Chapter 14

Tyler

"I want you too, Tyler," she says. "I really want to see where this could go."

"It's getting harder and harder to stay away from you," I say. It's possibly the hardest thing I've ever done so far with a woman. I'm that pent up about her. It's ridiculous.

"Even if you know I'm not like most women?" She whispers.

"I told you, I like that." I don't care with her. Whether she's conservative, or holding back, or whatever. I'm willing to get to the bottom of it all.

"You don't even know the half of it."

Maybe that's true, but that conversation I overheard with coach still comes to my mind more often than not. I hope I can broach that subject without making her uncomfortable.

"Well, I want to know it all," I say. "No holds barred."

She glances up at me, her dark eyes shining. "Why don't we have a date night next week when you get back from New York?"

"That sounds perfect." I loosen my arm from around her as a couple of the guys walk past.

"I'd better get back to my friends," she says. "But I'll text you later."

I sigh, but I know it's for the best until we figure shit out.

We spend the next hour mingling, and I try not to watch her like a hawk, but she's a little hard to avoid. When the girls all make a move to leave, I'm about to go walk them out with Taylor and Jay when Coach Carter slaps a hand on my back and pulls me into a conversation with our assistant coach Ted, and I lose sight of the girls leaving.

I know we will text later, but it's going to be a few days before we're back from New York.

Hearing her tell me she wants me and to see where things go is like my favorite song on replay. It's something I'm never gonna get sick of knowing. We're both aware it's brewing, especially if the kiss in the lot at the stadium was anything to go by the last time we met.

That was fucking perfect. Everything about her is.

I'm already planning our dinner date when I leave the stadium a little later.

I think somewhere out of town would be good, where we will get some privacy and no one will care.

I just need some time alone with her. Bumping into her and watching her from the coffee shop window just isn't going to cut it anymore.

I know I probably can't even wait until then, but I have to. At least until we get the next game over with.

I guess it's no surprise to find myself careering to her place the second we land on Sunday night from New York. I'm elated and feeling on top of the world from our win against the Kings on their home turf, which has now secured our place in the Stanley Cup finals.

She gave me her address over the weekend, so I could pick her up on Tuesday and take her for dinner. I did drop her off that time she was with Susie, but I was too engrossed in her to even remember where I was going.

So here I am. Instead of trying to play things cool and keeping myself at bay so I'm not getting in my head during such a crucial time for the Hawks, I find myself standing beneath her brownstone, throwing stones up at her window, trying to wake her up.

My texts didn't work, but I guess it is late and she probably is sleeping.

I hear a dog barking, then a light goes on and the window opens. Just as I'm whisper-shouting, "Cindy!" up her drainpipe, I see her head stick out of the window to look down. I'm tempted to find a way to climb up there, but I'm not sure she would appreciate the sentiment.

I guess she could just come down and open the door. But is she gonna let me in?

"Tyler?" She squints down at me. Clearly, I woke her up. Shit.

"Yeah, it's me. Sorry if I woke you, can you come down for a second?"

She runs her hand through her hair and I see her nod as she closes the window.

I already hear her dog scratching at the door and barking pretty loud.

A minute later, the front door opens and Henry shoots forward, barking at me as Cindy stands there in her nightgown.

"Henry, it's okay," she says, trying to grab him.

I scoot down to his level, looking at the cute little black Frenchy. I hold my fist out so he can take a sniff. "Hey, little fella. I'm a friend of your mama's." I feel like an ass for waking her up, but not enough to leave and let her go back to sleep. I glance up at her as she yawns sleepily.

"Hey, Ty."

I love it when she calls me that. "Hey," I say as Henry finally stops barking and starts licking my hand. Within a few seconds, I'm giving him a scruff around the ears.

"He's a big softie really," she says with a giggle, watching us.

She probably thinks I'm here for a booty call, but it's not the reason I came. Not even in the slightest. I just wanted to see her.

"A bit like me," I muse, as I stand upright again, and Henry bolts back inside.

"What are you doing here so late?" she asks.

"I wanted to see you," I say, cupping her face in my hands and reaching down to kiss her softly. "That was all."

