Page 13 of Replay (Toronto Blaze #3)

The Best Incentive I’ve Ever Had

Josh

It was a preseason game, so the winner wouldn’t matter as far as points went for the season. But we had a healthy rivalry with Ottawa, and bragging rights were on the line as well as the mental game for when we next matched up.

Most of the guys playing were going to be on the roster on opening day.

The coaches were still checking out the last of the tryout players: recent draft picks, and some guys from the farm team.

I needed to understand the play of the guys I’d be on the ice with.

I was on the first line, but things got changed up during a game.

It was better to know what all the guys played like for when we would share the ice.

I should have been able to concentrate, despite the knee.

I loved hockey and could watch any game that was on—women, juniors, even peewees.

Usually if there was a hockey game on, it was hard to keep my attention on anything else.

Now, Katie switched ice packs for me when I needed them and brought me drinks and some fruit to eat, but the game couldn’t keep my focus.

Katie was here at my place. She’d come to help me, and not only did that thought make me happy, I liked having her here.

She read her book, made notes on her laptop, and in between chewed on her thumbnail.

She used to do that when she was working on her homework in high school and I was trying to work out the math problems she had given me.

Then she’d reward me with a blow job if I got it right, and that was the best incentive I’d ever had to do math. I always made sure she got off too, but we couldn’t have full-on sex that often, what with all the parents around. I should have picked up sooner that they didn’t like us together.

Thinking of those old study sessions made my dick get hard, so I shifted around so Katie wouldn’t see. Sweats were comfortable but didn’t exactly help hide an inconvenient hard-on. I was still working on the friends thing.

I needed to focus more on the game and less on Katie. I shifted so the TV took up more of my view.

The team was also having problems with focus. It would be nice to think my absence was making that big a difference, but I was a forward. Our defense was struggling too, and that part wasn’t really on me.

Coach had talked to us after previous preseason games.

He said we were too in our heads after last year when we lost the final game in overtime.

There was a lot of pressure since we’d been one of the last two teams. People expected a lot of us.

We expected a lot of us. This game? Was not meeting those expectations.

Fitch was one of the few players who didn’t look like they were having trouble.

He was fitting in with new players and he had our systems to learn, but maybe he just didn’t have that same pressure as the rest of us because he was doing better than the guys from last year.

Even Cooper was called for holding, which was so not like him.

Despite that, it was a one-goal game and I finally got into it. Petrov, our starting goalie, played the first period, and one of the draft picks started the second. They had Mitch, the guy who’d been called up from the AHL and was in net for that overtime goal, start the third period.

I knew he felt a lot of stress after last season. Even if this wasn’t a game that counted.

The forwards were finally applying some pressure in Ottawa’s zone. But then there was a breakaway by Ottawa—a two-on-one on Mitchell. Shades of that last game against Minnesota. I held my breath as he stayed up and blocked the shot.

Yes!

Then Ottawa got the rebound and put it in. The goal lamp lit up and that was it. Technically there were still a couple of minutes to play, but the team had lost its mojo, and the final score was 4-2 for Ottawa.

“Damn.” So frustrating to be stuck here with my leg up when my team needed me. But being with Katie?—

I turned, and saw she’d fallen asleep in the chair. I’d have fallen asleep in seconds if I’d been reading a math book, but she loved that stuff. She must have been tired. And comfortable enough to let herself go with me here.

I liked that.

I flicked off the TV and stared at her for a few minutes. While she was sleeping, I didn’t have to worry about what she’d think if she saw me looking at her. I didn’t have to make sure I was just being friendly.

She’d changed, but not that much. She had blonde streaks in her hair that looked like she’d been out in the sun. That was new, and I liked it. Her figure had matured, and damn if I didn’t want to see more of that. But I also liked just looking at her face, relaxed and calm.

I’d seen and been with a lot of women. Model types, even. But I’d never found someone I wanted to watch the way I did Katie. Maybe her nose wasn’t straight, and her cheeks a little round, but to my mind this was how my perfect woman looked.

