Chapter 19 Scarlett
scarlett
It’s family night, and I’m nervous about being here.
I’ve never been on the ice before. In fact, I’ve never been inside an ice rink.
I don’t know the first thing about hockey.
I’ve watched a couple of his games, plus some internet searches have helped me come to the conclusion that the man looks delicious decked out in hockey gear, only to be slightly outdone by the sight of him as he walks down the hallway of the arena in a suit that looks like it was painted on him.
“It’s going to be okay, Lettie.” Lucas’s voice fills his Jeep as we stop at a light.
His left arm lies over the steering wheel, his hand dangling as he looks over at me.
It should be a crime for this man to be this attractive.
It’s really not fair to the rest of the male population, but I mean, I’m not complaining.
His right hand lands on my thigh, gripping it in a way that sends a rush of heat to my cheeks. His hand is so big it swallows my thigh. The sight is as erotic as it is humorous. I groan, letting my head fall back against the headrest, “I just don’t want to fall in front of all your friends.”
He laughs, and my thighs immediately squeeze together, trapping his hand at the sound, and yup, there goes my mind, straight to the toilet. “What’s got you so flustered, Lettie Girl?” He squeezes before he starts to run it up and down the inside of my thigh.
“I’m already nervous that I’m going to make an ass out of myself. I don’t need to be wound up tighter than a banjo string.” I swat at his hand, “Behave yourself, Lucas Monroe.” I chide, his laughter fills the air once again.
“Ma’am, yes ma’am.” he shoots me a wink before his face turns serious. “You have to know by now, I wouldn’t let you fall, right?” I do, but still, something about being on a sheet of frozen liquid with kitchen knives strapped to my feet does nothing to settle my nerves.
Maybe it’s because I want to impress them, maybe fit in is the better word.
I rub my hands on the outside of my arms, a nervous habit I haven’t kicked.
“I know, I just…” My head turns to look out the window, it’s times like these I realize how utterly alone I was even when I was surrounded by people.
It was all surface level bullshit. I never had to talk about my feelings.
It was easy for me to fade into the background.
“I want them to like me, but because I’m me. Not because of who I am to you. And I know if I fall, it’s going to be embarrassing and then like, what group of hockey players wants to hang out with someone who can’t even stand up on the ice without turning into a human bowling ball?”
“Scarlett, they already love you for you.” He sighs, running his hand through his hair that’s currently down, hanging just above his shoulders. “I know you don’t know them like I do, so it’s hard to believe they like you for any other reason than because I love you. But that isn’t it.”
“It’s not?” My hands fall to my lap, fingers lacing together as I chew the inside of my lip.
He turns his head to me briefly before turning his focus back to the road, his lips twitch at the corner before he shakes his head.
“It’s not. Sammy went off about how if anyone was touching my goodies, it was you.
Reed’s been giving me shit because you’re way more of a badass than I am.
And Wilson? You’ve made yourself a lifelong bestie of a giant teddy bear when he heard you told Lily you liked Rapunzel. ”
My eyebrows slam over my eyes, “Was someone trying to touch your goodies?” I pout.
“No, pretty girl. My goodies are reserved for you and you alone.” He throws the car in park, looking over at me before he grabs something out of the back seat. “Stay.”
“What am I, a freaking dog?” I mutter as he jumps from the car, smiling at me through the windshield.
His hand lands on the door, swinging it open and stepping up on the rail before unbuckling my seatbelt. “No, you’re my woman.”
My mouth falls open, and every rational thought escapes my mind. I’m reduced to one working brain cell, and that brain cell repeats one word. His.
“At least until you tell me you’re not.” Then his lips are on mine. Slow and warm, melting me from the inside out. My hands travel up his chest, wrapping around his neck as I dig my nails into the thickness of his shoulders. At the same time, I trap his bottom lip between my teeth.
“Mine,” I whisper. His eyes fly open, filled with heat and desire. The swirl of it is intoxicating. So intoxicating that I close my eyes, releasing his lip and pulling him closer to me. I’m half a second from telling him to go park somewhere else when a slow clap sounds from behind him.
“Hand it over,” Abby says with a victorious smirk as she holds her hands out to either side of her.
