Best Shot (Madison Howlers Book 2) Page 7

  For some reason, Blake hadn’t predicted that Thea might like skiing. He wasn’t quite sure why. It was exciting to discover that she did . He gave a nod when she said it felt weird to go alone, because yeah, Blake had never been skiing on his own.

  “You’re right, that’s a very important part of skiing,” he nodded seriously. With winter quickly approaching, Blake was tempted to ask Thea if she wanted to go skiing with him, but it seemed... he wasn’t sure what. Not right, all things considered. That in itself ached inside Blake. He hated the way his emotions were confused about Thea all the time.

  It wasn’t really helped when the door behind them creaked and Doe came out of her room, wrapped up in a blanket and looking worse for wear. Instantly, Blake was up from his chair to check on her.

  “No, no, I’m okay,” Doe promised. “Headache and muscle aches. I think the cold is proper kicking in now,” she said. There wasn’t a whine in her tone, more just slight unhappiness. “Thank you for staying,” she added before giving Thea a dramatic look, corners of her mouth downturned. “I am dying .” The way Doe said it made Blake think it was probably an inside joke, especially when Thea laughed.

  “Don’t worry,” she promised. “I made healthy food, plenty of vitamins - but also enough garlic for you to taste it through a blocked nose.” The sauce did smell delicious. Blake couldn’t fault Thea’s ability in the kitchen, especially considering she’d been holding a conversation at the same time.

  Bending down, Thea peered into the oven. “All I need to do is put things on plates,” she said, waving a hand to one of the cupboards. “Why don’t you two go and pick a movie?”

  “Alright,” Doe nodded before giving a sniffle. It made her somehow seem even more adorable. “Could I also please have some tea?” she asked, making Blake smile. He could certainly appreciate someone who could manage to be polite while sick. It was not a skill that Blake felt he personally had.

  “I’ll do that,” he promised because it might not be his kitchen, but making some tea was pretty straight forward. “And I’ll even let you be in charge of the film picking,” he added a little teasingly. Doe, as the one who wasn’t feeling well, definitely got dibs on picking a film.

  “Sure hope you like Disney,” he heard her mutter as she walked off to crawl on the sofa.

  Blake wasn’t sure when the last time he’d even seen a Disney film was . By the time they had eaten and watched Frozen , he was pretty sold. Doe had dozed off mid-way through the film, but neither Blake nor Thea had minded. If Blake was perfectly honest, he had gotten into the cartoon quite a bit.

  Afterward, Blake helped Thea to get Doe back to bed, thanking her for the dinner. It had been a strange sort of date but Blake felt pretty good about it. It wasn’t until he was already home that Blake thought how weirdly, in a way, his date had been with Thea as much as Doe.

  Chapter Five

  Thea really tried to get used to Blake. She’d never had a problem with any of Doe’s boyfriends before. Even the ones she hadn’t liked much, she’d been civil to whenever they’d needed to spend time together. It wasn’t even that Thea didn’t like Blake. If anything, she had the opposite problem. Whenever Blake came to pick Doe up or drop her off, and Thea was home, they’d get chatting. It was nice - companionable. Blake told Thea which video games he liked and she explained the mechanics that made them work. Blake didn’t know much about it, but he was willing to learn, which Thea appreciated.

  And then Blake would have to leave, either to take Doe to dinner or else to go home. Thea tried not to resent it. Blake seemed like a great match for Doe. They were both sweet, and genuine, and a little reserved. Thea enjoyed trying to help them discover things about each other. It was just hard, whenever Thea remembered that she wasn’t part of their relationship.

  She’d been mostly telling Blake the truth when she’d said she didn’t date. Thea spent enough time with men in both her day job and her hobby. The last thing she needed was another man’s man in her life who believed that everything feminine was somehow lesser. She’d assumed hockey players would be like that. She certainly hadn’t met many women who were actually involved in the hockey side of things, except Ashley, who seemed to be learning to do the Howlers’ PR. The players themselves weren’t at all as bad as Thea had expected. She was almost starting to regret turning down the opportunity to date one of Blake’s teammates. It would, at least, have given her something - some one - else to think about.

