I Pucking Love You (The Copper Valley Thrusters #5) - Pippa Grant Page 0,97
they go through a passing drill that ends with one of them shooting a puck at Connor, who’s in the net now.
Tyler scores, turns, and I swear he looks right at me and grins.
Be still my heart. That’s even better than the time he tossed me a puck when I was sitting with Kami right on the ice when she and Nick were quasi-dating.
I used to love coming to the games for the thrill of supporting my local team.
Now, I can’t wait for this game to be over so I can kiss him.
His attention shifts back to warm-ups, turning to coast to the end of the other line, and I sink back in my chair with a blissful smile spread over my face.
Maren pokes me. “You’ve got it bad.”
“I have it bad,” I agree.
“Is he serious about you?”
“He’s not kicking me out.”
“But is he serious about you?”
I know what she’s asking, and I know why. Kami had a friends-with-benefits relationship with Nick for months before she realized it wasn’t going anywhere and dumped him. Not to say that all hockey players just like sex however they can get it, but let’s be real.
The sex is definitely one of the highlights of living with Tyler.
And while Kami dumping Nick finally opened his eyes to what he had, I don’t feel like Tyler takes me for granted the same way.
“I met his family. He moved me into his place and brought my cat. We’ve all heard the rumors about him hooking up with a random bunny or someone he met somewhere else, right? And he’s sworn up and down almost as long as I’ve known him that he’s never getting married. But then he tells me he misses me when he’s out of town and he cooks me breakfast and he stops by Cod Pieces when I have a random shift, and it’s like—”
“You’re working at Cod Pieces?”
I open my mouth, then shut it.
“Muffy. Are things—” She glances at the rest of the group, leans closer, and lowers her voice. “Are things that bad?”
“No! No. I’m filling in some shifts as a favor for someone. And things are getting better at Muff Matchers. I’m screening the men better than I did last year, and the support group is going so well, and I’m on the verge. I’m seriously right on the cusp of making this work-work.”
Maren’s brows are bunched together. She knows as well as I do how badly my screening efforts failed last year, when I was letting random men sign up on my website.
I accidentally set Kami up with one of their other friends’ horrible ex-boyfriends.
With the number of dating disasters my services have sparked, it truly is a miracle that I still have any clients at all.
“If you need help, call me. Understand?” Maren says.
“I’ve got this. I do. I’m not bailing on this the way I—the way I bailed on med school.”
“I have a spare bedroom and I don’t mind cats, okay?”
“Thank you, but I don’t think I’m going anywhere anytime soon.”
I start to smile.
She meets my eyes, and she laughs. “You really do have it bad.”
Can’t argue with that.
I really, really do.
But Tyler does too. He might not say it, but he’s showing me that he does.
I stare at him down there on the ice, see him glance at the other side of the rink, where Cranford is glowering at him from the boards.
My stomach drops.
If Tyler gets hurt—
“Cranford won’t touch him, Muffy,” Maren says. “He got a twenty-game suspension after the last time he went after Jaeger. If he does it again, they’ll boot him from the league, and he might have sponges for brains, and you know he’ll push it as far as he can, but Tyler’s safe.”
“He’s a hockey player. I don’t think safe is quite the right word.”
She smiles. “He’s as safe as he can be flying across the ice and chasing a rubber puck while five other guys try to slam him into the boards. Better?”
Mostly.
But I still don’t like it. Anyone willing to hold a grudge for this many years isn’t someone I trust with my boyfriend.
“You want me to rough up one of the Indies after the game, let me know,” Brianna says.
“I’ll be there with my phone taking video,” Maren adds.
“Are we supposed to cheer if they fight?” Phoebe asks.
“Yes,” Maren says.
“No,” I say at the same time.
“I mean, so long as it’s the other team losing teeth,” she amends.