Pucking Strong: An MM Workplace Hockey Romance (Jacksonville Rays Book 4)

Not gonna lie, the Rays are a mess tonight. The score is still 0-0, but they’re losing pucks and missing shots. Henrik is definitely part of the problem. He, Lindy, and Langley just aren’t skating as a line tonight. The only reason the Stars haven’t scored is that DeGraw is having a great game. Actually, he’s having a great season. He’s already made two truly incredible saves, and we’re only halfway through the first period.

“Where did y’all find this guy?” Colin says in my ear, cheering with the rest of the fans as DeGraw drops a caught puck to the ice. He was already in a full butterfly when he did this twisty, ballerina backbend, snatching the puck out of the corner of the net with his glove.

“Australia!” I jump up and down, clapping.

Next to me, Karro sits happily in her chair, swinging her feet, eating her cotton candy by the sticky fistful. Thanks to my friend Cheyenne in the ticketing department, we were able to snag three handicap-accessible seats in the lower VIP area. We’re not right on the glass, but we’re close enough to feel part of the action.

The Dallas goalie is hunched in the net right in front of us, watching the action as the puck is dropped for another face-off. Lindy gains possession and slaps it over to Henrik.

“Morbror has the puck!” I scoop Karro out of her seat and balance her on my hip. We got the all-clear from her doctor regarding the hairline fracture on her ribs, which has been amazing. She can get more comfortable sleeping, and we don’t have to treat her quite so much like a glass doll. Really, it’s just her casted arm and leg to worry about now, and she’ll be able to bear weight on the leg in a few more weeks.

She shakes her bag of cotton candy in my face. “Go, Morbror!”

“Man, he’s fast,” says Colin.

Henrik cuts and glides, dancing around the Dallas players. They’re closing in, and he doesn’t have a clean shot. He drops the puck back to Jake, who passes it up to Lindy. The forward line reforms, with Henrik trying to get clear for a pass. Lindy slips the puck around a defender, right to Henrik, but Henrik is too wide to get over to the goal. Instead, he races around the back of the net.

He’s crossing right in front of us as a Dallas defenseman slams him into the plexiglass. There’s a loud crack as the glass sways. Excited fans surge forward, pounding their fists on the glass in Henrik’s face.

“Morbror!” Karro squeals in fright.

“He’s okay,” I soothe.

He grunts in frustration as the crowd screams. The puck gets caught between their skates as they scrap for possession. Then the other defenseman comes crashing in, slamming Henrik down to the ice.

Karro practically flings herself from my arms. “Nej!”

“Shh, he’s okay, honey.” I can hardly breathe as I watch him stumble to his feet and push off the wall, chasing after the puck that’s now crossing the center line in the opposite direction.

Karro looks to me with anxious eyes. “Is he hurt?”

I kiss her cheek. “No, honey. See?” I point to him as he zips towards the Rays’ goal. “He’s still out there skating. Look how fast he is. Do you see him? Number seventeen?”

She nods, her bag of cotton candy still clutched in her fist.

There’s a scramble in front of our net, and Jake whacks the puck free, sending it careening down the ice, three lengths ahead of Langley. He’s skating as fast as he can, but the Dallas defenseman gets there first, claiming possession and pulling the puck back into his defensive zone. Langley flies around the back of the net, looking for his forward line to reset for a pass.

“He’s not open,” Colin shouts, all but strangling me as he jumps up and down, seeing the play unravel before it happens. The Dallas defenseman makes the pass, but the puck is intercepted by Henrik.

“Morbror has the puck again.” I point him out on the ice, balancing Karro on my hip. “See him?”noveldrama

She nods.

“Pass it! Pass it!” Colin shouts.

Henrik slides to a stop in a spray of ice and shoots the puck forward, right to a waiting Langley. Ryan barely has it on the tip of his blade before he whacks it into the back of the net. The cherry lights up, the horn blasts, and the crowd goes wild. It’s Langley’s point, but Henrik gets credit for the assist.

“Yes! Yes!” Colin jostles me as Karro covers her ears with her hands. Her cotton candy bag hits me in the face. I can hardly see Henrik down on the ice through the cloud of pink-and-blue plastic. Langley stops at the wall right in front of us. The rest of the team skates in, congratulating him.

“Morbror!” Karro shouts.

Through the din, Henrik hears her cry. His gaze locks on our section, focusing like a laser as he searches for her in the crowd. The second he spots us four rows up, I know something’s wrong. His eyes burn like molten lava as he glares, first at me, then Colin.

Oh shit.

I know Colin notices, too, because he drops his arm from my shoulder and leans away. “Uhh … he knows I’m married, right? And straight? Like, as a fucking arrow?”

Heart in my throat, I brush Karro’s cotton candy bag away from my face. “It’s possible your sexual orientation has never come up.”

Colin groans. “You really are a hopeless case, you know that?”

“Well, how often does that come up about a person you literally never discuss?”

“Okay, rude. I talk about you with Tracy all the time. By the way, she agrees that you’re hopeless—”

“Not fucking helping!”

Karro keeps waving, trying to get Henrik’s attention. But he only has eyes for me. And the feelings behind the look he’s giving me are clear as fucking day: hurt and betrayal.

Oh, this is so bad.

“I thought you said he wanted to take things slow?” Colin says as Henrik skates off, called away by the whistle to return to the bench.

“He did.” God, my mouth is suddenly as dry as a desert. I set Karro back down, hiding the rest of the cotton candy in the backpack. When I right myself, Colin is glaring at me. “What?”

“Seriously?”

I groan. “Col, if you’ve got something to say—”

“Did that look like the face of a man who wants to take things fucking slow?” He points down at the ice.

“I—”

“Christ, Teddy! If he catches me touching you again, he’s gonna abracadabra that fucking glass, charge up here, and kick my ass!”

“Well, what am I supposed to do?”

“Fix it!”

“How?”

“Seriously?” He grabs at my lanyard, pulls up my arena pass, and flashes it in my face. “You work for the team. This period is almost over. Go down there and set him straight.”

I gasp, jerking my lanyard out of his hand. “I can’t just go down there. I can’t distract him like that—”

“You’ve already distracted him. He’s not gonna be able to think about anything else until you fix this. Dragging it out, waiting till the end of the game, it’s just cruel, Ted. Go to your man. Let him sweep you off your feet.”

“But Karro—”

“I’ve got the kid. She’ll be fine without you for five minutes. We’ll split a beer and some jalapeño nachos.”

“I—”

“Go, Teddy.”

I let out a breath, heart racing in my chest. “Colin …”

His eyes widen. “Ohhhh. You’re scared?”

“Duh!”

“Well, that’s fine. Go do it anyway.”

Tears sting my eyes as I shake my head. “If he rejects me …”

“He won’t.”

“How can you be sure?”

Laughing, he grabs me by the shoulders and turns me around, giving me a shove towards the aisle. “I can’t. So why don’t you just go see for yourself?”