Page 21 of The Sweet Spot (Kodiaks Hockey #3)

Chapter Twenty-One

Brandon

“ I ’d like to see you in action.”

I must have caught her off guard because she kept staring at me. She finally snapped out of it and glanced at her watch.

“I like to leave before nine and be back by ten thirty. That’s when Delia gets here,” she said, still unsure of me.

Right. She’d hired an assistant, rather, Ryan’s delivery person. I’d seen her a few times in passing, a cute little blonde with a ton of energy. “I can be ready in five minutes.”

I was ready to go with a minute to spare. Wolseley was putting on her jacket and stuffing various reusable grocery bags into her small backpack. We got into the elevator, and I hit the button for the parking garage.

“I’m still mortified about last night,” she said. “I can’t believe you carried me to bed.” She stopped. “I mean, brought me to bed.” She stopped again. “Dropped me off in the spare bedroom before you went to your own bed.”

She was adorable when she got flustered, especially when her dimpled cheeks changed to their flushed hue. What I liked most about her is how she found joy in the smallest things, like the time she found dragon fruit at one of the markets she regularly shopped at. She told me they were hard to find in Minnesota, and when she did find them, the price made them cost-prohibitive for the dish she’d envisioned.

“No big deal. It wasn’t like I was going to wake you up and kick you out. I’m not a monster.”

She giggled a little. “I freaked out when I woke up. I thought I’d been kidnapped,” she said with her infectious laugh. “You’re lucky I didn’t start screaming.”

“I probably would have slept through it.”

Our first stop was a place called Norman’s. I expected it to be some haughty “too cool for school” place, but I was pleasantly surprised that it was a smaller specialty grocery store without the attitude. I followed Wolseley down the aisles, and every store employee knew her. Every. Last. One. And they all loved her and stopped to chat. At this rate, we were never going to get the shopping done in time.

First, we hit the meat section, where the man behind the counter, Victor, waved and asked how she was doing today.

“I’m good. How about you?” she asked him.

“Happy to be here and serve my favorite customer.”

Victor was easily in his sixties, and the way he treated Wolseley like she was a daughter made me chuckle. She had everyone wrapped around her kind little finger.

“Victor, this is Brandon. My boss. He wanted to come shopping today.”

Victor looked at me now and nearly jumped. “Brandon Warde! Captain of the Kodiaks! My grandson is going to lose his mind when I tell him you were by today.”

“Maybe one day you and I can arrange for me to meet him. In the meantime, what if I drop off an autographed jersey for him? How old is he, and what size does he need?”

I thought Victor might cry. “He’s twelve. I’d say a small men’s size.”

“Consider it done.”

“Thank you very much! You’ll make his day.”

Wolseley finally got down to business with Victor and purchased some beef for Ryan and poultry for me. Victor picked the very best for her and made sure to tell me that he always made sure she left with the best cuts. Next, we hit the fish station, and once again, Wolseley knew the person behind the counter. They chatted for a moment, then we were on our way.

She explained that she only gave herself about thirty minutes in Norman’s because she had to budget time wisely for when Delia showed up. She allotted the same amount of time for Yee’s because she had to factor in waiting for Uber.

“But since you’re here with me, and I have a dedicated ride, we can spend an extra few minutes. I also trust everyone here enough to make delivery orders, but I love seeing the food myself. You know? I want to touch it, smell it, all that stuff.”

I didn’t really know, but I did understand. I compared it to playing with a new stick. I had a million that were all supposedly the same, but I needed to touch and try out each one until I found exactly what I wanted.

Because she had me along, she decided to buy more than usual. She explained that she wouldn’t have to carry around the extra bags through Yee’s. Made sense to me. We were about to get in line when one of the ladies who’d been in the bakery department came jogging over.

“Before you go,” she said, “what are you up to tonight? I have a few extra tickets to Van City Cabaret, and it’s drag night.”

She briefly glanced at me before turning her attention back to the women. “I’m free. I could probably get one of my friends to come with me.”

“I’ll go,” I volunteered.

Caitlyn, the bakery lady, and Wolseley stared at me for the longest time. Had I sprouted a horn? Maybe a pair of wings?

“Uh, sure,” Wolseley finally said.

“Right. Yeah, that will be fun,” Caitlyn added with a note of surprise in her voice. “I’ll email you the tickets, Wolseley.”

“Why was that weird,” I asked as we got in line.

“I didn’t think you’d be interested in a drag show. I don’t think Caitlyn did either.”

I considered that. I suppose it was a fair point. “I’ve never been to a drag show. It sounds fun. Why is this so shocking to you that I would want to go?” I said.

She bit down on her lip, likely weighing what she was going to say. “You seem like a pretty conservative guy. I don’t see you doing anything outside the box.”

I laughed now. “Is that code for boring?”

“No,” she said, blushing again. “It’s just that I don’t see you going to drag shows, participating in a Pride parade, you know, that kind of thing. I don’t even see you doing mundane things like checking out a secondhand store or berry picking.”

She was all over the place, and that made me love her more. “So you see me as uptight and wholly intolerant?”

I was teasing her, and she knew it. “I just see the controlled and buttoned-down side of you.”

“I see this as a challenge. So why don’t we hit the drag show tonight, and while it’s probably too late in the season to go berry picking, and I’m pretty sure it’s too late for the Pride parade, let’s hit some secondhand stores. I can’t tomorrow because of the game, but the day after?”

Her eyes sparkled, I was sure of it. “Okay, you’re on.”

We moved on to Yee’s Market, where a few people recognized me, but most were polite enough to let me and Wolseley shop in peace. Like Norman’s, she knew all the staff, and some had even put away some of their best produce just for her. Because I’d never seen her out in the world, I had no idea how many people liked and gravitated toward her. I couldn’t blame them. She was funny, sweet, cute. How could you not like her?

I helped her carry the groceries home, and within minutes of putting it all away, Delia arrived. The two women got to work, and while I made a quick protein shake so I could get out of the way, I paid attention to the way Wolseley politely but succinctly went through what they had planned for the day. I grabbed one of Wolseley’s new dark chocolate almond protein bars, hung around a bit, and watched Wolseley instruct Delia on how to make the perfect steak. Weird, since she didn’t eat them and hated even touching the meat.

“Ryan mentioned that he liked olives, so we are going to make an olive tapenade-infused butter. I’m going to make a vegan version of it as well to see how it tastes.”

I left the ladies to their work and thought about my night ahead. I was going to prove Wolseley wrong—that I wasn’t a boring stick-in-the-mud.