I Pucking Love You (The Copper Valley Thrusters #5) - Pippa Grant Page 0,79

what I expected. “I’m not exactly having a lot of luck finding most of them men worthy of their time, so I don’t know that I’d call them lucky.”

He turns us so the water’s spraying behind me, and tilts my head up, rinsing the shampoo out, still massaging my scalp. “You don’t owe them everything, Muffy. You owe them your best effort to find good matches. The rest of it—”

“Muff Matchers isn’t only about finding true love. It’s about helping my clients love themselves enough to be able to recognize a partner worthy of their love. So the rest of it is important. If I’m not willing to fry some fish and clean a grease trap or two to demonstrate what a good partner is willing to do, and to validate that all of who they are is important no matter their job, their family, or their life mission, then all I’m doing is taking their money like any other matchmaking service would.”

He’s quiet while he rinses the rest of my hair.

And since I’m feeling weirdly exposed again, I distract myself with the sight of naked wet Tyler.

There’s nothing like being in an otherwise spacious shower to make a girl realize how broad her boyfriend’s shoulders are, or how solid his chest is, or how thick his thighs are.

Boyfriend.

He said we’re dating.

Does that actually make him my boyfriend?

Do I want a boyfriend?

I want Tyler. He’s somehow managed to sneak past every barrier and booby trap that I usually lay for the men who come into my life, and it’s not nearly as terrifying as it should be.

“You owe it to yourself to treat yourself as well as you treat your clients,” he finally says.

And that is exactly why it’s so easy to let him in.

He’s not trying to get back in my pants.

I mean, he probably is, but that’s not all he wants.

Is it?

“Have you ever had your heart broken?” The question slips out before my filter can engage, but really, do I have a filter? Do I want a filter?

My mother might be her own special brand of annoying, and often accidentally insulting, but she holds nothing back, and god knows I do the same when I’m on a mission.

His gaze flicks away for a second, but he looks back at me and nods. “Once. College. I hooked up with a teammate’s sister. Fell in love. Head over heels. Completely gone. Told my family. And then my teammate found out…”

I cringe. I have no idea what Tyler was like in college, but I know his reputation here. Women. Parties. Fun. “He made you break up?”

He snorts and reaches for the conditioner that his doorman delivered with the cat supplies. “You could say that.”

I snort too. “Well. You showed him. Bet he’s not showering naked with a woman right now before spending the day getting ready for a professional hockey game.”

“Oh, he probably is. Asshole’s the one who gave me the concussion in the playoffs two seasons ago.”

I squeak.

He laughs.

Rufus yowls and tries to dig a hole through the glass to get to us.

He squeezes the conditioner all over my head. “My mom got the last laugh. She put him in her show.”

“No.”

And now he’s wincing. “Not my favorite bit of hers, but she’s got a point. We were best friends before he dumped me for liking his sister. What’s it say about any of us if I was good enough to be his friend, but not good enough to date his sister?”

That’s a question I don’t really want to ponder. “Does your mom make fun of you a lot in her shows?”

He shakes his head while he gets back to rubbing my scalp and pampering the hell out of me. “Nope. I mean, she still does her zombie grandpa skit from time to time, but in her defense, I hadn’t been to a funeral in twenty years, so it’s not like she knew it still bothered me.”

“If you’ve skipped funerals for twenty years—”

“I haven’t known that many people who died.”

I blink at him, and then we’re both cracking up. I have no idea why it’s funny, but I don’t actually care.

Seeing him laugh is like being in on the world’s best-kept secret.

Tyler Jaeger, tough-as-nails hard-ass hockey player, has an amazing laugh.

The door bangs open, and two large figures burst in. “Jaeggy! Breakfast time!”

“Your apartment’s got egg all over it, Jaegs. What’s up with that?”

I shriek.

Tyler shoves me in the shower corner and spins toward the door, blocking my view,