Should I wake her up? It was only a little after nine. I could let her sleep till ten. Knowing Katie, she was probably studying stuff a week in advance. She needed her sleep, I told myself.

I didn’t want to turn on the TV again and maybe disturb her, so I picked up my phone and scrolled through Instagram.

* * *

Katie

It took me a minute to figure out what was going on.

Daylight was warming my eyelids, and I felt pleasantly rested. My mouth, however, felt nasty and gluey, like I hadn’t brushed my teeth before bed. My neck was bent, and I was sticking to…leather?

My eyes snapped open, blinking against a sunny fall morning. But this wasn’t my bed. This wasn’t actually a bed at all. Beside me was an empty leather couch. When I looked down, I saw I was curled up in a large recliner. There was a blanket thrown over me with the Toronto Blaze logo on it.

Yesterday rushed back at me. Lunch, the TV report on Josh’s injury, Josh calling me. The relief of knowing he was okay, then going to help him. Driving his car, eating with him, coming back to make sure that restless energy he had didn’t make him do something stupid.

I’d been the one to do that instead, falling asleep here. Had he tried to wake me up? Had I snored?

My bladder was insistent that I pay it attention. I cautiously lifted my head but there was no one in the room with me. I heard noises from the direction of the kitchen but couldn’t see anyone, so I risked standing up. The blanket pooled at my feet. I picked it up and left it on the chair.

There was a powder room in the foyer that I remembered using, so I tiptoed that way.

Peeing first. Immediate relief. Then I splashed water on my face and stood up to assess the damage.

Smeared mascara, any other makeup long gone. I opened a drawer, found some toothpaste and a comb. I squeezed out some paste and washed my teeth and tongue with my finger before rinsing in the sink. Then I worked the comb through my hair, making it look less like a rat’s nest.

The clothes were a wrinkled disaster, but I wasn’t going to ask for an iron or to throw them in the dryer. I’d survive.

I cast a longing glance at the door. I’d love to just put on my shoes, right there on the mat, and flee but I didn’t have my things. And really, why was I freaking out? I’d fallen asleep. Josh could have woken me up but didn’t. Nothing I could do about it.

I walked quietly back to the living room and checked the time on my phone. Still early enough. I could say good morning and goodbye and have more than enough time to go home to clean up and get to my first class.

Josh wasn’t alone in the kitchen. He was sitting on a stool at the breakfast bar, left leg elevated and another ice pack on his knee, talking to a stranger in front of the stove. A man, taller than Josh but equally fit. Fortunately, he was the one cooking, not Josh, and the smell was incredible.

My stomach gurgled.

Josh turned, a big smile crossing his face. “Morning, Katie. How are you?”

I cleared my throat. “I’m good. Uh, sorry about falling asleep.”

The stranger turned. He was about ten years older than us, with dark hair, green eyes, and a short trimmed beard. Textbook case of tall, dark and handsome, while I was here in rumpled clothes with no makeup. Good thing guys were not on my agenda in the immediate future. “I should probably go.”

“You don’t have to. Here.” Josh pushed over a mug. “Got coffee for you. Do you still take it with double cream and double sugar?”

I nodded. There was no reason to find that charming, just because he remembered how I liked my coffee.

“I’m Daniel, Daniel Astrom,” the stranger said, and my cheeks heated.

“Sorry!” Josh shook his head. “I forgot you don’t know Fitch. This is Katie Baker, my…friend.”

“Nice to meet you, Katie.”

He held out his hand and I shook it. Then, since it seemed I was staying, I sat on a stool and took a sip of life-giving ambrosia, otherwise known as coffee. “This is good, but I should get out of here. You guys have things to do.”

Daniel—Fitch—turned back to the stove.

“Do you have class right away?” Josh was looking at me with those puppy-dog eyes. “If not, you could stay for an omelet. Fitch is a good cook.”

“I shouldn’t impose.”

Josh’s chin stuck out. “You helped me a lot yesterday. Eat something, and I’ll call you a ride.”

