Parental Guidance (Ice Knights #1)(8)

“Go ahead and say it,” Zara said with a sigh. “I’ve heard them all.”

There was nothing “poor me” in the tone of her voice. Instead, it was more of a weary, hit me with what you’ve got, I can take it that landed like a dirty joke at a Bible study group, sucking out all the immature humor of the moment. Despite it—or maybe because of it—he edged a little closer to appreciating his mom’s choice in his Bramble date.

“What do you mean?” he asked, because admitting he’d been thinking exactly along those lines felt shitty.

“Good thing I found a job my size. It must be so much easier to build the doll furniture when you can fit inside the doll’s house,” she said with a carefully neutral delivery that instead of hiding her hurt just highlighted it. “I’ve heard both of those a million times. You got a new one?”

That would be a big no. He shook his head.

“How about you?” she asked. “What do you do?”

“I’m a defenseman for the Ice Knights.”

Her eyes widened. “The hockey team?”

He nodded. Not being one of the handful of players on the team with endorsement deals who were tailed constantly by the media meant he sometimes had to convince folks that he wasn’t kidding about his job. It was a trade-off he’d take every day and twice on Sunday.

“Then why are you on Bramble?” she asked. “Isn’t there some ultraexclusive rich-athlete dating app?”

“I have my reasons.” Yeah, and those would be because he’d been a total asshole in public. Now wasn’t that just the perfect first date talking point. Lucy would definitely not approve.

Lucky for him, the waiter picked that moment to stop by the table to take their drink order before Caleb could say anything stupid, like the truth. He ordered a water while she got a milkshake, the lift of her eyebrow just daring him to make a comment about it. Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen.

The waiter left, leaving Caleb still trying to figure out how to answer her question. Sure, he could come up with some cover story, but that didn’t feel right. He might usually let his mouth run faster than his brain, but he was trying not to do that this time. If he was going to make this Bramble date thing work, he couldn’t be that kid who stood in front of the class and fumbled for words. Really, there was only one call to make.

“I take it you don’t follow the hockey media,” he said after the waiter left.

She tucked her hair behind her ears again, revealing a tattoo of three tiny stars at the spot where her neck met her shoulder. “Not even a little bit.”

“I got videoed with a group of my teammates who were saying stupid shit, I didn’t tell them to cut it out, and the video went viral.” That was one way to explain it.

“What kind of stupid shit?” she asked as she tore apart a roll and slathered butter all over it.

Would it be weird to ask if he could smell the white-flour, nutritionally empty carbs? Sure, he ate a three-to four-thousand-calorie diet most of the year, but he wasn’t expending in-season calories right now. That meant he was up to his eyeballs in high-quality whole-grain carbs, lean protein, steamed veggies, and fresh fruit.

Too distracted by the sight of her eating the roll to think before he spoke, the truth tumbled out. “They were running off at the mouth about puck bunnies.”

“Ohhhh,” she said before letting out a snort of disbelief. “And now you’re having to do this as some kind of punishment, or is it to look like you’re less of an ass?”

“Little of both.” He’d argue it if he could, but she wasn’t wrong. “So why are you on Bramble?”

She took another small bite from her roll before answering. “My best friend is blackmailing me, and my dad wants a SAG card.”

That was definitely not the answer he’d been expecting. “And I thought my reasoning was twisted.”

“I’m sure it all makes sense in Gemma’s head,” Zara said. “She thinks I work too much and need to loosen up. She’ll let me be her plus-one to go meet a collector if I do the Bramble five dates thing. And my dad? Well, let’s just say he’s never met an unlikely plan he didn’t think he could pull off.”

All the possibilities this created sped around inside his head until one broke free like a perfect fast break late in the third period when the game was on the line. All he had to do was put the biscuit in the net.

“So neither of us really wants to be here,” he said. “We’re each other’s solution to getting back to our regular lives as soon as possible.”

It was fucking perfect. Petrov’s job with the team would be safe for another season—well, as safe as he could be, considering he didn’t have a no-trade deal in his contract.

Zara, though, didn’t seem to be seeing the genius of it, going by the suspicious look she gave him as she took another bite of her roll. Instead of giving him a straight-up no, though, she started eating. The words—okay, begging pleas—were bubbling up inside him, but for once, he kept it on lockdown. He wasn’t about to rush this play, no matter how it had every nerve in his body jinglejangling.

Finally, she used her napkin to wipe the corners of her mouth, straightened her spine, and looked him dead in the eye. “We’d have to have ground rules.”