Meet Me in the Penalty Box: A Small Town Hockey Romance (Orchid City Book 1)

NICO

Are you busy after the game?

My mind was still reeling after seeing her. Harper. I didn’t get her name that night, but now I knew it and it was stuck like glue to the insides of my brain. Wes was rambling on about something beside me, but my eyes were cemented to my phone as I watched the three small bubbles appear and disappear.

“Yo, are you even listening to me?” Wes said as he obnoxiously snapped his fingers in front of my face.

I lifted my gaze to his, my eyes narrowed. “I’m a little busy, if you can’t tell.”

His eyebrows scrunched together. “Who could possibly be more important than me?”

I snorted and shook my head at Wes just as my phone vibrated in my hand. “Your ego is borderline suffocating.”

Wes chuckled. “You’d be lost without me, Cirone.”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re right. What ever would I do without Weston Cole?”

I’m looking back at my phone as he directed his attention to Lincoln and some of the other guys. They were lost in conversation and I was lost in my mind as I read the message Harper sent back.

HARPER

Who is this?

I bit back a smile and I shook my head to myself. She knew damn well who it was and I wasn’t here to play games with her. I wanted answers and I wanted to know when I could see her again.

NICO

Don’t fuck with me, pretty girl. You know exactly who this is.

I waited for a few beats and stared down at my phone. Watched as it went from saying delivered to saying read. And those damn bubbles didn’t bother to appear. She left me on fucking read.

“Cirone, let’s go,” Mac called over to me from where the guys were standing with a soccer ball. We always had to do some type of off-ice warm-up before getting on the ice. Soccer was the most recent choice, along with some stretching. They were all already dressed in their warm-up gear and I still had my suit on from when I walked in.

“I’ll meet you guys out there in, like, two minutes,” I told Mac as everyone began to file out of the locker room. Mac nodded but didn’t speak another word as he followed out after them.

As I rose to my feet, I opened up our message thread again and typed another out to Harper.

NICO

What do I have to do to get you to meet me somewhere?

I set my phone down and quickly stripped down to my boxers before pulling on my matching t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. I sat back down on the bench to tie my sneakers as my phone vibrated again.

HARPER

For starters, you can tell me why you didn’t inform me that you played professional hockey for the Orchid City Vipers.

At the time, it didn’t feel necessary. A lot of girls acted differently as soon as they found out you played a sport professionally. I didn’t know her well enough and I didn’t feel comfortable telling her. The same went for her though—she could have easily disclosed what her photography job entailed instead of being vague as fuck about it.

NICO

Meet me after the game and we can talk.

“Cirone, hurry the fuck up!” I heard Weston’s voice from the hall. A sigh escaped me and I shook my head. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking or doing. This was a waste of my time. She was just a random hookup and here I was overthinking it all.

The guys were already waiting for me and I left my phone on the bench in an effort to try and forget about the sexy photographer who was in the same goddamn building.

There was something about her that lingered with me after that night at the club. I gave her my number and didn’t hear from her. If I wouldn’t have ran into her tonight, there was a possibility that I would have been able to forget about her, but not now. Now she was fresh on my brain and right in my damn face.

After we finished our off-ice warm-ups and as I was tying my skates, my phone vibrated from where it was still sitting. My heart pounded erratically and the adrenaline was already fucking with my system. The energy in the room was electric and the boys were ready to go.

I rose to my feet and a message from Harper flashed across the screen. I needed to get ready to go out on the ice, but I found myself staring at the screen and my eyes absorbed her words.

HARPER

I don’t know if that’s a good idea.

Just as I was about to type a response, Wes grabbed my phone from me and pressed the button on the side to lock the screen. My brow furrowed and I glared at him. My lips parted to ask him what the hell he was thinking, but he silenced me as he shouldered past me to put my phone in my bag.

“Coach will literally take that shit from you like we’re in high school and you know it.” He stood back in front of me. “Don’t fuck around and fuck up, Nico.”

As if he heard us talking about him, Coach Anderson walked around the room in his freshly pressed suit, barking orders at everyone. Everyone began to line up and music pounded from the speakers around the arena at the end of the tunnel connected to the locker room.

I stared at my best friend for a moment. “Dude, you’re literally always on his shit list.”

“Yeah, and it’s not a fun place to be, so you’re welcome for me trying to save your ass.”

“Thanks, bro,” I told him as we both got into our respective spots in the line-up. Starting with our goaltenders, everyone started filing down the tunnel and running onto the ice after grabbing our sticks.

The music was loud, the lights were flashing around, and the entire arena was vibrant. It was a palpable energy. One that you could wrap around your fingertips and string around your body. As I skated across the ice, there was an effortless feeling, almost similar to what I’d imagine flying felt like.

Playing professional hockey was a dream I had always dreamt and now that I had it, I was never going to let it slip away. It was the most exhilarating high, no drug or alcohol could ever come close to touching it. It was deep-seated in my veins and it was something I would never be able to flush out. This was my entire identity and I needed to remind myself that.

We all took shots on the goalie and Wes set me up for a few one-timers as we continued our warm-ups. I could allow myself the luxury of fucking around with Harper, but that was all it could ever be. I would never give any of this up for anyone or anything.

Grabbing the puck with the toe of my stick, I skated around, pushing it along as I headed in the direction of the net. My legs were powering through and I deked to the left and then the right before flicking my wrist and sending the puck top shelf from the right side of the crease. Wolfe, our goalie, didn’t have a chance to stop it and he laughed out loud.

“Damn, Cirone.” He shook his head as I slid to a stop near him. “Your wrist shot is nasty. I’m ready to see some snipes.”

