Chapter 15 #2
Zoe fit the stereotype of a Coloradoan far too well with her laidback personality and clear tolerance for the cold, seeing as how she hadn’t even bothered with a coat this evening despite the dropping temperatures.
“How on earth did you get into hockey, then? I can’t imagine it being a very popular sport down there.”
“Through Uncle Cal.”
“Wait.” I held up my hand to stop her, my eyes closing as I tried to process this new information. “Calvin is your uncle?”
All Calvin had told me when he decided to retire was that he’d found his replacement and would pass along the key. Easy enough.
Now that I really thought about it, though, I could see the similarities. While he had much darker blonde hair than Zoe, they had the same shade of hazel eyes. I really should have put two and two together.
“He has a habit of leaving out important information, apparently. He didn’t tell me you owned the rink, so of course he didn’t tell you that I was his niece.
” She waved her hand dismissively and returned to the original question.
“When I was four, we started visiting him and my Aunt Peg every winter break so we could actually have a white Christmas. That year, Uncle Cal had decided to build a little rink in his backyard and gifted me my first pair of skates. I fell in love the second I stepped onto the ice and held a stick in my hand.”
I smiled. “I know that feeling.”
I’d tried my hand at skiing as a kid and got tired of the monotony of going down the same hill over and over again. Hockey, however, was fast-paced and unpredictable at times. My mind didn’t have time to wander when I was on the ice.
“I left for Denver the day after my high school graduation, and I’ve been here ever since,” she said.
Her smile dropped ever so slightly at the end before she forced it back up. I would have asked more, but she continued talking.
“Maybe once the first solid snow arrives, you and Charlie can come to Cal’s with me, and we can play two-on-two.”
I raised a brow. “Ready for a rematch, are you?”
She matched my expression, that familiar spark of competition lighting her eyes.
“We tied again last time. One of us has to win at some point.”
Wes had been right, of course—not that I would tell him.
The temperature had dropped significantly since we’d first entered the restaurant and Zoe had all too eagerly taken my blazer when I offered.
Watching her nuzzle into the warmth of it just about did me in.
It was hard to focus on driving when she looked so cute in my passenger seat.
We’d barely made it a couple blocks from the restaurant when Zoe gave me a heart attack, gasping and clamping her hand down on my arm.
“Miah, look!” She tapped a couple times against the glass in the direction of City Park. A large sign advertised the Boo at the Zoo event. “I’ve always wanted to go, but somehow, I end up missing it every time. Maybe I can get Jada to go now that Bash is bigger.”
I shook my head. “Hold on. Miah?”
My lips threatened a smirk as I glanced at her from the corner of my eye.
“Yeah. I’m sorry, but Jeremiah is just too damn long. Four syllables? Really? My name is only two, and I still shorten it.”
A laugh burst out of me. “I wasn’t the one who chose my name.”
She wasn’t wrong, though. Jeremiah was quite a mouthful, so I was used to nicknames. Playing hockey, you never got called by your full name anyway. I’d been Fielder, Lang, Langy; whatever rolled off the tongue the easiest.
“Why not Jere?”
She scrunched her face and quickly shook her head as if she’d just downed a shot of bitter cough syrup. “You are not a Jere.”
I rubbed my thumb along the steering wheel. I’d never been called Miah before, but the sound of it on her lips made my chest warm like that first sip of hot cocoa on a cold day.
“I like Miah,” I mumbled softly, not daring to glance in her direction. I didn’t need her to see just how flustered I was by the nickname.
“Good.” She nodded. “Miah it is, then.”
Unfortunately, her apartment was closer to Montebello than I liked. I would have wound around the city more just to keep spending time with her if I thought I could get away with it. But as the saying goes, all good things come to an end.
Zoe waited this time for me to open her door. I was even more disappointed to see that she had shed my blazer and set it neatly on the console.
“You know, I’ve never done the whole… fancy restaurant date thing before,” she admitted as she slipped her hand into mine.
My insides lit up when she intertwined our fingers.
“Really?”
She shrugged. “My last relationship was in college, and neither of us had the money for something like this.”
I mulled over the new information as we walked to her building.
“How did I do, then? Did it live up to your expectations for a fancy restaurant date?”
I stopped at the bottom of the stairs, and Zoe stepped onto the first before turning to me so we were eye-to-eye thanks to her heels. She wore a pleased smile. My gaze lingered on her cherry red lips a second longer than necessary.
“One hundred percent. I had a great time tonight,” she said.
“So did I. It's been a while since I’ve had a Shirley Temple. Forgot how delicious they are.”
Her cheeks flushed and she ducked her head as she laughed.
There was a hint of nerves in her laugh, and it brought me comfort to know that she felt the same as me.
It had been such a long time since someone made me nervous, and that was definitely the case with Zoe.
But in a good way. A way I craved more of.
But then she looked up at me in a way that had my heart catching in my throat, those hazel green eyes of hers sparkling even in the dark. I tried to take a deep breath, but it came as a shallow inhale instead.
“Would you like to go on another date sometime?” I finally got out.
She bit her lip, but her smile still peeked through. “I’d love to.”
My fingers fiddled at my sides, wanting nothing more than to reach out and touch her. To put my hands on her hips like I’d wanted to earlier and pull her toward me for a kiss.
It must have been written all over my face, because Zoe draped her arms around my neck and leaned in close. I didn’t hesitate to meet her halfway, one hand finally coming to rest on her waist while the other slipped under her hair to cup the back of her neck.
The kiss was all Zoe; sweet and tender, but an undeniable confidence in it as she took control. My lips still tingled even when she pulled away, her hands gliding over my shoulders in the most delicious way before she stepped back out of my reach, leaving me reeling there on the sidewalk.
“Goodnight, Miah.”
“Goodnight, Zoe,” I all but whispered.
I stayed rooted there even after the door shut behind her and she disappeared into the building. For the first time ever, I wanted to figure out how to balance being in a relationship with being a father, and that was a daunting desire to have.