Ryker

  There is no surprise on Alex's face and he nods thoughtfully. "Atkinson I hate because he's got a great attitude. I just don't think he's ready for this level of play. Halik I hate too...good guy but I think he's done. Amedee is poison and unreliable. If I had to pick one out of the three, it would be him."

  Pretore nods, Frank scribbles on his pad, and I smile at Alex. "Thank you for your candor and for staying behind from practice today to talk to us."

  "No problem," Alex says as he stands up. He hesitates a moment and then turns back to me. "Amedee...when you let him go...he's going to react badly. It's just a feeling I have. No offense, Miss Brannon, but I would suggest you have someone else in the room with you."

  Icy cold prickles break out along my spine over the serious intent in Alex's voice. I nod at him with a polite but grateful smile. "Noted. Thank you."

  After Alex is gone and the door closes, my father says, "Make sure Frank sits in with you on each meeting."

  I cut a quick glance and smirk at my dad. He hardly ever interferes, but he's taking Alex seriously, so I put his mind at ease. "Gladly. Now, let's see who we want to acquire and whose ass we want to kiss to get it done."

  --

  It took us the rest of the day to go through the prospects, but we finally came to an internal agreement on who we wanted and in what order we wanted to try to get them. Frank would go back now, make contact with agents for our top picks, and start negotiations for the trades. He was more than qualified to make the deals and set up league approval.

  When we're done, I congratulate everyone on a productive meeting. I was even gracious to Frank when he decided to bring up the goalie situation and hit Pretore directly. I tried and thankfully succeeded in not laughing when Pretore told Frank in no uncertain terms that he felt Ryker was the best choice for starting goalie. It became a little difficult, I'll admit, not to puff up with ego when Pretore told me he was basing that decision not only on his thirty-plus years in this league, but he was very intrigued by my statistical analysis, and thinks that with Rinne and Reimer trades, Ryker's stats will stand up much better than Max's.

  I walk back toward my office and my father tags along silently. I know he wants to talk about what just went down, but he knows better than to do it until we're behind closed doors. I know my dad well...he's practically ready to burst with pride that I handled my first trade deadline.

  Before I even hit my office, I am overwhelmed with a delicious floral scent.

  Gardenia, I think.

  When I walk into my office, sitting on the corner of my desk is a massive flower arrangement. It has to be at least three feet tall and it's filled with a variety of pastel colored flowers in pinks, purples, creams, and soft yellows. I see sprigs of gardenia and know my nose was accurate. My father has them all around his house so I know the smell well.

  Turning to him, I wrap my arms around his waist and sigh. "You're like the best dad in the world. But you really shouldn't have. You had no clue if that meeting was going to turn out the way it did and then that would have been a complete waste of money."

  My father squeezes me and kisses me on top of the head. Chuckling he says, "Well, you're wrong about a few things. First, I did know that meeting would go that well because my brilliant daughter was running it. And second, those flowers aren't from me."

  I pull back from my dad and cock an eyebrow at him. "Seriously?"

  "Seriously."

  Ryker.

  It has to be.

  My dad releases me and gives a nod toward the flowers. "My little girl's been keeping secrets from me."

  Oh, if only he knew.

  I turn away from him and walk up to the massive arrangement. A card peeps out from the top with my name written on it. My father walks over and casually sits in one of my guest chairs. I take the card and walk around my desk as I open it.

  It's a typed message and it's simple. Be my valentine?

  I can't help but smile. I want to actually cry because this is so sweet and unexpected. I've had men give me flowers before...no biggie. But for some reason, this just feels very special, and that has everything to do with the man who sent them to me.

  "Going to let me in on what the card says?" my dad asks curiously.

  I slip the card back into the little envelope. I answer him truthfully. "It just says 'Be my valentine.' "

  And was that a girlish giggle on the end?

