Scoring Off The Ice (Ice Kings #2) - Stacey Lynn Page 0,33
and she’s at my desk.
“Who. Who is he? I don’t follow it closely enough to know the names or anything, well, except for the Taylors but everyone in hockey knows Jude and Jason and their brothers. Their family is a legend in the game.”
I’m lost as she babbles. I have no clue who she’s talking about, but she shoves me out of the way and wiggles my mouse hooked up to my laptop.
“Who’s the guy?”
“Mikah Lutzgo.” I’m still mumbling and strangely warm. It’s the sun outside burning me up. It has to be.
“Oh, I’ve heard that name. He’s good. Young, right?”
“Our age.”
“Wow.” Her eyes pop open and she types in his name and then she falls silent.
She Googles his name and clicks on the images tab and suddenly my screen is filled with images of the guy I’ve spent days thinking about. Blond hair. Strong chin and cheekbones. Eyes narrowed in concentration through the face mask. My mouth waters. He looks larger in his gear, but I’ve seen him without anything on at all.
Stop thinking about Mikah naked!
It’s pointless to yell at myself. I can’t stop picturing that first glance of him. Or how he looks in gray sweats after they’re wet from giving Angelo a bath.
“Holy cow. You weren’t kidding, he’s hot.” She grins down at me and I swear she’s blushing. “Like mega hot. And this is your neighbor? Did you finally get the guts to go say hi or something?”
Something like that.
“We met in the hall. Said hello, started talking.”
“You talked to him?”
“A little. Over the weekend.” And then cooked him dinner, had a drink, fantasized about him, dreamt of him…wanted to go say hello a dozen other times. It’s possible my stalker status should be upgraded to obsession.
“And you haven’t said anything until now?” Her voice is pitching higher and then she frowns. “Listen, Paisley. This is serious girl code you’re breaking here. You meet the hot guy you’ve gaped over for months and you call your friend.” She shoves her thumb into her own chest and continues. “You talk to the hottie, you call your friend. You find out he’s a professional athlete.. you call. Your. Friend. Capiche?”
She’s leaning close to me, serious as stone. It’s too bad she’s so cute with her squished up faux-angry face. It’s difficult not to laugh at her.
“Step back. I don’t need to smell your lunch.”
She huffs but listens. “So tell me everything. Every single thing.”
She’s a dog with a bone and won’t stop so I tell her about meeting him in the hall on Friday and stopping by his place on Sunday. I don’t like lying, or hiding information, so there isn’t much I say just that we hung out for a little bit and talked.
She squeals with glee, insists he’s interested in me, and I don’t know how she gathers that since I didn’t tell Maggie anything about what he actually said to me.
By the time I enter my building later, my carryout dinner from Chipotle I stopped and grabbed on the way in my hand, I’m halfway through talking myself out of stopping by his place.
And the reasons why I should stay away are fleeting.
The elevator doors start to close and then a hand is right there, stopping them. To my surprise, Hannah scoots around the corner, two kids in tow, and Byron follows.
“Paisley!” She smiles but it falls relatively quickly. Perhaps because I’m the unknown who might try to make a few bucks selling what I know of Mikah to some asshole on Twitter. As if. “How are you? Having a good week?”
“Um. Yes. It’s okay. How are y’all?”
She grins down at her kids, placing a hand on the top of each one, a boy and a girl. “Crazy as always. These are my hooligans, Silas and Samantha, but we call her Sammy.”
“Hey guys.” Two little blond-haired, blue-eyed beauties grin shyly up at me before looking to their dad.
“Dad! I want to hold the baby,” Sammy shouts.
“No! I get to. I’m older.” Silas makes an angry face and throws his arms across his chest.
“Wait your turn or you won’t get to hold him at all. You know your mom will hog him all night.”
I’m smiling at their conversation and Hannah shrugs. “What can I say? Babies just do something to me.”
Byron grumbles something I don’t understand but Hannah slaps his chest. “Like you mind.”
Based on the look he gives her, something that heats me straight to my toes, regardless I didn’t hear what he said,