Love?Slow your roll, dickhead.One must have a heart to be capable of love,Wolfe silently admonished himself, as he slid his hand to her lower back to usher Aspen into his house.
“It was a wild night,” Mia continued.“Turns out Dante walked into the condo just as Mia and Matt were headed to his bedroom in somewhat of a compromising position.When Dante confronted them, Matt didn’t say anything at first, but then agreed with Dante’s edict that they couldn’t be together.
“What do you mean compromising position?”Wolfe’s gaze narrowed.He knew things were brewing between the two kids, but even Wolfe didn’t know how he would react seeing Matt and Mia in the act.
“Down-boy,” Aspen admonished.“They weren’t having sex if that’s what you’re asking...yet.”
“I knew something was up between them when I saw the rookie lurking about the kid-camp headquarters,” Wolfe shook his head in disgust.“I told him to make sure he had his shit in order.”
“Obviously, things weren’t in order based on last night’s confrontation,” Aspen said around a yawn.
Wolfe had a hard time focusing on anything other than the t-shirt that rode up her belly when she stretched her arms over her head.
“Rest,” Wolfe silently patted himself on the back for remaining standing after gently pushing her against the couch in his living room and not following her down to repeat some of their numerousWheel of Fortunemake-out sessions and more.“You want some coffee?”
Another yawn escaped Aspen as she drew her knees up to her chest.“That would be great.”
“Be right back,” Wolfe called over his shoulder to retreat to the kitchen to brew her a mug.“Cappuccino or latte?”
“Fancy.I’ll take a latte.”
“Done,” Wolfe called out and began grabbing the items to make her a cup of liquid energy.
He’d figure out this mess between his teammates and the beautiful imp causing the disturbance in the Force.And that had nothing to do with a fake sci-fi saga and everything to do with winning the Cup in less than a year.
He and his Crush teammates were one game away from hoisting Lord Stanley’s Cup to reach the pinnacle of the ultimate success in their profession, only to come up short.Wolfe could still recall the dagger of disappointment that sliced through his gut at the loss, and the commitment of the team to dedicate themselves to total victory in the coming year.
Puppy love between Mia the bambina and the rookie and the overprotective-dad response of Dante wasn’t going to derail their mission.
Wolfe had no doubt he would fix it, even if it meant bashing his captain and the young gun who was clearly thinking more with his little head versus the one filled with that massive Harvard-educated brain.
All of his work to address those issues ebbed at the thought of his boss baker a room away.Wolfe frowned at the feeling of loss in the pit of his stomach in the last several hours not having her around or in his bed.
Based on her departing comment about where they stood lingered with him as well.Plenty of time for that.Wolfe wanted to focus on helping his boss baker find the sleep she gave up aiding a friend.
Wolfe finished pouring the steamed milk over Aspen’s espresso and headed back to the living room.He’d be surprised if she was still awake considering how tired she seemed.
He had visions of scooping her off the couch and taking her to his bed where he’d let her sleep for a few hours before kissing her awake and pressing forward with satisfying their base needs.
Wolfe screeched to an abrupt halt upon seeing Aspen standing at the table holding his sister’s pictures.She even had some snack cakes in her hand which he’d placed on the table hidden in the corner of the room.
“Shit!”Coffee splashed against his hand from the filled cup, burning the top of his hand.The pain was nothing compared to the anguish ripping through his body at the sight of Aspen holding Elle’s framed picture.Millions of thoughts seemed to go through his mind at the same time.What am I going to tell her?How do I handle this?But the only thing that came out of his mouth was, “What are you doing?”
Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion and at fast speeds all at once, leaving his world off kilter.Wolfe needed to get in control.Right fucking now.His emotions were spiraling.Even his voice sounded completely foreign to him.
“She’s beautiful,” Aspen whispered and slid a finger down the frame’s glass covering his sister’s smiling face.“Who is she?”
He set the coffee cup on an end table and moved toward Aspen so slowly he might as well have been attempting to navigate quicksand.Actually, he wished it was quicksand so he’d be gobbled up, never to be seen again.He was thankful that she didn’t seem to notice his distress.
“My, uh, sister,” he cleared his throat surprised as hell at the words coming from his mouth.“She...died.She’s dead.”
“Oh, Connor,” Aspen gently placed the picture back on the small table filled with a package of gem-sized donuts and other sweets.“What’s her name?”
Wolfe opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out.
He tried again and failed.He looked more like a fish gasping for oxygen on the rocky banks of a river as opposed to one of the NHL’s toughest defensemen.
This time, Aspen noticed his distress and closed the gap between them.She tugged his rigid frame against hers and held him tightly without saying another word.