Playing to Win

Tipping my head back, I kissed his chin. “You’ll share your secrets with me?”

Asher groaned. “Babe, I’ll share all my secrets with you,” he said before kissing me gently.

“Really? All of them? Because I seem to remember a certain explanation you were going to give about the real reason you play hockey.” I lifted one brow.

He dropped his forehead down to meet mine. “I thought you forgot about that.”

“You mean, you hoped I did.”

Asher sighed. “Okay. You’re right. I owe you. But it’s not as big a deal as you might think.”

“Then it won’t be a big deal to tell me.”

“Not here. Let’s go somewhere else.”

Asher

“Are you hungry?” I asked once we’d settled into my car.

“Starving. Aren’t you?”

“Yeah. Did you want to meet everyone at the diner?”

Jordan gave me a look.

“I’m not stalling. I promise. Just trying to be polite and ask what you want.”

“I want to drive through somewhere and then go sit in the park to eat. And talk.”

A woman who knew her own mind. I liked it.

“Okay. Where do you want to get food?”

“Not where the team is, somewhere else. I know. Turn left at the next light.” Jordan gave me directions to a fast food joint on the opposite side of town from the diner where the rest of our teammates celebrated our first win. We should have joined them, but I didn’t care too much and I had a feeling Jordan didn’t either.

We ordered our food and then Jordan directed me to a park on the edge of town. I realized I’d been there before with Shari and Caleb when we first moved here.

I carried our shakes while Jordan grabbed the paper bag with our burgers and fries.

“This okay?” I asked pointing to a wooden picnic table.

“Perfect.”

For the next few minutes we ate and talked about the game. We were both hungry and soon all we had left were our shakes.

“How is it you didn’t leave a girlfriend back in Minnesota?”

“I don’t know. I’ve had girlfriends, but not really anyone I cared about beyond a few dates.” Besides, everyone in Minnesota knew everything about me. Not always a good thing.

Jordan bumped my shoulder with hers. “I bet you left a string of broken hearts behind.”

“Maybe. But I doubt it.” Why were we talking about this? “What about you? Jarom says he’s never seen you with anyone before.”

Even in the dim light from distant street lights, Jordan’s cheeks lit. “I don’t know. I guess I never met anyone I wanted to spend time with.”

“Until you met me.” I puffed out my chest.

Jordan laughed. “Yeah, you’ve ruined me for anyone else.”

I liked the sound of that. “Come here.” The night had grown cooler. I moved back on the picnic table top and threw one leg behind Jordan so I could bring her closer. She nestled into my chest.

“Seriously, though. You never liked anyone?” I had no idea why I pursued this line of questioning, but I kind of wanted to understand why she picked me.

“Not really. I’ve been focused on hockey. My brothers are a little protective.” She looked up at me. “Although, Joe seems to like you and Payton hasn’t said anything bad, either, so it looks like I made the right choice waiting around for you.”

“I’m flattered.” Truth.

She tugged on my shirt front. “Tell me. Why don’t you want to play hockey? And why do you do it if you don’t love it? And for real, how did you get so good? It takes so much motivation to work so hard.”

“I made a deal with the devil,” I told her only half kidding.

Jordan shifted in my arms to see me better. “What do you mean?”

Where to start?

“My dad played hockey in college. He wanted to play in the NHL but he and my mom were in a car accident. She was pregnant with me and the accident made her go into labor early. Just a couple weeks, but I had to stay in the hospital for a week. Dad’s knee got destroyed in the accident. He was in surgery when I was born. The accident changed things. Dad couldn’t play hockey anymore and Mom had postpartum depression. On top of that, they had a lot of medical bills.”