Page 19 of Hockey Player Seeking Fan

I cut her off. "Shall we go and eat, and then we can continue this conversation? I’m kind of hungry myself."

"Fine," she says. "By the way, what did you tell my brother when you left?"

"I told him that I had a feeling I knew who you were going on a date with and I wouldn’t feel comfortable letting you be on the date for very long, so I came."

"Huh. I’m surprised that Wes didn’t come himself."

"He wanted to.” I’m not going to tell her how agitated he’d gotten and how I’d made him stay so I could come rescue her. “I promised him I’d take care of it and that I’d make sure yougot home safely. And Sabrina told him that she thought it was a good idea if I came alone.” I conclude with a small smile. I liked Sabrina. She was genuine and pretty and I could understand why Wes had fallen for her.

"Yeah, he probably would’ve tried to fight or beat up Elliott." She giggles. "Especially when he called me a... well, you know."

"I know. Trust me, I nearly went there myself."

"I know you didn’t have to do that, but I will say that I appreciate you sticking up for me. That was gentlemanly of you."

"Yeah, well. I’m glad to hear it. Come on. Let’s go grab that burger."

We walk in companionable silence down the street. I try not to admire her figure and how beautiful her side profile looks. Her hair is long, dark, and silky, and she’s really quite beautiful. I’d already known that, but joking around with her and having an actual conversation with her was so very different from her just being mad at me.

"Here we are. Welcome to Happy’s Burgers." I wave my arms around.

"I hope they make me happy," she says as we walk into the small diner.

"Welcome to Happy’s. Have a seat anywhere," an older lady calls out to us.

"Thanks, Sheila," I say as we head to the back.

"Oh, hey there, Tyler." She smiles at me. "I’ll be with you in a second. You can grab the menus."

"Will do."

I grab two menus from the stand, hand one to Erica, and we take a seat.

"Come here often, huh?” She asks, looking around and surveying the place.

"Oh, yeah. At least once a week. I love me a good burger."

"So do you come with a different woman each time or?—”

“Is that you fishing to find out how regularly I date?” I grin, and try not to laugh as she blushes and shakes her head emphatically.

"No. I mean, I may be asking you questions, but that’s because I have a podcast where I talk about modern love and literary characters, and I really want to focus on whether or not courting and real gentlemen exist in modern dating."

"I see," I say. "I think your brother did mention you had some sort of podcast. What’s the name of it? Can I listen to it on Apple or Spotify?"

"We haven’t released our first episode yet," she says quickly. "But I think it’s going to come out in the next couple of weeks. I’m really excited to see how it’s going to go. It’s been a pipe dream of mine. And Sabrina’s doing it with me, though I’m not sure she’s as excited about it as I am."

"I didn’t realize that you were doing that together." I rub my forehead. "Or maybe I did. Sorry. Wes and I talk about so many different things."

"It’s okay. I don’t expect you to know about me and my life."

"I am interested in listening to it, though."

"You really don’t have to. I don’t think it’s the sort of thing you’d be interested in."

"And why is that? Because you don’t think I’m a gentleman?"

"I mean, on a scale of one to ten, do I think you’re a ten? Nah."