She laughs quietly, leaning in the doorway.

"And we won against New York," I add. I know she already knows that, but I say it anyway. "We're in the finals, baby."

"I know." She smiles, wrapping her arms around me. I tower over her, not even attempting to push myself inside her door like I want to.

There's no way she's ready for that.

"You guys did great," she says. "I watched every second of it on the edge of my seat."

A deep laugh rumbles in my chest as I reach down to kiss her again, pulling her flush against my chest and wrapping my arms around her. I love the feel of her body against me. And yet again, I can't hide my body's response to her being this close.

I know she feels my erection digging into her because it's not hideable, that, and she laughs lightly into my chest.

"Sorry about that," I mutter into her neck. She smells divine, it's that marshmallow scent again or something just as sweet. "I just wanted to see you and tell you I haven't stopped thinking about you."

"Me either."

I set her back on her feet and rest my hand on her hip. "I'd better let you get back to sleep."

She laughs and swats me on the arm. "You woke me up to tell me that?"

"It couldn't wait." I shrug. I know she's not mad, she has a sweet smile on her face. One I'm certain I'll never get sick of looking at. "I'll see you Tuesday, if not before."

I lean in for another kiss. The feel of her plump lips pressing into mine is doing all kinds of bad things to me. I have to go before I get too carried away on her front doorstep.

"Goodnight, Tyler. Thanks for stopping by," she jokes, as I take a step back and watch her whilst walking down the brownstone steps, hanging onto the rail for support so I can get one last look at her before I slide back into my Maserati.

"Goodnight, baby."

* * *

"No Monday stalking today?" Jay muses, as I use the vending machine to get a shit cup of coffee in the stadium that I'm probably going to regret.

Coach called an early morning training session before anything else gets underway.

That means no coffee shop for me. Not that I even need to do that now.

"Funny fucker."

Jay shrugs, "Don't tell me you still haven't made your move?"

"I'm making plenty of moves, believe me."

The boys know about it. The night before the last game me, Ashton, Taylor, and Jay all went out for dinner after practice and it went a little something like this;

"Yeah, are you actually serious?" Ashton quizzes me about Cindy again while we eat tapas and have a few drinks waiting for our main meal, except Taylor, of course, he never drinks before a game.

"Yes, I'm serious," I tell them, leaning forward. "I saw her having dinner one night a couple of weeks back with her friend… so I walked up to her table and we started chatting."

"Chatting?" Taylor scoffs. "Since when do you chat?"

"Since her," I say, because I can no longer help myself, and it's only a matter of time before they start asking me questions again, anyway.

"And?" Jay is digging for more info. "You had dinner with her?…"

"Yeah, they invited me to sit down with them. I thought she was just being nice at first, with her dad being coach of our team and all, but a couple of drinks in and we exchanged numbers…"

They all stare at me in disbelief. I don't add about the driving her home thing and kissing her in the driveway.

"So, you're like sexting her now?" Jay asks.

I give him an unimpressed look. Anyone talking about her like that irks me. "Texting, fucker."

I hear Ashton and Taylor chuckle.

Jay holds up his hands. "Texting, sexting… whatever. What's the vibe?"

"She's fucking gorgeous… I mean, have you seen her?" I run my hand through my hair in frustration."What the hell am I gonna do?"

"You fallin' for her?" Taylor asks.

I sigh… "Fuck… I think I am." It's not news to me, but saying it to them is.

"Of all the women in the world, you had to go and pick the coach's daughter?" Ashton laughs.

"How the fuck is that my fault?" I grumble.

Jay shakes his head. "You better cut that shit out, bro, if you're serious, at least until the season is out. If Coach finds out…"

"He's not going to find out… not yet, anyway."

"You think it could go somewhere?" Taylor asks.

"We went out for coffee once after the dinner thing. I mean… nothing is set in stone. But yeah, I think it could go somewhere."

"One coffee!" Taylor shakes his head.

"Maybe that's all it took," Jay muses.

"Nothing happened," I say. "I just can't get her out of my head. We text all day, every day."

"Well, I can now see where your head has been during training," he laughs.