Both Hannah and Reed grumble as they place money in her open palms. Lucas doesn’t miss a beat.
He brings his forehead to mine, laughing before he wraps his arms around my hips, pressing me flush against him, slowly letting me slide down the front of him.
His excitement presses into my stomach as my feet hit the ground, “Be a good girl and turn around, but don’t move unless you want them to see what you do to me.
” A smirk pulls at my lips before I turn and walk toward Hannah, looking over my shoulder just in time to see his jaw drop before he lets the sweatshirt he had in his hands hang in front of him.
“Never said I wanted to be a good girl,” I throw him a wink before I thread my arm through Hannah and Abby’s as we walk inside the arena. The guy's laughter follows us inside, and I may put a little extra pep in my step as we go, showing him just how not good I am.
“Yeah, I like you,” Hannah says, looking back over her shoulder. “You’re good for him.”
I feel the heat crawl up my neck. “He’s good for me, too.
” The second we push through a set of double doors, I’m smacked with cold, the kind of cold that hurts your bones and makes your nose run.
“Holy crap, I wasn’t expecting it to be this freezing.
They play in this?!” The girls laugh as they walk toward the group that I’m learning is their core.
Sammy sends me a sheepish smile before turning to listen to what Hannah’s saying.
I feel Lucas before I hear him, “Cold?” He asks as he steps in behind me, his arms wrap around my waist, fingers locking together in front of me.
I nod, letting myself lean into the warmth of him.
“Brought this for you.” In a blink, he’s in front of me with a giant light gray Hawks sweatshirt that looks identical to the one he’s wearing.
“Is this yours, or do you think I’m one of those girls who likes to curl up in oversized sweatshirts? Because if so, you’d be correct.”
He doesn’t respond, just turns the sweatshirt around, letting me see the “Monroe” and the number twenty-six stitched into the back.
A claiming, a very public one. “How utterly caveman of you, Lucas Monroe.” I purr as I take it from him and pull it over my head.
I’m immediately surrounded by the scent of him, manly, fresh like the ocean with a hint of citrus.
“This was a horrible idea,” he mutters, shifting his weight in front of me, before turning and walking away.
I watch his retreating back, a smile sitting firm on my face, only growing bigger when I realize how light I feel.
All worries of falling or making a fool of myself are long gone, because I know he’s got me.
On the ice or in everyday life, I’ve got a hell of a man on my side.
He comes back with two pairs of skates, neither of which looks like the rentals other people have on. “Whose are those?”
He pats the bench, kneeling in front of me once I’m sitting.
He slowly starts to untie my shoes, slipping them off before pulling a long sock over the ankle sock I already had on.
“I was hoping you’d let me take you skating more than once.
I bought them when you told me Lily invited you. I just had the blades sharpened.”
“You weren’t mad that she asked me? Kinda seemed like you were.”
He stops and cups his hands over my knees, “No, I love that she likes you. It just felt like I was losing someone else. I know I’m not, but my brain isn’t a very fun place to be right now.”
“I’d never try to take any of your friends, Goldie.
I want us to build together, not apart.” Even as I say that, the text from my father burns a hole in my pocket.
I should say something, anything, but when is the time to say, “Hey, I think my dad had something to do with your mom dying, but I couldn’t do anything about it? ”
“I know.” His hands squeeze the tops of my thighs before he moves back to my skates.
I watch, entranced with the movements of his hands as he laces up my skates, tightening them in all the right places, giving me some sense of stability in my ankle.
Once he’s done with the first, he does the same to the second, and only when he’s finished do I realize the number of people staring.
“Why are they staring?” I lean in closer to him and whisper.
He looks over his shoulder, smiling before he turns and sits next to me to put his own skates on. “I’ve never brought a woman here. Most of the people here this early are wives, girlfriends, or family of my teammates or the staff.”
I swallow hard, “And have you been with any of them?” The question tumbles from me, I blink rapidly, embarrassed that I’d just asked him such an intimate question.
He takes it in stride, sliding his hand across my jaw until his fingers disappear into the hair behind my ear.
“No,” he breathes against my lips before he presses a soft kiss to them.
I’m honestly surprised someone hasn’t come along and swept him off his feet.
Surely I’m not that special. “Stop overthinking it, just be here. With me.”