Being a celebrity sounded like a living hell. Dating one sounded miserable.
So maybe I’d been imagining those looks tonight. Maybe I hadn’t.
But I wasn’t imagining how far I wanted to stay away from Jase Kelly’s spotlight.
After a fast food dinner at one of the few places she could eat, Dallas and I brought all her souvenirs in from the parking garage. Our apartment was small, and we only had so much wall space. Some of it was reserved for things like school and family photos, plus a few decorative prints and things like that.
But hockey—in particular, Snow Bears hockey—dominated two walls and a couple of bookshelves in the living room.
While our black cat, Tony, supervised from a folded-up Snow Bears blanket, Dallas arranged her signed pucks—which were now in protective cases provided by the team’s PR manager—on a shelf. I carefully removed an older poster from a frame so I could replace it with one of the new signed posters.
“Which one do you want up here?” I gestured at the bare spot on the wall. “We’ve got room for two of the team posters, or one player poster.”
She thumbed through the stack and slid one free. “This one. Definitely.” With a sly grin, she added, “Unless you’d be too embarrassed to have him on the wall?”
Of course, she’d picked a full-size shot of Jase on the ice. I wasn’t sure I could handle having that man’s face on my wall under normal circumstances, but especially after tonight? Holy shit.
I was not, however, going to give my daughter the satisfaction of watching me shy away from putting up a damn poster. “All right.” I laid it on the coffee table. “Can you hold it still while I put it in the frame?”
She smirked, and there was definitely some warmth in my cheeks, but neither of us acknowledged it out loud. I hung up the poster, and we both stepped back to admire it.
Holy shit was right.
There was now a full-size signed poster of Jase Kelly in my living room. That wouldn’t fry my brain or anything.
Fortunately, my daughter didn’t make any more comments about it (this time). While she went into her bedroom to hang up a few more pictures—and probably to message her friends and her stepdad about how she’d spent the evening—I sat on the couch beside Tony and pulled my laptop onto my knee.
As soon as my email was open, my gaze went straight to the thread I’d had going with Kelly before tonight. I’d thanked him profusely before we’d left the event, and I didn’t want to pester him, but one email wouldn’t be too much, would it?
Nah, that wouldn’t be a big deal, so I typed out:
Thank you again for everything you did for Dallas this evening. It really meant the world to a kid who doesn’t usually get to see her favorite team play.
Best,
Devin
I was catching up on social media and smiling at the photos Dallas had uploaded via Instagram when my email pinged. Somehow, I was surprised—and yet somehow not—to have a response from Kelly.
I’m glad she enjoyed it. It was great to meet both of you. The team had fun too. Hopefully we can do it again.
Jase
Again? He wanted to do it again?
Dallas would definitely be onboard to do it again, but I didn’t want to get her hopes up, so just like I had this time, I wouldn’t say a word until something was actually scheduled. For now, I wrote back to Kelly, That would be great. Dallas would love to see another game and meet the team again. I somehow resisted the temptation to add and so would I.
A moment later, he replied, I’ll talk to the team. They had a blast.
I had to suppress a sound that my daughter probably would have called a fanboy squeal. Even though there was no one in the room except for Tony, I needed to maintain at least some dignity. Plus Tony would judge me, and he already did enough of that.
I didn’t want to get my hopes up that tonight was the first of multiple experiences with the Snow Bears.
I definitely didn’t want to get Dallas’s hopes up.
But oh, God, I really, really hoped tonight wasn’t the last time we saw Jase Kelly.
Chapter 5
Jase
My morning routine usually consisted of waking myself up with a shower, pouring some coffee down my throat, and then making whatever breakfast I needed to get through my first workout of the day.