Once the crayons are taken care of, Lavender and River carefully put everything into her backpack, apart from her coloring book, which she hugs to her chest.

We stop at the vending machines, and the twins get to pick out a snack, and then insert the coins and press the buttons. Lavender’s expression is gleeful as she chooses a bag of rainbow candies and then watches the coil unravel. Before anyone is allowed to open their snack, they all have to use hand sanitizer.

“There’s my beautiful wife and my amazing children.” Alex swoops down and picks up Lavender. “Did you have fun?”

Lavender squeals and giggles when Alex smothers her little face with kisses. She loses her grip on her art book, but it’s nabbed out of midair before it can hit the ground.

“Nice save, King,” Violet says.

“Thank you, ma’am. I mean, Mrs. Waters. I mean, Violet.” He turns to Lavender and gives her a smile that nearly liquefies my panties. “Did you drop something important, Miss Lavender?”

She nods and then buries her face in her dad’s neck, but she peeks out a few seconds later and gives him a flirty smile when he holds out her coloring book.

She takes it from him, hugging it to her chest again, still wearing that huge grin.

“What do we say, Lavender?” Alex asks quietly.

A few seconds pass before she murmurs a barely audible “Tank you” in the sweetest voice I’ve ever heard in my life.

“Good girl,” Alex says, and he kisses her on the cheek before he sets her back down. She beelines it right to her brother, and they take each other’s hand. He’s scowling at Kingston, which is pretty damn cute.

“Hello, Stevie.” Kingston lifts his hand in an awkward wave and slowly, almost reluctantly, addresses me. “Hi, Queenie. I’m sorry you had to witness my poor performance on the ice today.” He shoves his hands in his pockets as his face turns bright red.

Alex claps him on the shoulder. “It’s one practice, King. Nothing to worry about. You on your way to see Jake?”

“Yes, sir,” he says to his feet.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself. We all have bad days,” Alex reassures him.

“As long as they’re not when we have a real game against another team.” King nods in our direction. “Ladies, have a lovely evening.” And then he hightails it down the hall toward my dad’s office. Which incidentally is also where my office is.

Stevie and Violet exchange a knowing look, and Vi smirks. “I expect we’ll be seeing you at our Wednesday Night Movie Club soon.”

“What’s Wednesday Night Movie Club?”

“It’s when all the hockey wives and girlfriends get together to watch movies. Like a book club but a lot less work and a lot more eye candy.”

“But I’m not a hockey wife or girlfriend.”

“Yet.” Violet’s smirk grows wider.

“Right, okay. We’ll see about that.” I clap my hands together loudly, startling myself. “I have some paperwork to finish up, so I should really go!” And just like Kingston, I bust my ass down the hall.

“Might as well cancel any Wednesday night plans you have starting now!” Violet calls after me.

I push through the door to my office, shaking my head. Kingston can barely look at me without bursting into flames. Besides, there’s the whole “no dating players” rule I have no intention of breaking.

It’s already after five, which means technically I’m allowed to go home. But I don’t want to leave until I check in with my dad and make sure there isn’t anything else he wants me to take care of. His office door is closed, though, and I know better than to knock, especially since Kingston is with him.

I clean up my emails and add to my player notes while I wait. The longer it takes, the more my stomach twists. A fine bead of sweat trickles down my spine.

This is crazy. Why the hell am I so nervous? Kingston is just a guy. So I’ve been naked with him. Big deal. So what if just the tip has been inside me? Accidentally. Or that I’ve thought about him nearly constantly since that night that happened more than two months ago. Who cares if he’s great with kids? Why is that thought actually making me hotter for him?

Emails sorted, I make sure all my documents from today are saved before I shut down my computer. I’m packing up my laptop when my dad’s office door swings open. “Hey, sweetie, I didn’t realize you were still here. I should’ve told you to head home after practice was over.”

Kingston appears behind him, eyes darting around, bouncing off me like a Ping-Pong ball, just to return a second later.

“It’s no problem. I had some emails to clean up and a few notes to make. Are you ready to go?”

My dad makes a face. “Uh, I actually have a few more things I need to take care of before I can call it a day.”