  I look over at my dad and he's got an eyebrow arched at me. He's never seen his daughter get goofy over something as trivial as flowers. And I don't say this often about my dad, but he'd be wrong in thinking that there is anything inconsequential about this gift. It is with deep longing and sadness that I can't just tell my dad the truth. He'd be so happy that I'm happy.

  But he's too much of a realist. He would look at me with pity all the while telling me I was a fool to get involved with a player.

  "So who is the man courting my daughter and why haven't I met him?" he asks.

  "I don't introduce you to everyone I date, Dad."

  "That's true. But I've never seen you react like that, so I'm thinking this guy is pretty special," he says with a pointed look.

  "React like what?" I ask defensively, because surely I'm not that obvious.

  "Like those flowers were the best thing that happened to you today, and not the fact you just approved some majorly impressive trade offers that are going to make this team even better."

  Whoa. Really? He got all that by watching me?

  I mean...he's dead fucking accurate in the way I'm feeling right now. These flowers...the fact that Ryker was thinking of me. The fact that he's showing me romance.

  Me. Romance.

  Best thing to happen to me today.

  I place the card on my desk and sit in my desk chair. I level my dad with a smile, but I'm firm when I say, "This relationship is very new, and it's complicated. We're sort of like on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to our careers, and I'm not sure it's got long-term potential."

  As I say those words, they hurt deeply, because while I might be evasive with my father, I am being truthful. Our careers are what stands in our way.

  Brian Brannon, the one man I've loved in my entire life, stares at me thoughtfully for a moment. And when he finally chooses to speak, he almost knocks my feet clean out from underneath of me.

  "Gray," he says gently. "If you have a chance at love, you should never let anything stand in your way. And I mean anything. Not even this job."

  I try to swallow past the lump in my throat and accept what my father is telling me. The man who molded me and made me love this game so much. The role model I patterned myself after, because I wanted a hand in creating a championship team. My father...who has always taught me that I could be anything I wanted to be.

  And now he's telling me that all of that should take a backseat to love?

  Ridiculous, right?

  Yet still...I can't deny that Ryker is someone I want very badly on all levels. We've only scratched the surface of what we could be together and I know the best is yet to come. Could I give all this up on the hope and promise that he could be the one I'm destined to be with? Step down as general manager. I could go back to being a scout. There'd be no conflict if I did that.

  It's almost as if a split personality resides in my head. One side screaming at me to disregard these foolish notions and keep my eye on the prize. I've been waiting my whole life for this opportunity to manage a hockey team. But another part of me is screaming that isn't what's important. That matters of the heart should always take precedence, and then on top of that, I'm extremely confused that my father seems to be siding with love over business as well.

  I give myself a mental shake. None of this is relevant at this moment. And I certainly don't have to make a decision right now. In fact, the only thing I need to do is put my business hat back on and get my father's feedback.

  "So, how do you think it went today?" I ask my dad in a cool, measured voice. I'm making it
clear...talk of flowers and love are done for now.

  My father nods in understanding, giving me an accommodating smile. He looks sad for a moment, almost as if he knows that I might make the wrong decision one day, but then he launches into how proud he is with the way I handled things in there.

  After he leaves, I pull out my phone and send Ryker a text. The flowers are beautiful. And the answer is yes.

  I start packing up for the day, bringing home some work for tomorrow. It's Saturday, and while I do try to relax some on the weekends, I always seem to have work with me. Besides, it's not like I have anything better to do. The man I'm crazy about has his daughters, who don't know anything about me, and really, why should they? I'm a secret, not a part of his actual life, so what's to share? It depresses me to no end that the next time I might possibly see Ryker is this coming up Tuesday when we have an away game.

  The familiar text sound comes through and I look at my phone. The words cause my heartbeat to go wild with joy. Hensley has girls for weekend. Come show me how much you loved those flowers.

  I grip my phone in both hands tightly, bring it to my chest, and do a mad little dance of glee right there. When it's out of my system, I quickly text back. Be there in an hour.

