Hockey Hottie (Loving the Puckers Book 1) Read online

  Hockey Hottie

  Kat Obie

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Falling Fast

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  1

  Klaus

  I loved being on the ice—always had—but it was weird training under Uncle Scotty and playing for my dad’s old team. It wasn’t weird in a bad way, but in that all-your-dreams-can-come-true kind of way. You would think that after two months of being back in Cleveland, the shine would have worn off, but not yet.

  I skated off the ice and Coach Wheiland, aka Uncle Scotty or my dad’s best friend, said, “K, I need to talk to you when you’re done changing.”

  I nodded in acknowledgement and went to the locker room. Almost everyone on the Sound would call me Lager or Lags since my last name was Lagerfield. But to Uncle Scotty, that was my dad’s nickname. So he would call me K, a nickname given to me by his daughter when she was a baby.

  I wondered what was up. I didn’t think I’d done anything to get in trouble. Okay, I’d loosened a few water bottle lids, but that wasn’t anything new.

  Colton Weber—Webs—came up and wagged a finger at me., “Looks like someone is in trouble with Daddy.”

  “Am not, you ass.” I grabbed a towel from the laundry cart and snapped it at him. Not that it would do much harm since we were still in our pads.

  Of course, he snapped one back at me as he said, “Then why are you being sent to the coach's office?”

  I sat down in my stall, deciding not to go any further with Webs in the towel snapping contest. I peeled off my gear. “Maybe I’m finally getting promoted to the top line. I have been on fire lately.”

  “You wish,” called out Matt Shoresy, the right winger whose spot I would be taking if I got moved up to the first line. Although, with how Scotty had things, the two of us had the exact same amount of playing time.

  He would probably keep me on the second line to act as their spark plug.

  Shoresy continued, “He’s probably going to tell you to lay off the pranks.”

  I laughed. He was just mad since he hadn’t checked the lid before trying to drink from his water bottle and soaked his shirt.

  “Nah.” I knew for a fact that wouldn’t be it. I was nowhere near the prankster my dad was. Scotty had loved Papa’s antics. It kept the guys loose and on their toes. He missed it when Papa retired.

  I got showered and changed quickly since I didn’t want to keep Scotty waiting. As I pulled on my under armour shirt, Webs said, “Well, it was nice knowing you, Lags.”

  “You can’t get rid of me that easily.” I walked out of the locker room and went the short distance to Scotty’s office.

  The door was left open, which was normal for Scotty. It was only when he didn’t want to get interrupted that the door was shut. I popped my head in first and said, “You wanted to see me.”

  “Yeah. Come on in. Take a seat, but shut the door first.”

  My heartrate started to rise. He wanted to talk business and didn’t want anyone else hearing the discussion. I did as I was told and sat down across from dad’s best friend.

  “Relax, K, you aren’t in trouble.” Scotty could always read me and my dad easily. I was a lot like my dad. For the longest time, Dad called me his mini-me.

  “So, why am I here?”

  “I need a favor.”

  “Sure,” I would do anything for him and his family.

  “It’s about Lexi.”

  Now that was intriguing.

  Scotty’s daughter. I’d had a crush on her since basically forever. With her vibrant, long, wavy red hair and amazing legs, there was nothing not to love about her. It didn’t matter she was like six years younger than me and I would basically babysit her.

  “Doesn't she prefer going by Alex now?” Scotty didn’t like change, and having Lexi switch to Alex last year couldn’t have been easy.

  Then again, it still blew my mind that she competed as Alexandra and I’d been following her figure skating career for years. It was her given name but I still found it weird since she never went by Alexandra at home.

  “Yeah. But you know what they say about old dogs and new tricks. Just don’t tell on me,” he said with a wink.

  I nodded. “So, what’s going on?”

  He relaxed and started to slouch in his chair. “Can you train with her? This is a big year for her, and I don’t trust the bitches at the rink to know what’s best for her.”

  “Of course.” He didn’t need to ask me twice. I would gladly spend time with Alex, as long as it wouldn’t get me into trouble. Scotty had made it real clear there would be consequences for any player who so much as flirted with his daughter at the beginning of the season. “I’ll call her today.”

  “Great. I know I can trust you.”

  I nodded in agreement. I would do anything for her.

  Scotty continued, “Also, it might be nice if you could bring her to the team Halloween Party next week. It was always so cute how you guys would dress up in matching costumes and go trick or treating together.”

  That was the kind of thing that made me feel like a kid again in front of Scotty. Most of the time, he treated me like an adult and no different from other people on the team, despite knowing me my whole life.

  But it was true. Lexi would ask me to wear matching costumes for years, and we always had a good time and got cute photos. It only stopped when I was 18 and my hockey career prevented me from coming home to dress up for her.

  I had to ask the obvious. “Are you sure you are okay with her at a team party?”

  We all knew that coach’s daughter was off limits, but we’d be getting super drunk. She would be exposed to all sorts of things that Scotty wouldn’t like. If I got too drunk, I wouldn't be able to keep my hands off of her.