I flip him the bird. "Why the fuck do I tell you guys anything?"

"Look, if Coach gets wind of this, we all suffer," Ashton says. "So, we gotta help a brother out here and keep it on the down low." He nods toward me.

"In all seriousness, Ty, if you like Cindy as much as you're making out here, you gotta do the right thing by her and Coach. But I agree with the guys, I would wait until after the playoffs before you start dating or whatever," Taylor offers.

He's right. I know it. There's no point in doing anything to disrupt coach during such a crucial time. However, that doesn't mean I'm not going to keep secretly seeing her.

They get on to talking about Emmerson coming to the game and I tune out a little, only jumping in when they jibe Taylor about him not getting laid for a while. I'm one to talk.

Of course, Jay is in the thick of it as always, claiming he's up to his neck in it and that he's seeing someone right after we're done here. Maybe that's why he keeps looking around for his main course. I don't even bother asking him anymore who he's hooking up with.

Jay snaps me out of my reverie with a click of his fingers. "Woah, you're going deep there, brother."

I sigh. "I've got a lot on my plate, that's all."

He pats me on the back. "Just focus on the finals. That's all we need to do right now. The rest will follow."

I can only hope he's right.

* * *

The Stanley Cup Finals…

Time goes by faster than ever. We're flying through the finals quicker than I can keep up with.

I haven't seen Cindy properly since the night I went to her door. With all the back and forth and back-to-back games over the last two weeks, it's made it impossible.

We text every single day though and have both agreed to wait until the games are over before anymore sneaking around.

I still haven't caught up with Luke either, so that's gonna have to be after the Cup because we're now into the fifth game against Vegas Heat in the finals. I have a lot of catching up to do when this is over.

We're aware if Vegas wins tonight, it could stretch out to seven games. But as we're up three games to their one, if we win, the Cup is ours.

We're on home turf tonight and I'm feeling pumped. The entire team is.

You can't even describe that vibe that's going on around the stadium. To have all our fans out here cheering us on, it's like no other feeling in the world.

My whole family came, including my grandparents. And baby Leon is dressed up warm for his first hockey game. There's nothing like starting them out early.

It warms me inside to see my supportive family watching. I know my parents wouldn't miss it for the world. I also know my back is feeling fucked, and I need a rest before it gets worse.

So the Hawks do what we do best, and pull out all the stops.

We have a game plan, and each player knows his role in this. The plan is to put it away early. Vegas Heat didn't make it here because they're an easy team to beat. Taylor and I have been over the footage when they played the Dallas Lions, and we've taken that into our game plan.

"You guys know what you need to do," I say in our team huddle going into the first period. Taylor is even more pumped than most because by now he and Emmerson have rekindled things, and he knows she's in the crowd. He's also been on good terms with his dad again, something that I think has been a long time coming. He has a lot to fight for right now. I guess we all do. But he's playing even harder for her.

And I want to play hard for Cindy.

The first period we get off a rocky start because the play is so rough. The crowd loves a good fight, there's no doubt about it, but there's so much at stake tonight. I have to watch out for my boys more fiercely than ever. Jake scores the only goal five minutes before the buzzer. Vegas isn't crushing us, but they're making it very difficult. In the next breath, he gets knocked down by their defenseman Peter Montgomery. Taylor and Jay are first to get to him to pick him up off the ice and we resume, minutes from the siren.

I can see in Taylor's demeanor he is going to get the drop on another goal before the buzzer. As he slides lightning fast, heading straight for the goal, snaking left and right, he draws his stick back and belts the puck flying into the net as the goalie lunges and misses the save, laying defeated on the ice.

We all cheer and skate up to Taylor for a brief celebration, but resume quickly because the clock is still ticking.

Jay flies through the center on the next play, passing the puck to Taylor as he skates up the right edge of the ice, finally being able to lose defenseman, Josh Beauman, for a second.

He draws back his stick to take a shot, but just as he does, Josh catches up with him and slams him into the barrier so hard he loses his footing and they both fall down onto the ground. Taylor lays there on the ice as the siren wails out around the arena.

I skate on over as Ashton is already helping him up.

"You alive?" Ashton asks him.

