Page 18 of Wynter

“The Maple Ridge Meese are like the Toronto Maple Leafs,” Leith says, completely unaware of my train of thought.

“The human team?” I frown.

“I’m explaining this badly, aren’t I?” Leith chuckles. “Okay, so the Maple Leafs aren’t named after the plant. If they were, they’d be the Maple Leaves. But they’re Maple Leafs because they’re named after the Maple Leaf World War 1 regiment. And it’s the same with the Meese.”

“They’re named after a regiment?”

“No.” Leith bursts out laughing. “They’re named after Meese.”

“That makes absolutely no sense.”

“The shifters. They’re Meese. The plural for the animal moose is moose. But the plural for moose shifters is Meese.”

“Since when?” I watch his face carefully to try to figure out if he’s messing with me. But all I can see are blue eyes crinkling at the edges and lips I want to feel against my own.

“I’m guessing you’ve never met any Meese?”

“You’re serious, aren’t you?” I shake my head. “I don’t think I’ve met any. But if I have, we didn’t get around to talking about grammar.”

“Fair enough.” Leith gives me a slow smile. “Do you go skating a lot?”

“First time here.” I smile. “How about you?”

Then I realize I’d just asked a hockey player, and my cheeks flush.

“I mean…” I quickly try to think of something less stupid to ask. “What do you do when you’re not skating?”

Leith laughs. “Not much. Mostly just hang out at the Inn.”

“The Royal Inn? Don’t you have to be like super mega rich to stay there?”

Leith snorts.

“Sorry. Don’t answer that. Now I sound like a gold digger.”

Leith smirks and leans a little closer. “So does that mean you’re into me?”

“I might be.” I tease him right back. “Why? Do you want me to be?”

“A sexy girl in skates? Hell yeah.”

“Technically, I’m not in skates yet. And once I put these on, you might change your mind.”

“Don’t think I would,” he drawls. “And I could teach you to skate. It would give me an excuse to hold you and show you exactly how to move.”

The innuendo is definitely intentional, and suddenly I’m picturing his hands on my hips, guiding me. And while we’re both on the ice, what I’m picturing has nothing to do with skating.

“I… Um…” I swallow hard and try to remember what the goddess we were talking about. Oh. Right. “Too bad I already know how to skate.”

“Do you now?” he raises an eyebrow.

I nod. “I just think there might be something wrong with these skates. A friend of mine spelled them, and his magic is known to be a little… wonky.”

“And the rink hired him to spell skates?” Leith frowns.

I snort. The thought of anyone hiring Julian to do any kind of magic is kind of absurd. So much so that I actually feel bad for the guy.

I can’t imagine what I’d do if I couldn’t use magic. Not that it would ever happen. There’s only one reason I might lose my powers, and that’s if I ended up in prison. So it’s a good thing I’ve got Mini locked up at my place until I can prove she’s the real thief.