Page 56 of Tricky Puck

Link shakes my brothers’ hands. The only one who smiles at him is Torin—maybe because he’s a hockey fan.

“I’ve seen you play in Madison Square against the Rangers.” Torin nods as if in approval.

“A hockey fan. Thank god,” Link grins. “Maybe you can work with Delaney on that.”

Everyone laughs and then they all talk at once. There are no shy wallflowers in this group. My brothers grill Link about his career and financial stability—and his reputation as a chick magnet, from what I can catch. I manage to not cringe out loud.

Because his sisters, mother and Granny surround me and gush over how happy they are that Link has someone special and how happy he looks.

Rose says, under her breath again, “Getting some action on the regular tends to make a guy happy.” Her mother elbows her and I barely contain a snort of laughter. I really like her.

In no time, Link takes my hand and says, “I have to get going. I’ll see you all after the game.”

“We won’t be able to stay,” his grandma says. “Me and Bernadette need to get home. We might even need to leave early—I hope you don’t mind. I brought cookies to make it up to you. We had to bribe the security guard to get them in here, but he wisely relented when we told him they were for you.”

He takes his grandma into a hug so fierce and emotional I almost feel a tear coming on. I put an arm around my Granny and give her a half hug while I watch him and my heart tumbles. There are no butterflies and I’m almost terrified to think about what that means. Am I past the crushed stage and into seriously dangerous territory?

“I’m disappointed, Grandma, but I’ll think of you every time I eat a cookie. And I’ll try and get home again as soon as I can.”

He lets her go and takes my hand. “Leave the cookies with Delaney. I trust her not to eat them all.” He squeezes my hand in warning and I laugh. “If you’ll excuse us—” He’s drawing me toward the door, but his Grandma stops us.

“You can kiss her good-bye in front of us. In fact, I’d prefer it.” Everyone laughs and claps and Rose whistles. My brothers stare and a bubble of nerves lodges in my chest. I can feel Link stiffen next to me.

But he nods and smiles at his Grandma and turns to me. His pirate eyes don’t look hesitant as he pulls me in and lowers his mouth to mine, scorching my soul and sending me instantly into a state of hot desire. I see visions of orgasms in my near future and when he lets go, cold disappointment suffuses me.

I see a flicker of something in his eyes, like fierce determination as if he’s promising me more. He recedes from me slowly until his hand reaches mine and squeezes one last time. Then he walks out the door to a chorus of well wishes for the game and a shout of kick their asses from Rose and Torin.

That wasn’t so bad. My heart hammers, telling maybe it was too good.

At the game, I’m sitting between the two grandmothers. We have great seats not too far from the Whalers bench where I mostly stare at Link until he hops over the boards onto the ice. I watch him closely no matter how fast he skates like he’s trying to escape my stare—until some beast of a guy from the other team crashes him into the boards with his stick.

I clap my hands over my face and my whole body shudders in empathy. His grandma pats my back. “Don’t worry he’ll be fine. He’s a big boy and he wears pads. Plus number 9 is getting a penalty for cross-checking.” She sounds almost happy.

“Is that a good thing?”

She nods and continues to educate me on hockey. At half-time or whatever the break is called, my granny asks about my song writing.

When I confesses that I’ve written a song about him, Granny starts humming Here Comes the Bride and I bursts out laughing. But when my laugh dies down, a frisson of fear replaces it.

I can’t lose control of my life. I have too much I want to do, too far to go when I’m just getting started and I can feel I’m about to turn a corner.

When we have a safe lead some time during the 3rd period I’m told—it’s five to one--I get up and go to the lady’s room. It’s almost empty, but I hear a familiar voice and around the corner I see Cherry, Emery and Tina, the girlfriends and wives of Link’s teammates.

“Great game isn’t it?” Cherry says.

“Link is on fire. You must be so proud,” Emery says.

“Yes.” I bob my head and realize with a burst of horror that it’s true. Shit.

“Who are you here with?” Cherry asks. “I saw you sitting with a crowd of people.”

“It’s my family. And Link’s family. It’s the first time I met them.”

“Oh boy,” Cherry rolls her eyes. “Fun times, right?”

I laugh

Emery says, “What are you doing tomorrow afternoon? Would you like to come to lunch with us?”