  Chapter 21

  Ryker

  "I'm stuffed," Gray groans as she rubs her hand over her stomach. I give a glance at what remains of the pizza that she and I just killed and would have to agree with her.

  We're lying on the couch, our heads on opposite sides, our legs stretched out beside each other. I am a contented and wellsated man. When Gray arrived with a bottle of wine and a pizza, I would have attacked her but for the glass bottle in her hand. The pizza was expendable, but good wine wasn't.

  Ultimately, it didn't matter, because Gray just set them both on the floor, took my hand, and led me into my bedroom, where she proceeded to show me just how much she loved the flowers I sent her. After, we put on the bare minimum of clothes--me just my black boxer briefs, Gray one of my T-shirts and her panties--and we ate cold pizza and drank wine from the bottle.

  "So where did Hensley take the girls this weekend?" she asks me as she wiggles her bottom to get more comfortable on the couch.

  "To Charlotte. She has a friend there with kids about Ruby's and Violet's ages and they're all going to go to Great Wolf Lodge."

  "I bet Ruby has been going stir crazy, right?"

  "You have no idea," I tell her with a chuckle. "But I have to admit, it's been nice having Hensley help out. While Kate is always more than glad to pitch in, a lot of times the girls have to go to her house, so this is just more convenient."

  "Has she had any more sleepovers here?" Gray asks, and although she's trying to sound casual, I know she doesn't like the concept of it. I had told Gray all about my conversation with Hensley that night she came down in my T-shirt and made a move on me. Just as I told her I let Hensley stay the night.

  "No more sleepovers," I tell her, and to Hensley's credit she hasn't asked again or made any awkward advances. "She found a house that she likes and she's going to rent for a while. I think she plans on moving her stuff down from Boston next week."

  But while Hensley hasn't been forward with me, she has started insinuating her life back into mine. Tiny things that place us together in a parenting role. Like picking the girls up from school and bringing them home, then making dinner so it's ready when I get home and inviting herself to stay and eat.

  She even took the girls to one of the games this past week, sat front row right behind the end where I defend twice, and proudly sported a new Cold Fury Evans jersey. She's clearly biding her time and hoping that things will naturally progress between us.

  Of course, she has no clue about Gray or my feelings toward her, and maybe I should just tell her I'm seeing someone so that she's dissuaded. Food for thought.

  I grab one of Gray's ankles and lift her leg, pulling her foot closer to me. Her nails are painted a deep purple.

  "You have the cutest toes," I tell her as I start massaging her foot.

  She groans loudly and sinks further down into the couch. "Oh, yeah baby. That's the ticket."

  I grin at her as I dig my thumbs into her arch, pushing back to her heel. "So how was work today, dear?"

  Gray snickers as I release her foot, and she not so daintily pushes her other foot into my hands. "We worked out our goals for the trade deadline. It was a good meeting all around."

  "I assume you're not trading me," I say jokingly.

  "Definitely not trading you," she purrs. "But we are going to release Amedee."

  I whistle low and shake my head. "He is going to be one pissed-off puppy."

  "Alex was there...we wanted his take on the three we had marked. He advised me not to be alone when I gave Claude the news."

  "Gray." I say her name seriously so she knows I'm not joking anymore. "I think the guy is unbalanced. He's not going to be gentlemanly about this, so you absolutely can't do it alone, okay?"

  "I'm not," she assures me with a soothing voice. "Promise."

  I relax marginally and skim my hands along her calves, which rest near my left hip. Her fingers play with the hairs on my legs that lie beside her own left hip. My T-shirt has hiked up and I can see the royal blue silk of her panties, and if I weren't so stuffed full of pizza and so content to just lie here like this with Gray, I'd put my mouth right there.

  "Have you given any thought to what you want to do at the end of this season?" Gray asks me out of the blue. My contract with the Cold Fury expires then.

  "Some," I admit to her. "I guess a lot of that depends on how I finish this season, right?"

