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

Rolling over in bed, my eyes were still closed as I slid my hand across the mattress. I was expecting to feel Harper’s warm body against mine but when I didn’t, I felt around for her in the bed with my hands. The side she was lying on was still warm, but she wasn’t there. I lifted my eyelids and lifted my head to look for her.

Where the hell did she go?

Panic slid through my veins and I couldn’t help the feeling of dread that built in my stomach. After the accident, this newfound anxiety had decided to enter my mind. I was terrified of losing Harper. It wasn’t that I didn’t realize her importance in my life before yesterday—it was just one of those moments that really put things into perspective. And Harper was the one I knew I couldn’t live without.

I climbed out of bed and as I was walking to the door of my bedroom, a wave of relief fell over me as I heard her voice just outside. Thank God. Reaching for the doorknob, I turned it and pulled the door open. Harper was sitting on the hallway floor with her back against the wall across from my door. Her gaze lifted to meet mine as she saw me and I raised an eyebrow at her.

“Yes, of course,” she said quietly into the phone. I moved into the hall and sat down across from her as I saw the worry lingering in her eyes. “I agree that we should have a meeting to discuss this matter in person rather than over the phone.”

I glanced down the hall as my guest bedroom door opened up and my sister stepped out. She looked at both of us like we were insane and quickly signed to me. “What the hell are you guys doing on the floor?”

I shrugged. “I found Harper out here so I decided I’d sit with her.”

Giana stared at the two of us for a moment. “You guys are kind of weird. Can I talk to you for a minute?”

I looked back to Harper who was listening intently to whatever the other person was saying to her through the phone. Judging by what I had heard of her conversation, I was assuming it had to do with the small scandal we had caused. I swallowed roughly and climbed to my feet as I followed my sister out into the kitchen.

Giana took a seat at the island. “So, you can say no… but I was wondering if I could stay here a little while longer.”

“Absolutely,” I signed back to her. “You know my home is yours and you can stay as long as you want.”

She pursed her lips and fiddled with her fingers for a moment. “I don’t want to go back home. I meant to tell you sooner, but I want to live here, closer to you. There’s nothing for me in Tampa and I really just needed to come home.”

I assessed my sister for a moment. “Did something happen? Is everything okay?”

She nodded and smiled. “Everything is fine. I just think it’s time for me to start living my own life the way I want to.”

“You can stay here for as long as you need or want to, G,” I told her with nothing but honesty. My doors would always be open for my little sister. “What about Dad?”

“What about him?” she signed back and shook her head. “We literally live, like, fifteen minutes from one another and I rarely see him. I doubt he’ll even notice that I’m gone.”

Her words struck my heart and I felt bad. I left as soon as I was drafted, but Giana had no reason to leave. She went to college in Tampa and lived with our father during that period of time. Since she had graduated and started working as a marine biologist, she was able to get her own apartment, but she didn’t venture far away. I knew part of her stayed because she was worried about him.

Orchid Beach was always our home. When I went off to college, our parents moved to Tampa because my mother wanted to be on the gulf side. Ironically, she never made it back to our hometown before she passed away. And this was the only place I wanted to be because of her memory.

It just seemed like maybe Giana had finally realized we were never going to be much in our father’s eyes because we weren’t our mother. Some people just can’t move on in their lives after losing the most important piece of themselves. Loving Harper made me empathize with him more and I understood. But as his son, that didn’t make anything any better. It didn’t make me feel better or any less pain for my sister.

I would like to think that if Harper and I had children involved and something happened to her, I would hold on to them as tightly as I possibly could. They would be the only lasting thing from her. Almost like her legacy or her living memory. I guessed that our father just couldn’t see past his heartbreak to realize he still had us.

“I’ll only stay until I get a job and can find my own place,” Giana told me as she broke through my thoughts and her hands moving caught my attention again.

I nodded at her. “As long as you need, G. You’re the only real family I have and I’ll always be here for whatever you need.”

She smiled at me and I watched as a wave of curiosity passed through her expression. “Did you hear that Malakai was back too?”

I slowly cocked my head to the side. “Since when? He didn’t say anything to me about it.”

“You still talk to him?” my sister signed back to me with a surprised look on her face.

Malakai Barclay was my best friend growing up. He came from an extremely wealthy family, but he was also troubled. He wasn’t one who openly spoke about his problems, except to one person. Winter Reign. Malakai never really told me what was going on between the two of them at the time, but when she left to go to college in Vermont, Malakai left too.

From what I knew, he didn’t follow her. He was off chasing his dreams of being a professional golfer and getting as far away from his abusive father as possible.

“We talk occasionally, but you know how he is,” I told her with a shrug.

Malakai was like a closed book. We had kept in touch over the years, but it was relatively scarce. He knew I was back in Orchid Beach so it surprised me that he didn’t let me know he had returned as well.

“Maybe text him and see if he wants to get together.”

I stared at my sister for a moment. Knowing Malakai, he would probably blow me off. With him, there was always a darkness that crept just beneath the surface. I was happy for him that he was doing well in life, but Malakai had the type of demons you couldn’t outrun. I could only hope for his sake that he had learned how to fight them instead.

“I’ll have to do that.”

