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Just thinking about him causes a shit-eating grin to spread across my face. Blakely’s eyes grow huge and she points at me. “I knew it!”

“I can’t help it.” I shrug, giving them all a relenting glance. “I took an ovulation test before I got ready for bed last night because I just had this feeling and it came back positive. So, I uh…” I grin into my cold brew. “I knocked on his door last night.”

Corrigan gasps. “You did?”

“Yeah you did!” Ella claps her hands excitedly.

She pushes her palms together and begs, “Please tell me when he opened his door, he immediately swept you off your feet and spent the entire night doing all kinds of filthy-dirty-but-oh-so-good things to you. Please, Marlee. I really just need to know that somewhere in that super nice golden retriever of a man is this rough, dirty-talking, flip-you-every-which-way, I’ll-fuck-you-seven-ways-to-Sunday kind of guy. ”

My body hums at the memory.

My legs remember every single position.

My hips recall each and every thrust.

My insides still drip with the aftermath of each orgasm.

I pull my lips over my teeth to keep from smiling too hard but nod and tell Ella, “It was…something like that.”

Layken peers over her coffee, eyes landing on me. “Damn. No wonder you’re glowing like you just won a Stanley Cup for yourself and found out Ryan Reynolds is your doula.”

Ryan Reynolds? Nah.

Betty White? Now you’re talking.

“Guys, we should probably not do this here.”

“We’re literally in a hockey arena, Marlee,” Blakely reminds me. “If this isn’t the most apropos place to talk about banging Ledger Dayne into temporary cardio failure, what is?”

Ella laughs. “It does feel thematically appropriate.”

“We didn’t…bang.”

Yes we did.

We totally did.

Many times.

Many different ways.

“He helped me make a baby, ” I correct with as straight of a face as possible. “We were responsible. Mature. Strategic even.”

“Sure,” Ella says. “So, what strategy did you go with exactly? The old one leg over the shoulder? Doggie style perhaps?”

“Bodhi likes reverse cowgirl,” Corrigan states like we’re talking about everyone’s favorite salad dressing. “That’s pretty strategic.”

Layken nods in agreement. “And so was the third time extra strategic or just for science?”

“How did you even know there was a third and fourth time?” I ask completely dumbfounded. “Did he tell you already?”

Layken sits back in her chair, tipping her coffee to her lips and swallowing with a smirk. “Nah, girl, but you just did.”

Fuck me.

I bring a palm to my forehead and shake my head.

So much for keeping anything from these ladies.

Blakely elbows me gently. “So... is this still just a baby-making arrangement? Or are you starting to catch the feels?”

“I don’t catch feelings,” I tell her defensively. “I…encounter them. Occasionally.”

“Uh huh.” She nods. “And then you ride them till they die. So, tell me, ice queen, are you in your ride or die phase now or are you just getting to know him because based on the way you were watching him practice just now like he’s the lead in your favorite movie…”

I glance toward the ice again. Ledger is laughing now, leaning on his stick, helmet off, his dark hair damp with sweat.

I bite the inside of my cheek and quietly confess, “I didn’t plan on this.”

“We know,” Layken says gently.

“It was supposed to be…efficient. Clean. No messy emotions.” I turn back toward them.

“But then he started doing things like asking me to dance and saying yes to being my sperm donor and pampering me when I’m suffering through a period or helping me take my mind off this whole ordeal when I’m sad about it.

” I shrug. “Or being all in when the cum cup falls to the ground and there’s jizz everywhere but where it’s supposed to be and?—”

“Uh…” Blakely tips her head, her brows pinching as she thinks about what I just said. “Girl, we’re going to unpack all that later, but continue.”

“Last night,” I say, shaking my head like the mere thought of him puts me in a lovesick daze. “Last night when all was said and done, he held me against him and never once let go. He held me like I wasn’t just a checklist. He held me like it meant something.”

Ella’s shoulders fall and a sweet smile spreads across her face. “And you like him.”

I sigh. “I think I might.”

How could I not after last night?

How could I not after all the sweet things he’s said to me?

How could I not considering the way he treats me?

“Okay, so what’s your next move?” Corrigan asks. “Talk to him about it? Or continue quietly combusting every time he walks by in a compression shirt?” She winks because we all know how good these guys look in their compression shirts with their abs for days.

I look out at the rink again and catch Ledger’s eye for a split second. He raises his chin and grins—wide, easy, like I’m the pregame warmup he looks forward to.

My stomach flips and I finally admit, “I’m combusting.”

“Tragic,” Blakely says, patting me on the back. “Let us know when you start spiraling. We’ll bring snacks.”