  "That's true," she says, although somewhat distractedly. "If you keep going the way you are, you know I'll want to renew you."

  "Physically, I think I have a few more years left in me. But I'm not going to lie...I'm set financially. I don't need to play anymore. I could potentially retire and look at maybe getting into coaching or maybe even broadcasting."

  Gray stares at her fingers as they play along my shin. She seems lost in deep thought, but then she's looking back at me with clear green eyes. "If you retired, you and I would be free to see each other."

  "Yes, we would," I agree with her gently.

  "It sucks, you know. This whole situation with us. And the pisser is that as a GM I really want you on this team. My competitiveness and the desire to win means I really want you on this team. But as a woman, as someone who sometimes very much wants to put her needs above this team's, I think you and I could have something really special if we could be together."

  I lean forward and take Gray's hands. I pull on her until she sits up. I pull harder until she goes to her knees, and then I tug some more until she's crawling up to straddle me.

  When she's sitting on me, pressed warmly against me, I place my hands on her thighs and give a slight squeeze. "I've been thinking about us, and while the way we have to keep this secret is less than optimal, I don't think it's going to be forever. I think this is just something we wait out. We don't know what's going to happen at the end of the season, or even the year after that. Hell, I could get injured badly next week and have to retire, and then we'd be free to see each other publicly."

  "Don't even say that," Gray mutters.

  "The point being, we've got time. Let's let it ride and know that our situation right now is nothing more than a temporary hurdle."

  She tilts her head to the side and drops her gaze to my hands, where she laces her fingers with mine. "I know...and you're right...it's just, this is all new to me and I'm finding it's exciting and wondrous and I want to experience everything. The unfairness of it...that I can't have a normal relationship experience gets to me. It makes me crazy."

  "If we could be normal, what would be one of the things you'd want to do?" I ask her curiously.

  Her eyes raise up to meet mine. "A date. I'd like to go out on a simple date. Dinner, movies, a walk in the park. I would want to go out in public, and have you hol
d my hand and kiss me, and the only concern I'd have of what others think is if other women were insanely jealous of me, and I would love that so much."

  I chuckle and my heart swells for this woman who wants something so simple. Something most women her age have already experienced in spades. Gray Brannon may have all kinds of experience in the sack, but when it comes to something as elementary as a date, she's like a high school girl going to her first prom.

  "You know what I'd want to do if we didn't have to hide what we have?" I ask her.

  She nods enthusiastically with an impatient twinkle in her eyes.

  "I'd have you over for dinner to spend time with me and the girls. I'd want you to get to know Ruby and Violet and I want them to get to know you."

  Her eyes immediately cloud over as she says bitterly, "I'm not good with kids."

  "Are you kidding me?" I chastise her with a rough squeeze to her hands so she understands me. "You were great with them when you came over a few weeks ago to see Ruby after her surgery. You're a natural at talking to them."

  She doesn't want to believe me but I see a flicker of hope within. "Really?"

  "Yeah," I assure her. "They're just people. Little people, but all you have to do is just talk to them. It's not rocket science."

  "It would be cool if we could take them to an amusement park or maybe the zoo. The North Carolina Zoo has an amazing arachnid exhibit that Ruby would love," Gray says with a leer. She knows my irrational fear of spiders and thankfully still thinks I'm sexy despite it. "That would be low pressure for all of us."

  "Or to the beach," I offer, while trying to repress a shudder over the thought of being in a room filled with hundreds of spiders. "In just a few hours and we could have the girls playing in the sand and surf."

  "Or we could take them over to my dad's house. His pool is amazing," she says with excitement, thankfully letting the idea of the arachnid house go.

  "We'd have to have the proverbial 'take me to meet your dad dinner' first," I add.

  "You've already met my dad."

  "As a player, not as your boyfriend," I correct.

  She giggles then and leans back, letting my hands secure her from falling. "We have a lot of stuff to do once we come out of the closet."

  "You know," I say hesitantly. "Maybe we can do some of those things now."