Tomboy

“Can you take me back where you picked me up?” she asked, her chin trembling as she dug her short fingernails into her palm to keep the tears at bay.

Her driver nodded as she reached out to close the door—but it wouldn’t shut.

“So that was your plan?” Zach asked as he stood there holding the door open, his gaze thunderous. “Say all of that and walk away?”

“I wanted to give you time to think about it.” Without her standing in front of him crying.

“I thought about it,” he said, his tone rough and hard.

She got out of the car and braced herself for the worst. Still, she managed to keep her gaze on him; she owed him that.

“You are always so damn sure you’re right, and that you can take on anyone’s battles, that you never give anyone else the chance to fight for you. Do you have any idea how frustrating that is?” He threw his hands in the air. “Very. Do you have any idea what it’s like to love someone who can do the wrong thing for the right reason, which makes it impossible to be mad? I’ve spent most of my life pissed off and guarding against other people. Right until this bossy woman arrived on my doorstep and demanded I let her in.” He took a step closer so there was only the slightest space between their bodies, his hands going up to her face, cupping her jaw. “And now you want to go so I can think about things? Forget that. I just need to know one thing. You say I’m worth fighting for, but what about us? Are we worth fighting for? I think we are. I want to be my best with you, not because you’re my Lady Luck, but because you’re the woman I love.”

Fallon couldn’t talk. All of her emotions were blocking the words, so she nodded, tears pouring down her cheeks.

Using the pad of his thumb, he wiped away her tears. “Then let’s fight for us together.”

He dipped his head lower and kissed her, and it was like the world started rotating again. Everything came back in a whoosh as he slanted his mouth over hers, his tongue sweeping across her lips and demanding entrance. The rightness of it all nearly overwhelmed her in a rush of joy, possibility, and the promise of forever.

By the time they broke the kiss, she’d forgotten the rest of the world existed—something the other Ice Knights players reminded her of by immediately beginning to clap and holler.

“Party’s over, boys,” Zach said with a laugh. “Go home.”

They hustled off the porch, delivering a few catcalls and offering up unsolicited advice. Caleb and the other first liners claimed her Uber, since they’d been drinking, while Svoboda gave them a cheery wave, s

aid something in Czech she didn’t understand, and took off in his car.

“So what now?” she asked Zach as the cars’ taillights faded into the darkness.

He swept her up in his arms and started toward the house. “I have new furniture to break in.”

She would have said something smart in return, but then he kissed her, and talking became so much less important than getting inside the house so they could start forever right now.

…

Ice Knights Said What

On the heels of an amazing comeback season that saw the Ice Knights get all the way to the finals, it seems a new group of players has stepped up to take the mantle of most troublesome players from defenseman Zach Blackburn.

This morning, news broke of a video showing the rest of the Ice Knights first line talking smack in an Uber about one another’s love lives, their teammates, and their off-ice foibles. Word is that Coach Peppers is none too pleased about the distraction, and has set defenseman Caleb Stuckey, and the forward line of Alex Christensen, Ian Petrov, and Cole Phillips up with crisis communications guru Lucy Kavanagh to help them course correct.

So will it work?

I have my doubts, but Kavanagh is known to be a real ballbuster in her own right. She was the one who helped guide Blackburn through his recent troubles with his parents. Bobby and Donna Blackburn are currently serving time for embezzlement and taking out fraudulent loans in a scheme where their son was the victim. If she can help Blackburn deal with all of that, then she should be able to fairy godmother her way through the latest Ice Knights trouble. Personally, hockey fans? I’m rooting for an HEA for all four of these guys. What can I say? I’m a fan.

Epilogue

Three Years Later…

The little black box in Zach’s jacket pocket weighed a million pounds. Okay, the ring inside the box weighed about three carats and sparkled, but it felt like more. He’d been carrying it around ever since the Ice Knights had won it all for the second time.

Fallon might not be his Lady Luck, but being with her had made him the luckiest man in Harbor City, and he didn’t want that to end. Ever. So when she’d invited him to meet at the bakery near the clinic after her shift, he figured it was the perfect time to ask.

Fallon was waiting for him at a small table in the corner with two huge blueberry muffins sitting on it. His stomach did the Pavlovian jolt and twist at the sight of the muffins. Even if that gut-roiling case of food poisoning was the beginning of him and Fallon being together, he still couldn’t stand the things.

“Hey there,” she said, standing up, her hand going to her rounding belly, which was only now starting to be noticeable.

He stopped dead in his tracks, his lungs squeezed tight with a kind of unexplainable joy that superseded everything else he’d accomplished—or ever would. The endorsement deals that put him back on the right side of the financial ledger, and his happiness at how Fallon had flourished in her new position as a full-time nurse at the Beacon Clinic, were good, but this was better. Even after four months, he still couldn’t get over the mind-blowing awesomeness of the whole thing. He’d found the woman who’d changed his world, they were happily together, and they were having a baby.