by Amber Lynn
“It will take a hospital visit on my part to keep me away.” Nelson was glad to hear she hadn’t rescinded the invitation.
“Don’t say stuff like that. It’s hard enough to watch you out there. If you’re burning bread by talking about being in the hospital, it will only make it harder.”
Annie reached out and touched his chest briefly before she slipped around him so she could run down the stairs. Nelson thought about calling after her and telling her to slow down, but kept quiet. He knew she wouldn’t do anything that would hurt the baby.
Nelson hadn’t been holding his breath, but he felt like he needed to let out a bunch of air that had built up in his chest. He’d been surprised by how soft and sweet Annie’s lips had been, even if he’d only touched the corner of them.
He licked his lips and headed back to his apartment. There was a hint of cherry, or some other fruit he hoped no one else was going to taste anytime soon.
Things didn’t go exactly like he’d planned, not that he’d had an ironed out plan when he left his apartment, but at least he could tell Casey he hadn’t made the first move, not technically. There were a few things he wanted to talk to the woman about, but they were going to have to wait until after he stopped by the barber shop. It was time for the mop to come off.
Chapter Eight
Annie wasn’t sure what she expected when she decided to see Nelson, but him kissing her wasn’t on the list of possibilities. Sure, it wasn’t a full kiss on the lips, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t been aiming in that direction. She thought she’d turned her head slightly when she realized what was going on, but it could’ve just been her brain telling her she needed to.
After Casey mentioned that Nels’ feelings were possibly more than he led on, Annie had gotten her hopes up. Casey didn’t provide any concrete proof, just used the stupid line about absence making the heart grow fonder. Annie knew all about that from the years Nelson had been off making his name in the hockey world.
She continued pretending to date Doug, but deep down she wished Casey was right. The kiss didn’t mean anything, because he’d been acting weird since he heard they were having a baby. A little extra affection meant nothing more than he wanted to connect with the baby in some way, and apparently her lips were his newest method.
To top off the encounter, Annie had almost screwed up by mentioning the new coach’s drills, which she’d heard about from Doug. Thankfully, Nelson assumed otherwise, but she had to be more careful. As interesting as it was to hear someone else’s perspective when it came to Nelson’s playing, Doug liked to overshare to the point that Annie felt like she was watching the drills herself, and it was easy for her to offer commentary.
They’d only seen each other once since their dinner date, but Doug made a habit of calling every night, claiming that was what he’d do if they were really in a relationship. Annie kind of doubted that, but didn’t give it a lot of thought. Instead, as she made her way to Doug’s house, Annie’s mind was focused on the fact that she could still feel Nelson’s lips. Her face burned from their touch, and it reminded her of how his lips felt on other parts of her body.
Traffic was light, so it was easy to get lost in her thoughts. Work and Doug had only been able to keep her mind off Nelson temporarily. Every time she looked down, she had a reminder of him, and it was only a matter of time before people realized she was pregnant. Then, she knew there were going to be questions from everyone.
Doug was waiting at his door when she pulled into his drive. It seemed like it was too early in the morning for someone to have that much gel in his hair, but Doug’s was standing at attention. He wore a pair of jeans that hung loosely on his hips and a red pocket t-shirt.
“Did you know that your house is going to be the first normal-sized house that I’ve been invited to since moving here?” Annie asked as she walked towards him.
Doug smiled and held the door open for her. “Clearly you’ve been hanging out with the wrong people. Before he met Casey, Dylan lived a few blocks that way.” He pointed to the west, and Annie looked briefly before turning back to him.
“Are you sure it’s a good idea to hang out here?” Annie walked into a foyer and got a glimpse of a living room through a hallway.
The foyer was bare other than a coat rack and a mat for shoes. Seeing that there were seven pairs of shoes on the mat, Annie determined Doug had a thing for shoes. Nelson had two pairs, a pair of tennies for everyday wear and a pair of dress shoes for game days. The team was required to wear a suit to and from the arena. If they weren’t, Nelson would’ve probably only had the one pair.
“I’d say it’s safer than anywhere else in the city. I can’t remember a time Nelson came over for a visit, and you said you didn’t want him to know. Plus, I don’t want to find out what he’d do if he caught us out having breakfast together. Dinner the first date and a play the second were big enough risks. Speaking of your best friend, do I want to know why you’re wearing his shirt?”
Annie sighed as she was led into the living room. Not only did Doug have the first house she’d visited in the area, but he also had what amounted to an adult living room. It had a couch, like most of the places she’d been in the city, and included a coffee table, an actual entertainment center and a pair recliners. Taking in the furniture kept her from remembering how silly it was for her to wear something that clearly belonged to another man on her pretend date.
Not that she’d proven to be good dating material. Even when she tried, everything seemed forced. Going out with Doug was nothing like when she went out with Nelson, and it tended to show in her awkwardness.
Continuing her perusal of the living room, Doug had put out a tray of danishes and donuts on the coffee table, along with a pitcher of orange juice and a couple glasses. He escorted her over to the couch and waited for her to sit before he poured her a glass of juice and handed it to her.
“I’m wearing the shirt because it’s laundry day, and I’m pretty sure we could’ve come up with something to do that Nelson wouldn’t find out about. The theater isn’t the only place Nelson would rather be dead than go. He’s never been big on art museums or hanging out at the library.”
