25. Victoria
VICTORIA
“You really like him.” Cambrie rested her chin on my shoulder as the last of the players left the room.
“Yeah, I do.” There was no use denying it. I doubt anyone who watched us would miss the something between me and Josh.
“So, what are you going to do about it?” She stepped back and finished packing up her cameras and microphones.
I glanced down at my phone, rereading the text he sent as soon as he’d left, asking to see me tonight.
The smart thing to do would be to decline and give us space.
I didn’t want to be smart.
I wanted to throw all caution to the wind, be reckless, and see what could happen. Maybe I’d regret it later.
But maybe not.
“I don’t know,” I finally answered. “I’m going out with him again tonight.”
I should probably let him know that too, but I liked the idea of making him sweat a little.
She was sorting through battery packs, so I quickly typed out a response asking him what time.
He’d waited about twenty minutes. That was long enough.
I was such a sucker.
Not cool or smooth at all. I didn’t know how to play the games, let alone what the rules for dating were.
All I knew was that I wanted to spend as much time with him as I could.
“Long distance doesn't have to last forever.” She zipped up her case and straightened. “You never know when things will change.”
“True, he could get traded next season.” He still had one year under his current contract in Utah—I’d checked—so he could move. I doubted his team would give him up, but stranger things had happened.
“He could get injured and be done in the first week.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Don’t say that.”
“I’m not wishing for it. I’m just saying it could happen.”
“Well, a meteor could strike and kill us all.”
She pointed at me. “Exactly.”
I rolled my eyes and pulled my bag’s strap over my shoulders, and followed her down the hall. “I’m going to take things one day at a time.”
“Good choice.” She pushed the exit door open, and we stepped out into the humidity, and I wished I could peel off my long sleeve blouse.
“How would right now work?” a deep voice asked, and I nearly jumped until I realized it was Josh. “I don’t want to wait if that’s okay.”
I grinned as I took in his shorts and white shirt. “You changed.”
“I packed another outfit,” he admitted. “I was sort of hoping you’d go along with my plan, and I didn’t want to go back to my hotel just––”
“Now works, as long as you don’t mind letting me put on some shorts too.”
His smile grew. “Not at all.”
“You can even carry our bags,” Cambrie beamed as she passed off her camera case and slipped my tote off my shoulder and held it out to him.
“I’d be honored.” He winked at me as we crossed the street.
Fortunately, we were staying at a hotel close to the arena and women’s teams rather than by the practice facility, so our walk was short.
“I’ll be right back down,” I told him as soon as we got to the lobby.
“Take your time.” He passed off our bags and took a seat on one of the couches.
When we got into the elevator, Cambrie stared at me in the mirror. “He’s a good one.”
“I know.” It would be so much easier if he weren’t.
“Don’t think too hard about it, okay? Just enjoy today,” she advised as we stepped off and split to go to our rooms.
“I’ll try,” I promised and tapped my key card to the door.
Without knowing what Josh had planned, I based my outfit off him. I pulled on shorts, a cream tank top, and navy Converse. With one glance in the mirror to make sure I looked okay, I grabbed a hair tie from the bathroom counter and hurried out.
My heart was pounding. I took a deep breath in the elevator, reminding myself to calm down, but I wasn’t nervous. I was excited.
Then again, I didn’t know how to play it cool, and I didn’t want to.
I smiled as he spotted me and stood, and I walked right into his waiting arms for a hug that felt a bit too close to coming home.
“Great game,” I whispered as if he needed to hear that again.
“It really was,” he agreed before pulling back enough to meet my eyes. “You probably didn’t notice, but I dedicated one of the saves to you.”
“Oh, yeah?”
He grinned. “Yup, even yelled, ‘This one’s for Victoria’ as I deflected it.”
I put my hand over my heart. “I’m honored.”
“You should be.” His gaze dropped to my mouth, and I didn’t care if anyone was watching.
