Charming as Puck(32)

“Growing ear hair and getting bunions already?” he deadpans.

“I’ll still be blocking your shots when I’ve got ear hair and bunions. I just need to adapt a little.”

“You need to admit what’s really wrong and accept the fact that you’re not in control when you’re on the love boat.”

“The love boat? What are we, an eighties hockey show?”

I’m not in love with Kami.

I just like hanging out with her.

Maybe she’s right. Maybe I do owe her some space. Probably too late to cancel the singing telegram I ordered for her office today.

Shit.

“What’s the last thing you think about every night before you fall asleep?” Lavoie asks me.

Fuck.

I think about Kami. About her smile. About the taste of her pussy. About the way she wrinkles her nose when she’s picking mushrooms off her pizza.

“Popcorn,” I lie.

I have a serious fucking problem.

“Call her,” Lavoie says.

Ares growls.

Lavoie ignores him. “Bet if you talk to her, you’ll play a hell of a lot better.”

“That’s bullshit.” Fuck, if Kami’s my good luck charm…if she’s what’s missing in my life…

My stomach dips, and I feel the hollow pain where it lands in my nuts.

I’m not ready for kids. I’m still basically a kid myself. I can’t even handle a pet.

But I miss Kami. The Kami who smiled at me and didn’t judge me for losing my temper with reporters or get mad when I was a dumbass pranking my teammates with animals.

Not the first seven times anyway.

She wants a farm.

For all the animals she’s pulled out of all of our places the last few months, how didn’t I know she wanted a farm?

Lavoie shakes his head and hops off the treadmill. “Call her, dumbass.”

Not so sure that’s a good idea.

I turn and head for the door. “Going to see Coach Ferrera,” I tell him. If anyone will know a better way to get me out of this slump, it’s the goaltender coach.

He’s been around and seen it all.

He’ll know this isn’t about a woman, and he’ll know how to fix it.

I hope.





Nineteen





Kami



For all the animals I’ve had to rescue thanks to the Thrusters, my second favorite is one I check on now and again. And Sunday afternoon, I’m hanging with him at Felicity and Ares’s place.

“Have you been a good monkey lately?” I ask Loki, the capuchin monkey who adopted Ares shortly after he arrived in Copper Valley last year.

Loki screeches, leaps off the couch, and grabs a stuffed llama to rock it like a baby.

“Aww,” Maren, Alina, and I all say together.

Felicity has her feet propped up in Ares’s lap. She smiles at the monkey. “Loki, show them your new trick.”

Loki flashes a toothy grin at all of us, then gives us all the middle finger.

“My uncle Zeus teaches me the best things!” Loki says.

Okay, Felicity says it, but she uses her monkey voice and doesn’t move her lips.

“Where is Zeus?” Maren asks. “I thought he’d be hanging out with you guys.

“Joey flew up for the day.”

All three of us collectively reply with a knowing Oh.

If Zeus’s wife is in town, they’re busy.

And I do mean busy in the getting busy sense.

I stifle a sigh.

I miss sex.

It hasn’t even been two weeks since I cut Nick off, and I’ve never really missed sex after a break-up like this before, but he was good. I’d never had a double orgasm before. Or that thing he did against the wall the one night— I shake my head and realize everyone’s watching me.

Including Loki, who’s also sneakily backing toward the cozy galley kitchen off the spacious living room. I glance down and rub at the soft leather on the couch, because I don’t want to answer the questions.

“Tough road trip,” I say into the silence.

Nobody answers.

Probably because it involves saying, yeah, Nick’s game is total shit this year.

“Did Kami tell you about the thirty dog treat bags from that gourmet pet bakery downtown?” Alina asks Felicity.

“I’m more interested in hearing about this singing telegram she got at work on Friday,” Maren interjects.

“How do you know about that?” I ask.

“Saw the pictures on your clinic’s Facebook page.” She grins. “And the note that the message was too risqué for a family vet to share publicly.”

I wince, because there was definitely some mention of pussy in that song the dozen costumed singers delivered.

“Was that one guy really dressed up like a wiener dog wrapped in a bun?” she adds.

“Yes.”

“And the kitty—”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“What else has he sent?” Felicity asks. She’s going for casual interest, but there’s something more than curiosity in her voice.

Ares hears it too, I’m certain, because he slides her one of those looks that I can’t read, but that makes her squirm.