I’d seen him in the stands, but now he was closer and in better light, and I did not expect him to be so… wow. Of all the ways this evening could play out—and God knew I’d spent an embarrassing number of hours running through all of them—the one I’d failed to consider was that the man on the other end of all those emails was smoking hot.
He also had on a Kelly jersey, which did wild things to my blood pressure. And he was watching his daughter with a huge smile on his full lips that only served to bring out his cheekbones and light up his blue eyes. Dallas had definitely gotten her blond hair from him, though his was closer to the platinum end of the spectrum than hers, and cut short and neat. He seemed narrow in the shoulders, but I was pretty sure that was just because he was standing a few feet away from three of our biggest defensemen. Hell, I looked small next to those guys.
And I was staring at a man, probably wearing holy fuck he’s hot across my face, in a room full of teammates who didn’t know I was… Well, they knew the rumors that I was gay thanks to my ex-girlfriend, but I wasn’t out. I didn’t even really know what the fuck I was except confused as hell, but then here was this ridiculously cute guy with amazing eyes and—
I quickly shifted my attention to the guys who were signing things for Dallas. She was chatting with Gagnon, our starting goalie, and she looked well and truly starstruck. Couldn’t really blame her—the dude had been on three different teams when they’d won the Cup. He was a fucking legend.
One by one, the guys signed things and posed for pictures with her, and afterward, they took off. Before I knew it, the room had nearly cleared out except for the McKenzies, Richard, plus Jameson and Palmquist, and a couple of defensemen still taking a picture with her.
When they got out of the way, Dallas turned, and the second she saw me, her eyes lit up. “Oh my God!” she squealed. “You’re…”
Her dad laughed, which made my knees wobble a bit because, whoa, that man had a cute smile too. Oblivious to me, he said, “You didn’t think he was going to bail, did you?” His eyes flicked toward me, and his eyebrows rose slightly as if he’d actually wondered if I might bail.
“No, I didn’t,” she said. “It’s just… Holy shit.”
“Dallas!” He was chuckling, though.
I came a little closer and grinned. “For the record, no, I definitely wasn’t going to bail.” I extended my hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”
She stared up at me with wide eyes as she shook my hand. “Can I… Um, can I…”
I inclined my head. “Hmm?”
She glanced at her dad as if she needed reassurance, then shyly met my eyes. “Can I hug you?”
“Of course!” I took another step, and though she was tiny, she just about bowled me over. I hugged her back, trying to steady us both at the same time.
“Thank you so much!” she said, still holding on. “Everything you guys did was awesome.” Letting me go, she added, “I can’t believe I finally got to watch the Snow Bears play. Like, live.”
I smiled. “You’re welcome. And happy birthday. I wish there was something I could do so you could come to the games, but…”
“This was way better than going to a game,” she said with a huge smile. Scanning everything the guys had signed, she laughed. “I don’t know where I’m going to put all of this.”
“I’m sure we’ll find a spot.” Devin’s voice was closer than before, and I damn near jumped when I turned to see him standing right beside me. Fortunately, he didn’t seem to notice. “If there isn’t room at our place, I’m sure your mom won’t mind you keeping a few things at hers.”
Dallas snorted and picked up a print of Gagnon doing a lap with the Cup over his head last season. “Think I should put this on Mom’s fridge?”
“I dare you,” Devin said.
Dallas must have seen the confusion on my face, because she clarified, “My stepdad hates Gagnon for ditching the Timberwolves.”
I laughed. “Oh, yeah. My brother hasn’t let me live that down either. I guess we did kind of steal him from them, didn’t we?”