I lifted onto my toes and pressed a quick kiss against his lips before pulling back. “Where to?”
“Somewhere indoors,” he held up his phone. “I was thinking of a museum?”
“I love museums,” I admitted.
“Me too,” he grinned, then tapped on the screen. "Spies, natural history, art, culture, space? There are also the botanical gardens.”
“I have done most of them already, but not the gardens or space museum.”
“Well, I’ve only done the art one.” He chuckled, “So do you want to do to the air and space?”
“Sounds good to me.”
“Perfect, it’s only a few blocks away,” he pointed in the right direction as we stepped outside.
After we crossed the first street, he took my hand. “I got a call from my manager earlier today.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah, seems I’m trending right now on a few social media platforms.”
I laughed. “From being such a good goalie?”
“You’d think that, but no.” He shot me a teasing smirk. “Apparently, certain videos have gone viral, and my name is being brought up in the comments.”
“How interesting.” I swung our hands between us while waiting for the light to change.
“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”
I pretended to think about it. “You know, that sounds vaguely familiar.”
We were about to pass through the main doors, a young voice called out, “Josh Henson?”
He immediately turned with a bright smile. I caught the boy, about nine or ten, running from his parents toward us with a tournament shirt on. “It’s you!”
“Hey,” Josh held up his hand for a high five. “What’s your name?”
“Alex.” His head was all the way back, looking up at Josh with wonder. “You’re huge.”
“I’m pretty average for a goalie,” Josh played it off. “So are you a Stars fan?”
Alex aggressively nodded. “We’re from Denver.” He pointed back to his parents, nearly on the opposite side of the block.
“Oh no, do you wish Jason Dexter was the goalie?” Josh asked.
“Nah, I like you.”
Josh laughed. “Thanks. Have you been to any of the games?”
“We were there this morning.” He was jumping on his toes, and his parents finally caught up.
“Sorry, he saw you and ran,” his mom apologized, but Josh brushed it off.
“No problem, I’m always glad to meet fans in the wild.”
“You won the game!” Alex declared as if it was Josh alone on the ice.
“The boys played really well, huh?”
“You had the most saves, though. Like so many, I lost count.”
“Twenty-four,” his dad supplied and offered his hand. “I’m Tyler, nice to meet you.”
Josh shook his hand. “You too. Thanks for coming all the way out to support us.”
“Oh, we’ve been looking forward to this since they announced it. Then, when they posted the teams…” Tyler whistled. “It’s a dream come true.”
“Would you mind if we got a picture?” the woman asked, holding up her phone.
“Here, let me,” I offered, and she handed it over. I moved back to get them all in the frame. Tyler and Alex were on either side of Josh, while the woman stood by the boy. “Say Go Stars!”
“Go Stars!” they echoed, and I took a few for them to choose from.
“Thank you so much,” they each gushed several times.
“Do you want Josh to sign your shirt?” I asked Alex. It seemed like something they’d want, but either forgot to ask for or didn’t want to impose.
“Would you?” Alex asked Josh, as if the offer was to join the team on the ice for the game as a first-line player.
“Of course,” Josh patted his pockets and looked around.
“Here,” I dug through my bag and found a marker I used to make notecards. Josh took it and signed the front where Alex pointed.
“Thank you so much,” Tyler repeated as he guided his son away, who was staring down at the signature in awe.
“Have a good trip,” Josh waved, then opened the door of the museum, and we stepped into the reprieve of the air conditioning.
“Sorry about that,” he said, but I stopped him.
“Don’t ever apologize about meeting a fan and treating them like a person rather than an inconvenience.”
He huffed. “I hate that.”
“Me too.” And far too many professional athletes did; blowing off the people that loved and supported them, rather than showing their appreciation.
“Has that happened a lot already?”
“That was the first time without a bunch of the other guys around,” he explained as he stared up at an old plane. “Wow, they start off with a bang, don’t they?”
