind me.”

I do, tucking myself against his back, Bear safely wedged between us.

“Another step back, Lucy.” This time we step in unison.

Another step. And another.

“Are we far enough away yet so I can panic?” I whisper.

“A few more.”

Suddenly, the rattling stops. I poke my head around Kellen to see that the snake is still there, its cold, beady little eyes fixed on us, but the shaker is blessedly quiet. I breathe out in relief.

“That was terrifying—” A bird swoops down in front of us and Bear starts barking like crazy. He twists his body so hard I lose my grip, and he tumbles to the ground, lunging at the bird, who is halfway back to the rattlesnake.

“No!” I shriek, but I can’t grab the leash in time. I picture what’s about to happen. He’ll either accidentally tumble onto the damn rattlesnake because he didn’t see it, or he’ll see it and decide to tackle it anyway. Then the snake will bite him or maybe wrap its slithering snaky body around my soft fluffy dog and squeeze and squeeze and squeeze?—

But faster than I can imagine moving, Kellen dives down and grabs the leash, pulling Bear back before he gets within striking distance.

“Fuck, come here, Bear!” Kellen growls and grabs my dog off the ground. He turns to me. “Let’s get out of here.”

I don’t need to be told twice, so I spin and lead the way down the path away from the snake.

“Won’t it follow us? Stalk us?” I toss a look over my shoulder.

“It’s a snake, not a tiger, Lucy. It won’t hunt us. We’ll just head back down the trail for a minute and then take a big loop around the snake to keep going.”

My heart’s still racing, but the sight of Bear happily snuggled into Kellen’s chest distracts me. Not that it does much to slow my heart down.

“Holy crap. We almost died.” I breathe out once we’re far enough back down the trail.

“I mean, that’s a bit of an exaggeration.” Kellen chuckles.

I smile, but I’m suddenly overheated by everything. The exercise, the excitement, and the hot man holding my dog.

“What’s the difference between poisonous and venomous?” I ask, remembering Kellen’s correction.

“Snakes are venomous if they bite you and you get sick. Poisonous means if you bite it , you get sick. And most people don’t bite snakes.”

“Interesting clarification.”

Kellen stops and points off trail. “Let’s head that way and circle back around past the spot with the snake.”

“Or—and hear me out—we can just go back to the car.” I’m embarrassingly hopeful he’ll say yes.

Kellen watches me for a few seconds. “Sorry. I didn’t even ask. Are you okay? We can go back if you want to. If we keep going, there’s a lake about fifteen minutes ahead, and then the trail comes back around to the parking lot. It’ll take us another forty-five minutes total.”

I consider and almost choose to bail, but then Bear gives me his legit puppy dog eyes from Kellen’s arms.

“Let’s keep going.” My heartbeat’s almost returned to normal, and I would like to spend more time outside on this beautiful fall day.

“Yeah?” Kellen nods. “If you’re sure.”

“I’m sweating though, so give me a second.” I pull my hoodie over my head and squat to unzip my backpack and shove it in. I feel much better in the tank top. “The whole life or death thing kind of got me fired up.” I zip up my bag and stand, swinging it over my shoulder.

“Again, not sure it was quite life or death.” Kellen’s gaze drifts down my body, then fixes back on my eyes.

“Still.” I swallow. “And… thanks for saving us.”

“No problem.” He absently strokes Bear’s head, and the dog stares up at him with adoring eyes.

“Bear likes you. You don’t happen to want a dog, do you?”

But even as I say it, my heart gives a little squeeze. I never particularly wanted a dog, but the little weirdo has grown on me. It’ll be hard to leave him when I go to England.

If I go to England. I need to get the job first.

“I travel too much for a pet, much to Ava’s disappointment.” Kellen puts Bear on the ground and keeps hold of the leash. “Follow me. I’ll go ahead since it’s off path. I can keep an eye out for other woodland creatures.”

“How likely do you think that is? That we’ll see other animals?” My eyes dart around the forest, almost ominous despite the bright sun and colorful autumn leaves.

Kellen shrugs. I am not reassured.

“Let’s go back to fake dating. We have the fall festival and the team retreat.” Kellen runs a hand through his hair. He’s not sweaty or flustered. I bet his heart’s not racing, either .

