Chasing Charli - Kat Mizera Page 0,9
forward to seeing her again. He didn’t have many friends outside the team so he got lonely sometimes and she was one of the only people he’d met since moving to the U.S. that didn’t have a problem understanding him. They had to use the translators on their phones a lot, but she hadn’t seemed to mind and almost had a sixth sense when it came to knowing what he was trying to say. It was refreshing and he hoped his friends liked her as much as he did.
She was quiet tonight, though, smiling politely but hanging out more with the girls than with him, which bothered him a little. She was pretty shy, so that probably had something to do with it. Instead of pushing it, he left her to hang with Dani and the other girls as he lounged against one wall. He rarely came to the family lounge after games since he didn’t have any family here, didn’t have a girlfriend, and struggled with small talk anyway. His sister, Tara, had come for a few weeks earlier this year but she was back in Finland now, which left him mostly on his own.
“Your date is cute,” Donovan Legori, the team’s backup goalie, said to him. “How come she’s over there?”
“No date,” Miikka said, shaking his head. “He teach English.”
“She.”
“Eh?”
“She’s a woman, so it’s she, not he.”
Miikka scowled. This was always a problem for him. In Finnish, pronouns were gender neutral, and he could never remember when to say he and when to say she when speaking English. He understood the difference, he just had trouble remembering which was which.
“So you’re not going to hit that?” Ryder Kingston, a new guy on the team, was checking Charli out.
While Miikka struggled with most of the English language, he’d spent enough time in hockey locker rooms to have a handle on anything sexual, and he made a face at his new teammate. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what? You said you were just friends. Why can’t I talk to her?”
Miikka gave him a dirty look, the usual frustration with the language barrier setting in and pissing him off more than usual. Before he could come up with a pertinent reply, Ryder was ambling in Charli’s direction, leaving Miikka grunting under his breath.
“You can’t have it both ways,” Donovan told him. “If you don’t want to go out with her, why can’t Ryder?”
Miikka opened his mouth and shut it again. Instead, he followed Ryder over to Charli, intent on making sure his teammate behaved. Charli was way too sweet for a dog like Ryder. He wasn’t a bad guy from what Miikka could tell, but he’d only been in Anchorage about six weeks and had already slept with half the regular puck bunnies that hung out at the rink after practice. And that wasn’t a small number. Charli was definitely not the kind of girl to be a notch in someone’s bedpost, especially not when Miikka needed her to be his tutor. If Ryder did something to upset her, she might not come around anymore, and learning English aside, Miikka wanted to get to know her. He needed a little time to work up the nerve to officially ask her out, but that meant not letting one of his teammates beat him to it.
“Hey, I’m about to go,” Charli said as Miikka approached. “Six o’clock comes early and I need my wits about me for chasing kids all day.”
“You’re a teacher?” Ryder asked, eyeing her appreciatively.
“Kindergarten.” She gave him a shy smile. “Five-year-olds keep me busy.”
“I’ll bet they do.”
“I will walk.” Miikka stood between Charli and Ryder, blocking her from the other man’s view. “Ready?”
“Yes. Thank you.” She hugged Dani and waved to the other ladies before smiling at Ryder and following Miikka into the hall.
“Tomorrow?” he asked. “Time?”
“How about we meet at the Starbucks by the school… Do you know where it is?”
He shook his head.
“Okay, I’ll text you the address and see you at four o’clock. Is that okay?”
“Yes.”
“Good night. And thank you. I had a great time.”
“You are welcome.”
“Good night, Miikka.” Charli turned and headed back towards the elevator bank and he watched her thoughtfully. She was such a sweet girl, maybe one of his buddies would be better for her. Not Ryder; he was too much of a bad boy. Donovan was newly divorced and a nice guy, but that didn’t feel right either. The problem was that thinking of her with one of the other guys made him uncomfortable. Which