As I pulled out my phone, I unlocked the screen and went to my messages to send Malakai a text. It was short and to the point and I was surprised when he responded almost immediately.

NICO

Hey man, I heard you were back in town. Let’s catch up sometime.

MALAKAI

Drinks tonight at The Lounge? Meet me there around eight.

NICO

Sounds good. I’ll see you then.

“He wants to meet up tonight at The Lounge,” I signed to my sister.

Giana smiled at me just as Harper wandered into the kitchen with us. She paused in the doorway and I turned back to look at her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt,” she said apologetically with a small smile.

I held out my hand, extending my arm for her as I smiled back at her and shook my head. Harper stepped close to me and I hooked my arm around the tops of her shoulders as she slid against my side. “Absolutely not, love. Giana was just telling me her plans about wanting to move here. She’s going to stay with me until she can find a job and get her own place.”

Harper’s smile was bright and she looked over to my sister. “This is amazing news!” She genuinely looked happy as she continued to smile at Giana.

Giana nodded and smiled back at her while she began to sign in response as I translated for her. “I can’t wait to get to know you better and spend more time with you guys.”

“I can’t wait either. I’m actually still relatively new here to the city, so it will be nice to have another friend.”

Listening to the two of them had my heart feeling like it was going to burst from my chest. Giana wasn’t a mean person, but we were both similar in the way that we were protective about the people who meant the most to us—and I was one of those people to her. When I was in high school and college dating other girls, G never approved of any of them. She knew none of them were going, so she didn’t really give those girls the time of day.

Seeing how she was with Harper made me realize that she knew how serious this was too. She knew Harper was it for me. There had never been anyone else quite like her in my life before. Giana knew she was the real deal.

I turned my attention back to Harper. “Was everything okay with whoever you were talking to on the phone?”

Harper’s shoulders sagged a bit and she shook her head. “I don’t think so.” She paused for a moment as she stepped out from under my arm and grabbed herself a cup of coffee. “It was Phillip, the head of media. He wants to have a meeting on Tuesday before the game to discuss things.”

Dread rolled in the pit of my stomach and Harper leaned against the counter as she sipped from her mug. Giana looked between the two of us and I spoke the words she signed out loud for her.

“G wants to know what there is to discuss.”

Harper shrugged and faced my sister as she spoke, even though she was talking to the two of us. “He knows about the accident and that the two of us were together. I’m assuming he’s probably going to either fire me or make me resign and go away quietly.”

“Shit,” I mumbled as I hung my head. I only let myself feel the blow from reality before looking back to her. “I’m coming to the meeting with you.”

Harper’s eyes widened. “No. There’s no reason for you to go. This is about my job, and I’m sure you’ll have to answer to your coach and everyone already.”

Her words reminded me that I needed to call Coach Anderson to talk to him and see who else I needed to deal with. What a fucking mess. It wasn’t like either of us were a threat to each other’s jobs. Hell, while we were both working, there was no way we could really even bother each other. There was always a sheet of glass separating us. Harper didn’t distract me from playing hockey.

“This is all just fucking bullshit,” I growled as I planted my hands on the counter. “Let me talk to them and explain things. Maybe if I come along and say something it will save your job.”

Harper stared back at me for a moment. “What is it that you think you could possibly do? How are you going to save my job?”

“I don’t know,” I shrugged, feeling absolutely helpless at that moment. “There has to be something I can do. I told you I would protect you, love. Please let me do that.”

Giana tapped on the counter to get both of our attention before signing, “I don’t think there’s anything you can do to help her, Nico. I know you think that being a player on the team that it will make a difference, but they’re not going to listen to you.”

“She’s right,” Harper said quietly after I finished translating. “I’m sure we’re not the first to get involved like this or the last. But think about it… If they were to let us slide, they would have to extend the same grace to other people too. There’s nothing we can do about it except accept our consequences for our actions.”

I shook my head, refusing to accept it. “At least just let me come along.”

“It will look worse if we show up together.”

“Please, Harper,” I practically pleaded with her. “I need to at least try to fix things.”

There was a deep-seated need inside of me to ensure she was safe, and that included her job. I knew I was being a little irrational and both of them were right. I wasn’t necessarily sure I would be able to change the board’s rules that strictly prohibited relationships like this, but I had to try. I promised Harper this wouldn’t happen and here we were.

Her chest rose as she inhaled deeply and I watched it fall as she released her breath. “You can’t always fix everything, Nico,” she said with her voice soft and gentle as her eyes searched mine. “But I’ll let you try.”

“Thank you, love,” I told her as I stepped to her to wrap my arms around her waist.

She looked up at me. “I need to go back to my place sometime today.”

“I’ll come with you,” I told her without any hesitation as I just invited myself along. I was still feeling shook-up and didn’t want to be away from her if I didn’t have to be. My sister would be fine here without me, especially since she was going to be living here now too.

She smiled at me and shook her head. “You don’t have to do that.”

“I know I don’t, but I want to,” I told her as I pressed my lips to her forehead.

“Okay,” she agreed softly as she wrapped her arms tighter around me.

I knew I was never going to be able to let her go.

And I was never going to let anything tear us apart.