“The other day when I first met Paul, I was with Atticus in the coffee shop.” I appreciate the crunching leaves beneath my feet, and keep my eyes trained on the ground so I don’t trip. “Atticus said Paul and Savannah live around the corner and come in almost every day. Maybe we could run into them at the coffee shop for our first public sighting?”

“That’s a good idea.”

“Oh!” I bump into Kellen, who I’m clearly walking too close to. My face bounces off his back. He spins around. “I’m okay.” I hold my hands up.

“Glad to hear it.” Kellen’s mouth quirks as he turns back to the not-trail.

My feet are starting to hurt. Kellen was right. New boots were probably not the best idea, and I definitely have blisters forming at the back of my heels and maybe on my little toes.

I distract myself by staring at Kellen’s backside in his hiking pants, which are loose except for how they tuck right against his butt. The form-fitting gray t-shirt he’s wearing probably cost hundreds to look that casual and good on him. His biceps bulge out of the sleeves, and his shoulder and neck muscles shift as he walks and good lord I need to get a grip.

“We’ve talked a lot about Atticus… do you have siblings?”

“An older sister.” Kellen glances over his shoulder. “She doesn’t live around here, although I do have a house waiting for her next door.”

“You just, have a house ready for your sister?” Lordy. Hockey players.

“Yeah.” He shrugs. “It’s furnished and everything for when she comes to visit. Ava’s mom is on the other side of me. We’re a good family unit.”

My chest warms. A man who co-parents with his daughter’s mother well enough to live next door, plus saving a house for his sister? It’s a parade of green flags.

“Do you also have a house for your parents?”

“No,” Kellen says shortly. “My dad passed away when I was a baby.”

“Shoot, I’m sorry.” And here I am complaining about my father. I’m the worst.

“It’s alright.” Kellen turns his mouth down. “My mom remarried when I was thirteen and Kara was sixteen. I didn’t think he was a great guy, but Mom seemed happy-ish. When I hit high school, he was overly interested in my hockey career, without being a real hockey fan. He kept talking about becoming a manager or an agent. But he knew nothing about hockey, and I already had a mentor helping advise us.”

Sounds like this isn’t going anywhere good. I stay quiet as Kellen takes a noisy breath and lets it out loudly.

“Once I got to college, Mom convinced me to trust my stepfather to manage some of my sponsorships. It wasn’t a lot of money. A local business. A clothing brand deal. A few other small ones. But when I eventually asked him about the money, he got real cagey. I figured out he’d spent it all on booze and drugs. He claimed it was payment for his management services.” Kellen scoffed.

“That’s awful.”

“The worst part is that my mother took his side. I haven’t talked to her in over a decade.”

“Oh my gosh.” My stomach drops. My father is an asshole, but at least he didn’t steal from me. And I’m lucky to have such a great mom in my life. I don’t know what I’d do without her support and love.

Kellen shrugs and glances over at me. “It’s old news. But it’s because of my family that I need to stay in Fort Collins. Playing for the Blizzard. I’ve hopefully got a few more good years of hockey, but I don’t want to live somewhere else, and I don’t want to move them.”

“I can understand that. ”

Bear pulls ahead to get to a pile of leaves, and Kellen turns his eyes to me as he extends the leash and stops walking.

“Ava’s had serious health issues. We want to keep her near her doctors in Denver.”

“Oh.” I’m not sure what to say, but there’s a tightness in my chest thinking of his daughter being sick. I cross my arms tightly.

“There are pretty intensive follow ups, and if anything else goes wrong, we want to be here.”

I nod, a lump lodged in my throat, and follow his lead when he resumes walking. That’s a lot for one person to take. His father gone, his mother not supportive, and Ava with a troubled health history. No wonder he’s protective. We resume walking and step back onto the main trail a minute later, passing through the woods in silence until we reach a clearing and a large, still, beautiful lake.

“Wow,” I say. I can feel Kellen’s eyes on the side of my face. “Gorgeous.”

“I know the perfect spot, come on.” Kellen looks back at me and nods his head, so I follow him and Bear. He leads us a minute past the clearing through a thicket of trees to a sandy shore.

“Ahh, perfect.” I sink down on a low boulder and untie my boots. “I need to get these off.”