“I think that’s the Wright brothers’ plane.” I was in awe of being hit with immediate historical significance without a minute to adjust.
“Huh.” He moved forward, not looking away from it. “How do you go up from here?”
“Like literally? With the plane or. . .” I teased, and he laughed.
“I mean, if you start with this,” he pointed, “how do you keep people engaged? There are more amazing things to see?”
“Apparently,” I turned and nodded. “Like that.”
He tilted his head. “What is that?”
I stared up at the space machine and took in the signs. “A moon rock?”
We walked around until we discovered there was, in fact, a moon rock we could touch.
“I feel like a little kid,” he whispered as we took in each artifact with awe. “Suddenly, I want to be a pilot or an astronaut.”
“Too bad you’re just a hockey player,” I teased, and he chuckled.
“Yeah, childhood dreams crushed.”
“Did you ever really want to be anything else?” I asked as we slowly strolled through the next exhibit.
“Not really, I fell in love with hockey as soon as I started, according to my parents. I don’t actually remember anything before then.” He paused. “Actually, there was a short time I wanted to be an ice-skating fireman, but my dad told me that wasn’t a thing, so I moved on pretty fast.”
I laughed. “My parents thought I’d switch to figure skating as soon as the skating class I was in split into boys and girls, but I was seven and knew I wanted to play hockey.
I saw the boys and girls spinning and leaping during their classes and was like, no thank you.
That looked too scary; I’d rather take a puck to the face. ”
He let out a loud chuckle that got the attention of those around us and quickly ducked his head. “Sorry, it’s just most kids I work with are afraid of the puck, and you were running toward it to get away from doing spins?”
“Yeah, they fell a lot, and I knew how much that hurt.” I shrugged. “Seemed like a no-brainer."
“Didn’t your older brother play too?”
“You remembered that?” I mentioned it during our first interview.
“Yeah,” he actually blushed, and I decided to let him off the hook and not point it out. I remembered nearly every word he’d said too.
“He did. That’s why I started. My parents figured as long as they were at the arena for him, I might as well take lessons too.”
“How long did he play?”
“Through most of high school. My parents wanted him to continue, at least to try to get a scholarship for school, but he was over it.”
“What’s he doing now?”
I grinned. “Accounting.” He cringed, and I laughed. “Terrible, right?”
“I guess there have to be people out there to do the jobs I can’t.” He shook his head. “But I’m grateful I don’t have to work with numbers and percentages and laws all day.”
“Same. I’d much rather chat with you and your teammates.” I remembered the comments on the last prank video. “Actually, I have an idea I wanted to run by you.”
“Oh, yeah?” We moved into the moon exhibit, and I gaped at the spacesuit. “That is so cool.”
He turned and saw what I was looking at. “Yeah, that really is.”
We moved closer and read the sign, then he turned to me again. “What’s your idea?”
Right, I’d already forgotten. This place was overwhelming and easily distracting.
“So, people are leaving comments asking me to ask questions. I was wondering if you think I should.”
“Isn’t that kind of what you do?”
“Well, yeah, but not fan questions and not directly for my social media accounts.” It sounded funny now that I was saying it out loud, but it felt like I needed the buy-in of the players, approval to use our professional connection for my personal use.
Personal professional use since my accounts were technically work-related.
“I think they’ll be fine with it. You have to know by now that all the players, from both teams, like you.”
I couldn’t hide my smile from that. “They don’t roll their eyes or groan around me nearly as much as some of the others.”
“Exactly,” he winked. “Plus, you can just tell them beforehand if they mind if you post to your own accounts. If they do have any issues, they’ll tell you, and you skip them.”
“Simple as that?”
He nodded. “Simple as that.”
Huh, maybe it was a good thing I spoke to him about it before I let it simmer and fester in my head. I was clearly overthinking.
Chris didn’t want this content, but the fans did.
“Thanks.” I slipped my hand into his and let myself enjoy the afternoon without another thought about work.