Page 63 of Snowflakes and Ice Skates

“You’ve got it bad.” Jake nudged me as we headed back to the arena after walking Dani and Jess back to their office.

“What are you talking about?” I noticed playing dumb gets the guys worked up which provides some level of entertainment.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about.” He shook his head, “You couldn’t take your eyes off her.”

That wasn’t true. Once I realized how uncomfortable she was, I stopped trying to get her attention. Did I glance back every so often to check on her? Sure, but I wasn’t staring.

“Whatever. I just noticed she seemed upset,” I argued.

“She was off. I picked up on that too.”

“I think it was whatever Dani was teasing her about when we walked in.”

Jake snapped his head toward me. “What are you talking about?”

He didn’t hear? How could he have missed that?

“Dani said Jess likes someone, that she has a crush on someone, then starting singing that kissing in a tree song.”

His eyebrows rose. “Huh. I didn’t hear that.”

I rolled my eyes.

“So, who do you think she was talking about?”

That was the million-dollar question. I might literally pay a million to know the answer. “I don’t know.”

“But you’re dying to.” He smirked, and I fought the urge to shove him off the sidewalk and into traffic.

“I wouldn’t mind knowing.” I wasn’t going to deny it. That would only end badly for me.

“Maybe I can do some recon and find out for you.” He offered with a wink.

“Recon? As in asking Dani?” I clarified.

He scoffed. “It sounds cooler when you say it my way.”

“I doubt she’ll tell you.” I watched his eyes narrow and fought to keep my smile from breaking free. He was too predictable. He didn’t like me challenging him. Especially when it came to Dani. I was insinuating she would keep secrets, and their relationship was too good for that. He was proud of how well they communicated.

“I’ll have the name by the end of practice.” He pulled out his phone and started typing while I pressed the button for the walking signal.

“She said she won’t tell me,” he growled.

“Called it.” I chuckled.

His jaw tightened, and he stared down at his phone while we crossed the street. We walked in silence until we were inside the arena.

“She said if I guess correctly, she’ll tell me,” he said while scratching his neck.

I wanted to tell him to say my name first, but then he would catch onto what I was doing.

“Start off with some of the guys from the team. That’s the most likely answer.”

He nodded and typed again. “But what if it’s a client or something? Then we’ll never know.”

I shrugged. “If it’s someone we don’t know, then it doesn’t really matter.”

“That’s true.” He agreed as we took the elevator down to the locker room level. It was going to be nearly impossible to focus on training while I waited for Jake to guess correctly. At least we’d be in the weight room rather than on the ice. If I got distracted out there, it would show. Taking a longer break between sets or miscounting my reps wouldn’t be a big deal. I could play it off like I was tired. That was an excuse we could all relate to.