Page 97 of Tough Call

I pushed myself up on my elbow and faced him. Caressing his cheek, I whispered, “Are you sure about this?”

Madars gently clasped my wrist and kissed the center of my palm. “Completely sure. I don’t want to give up an NAL contract, but I can’t give you up. I just can’t.”

My throat tightened. “I don’t want you to resent me if⁠—”

“I won’t.” He held our hands against his chest and looked right in my eyes. “Hockey was never going to be forever. I can’t justify choosing it over you. And that’s even before I think about how quickly and easily it might chew me up and spit me out.”

I blinked. “You don’t think they’ll keep you on?”

He half-shrugged. “Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. But I saw how quickly the scouts lost interest in me after I got hurt in Prague. The only reason anyone still reached out to me is that Vancouver is trying to turn things around before they go into a complete rebuild.” He squeezed my hand. “There are other leagues and other teams. There are things I can do besides hockey if I can’t play anymore.” His Adam’s apple bobbed. “But there really is only one you.”

My throat tightened, and I touched his face and pulled him in. “There’s only one you, too.”

His lips parted with a soft, near soundless laugh. “My mother would say, thank God for that.”

I laughed, too, which loosened some tension. “Eh, you were a pain in her ass, not mine.”

He arched an eyebrow. I rewound my own words, and I groaned as I realized the unintentional double entendre.

“Oh my God.” I facepalmed. “That was⁠—”

“You said it!” he laughed. “Not me!”

“You are such a dork!”

“Don’t forget pain in the ass.”

I lowered my hand and tried to glare at him, but his mischievous grin made me crack up. Drawing him in, I murmured, “This is why I love you.”

“Because I’m a pain in the⁠—”

“Shut up.” Then I shut him up with a kiss. He was still grinning, but his lips quickly softened, and we let that kiss linger far longer than I’d intended. I had no complaints; I was always game to taste his gentle, talented mouth.

The Sword of Damocles was still there, but I tried to ignore it. Or at least tell myself there was no point in stressing over it. There was no telling how this was all going to play out with the League, but the bottom line was that I wasn’t letting this man go for anything.

I loved him. He loved me.

Everything else would work itself out.

We were trying valiantly to distract ourselves with a movie when my phone buzzed with an incoming text. I checked the screen, and there was a message from my boss.

Ted

Can you and Mr. Kulda get on a video call?

My heart jumped into my throat as I looked at Madars. “It’s Ted. They want us on a call.”

I thought he lost some color, and he swallowed as if it took some work. “Oh. Uh. Okay. Let’s see what they have to say.”

I paused the movie and texted my boss to let him know we were in. He replied with the link to the video meeting, and I turned on my laptop.

As my laptop booted up, Madars touched my arm. “I meant what I said. No matter how this plays out—I want you.”

I smiled and lifted my chin for a soft kiss. “I know. I’m not going anywhere.”

Still, I was nervous, because the professional ramifications for one or both of us had potential to be significant. Even if they couldn’t outright discipline us or refuse to sign us for being in a relationship, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to see all the ways our careers could be affected without someone breaking a rule on paper.

There was a much shorter list of people attending this meeting, and I didn’t know whether to be worried or relieved. Or if it didn’t mean anything at all.