  It had been a busy month. Between games and training, not to mention Doe’s job, Thea was lucky that she didn’t have to see Blake often . He’d picked Doe up for two more dates, and dropped her off once. Thea and Doe had gone to another of the Howlers’ games, but only to wave at Blake and the rest of the guys before they got swept off to do interviews. Thea was enjoying getting back into hockey. Even Doe was getting used to how aggressive everyone was on the ice. Thea found it oddly exciting, seeing such a different side of Blake. She pushed those thoughts firmly away.

  She’d been a little surprised to be invited to a party at Blake’s house. He didn’t seem the hosting type. Once she got there, it turned out to be more low-key than Thea had anticipated. The Howlers were there, of course, mostly slouched in front of Blake’s huge television playing Apex Legends. As soon as Doe had been swept up by Blake, Thea had made a bee-line for the console.

  It only took her twenty minutes to thoroughly kick Ricky’s ass. Feeling she deserved a victory treat, Thea went in search of something to eat. Chips and dips were all well and good, but she’d skipped dinner to help Doe get ready. She could use something more substantial. She was pleasantly surprised by the spread in the kitchen and was halfway through assembling herself a salad when she heard voices from the next room.

  “She’s always wanted to go, but I’m bummed I don’t get to spend Christmas at home.”

  Though she couldn’t tell who was speaking, it didn’t sound like a particularly private conversation, so Thea carried on. The answering voice, when it spoke, she did instantly recognize.

  “Yeah, but you don’t want to tell your mom she can’t spend Christmas with her new boyfriend. Not when he’s taking her to Paris ,” Blake informed whoever he was talking to. “Besides, aren’t you spending Christmas with Ashley, anyway?” The question gave Thea enough clues to recognize that the person Blake was talking to must have been Connor. He was the only one she knew in the team dating an Ashley.

  “I was going to take her home with me,” Connor whined. “I’m not sure what we’ll do now. Her parents already made plans.” Their voices were definitely getting closer. By the time Thea finished buttering a roll to go with her salad, Connor was standing in the doorway.

  “It’s not that I’m not pleased for her,” he added, apparently taking no notice of Thea’s presence. “I’ve spent Christmases away before. I just usually plan to go somewhere. I don’t want to be just hanging around Madison, that’s not Christmassy.”

  “Well, I’m pretty sure anywhere is as Christmassy as you make it,” Blake informed Connor before he noticed Thea. “Oh, hey,” he greeted making Connor also turn to give Thea a look. “Are you making a salad ?” Blake asked walking closer to peek into the bowl Thea had prepared for herself. “Make yourself feel at home, I guess,” he teased.

  He didn’t actually seem to mind, though, so Thea decided that she was free to carry on. She watched Blake get a couple of beers from the fridge, handing one to Connor. He paused slightly and then got another out, offering it Thea.

  “What are you doing for Christmas?”

  Thea took the offered beer, taking a sip while she considered the question. “I honestly haven’t thought about it,” she answered. Some years, Doe and Thea would stay together in their apartment. There were other times when Doe went to stay with her family or else had a boyfriend she wanted to spend Christmas with. Those years, Thea would either go back to Connecticut or chill by herself.

  “It’ll probably depend on what Doe’s doing,” she said. Which, in a w
ay, meant it would depend on what Blake was doing. He and Doe would presumably still be seeing one another.

  “What about you?” she asked.

  Blake didn’t look like he had thought about plans for Christmas. But then he shrugged, giving Connor a glance, before looking back at Thea. “Maybe skiing?” he answered, in a very non-committal kind of way.

  Connor broke into a grin. “What about that cabin?” he suggested. “That’s big enough for loads of people, right? You could take Doe, and we could invite a couple of other people, too.”

  It gave Thea a very unsettling pang of jealousy. She hadn’t been skiing in ages , and now Doe was going to be invited away to the slopes. Doe didn’t even like to ski. It was hardly Thea’s place to mention that. She turned her attention to her salad.

  “That’s a good idea,” Blake nodded. It made Thea’s heart squeeze uncomfortably against her ribs. He sounded so excited . “What about you, Thea?” he asked, startling her a little. Blake seemed to notice the surprise, shaking his head with some amusement. “You like skiing and you basically said you have whatever plans Doe has,” he pointed out.

