Tending Tara (Alaska Blizzard #7) - Kat Mizera Page 0,12

wasn’t a big party-goer, but it was becoming a tradition here, and he’d never gone because it hadn’t felt right to go to a party like that without his wife. Now that they were divorced, he was going to have some fun. Hopefully, a certain hockey-playing redhead would be there.

He’d thought about Tara more than he wanted to admit since their movie date over a week ago, no matter how many times he told himself he shouldn’t. He might get traded, but there was just as good a chance he wouldn’t, so why not enjoy himself? Especially since she seemed interested. Miikka had been dropping hints, and he figured the Halloween party was his chance to make something happen. It couldn’t hurt to take her out on a real date, spend a little time together. It’s not like it would really go anywhere, like they were going to get married or anything. He could have some fun and dip his toes back in the dating waters. That way, if he moved to another team, it’d be easier.

Right?

It felt weird to think about dating again. He and Jane had been together from the time they were eighteen and nineteen, so this would be the first time he dated as an adult. He’d had plenty of hook-ups, but he hadn’t asked a woman out on an official date in seven years. In a weird way, he was kind of excited about it. He and Jane had gotten serious within a couple of months, so now he had an opportunity to do it right and really get to know someone because he definitely didn’t want to make another mistake. Especially not with a teammate’s sister.

They were in the second period, and Donovan was trying to figure out when and where to ask Tara to go to the Halloween party with him when a ruckus on the ice jerked his attention back to where it should have been all along. Someone was down, and the team’s head trainer, Ben Tremont, was already over the boards heading in that direction. He got to his feet with the rest of the team, and as he peered through the throng of players surrounding him, he realized the guy who was down was Aaron.

His heart immediately skipped a beat, and Donovan glanced at Coach Caldwell. She looked out at the ice for a moment and then back at Donovan, giving him a slight nod.

Shit!

That meant he should start stretching and warming up, just in case. He’d gotten so used to not playing unless Aaron needed a day off, he hadn’t been paying attention and didn’t even know what had happened.

“Did you see it?” he asked Sergei under his breath as he brushed past him.

He shook his head. “Too many guys in front of the net.”

Donovan got on the ice in front of the bench, watching what was going on with Aaron as he slowly dropped into a couple of butterflies to warm up his legs. He didn’t even have his mask on yet, but Aaron hadn’t gotten up, and Donovan’s mind was racing. He stretched one leg out in front of him, and then the other, before getting back on his feet and grabbing his mask. He yanked it on as he skated back and forth to get his blood pumping a little since he’d be in net within another minute or so. He really hadn’t been expecting to play until the next road trip, so now he was trying to find his zen, putting Tara out of his mind and focusing on hockey.

Aaron finally got to his feet with the help of Ben and Miikka, and the crowd started to clap as they moved him toward the tunnel. He turned to Donovan for a brief moment, meeting his gaze.

“You got this,” he said quietly.

Donovan gave him a nod and skated to the net.

He dropped down into a quick butterfly and then got back on his feet, scraping the ice to roughen it up a little so he wouldn’t slide too far or too fast. He blew out a breath and turned to watch the face-off, which was at center ice and just off to the right. Luckily, Miikka won the face-off, and Logan Pelletier took off with the puck, skating away from the goal. Not having to do anything was a mixed blessing because it gave him time to find his groove, but it also gave him time to stiffen up, potentially lose focus, which they couldn’t