I gave in. It smelled good, and I couldn’t say I wasn’t hungry, not after my stomach had betrayed me. “If it’s okay with Daniel.” I wasn’t comfortable calling him Fitch, especially when I didn’t know what it meant.

Daniel set a plate in front of me, then added cutlery.

“Thanks.”

“No problem.”

I picked up my fork and tried for conversation. “So, how was the game?” I’d mostly ignored it, and then had fallen asleep before it was over.

The two hockey players shared a glance.

“Let’s just say we’re glad it’s the preseason and doesn’t count,” Daniel said.

“Sorry.” Then I let them talk hockey while I scarfed down the food in front of me. “This is really good,” I said when I’d finished and Josh had started his own breakfast on the plate Daniel had given him.

Daniel turned at that, spatula in his hand. He pointed it at Josh. “I’m only considered good if I’m compared to Ducky.”

I swallowed the last of my coffee. “Josh’s mother wouldn’t let him make anything in the kitchen.”

Daniel cocked his head. “No?”

I nodded. “She did her best to make him a stereotypical helpless man.”

Josh sat up. “What?”

Oops. Josh might have decided I was right about his mother not liking me, but that didn’t mean he was ready for my unvarnished opinion of her.

“That explains a lot,” Daniel said, turning back around.

Josh stared at me. “You really think that? Why?”

Was he asking why I thought that, or why she’d done it? If he wanted to be friends, I’d be honest. I wasn’t going to watch my words, not like I’d done before. “I thought she wanted you to be dependent on her. To need her.”

Josh’s jaw dropped.

I shrugged. “It makes sense. Your father left, and she didn’t want you to leave her too.”

Josh’s mouth was still open and he was blinking, like that was fueling his brain to work out what I’d said. Had I crossed a line?

“Whoa,” he finally said. “You thought about that?”

I set my mug down. “We dated for almost two years. I always knew she didn’t like me. Of course I tried to figure out why. She’s very…possessive of you.”

His brow furrowed. “But she talks about me finding a nice girl and settling down.”

Daniel put another omelet on a plate and grabbed a fork. “Think he’ll figure it out?” He took a bite, watching Josh like he was the entertainment for the morning.

Josh ignored it. “So, Mom didn’t think you were nice?” His voice was high-pitched, incredulous.

“She seems nice to me.” Daniel apparently felt he was an integral part of this discussion.

“She is nice,” Josh stated, as if Daniel had argued the point instead of agreeing with him. “Why doesn’t Mom think you’re nice? Why doesn’t she like you?”

I sighed. “If you asked, she would tell you I’m nice and mean it. But I’m not the nice she wants for you in a permanent partner.”

Josh set his fork down and crossed his arms. “Tell me what that means.”

This might be brutal, but maybe he needed to know. It would help in case he started dating someone his mother didn’t approve of. My shoulder twitched. Someone else.

If this was too blunt, maybe he would decide he didn’t want to be friends.

But might as well know now. “I don’t think she’s ready to be a grandmother, or to share you.

And when she is ready, she’ll want someone different.

” Even back then I wasn’t the imaginary daughter-in-law she pictured.

“I’m not going to go back home to Nova Scotia, buy a house close to her, and let her come over and arrange things and tell me how many kids to have and how to raise them. ”

Josh frowned.

I stood. “Your mom had a difficult time, raising you as a single parent, and she did a good job. And I’m sorry if what I said sounded mean, because I didn’t intend that.

She loves you and wants the best for you.

This is what she believes is best. Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s the impression I got from our interactions. ”

Josh had his sad face on, but I wanted it all out there.

“Your mom and I are never going to be besties, so you should know that before we try being friends. I’m going to go now. Thanks for breakfast, Daniel, and thanks for dinner last night, Josh.”

I grabbed my bag and almost ran out of the condo. I might have just blown things up with Josh, and that upset me more than was reasonable. Not just that it would end our friendship replay—I didn’t want to hurt him any further.

Maybe his mother was right. I wasn’t good for him.