  “Yeah, the cabin's huge and the more the merrier,” Connor nodded.

  “And what is Christmas about if not being merry,” Blake teased before looking back at Thea. “So, do you want to come? Presuming Doe wants to come. Do you think Doe will want to come?” Thea could swear that Blake sounded almost nervous at that, like he really thought Doe would say ‘no’.

  Thea hadn’t actually meant her plans would be the same as Doe’s. It seemed more important to reassure Blake than to point that out. “I’m sure she’ll be delighted to be asked, even if she already has plans,” Thea answered, sure that it was true. Doe would love the idea that Blake wanted to spend Christmas with her. Thea didn’t think she had promised to go home to her family. “I don’t want to speak for her,” she added. It seemed enough of an answer to satisfy Blake, who gave a nod

  As for herself, Thea chewed on her lower lip while she considered. Christmas alone could be pretty depressing, and she did love skiing. Her heart felt divided - between the half that wanted to go, to spend time with people she liked, and the half that thought a good friend would stay away.

  If she declined, Doe would definitely want to know why. What could Thea possibly tell her? That she found chatting to Blake too easy and hadn’t completely erased the memory of his dimples?

  “Sure,” she heard herself say. “I’ll come if Doe does.”

  The way those dimples then appeared was just unfair .

  “Excellent!” Blake proclaimed. His smile felt almost blinding and he reached in to clink his beer bottle against Thea’s. Then, almost as if it was an afterthought, he repeated the action with Connor’s. “So all things permitting - such as Doe and Ashley and whoever else agreeing - we’ll go skiing for Christmas!” He announced.

  Connor nodded, leaning in to thump Blake’s arm with obvious affection. Thea couldn’t hold back an excited smile of her own. She tried to at least stop the butterflies from fluttering in her stomach.

  “We should ask Remy,” Connor piped up, after taking a sip of his beer. “I don’t know if he’ll come, but it’d be a good chance to get to know him better.” That almost surprised Thea. She wasn’t used to seeing men think about that kind of thing.

  “How big is this cabin?” she asked, “because I’m not sharing a room with Remy. Or any other hockey player, for that matter!”

  “You can just share with Doe,” Blake commented, like it was so obvious. It struck Thea that he truly didn’t just assume that Doe would want to share with him because they were dating. Sure it had been a while but they hadn’t been on that many dates. Besides, Doe wasn’t a girl who slept with guys just so.

  Obviously not having any idea of what Thea was thinking about, Blake nodded towards the living room. Getting her bowl of salad, Thea followed him and Connor. There was still a video game tournament going on. Some people had splintered off in smaller groups, talking. Doe seemed very interested in whatever Connor’s girlfriend was telling her and Remy. At least, Thea thought, Ashley was there so Doe wouldn’t have to awkwardly try to talk to Remy alone, like Thea had done last time.

  “T!” Ricky exclaimed excitedly when he spotted Thea. “Will you kick my ass in Apex again?”

  “I’m sure she will, but first I had a question-slash-offer to some of you,” Blake said before Thea could answer. She did grin at the confidence in his tone, though, like he just knew she’d win.

  “Oh?” Ricky, fair play to him, actually paused the game to turn to Blake.

  “Yeah, Connor and I were talking about Christmas since his mom’s got a new squeeze.” Blake paused dramatically for a group ‘ooh’ and ‘ah’ and a few wolf whistles. “So... who’s up for Christmas at the cabin we went to a few years back?”

  There was a lull in the room before it burst into vibrant chatter. Some of the guys straight away said that they couldn’t - some looking disappointed and some not.

  “Hell yeah!” Ricky responded. “I couldn’t make it last time, but I love the mountains. Especially boarding.” From what Thea had seen of Ricky, he seemed to love everything . He was always enthusiastic. It was nice, if a little exhausting.

  Ashley moved away from Doe and Remy to come and slip her arm through Connor’s. He turned to press a kiss against her hair, and Thea’s gaze slid almost automatically to Blake.