“Let’s see what you got,” I told him, smiling as I accepted the challenge. I got back into line and we all started skating in rapid succession, firing shots at Wolfe. I wasn’t sure how many actual shots on goal I had, but there were only a few that Wolfe managed to block.

He was one of the best goaltenders in the league and a vital asset to our team. He was a few years older than some of the newer guys so he was able to show us a thing or two when it came to playing against some of these other players. Wolfe was a good person to have in your back pocket.

As I finished shooting some shots on goal, I hung back, letting some of the other guys work Wolfe a little bit. Wes skated over to me and lingered for a moment before saying anything.

“Harper—she’s that girl you had in the closet at the club, isn’t she?”

Wes’s words completely caught me off guard and I whipped my head over to look at him. “What?”

“I knew she looked familiar, I just couldn’t figure out why.” He paused and smiled. “That explains why you didn’t like me talking about showing her around town.”

We both directed our gazes back to the net as the boys continued their rounds of making shots. Wes and I both needed to jump in, but he had my attention now.

“I saw her over by the net,” Wes said, his voice low. “Are you going to see her again?”

I side-eyed him. “Depends on if she wants to see me or not.”

Wes shrugged. “If you end up passing on her, let me know.”

My jaw clenched and I looked over at him just as he moved closer over to the boards to do some stretching. The last thing I was going to do was let her fall into Wes’s lap. I had a taste of her, but it wasn’t enough. I wanted more—enough to satiate my appetite, and then she could do whatever the hell she wanted.

It didn’t take but a fraction of a second for me to spot her in her position by the goal line. She was standing over there with her camera lined up through the cutout hole, snapping pictures of our team warming up. A smirk pulled on my lips and I lazily skated over to where she was.

As I neared closer, I turned around and skated backward until my back was against the glass. Glancing over my shoulder, I stopped directly in front of the hole, obscuring her view. It was a dick move, but I wasn’t going to let her escape me this easily. I pretended to stretch, even though it was barely a stretch.

“Nico, please move,” she raised her voice from where she was sitting and tapped on the glass behind me.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” I yelled back to her as one of the pucks came over to me. I received the pass and slid it back over to Wes who raised an eyebrow at me. “I’m just warming up.”

“Yeah, I bet you fucking are.” She was silent for a breath. “Seriously, I can’t see a thing and my job literally depends on this.”

“Agree to meet me after the game and I’ll leave you alone.”

I heard her exasperated sigh and couldn’t help but smirk. I had her exactly where I wanted her right now and I was successfully getting her to agree with me.

“Fine. Meet me in the media parking lot.”

Without another word, I pushed off the boards and joined the rest of my team as we finished up our warm-ups. I didn’t look back in her direction for the last five minutes that I was on the ice, but I could feel her eyes on me. And that was more than enough.

We finished up and all exited the ice so the Zamboni could cut it again and make it fresh before the game began. The boys were buzzing and everyone was hyped. It wasn’t long before we were back out there, standing as the woman who sang for our team sang the national anthem. We were playing the Firebirds tonight and they were one of our rivals. We had beat them the past three times we played against them and things were getting relatively tense.

As I skated over to my position for the puck drop, her bright blonde hair caught my attention. She was seated to the right of the net and her camera was positioned through the cutout hole in the glass. My mouth spread into a grin as I bent my knees and placed my stick where I needed it to be for the face-off.

This was going to be a fucking fun night.

I battled my opponent for the puck for a fraction of a second before I was able to get it away from him. Flicking my wrist, I passed it over to Wes, who was already waiting, hanging in the defensive zone. He didn’t hesitate to pass it to Mac, who was over on the other side crossing into the neutral zone. The puck was on the ice and the game was on.

We managed to get it into their zone and got two shots on goal, but both were blocked by their goalie. It didn’t take long for my first shift to end and my legs were burning but the adrenaline quickly washed over me. I dropped down onto the bench next to Wes and we both grabbed our bottles and drank from them as we watched the game continue.

“What was that with Harper?” Wes asked me out of nowhere. “I saw the two of you talking about something.”

I glanced over at him with my gaze slicing through his. “I’m going to tell you one time and this is the last fucking time.” My voice was as sharp as ice. He was my best friend but I knew how Wes operated. He ran through girls like it was his job. “Forget her name and stay away from her.”

Wes raised his eyebrows at me. “I take it that you’re not passing on her then?”

An exasperated sigh escaped me. I didn’t know what the hell I was really doing, but I knew that I didn’t want Wes to get any ideas about her. Our conversation was interrupted as Lincoln was checked into the boards by us. He lost his footing momentarily, but quickly recovered before skating after the asshole who slammed into him.

A few of the guys skated over for a line change. Without another word to Wes, I hopped over the boards, even though it wasn’t my shift, and sped across the ice, chasing after the puck and the pack of players. As I skated into their zone, Lincoln slid the puck to me. I received the pass and weaved through two of their players before sniping the small spot between the goalie’s leg and his stick.

The bull horn sounded throughout the building and it echoed as our fans cheered loudly. The boys on the bench were slapping their sticks against the boards and I went for a different celly this time, dropping to one knee as I pointed my stick toward Harper from across the ice. The guys on the ice all skated over to me and when I got over to the bench, the guys had their hands out and I bumped my glove against each of theirs. Coach Anderson looked less than amused that I was on the ice when the rest of my line was still on the bench.

I may have scored a goal, but there was definitely going to be hell to pay for that stunt.

I had a feeling it would be worth it in the end.