  I hadn’t actually planned on bringing a date. Asking Alex to be my date would be fun for old time’s sake, but I wasn’t so sure that she’d want to go.

  Scotty reluctantly nodded. “As I said, I know you’ll protect her. And as Al reminded me, Lex is old enough and stubborn enough to go despite what I think. It would be nice to know she’s going with someone who’ll keep her out of trouble.”

  There was only one problem with his plan.

  Alex thought of me like a big brother. I highly doubted that she wanted to spend Halloween coordinating costumes and going on a date with me.

  I would be game if it made her happy. I would do almost anything for her, but would she even like the idea?

  “I’ll definitely protect her.”

  Alex

  The day’s practice had been far from ideal. Between fighting my layout and struggling with my triple loop landing, I was sore and tired.

  The triple loop was the only jump I didn’t land cleanly on a consistent basis. If I could get a bit more reliably, I was a sure thing for an Olympic medal next year. Even without the triple loop, I had enough tricks to get a medal, but I wanted that damn gold one.

  “Great job out there, Lexi,” said Bethany with a solid gold sneer. She was the closest thing I had to a rival at my club, which is why she loved it whenever I struggled and relished calling me Lexi.

  On the plus side, no matter how hard I struggled, I still outskated her and she would always be second best to me.

  Whenever girls like Bethany pretended to be nice—which was a little too often in figure skating—I would channel my inner Michelle Obama. When they go low, you go high.

  I gave a genuine
compliment. “Seems like your triple triple combo is getting better.”

  I sat to get out of my skates. I was actually glad to have off-ice conditioning and school for the rest of the day.

  After throwing on my sneaks, I checked my cell phone. My heart skipped a beat when I saw that K had texted me. It was dumb and made me a stereotypical love struck teen. Klaus would always be K to me. As a baby, I couldn’t say my L’s and S’s well, so ‘Klaus’ became ‘K’.

  K: I heard you might want a training buddy

  A: What do you know about figure skating?

  K: You rock at it but I was thinking about off ice-training. Don’t tell anyone, but your dad can be a real taskmaster on the ice. ;)

  Klaus was seriously hot. I loved how he could make me feel like the most special person in the room. It didn’t matter that I had known him my whole life.

  I hadn’t heard much from him lately, despite the fact that he’d just signed a deal bringing him back to Cleveland after spending five years in New York City.

  A: Wanna lift with me at 3?

  K: Sure. My dad’s place?

  A: Can we do mine? That way I have everything I need.

  K: Sure. I’ll see you there!

  Just like that, my day was made. I just had to do some homework for my kinesiology class first since it was only 1pm.

  When I walked into the house, Dad was scrutinizing his iPad at the kitchen island. Probably studying hockey video, as per usual. He smiled and looked up at me

  “Someone’s in a good mood. Don’t tell me you have a date.” Just as quickly as he looked up, he was watching the screen again.

  I couldn’t actually tell if he was excited for me or appalled at the notion of me dating since he hid his face. He struggled with the idea of his little girl dating anyone.

  I said with a giggle in my voice, “Yeah, I have one.”

  To my dad’s credit, he barely looked at me when he said, “If he hurts you, I’ll kill him.”

  It was the constant threat. I wasn’t exactly sure if it was hollow since I’d seen my dad get into enough hockey fights over the years to know he protected those he loved. Although, I couldn’t ever see him wanting to hurt his godson, so with a light voice, I replied, “No, you won’t, Daddy. You love K too much. Besides, we are just going to lift together. It’s not even a real date.”

  He put the iPad down. “Even he wouldn’t be safe if he truly hurt you. But I’m glad you are going to hang out together today and that you are so excited.”

  I rolled my eyes. It was silly to even think that he would hurt K, although I had gotten him to stop staring at the video on his screen for a few moments, which was an accomplishment all on its own.

  Then I thought about K’s texts and how Dad worded everything. “Daddy, was this your idea?”

  “Whatever makes you think that?” His tone was the worst attempt at feigned innocence that I’d ever seen. It was totally his idea.

  “You weren’t even a little bit surprised to hear I was working out with him, and K said he heard that I needed a workout buddy. So, yeah, it’s pretty obvious.”

  He reached out an arm and pulled me into a hug. “Has anyone told you that you are too smart for your own good?”

  “Once or twice,” I said with a smile. He was proud of me. It was awesome he’d come up with the best workout buddy possible after I complained that my longtime partner wasn’t here anymore.

  Dad let go of the hug. He had a sheepish grin that brought out the dimple that always made my mom swoon. “Hope you aren’t mad.”

  “Why would I be, Daddy? You know I love hanging out with K.” Hell, I’d have loved to do a lot of things with K if I was given half a chance. Most of which my dad would hate. Then again, K would probably never look my way since I was so much younger.

  But a girl could dream.

  “Good. So, how was practice today?”

  “Still travelling more than I like on my layback and fell at least six times on that damn triple loop.” I actually liked talking to Dad about figure skating more than with Mom. He sorta understood what I was saying but not really, so he would just try to build me up without overwhelming me with critiques. “You’ll get it. You always do. Do what you need to do before Klaus gets here.”