  At least Ricky coming would mean Thea wasn’t the only single person. She didn’t think she was up to spending her Christmas entirely surrounded by couples.

  “I’ve never gone skiing,” Remy noted, as he and Doe followed Ashley over.

  “So you’ll come?” Blake asked. Doe looked up at Remy. Briefly, he seemed to glance at Doe and then nod. “Excellent,” Blake smiled before his gaze, too, turned to Doe. “What about you? Thea said she’ll come if you come,” he added, sounding like he felt this would sweeten the deal.

  Doe looked at Thea, seeking out the nod she gave in confirmation. It was nice that Doe, like Thea, based her answer off what the other’s plans were. “Yeah, I’ll come,” she confirmed with a smile.

  “Great!” Connor exclaimed. It seemed almost remarkable to Thea how quickly his mood had turned around. His enthusiasm was infectious. Thea found herself smiling, too.

  “I didn’t know how to ski last time,” Connor added, turning to Remy. “You’ll pick it up. You can already skate, so it’s not like you’re going to fall over.” Thea wasn’t so sure that skiing and skating really had all that much in common.

  “There will be lots to do that isn’t skiing,” she promised instead, “but it’s worth trying if you never have.”

  Remy nodded again. “I’ll try anything once,” he agreed.

  “Ashley?” Connor asked. “Does it sound like a good plan?”

  “Yeah, definitely,” Ashley nodded, turning slightly to Blake. “It’ll be better than spending Christmas listening to Connor complain about how it’s just not fair that he can’t have his mom’s Christmas food,” she teased.

  “Awesome,” Blake nodded. “So that’s sorted, then. I’ll make arrangements so we can all go.”

  “Do we need to get everyone Christmas presents?” Ricky asked with a small frown. “I’m not sure I’d know what to get half of you,” he added. Thea was pretty sure by ‘half of you’ he meant her, Doe and Ashley.

  “Maybe we can do a Secret Santa?” Doe suggested. “That way everyone only has to get one present?” The suggestion earned a few nods and a couple of ‘good idea’s from everyone. Doe beamed.

  “And we can all bring our favorite Christmas movie,” Thea suggested. “It gets dark pretty early, so we’ll need something to do in the evenings.” She turned to Blake. “I assume the cabin has a TV and a DVD player.”

  Before he could answer, Connor had already jumped in. “Last time, we just watched old hockey matches,” he admitted. It made everyone laugh, and the women shake their heads. Thea felt almost sad. She would’ve enjoyed w
atching some matches.

  “When is your last match before Christmas?” she asked, this time not directing the question to anyone in particular.

  “About three days before,” Ashley answered before any of the guys could. Thea didn’t know Ashley well, but she had heard that Ashley was very organized . Having met Connor on multiple occasions, Thea still wasn’t sure how those two worked out so well.

  “So we can all head out together,” Blake commented. “I’ll make sure the cabin’s ready. I think we can get a tree once we’re there if people want that.” It kind of made it sound like Blake didn’t much care for Christmas decorating. Doe, however, gave a very excited nod.

  “Yeah, a tree would be great!” she proclaimed before blushing when people turned to look at her.

  Remy, quite sweetly, nodded. “It’s not Christmas without a tree.”

  “Decided then. We get a tree when we’re there, we’ll go after the last game. Maybe if Ricky’s very lucky we’ll bring a PS4 so Thea can kick his ass in video games some more,” Blake said teasingly. Ricky, to his credit, nodded very eagerly like nothing would please him more than having Thea beat him at video games.

  No one had mentioned how they’d be paying for the trip, or for whatever cabin they’d be renting. Thea made a mental note to ask, later. As the girl he was dating, Blake might pay for Doe’s share. Thea had no intention of letting him include her in that.

  For now, she claimed a seat in front of the TV, waving Ricky over to join her. “Come on,” she urged. “I’ll give you a taste of what it’s going to be like at Christmas.”

  Everything seemed to come together remarkably quickly . Ashley had asked if she could organize, and everyone had been more than happy to let her run the show. She added everyone into a group email to send them pictures of the cabin, then sent out individual texts to let them know their Secret Santa recipients.