"Doesn't feel like it," he mutters, holding his ribs. "I hope I didn't break something."

Ashton and I help him skate off the ice as coach meets us at the players door.

"Go get that looked at," he says, patting Taylor on the back as he gets to the player's bench to sit down and take a breath. Assistant Coach Ted is on him in seconds and he ends up getting strapped around his ribs in the locker room. He's refusing a substitute, insisting he's fine.

Of course, he'll say anything, but it's up to the team doctors to decide.

"You alright?" I ask Jake, who took a bit of a hit himself in the first period.

"Yeah, they're just extra tight tonight," he mutters.

"And we're going to come back even stronger." My strategy is always encouragement, because telling them it's looking shit and we're however many goals down rarely evokes much confidence when the stakes are so high. If we win this, we win the Cup.

I give one of my usual pep talks during the ten-minute period. I steal a glance up at Cindy on the way through the player's door. I notice she's moved from her original seat and is now sitting over where Emmerson is with her family. She smiles and I give her a nod, my eyes lingering on her for an extra second or two.

She's paranoid about her dad finding out about us and firing my ass. I know it won't come down to that, but I need to man up and tell him I want to date his daughter. In my mind's eye, I practically have been dating his daughter. If the stolen kisses we've been sharing whenever we get a chance are anything to go by, I'd say things are heating up. I know she wanted to take things slow, but I don't even know how long I can keep going without touching her.

I guess if we win tonight, everything can be worked out. I'll have around three months of downtime before pre-season training.

I've already decided I'm going to the Florida charity game whether I play or not. We both agreed this might be a good time for us to spend some quality time together.

Taylor isn't sure he will even be attending as his mom is sick at the moment and waiting on results for a surgery on a brain tumor. I've already offered to take his place, or be on standby. He might be the league's leading forward striker, but for charity I'm happy to jump in, even if it isn't in defense, and hopefully not make a complete ass of myself.

And I can't say I'm not motivated to get out of Seattle and spend some time with my girl.

I smile at the last selfie she sent me of her with Henry. He was pretty cute that night I turned up unannounced, and I plan on getting to know them both a whole lot better…

Going into the second period, the defense is impeccable, but Jake and Taylor dominate. Jay is on fire in his center role. He's everywhere tonight. The guy is a fast fucker, that is for sure, weaving in and out all over the ice.

And Taylor. No one can match him. Seeing Emmerson has put a rocket in his skates. Whatever it takes, I'm here for.

He promised to let Josh Beauman not know what hit him when he got back out there.

When he scores his first, it comes thick and fast as he dodges and weaves around Josh, then slams one into the net. The crowd goes berserk.

I skate right up to him.

"That was fucking fast," I say, patting him on the back.

"My girl's in the crowd," he shouts back over the noise.

That will do it every time.

Play continues. I block like a motherfucker, me and Ashton closing the ranks, as we pull in our defense and make it tight for Vegas, blocking at every turn.

All I keep thinking is my girl is in the crowd. Just like Taylor said about Emmerson.

I've been thinking about Cindy constantly for months. She's always in the forefront of my mind, and I know I'm going to stop at nothing when this is over to take things to the next level.

I wanna be her guy. I want us to be able to go out and do shit and not worry who's watching or who's going to photograph us and it get back to the team and her dad.

I don't want to disrespect her like that, but I do want more.

I want her to meet my family. I think they'd get along famously.

It's all hitting me in one fell swoop. Maybe it is the enigma of the night. Maybe it's a lot of things, but I don't really care. I just want her.

We're six goals to three now. Coach Carter is going nuts on the sidelines, and it's largely thanks to Taylor's new found fire in his skates. He's been firing goals off left, right and center. He even slides up to the barrier and makes quite a show of banging on the glass in front of Emmerson, where she's sitting with Cindy. I see him hold his gloved hand up at the glass while Emmerson presses her palm to the other side.

I chuckle to myself. I gotta hand it to the guy, he's smooth, and he knows exactly what he wants.

I rip my helmet off as I skate to the players door and give Cindy a conspiratorial wink on the way past.

Third period to go. Then I can make my move.