“You might regret that when you have to put them back on.” Kellen watches me make bad choices.

“This feels heavenly.” I ignore him and strip my boots and socks off. “I’m going to soak my feet—they’re killing me.” I struggle to roll my jeans halfway to my knees and stretch my toes, rejoicing at the freedom. Kellen steps to me and holds out a hand. I take it and he pulls me to my feet, dropping my hand as soon as I’m upright. Which makes perfect sense, because why would he keep holding my hand?

I step past him and toward the gloriously cold lake.

“So you didn’t want to swim in the waterfall, but you want to put your feet in this freezing cold lake?”

“Yes, exactly—” I gasp at the first touch of frigid water and dig my toes into the soft, wet sand. “It’s perfect, despite the numbness, which makes my heels feel better, actually. Come on, get in here, live a little.”

He shakes his head but finds a rock to wedge Bear’s leash in between and takes off his boots and socks.

“That is very cold,” he says when his feet meet the water. He easily folds up his pants—clearly I shouldn’t have worn jeans—and comes my way, stopping next to me.

The water is murkier further out. I don’t know why this bit isn’t muddy and gross, but I don’t question it.

Bear barks from the shoreline, startling me, and I spin to face him, fully expecting to see a black bear or mountain lion about to eat him. Or us.

It’s nothing.

“Maybe we should head back?” I say. I take a step toward the shoreline, but my other foot has sunk too far in the sand, and I lose my balance. My arms flail wildly, and I see the disaster unfolding as if I’m hovering above my body.

With horror, I realize there’s no fixing this.

I can’t get myself upright. I’m going to fall and get soaking wet in six inches of water. Kellen moves to catch me, and I reach for him and grab his arms, but it’s too late.

I twist and the sand releases my foot, allowing me to land with a splash and a thud on my back in the icy cold Colorado lake. Water immediately soaks the back of my tank top, and a split second before I comprehend what just happened, Kellen is falling right on top of me.

He thrusts his hands out on either side of my shoulders, splashing water onto my face but stopping himself before he lands flush against me.

“Oh my god,” I gasp. Kellen’s face is about twelve inches from mine, his warm torso hovering above my chest, his bottom half sprawled out on mine .

The cold registers quickly, and my breath catches. I’m an ice cube on my back half and on fire on my front.

Kellen pauses for a second more than is strictly necessary, and I feel every bit of him that’s touching me. His hard knees digging into my shins. The heavy weight of his pelvis that makes me want to pull him down even further, take his face in my hands and bring it to mine. There are all sorts of feelings rushing through my body. Warm ones. Cold ones. Wet ones. Ones where I want to strip off all my clothes.

A laugh bubbles up and out of me.

“Shit!” Kellen leaps onto his feet, then leans down to swoop his hands under my torso, lifting me out of the water as if I’m a child. “Are you okay?”

Dripping and laughing, I stare at him, not sure if I should cry or scream or continue laughing. I probably look like a wet dog. Speaking of dogs, Bear is barking like crazy, about to rip his leash out from between the rocks.

“I’m so sorry,” I manage after the giggles fade, shaking my hands and spraying water on the ground. “I’m the clumsiest human being on the face of this planet.” Water drips down my back, but the front of me has stayed mostly dry aside from the splattering of water when Kellen’s hands hit the lake. Kellen isn’t in as bad shape, but his pants are half wet from the knee down.

“You are very wet,” he states, his eyes roaming down my body in a way that feels way more sexual than it should. It shouldn’t at all, of course.

“You are also not very dry. Sorry, sorry, sorry.” I reach up and touch my dripping hair, which is spotted with patches of rough grains of sand. I’m an absolute mess.

“It’s no problem. My pants will dry fast. Your jeans, however…” Kellen’s smile is bright and sweet, like I didn’t just ruin the hike by dragging him into the cold lake. “So you really did want to go swimming. I knew it.”

I attempt to shake sand out of my curls, but it’s hopeless. Add this to the list of ways I’ve embarrassed myself in front of Kellen Bassey.

“At least our shoes are dry?”

“At least.” Kellen grabs my hand and pulls me to shore. I let him lead me out of the water. His hand on mine feels so lovely and warm and right.

I can’t stop smiling.