  2

  Klaus

  It was surprisingly easy to schedule a lifting session with Alex. I wasn’t sure if she would like the idea, but she took to it like a duck takes to water. Only bad thing was I had little rest between workouts. I just hoped the Halloween Party idea would go down as easily.

  The afternoon seemed to crawl along. Finally, it was about ten to three. I started to head over to her house. As I walked out of the door, my dad strolled in and immediately asked, “Where are you off to?”

  It was weird living with Papa and my stepmom. I still hadn’t decided what I wanted to do in the off-season. Did I go back to New York City and stay at my apartment? I hadn’t sold that place so it was nice to be rent free in Cleveland while I decided what to do. But the downside of being 24 and living at home was I couldn’t bring home girls if I wanted and I had to tell them my plans basically anytime I left if it wasn't hockey-related. I said casually, “Just working out with Alex.”

  That stopped Dad in his tracks completely. “Wait, which Alex are we talking about?”

  “Wheiland.”

  The grin that broke out on my dad’s face was almost scary. He was one of the few people that knew how much I liked Alex. Then I remembered he was a terrible confidant and had probably told Uncle Scotty.

  “Are you finally done avoiding her?” he asked.

  “I haven’t been avoiding her.” I knew that sounded too defensive and unconvincing. I had been avoiding her some since I wasn’t sure if I could keep my desires to myself.

  “You keep telling yourself that, buddy. Don’t think I haven’t notice how you conveniently have plans with Webs anytime we are going to hang with the Wheilands if it’s not team-related.”

  “I’m not that bad,” I said, trying to deny that I didn’t bail out of family plans that might involve Alex.

  “Yeah, you are. Especially when you add in the fact you go to as many skating competitions as you can so you can cheer her on yet you won’t tell her. You don’t ever date anyone since you are hung up on her. Please tell me you are finally going to ask her out.”

  I shook my head in disbelief. He was right, but I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that I was going to ask her out. Instead, I just said, “Papa . . .”

  “Don’t you ‘Papa’ me. We all know you are in love with her. She’s a woman now. Why not take a chance and ask her out? It’s her favorite holiday next week.”

  “She doesn’t see me that way.”

  Papa just shook his head and said, “Yet you are going to get hot and sweaty with her. It won’t take much to go farther.”

  I just walked out the door not even acknowledging what my dad just insinuated. It was crazy to think that we would end up doing anything but work out. I swore I heard his belly laugh as I shut the door. I just couldn’t believe my dad sometimes. I rushed to Alex’s place, trying to put that conversation out of my mind.

  I rang Alex's doorbell. Almost immediately, I saw Alex run down the stairs in cute leggings and a sports bra that hugged her body in all the right ways. She really was a woman, and it took all my self-control not to get hard on sight. I just kept reminding myself: “We are just friends and I’m doing her a favor.”

  She opened the door with a wide smile. “Hey, K.”

  “Hey.”

  She stepped aside so I could get by.

  Like a dumbass, I said, “You look good.”

  I used to be smooth with the ladies back in New York City. Then again, none of them held a candle to her. Thankfully, she ignored my inability to communicate and said, “You don’t look too bad yourself. Come on, the gym is downstairs.”

  “Kinda figured.” I flashed a smile and said, “Not like I haven’t been here a thousa
nd times.”

  “True, but it’s been a while.”

  “Sounds like you missed me,” I teased.

  “I have. There’s no one to save me from Gavin anymore. I missed being able to hide out with you.”

  That brought a smile to my face. I had always tried to protect her from Gavin since he hit puberty. That kid was so damn horny and so out of his league with Alex. So when our parents had parties with the Corsos, the two of us would sneak off and watch 80s movies together. “That’s a name I haven’t heard in a while. Is he still a horn dog?”

  “Believe it or not, I think him getting drafted made it worse. Thankfully, he’s been staying in San Jose most of the time. I haven’t seen him since the summer.”

  It was unsurprising that both Gavin and I got drafted into the NHL with the way we would practice with our parents. Although, I was hoping to hear he would leave Alex alone from unwanted flirting while I was away.

  The two of us walked to the basement gym. It was a great gym and updated regularly. As soon as we were downstairs, I realized that I had no clue what to do with Alex. Normally, I would have taken off my shirt and gotten into my own routine. But, I highly doubted she would be doing the same exercises as me or think me shirtless was appropriate. Then again, it was a little naughty of her to be in a tiny sports bra and having her toned abs on display.

  She headed to the stereo and said, “I’m going to turn on some music. Just do what you normally would do. I have a set regime that I’m on but I’ll need you to spot me sometimes.”

  She was damn confident, and it was sexy as hell. While I wasn’t sure I could run enough to keep myself from thinking of all the things that I wanted to do to her, I would try. So I headed towards the treadmill but paused and bit my lip. I nodded to let her know that I understood that I could do my own workout and be ready to spot her on things the heavy lifts like squats and bench press.