Annie took a sip as Doug walked around the coffee table and sat down next to her. He left a decent amount of room between them, but was still on the cushion next to her. Running her fingers across the couch, it felt like the hunter green fabric was microfiber, and it was comfier than the couch she had in her apartment.
“I’m sure you’re right, but maybe I didn’t want to share you with anyone else. And you won’t find me hanging out in a library either. I’ve found that when we’re out, I spend too much time looking over my shoulder. Sometimes you seem a million miles away, but when we’re talking on the phone, it’s a little easier to have a complete conversation. So here, we won’t have to deal with at least some of the outside forces, and we can see one another while we talk.”
“Be careful, Doug. That almost sounds like you think we’re in a real relationship.” Annie picked up a pink frosted donut with sprinkles and looked at it for a second before taking a bite. It wasn’t a cake donut, which were her favorites, but it looked edible.
“Maybe I’m just trying to make sure you know there are always possibilities. I don’t know why you decided you needed to fake a boyfriend, but even after only two fake dates, I’ve had more fun with you than I can remember having with anyone of the fairer sex.”
He had a strange definition of fun if he classified an uncomfortable dinner and a play they’d both seen before as fun. Even the conversations they had always seemed a little rough to Annie. He was easy to talk to, but they tended to talk in circles until she decided to call it quits.
“I think you just like the element of danger you’re always talking about. Believe me, I get boring fast. Be thankful that I’m only asking you to hang out with me for a couple months.”
Doug got himself something to drink and picked up a cheese danish. “Then I guess I’m forc
ed to hope whatever made you call me hasn’t cleared up when the time’s up. I know you don’t see a future here, but I’m pretty sure you could find worse boyfriends.”
Annie felt a little sick to her stomach. It wasn’t that Doug wasn’t a catch, but she hadn’t expected him to really be interested. Annie saw the kind of women who lined up to hang out with the team. There wasn’t a chance Annie could compete with any of them when it came to looks.
“Like I said, I doubt you’ll say that after you spend a little more time with me. I told you I haven’t had a lot of experience when it comes to dating, but the truth is that I’ve never actually had a boyfriend. Not a single guy has even asked me out, at least not sincerely, which probably makes me the most pathetic person in the world.”
It was embarrassing to tell someone else that truth. The only good thing about sharing was the fact that the sugar in the donut was making its way to a happy place in her brain. It had been a while since she’d had deep-fried dough, and she made note to make sure it became a weekly tradition, even if the donuts weren’t quite as good as the ones she got back home.
“How many times do I have to tell you your goon of a best friend is probably behind that? I know you mentioned not having a lot of experience that first night, but you didn’t have to say it for me to figure that out. All a guy has to do is ask how you’ve been, and a vein in Nels’ neck starts throbbing. If I hadn’t spent all my free time with you this last week, I would’ve thought you two had a thing at one time, but like I said, I could tell the first night that wasn’t the case.”
Doug handed her another donut without her asking for one. She thought about turning it down, but went ahead and took it. She had an excuse to gain a little weight, even if she hadn’t been able to gain a pound since she turned thirteen.
“What gave it away? I thought I played things pretty cool.”
Doug set his glass down and grabbed Annie’s glass to put on the table next to it. Then he leaned back on the couch and put his arm around Annie’s back. She cringed slightly, not meaning to, but it felt strange to her. The weight of it wasn’t the same as Nelson’s.
“That right there. You may not remember it, but there were a couple times I touched your hands while we were eating, and every time you acted like something had burned you. I figured it had something to do with the inexperience you were talking about. It could’ve just been that you thought I was a creep, but as the night went on, I thought we got along well enough that it wasn’t the person doing the touching, so much as the touching itself.”
The arm remained where it was and Annie fought asking him to move it. She didn’t think there would be a test to prove she was seeing someone, but she’d signed up for the experience, to a certain point. If Doug started suggesting they should practice kissing, she was going to have to call an end to their fake relationship.
Annie didn’t want to get into the fact that in a way it was him that she was cringing from, so she diverted the question back to what they were originally talking about. Not that the subject of Nels’ protective instincts was any better.
“Well, I don’t think it was just Nels keeping guys away, but I prefer we not get into how sad my life has been. Since you’ve decided we’re staying in today, did you have any plans other than trying to fatten me up? You don’t have an oversized oven you’re planning to stick me in after I eat a few more donuts, do you?”
The oven wouldn’t need to be oversized, a fact proven during a game of hide and seek when Annie was a kid. It had taken twenty minutes for anyone to find her, after she decided the oven was a perfect hiding spot. By that point, she’d opened the door to get fresh air, so it was a little obvious where she’d been hiding. She’d grown a little taller since then, but not much.
Doug laughed and picked up a remote control off the coffee table. There were two others she could see that probably ran the surround sound and DVD player. Seeing that the entertainment center had some doors on it, Annie imagined he had at least one video game console hiding somewhere. He’d mentioned playing some driving game to help relieve stress after the games he faced a lot of shots on goal.
“I doubt eating the whole tray of treats would fatten you enough to bother cooking you up, and I already flossed my teeth today, so your skinny bones won’t do me any good. You said on the phone the other day that you haven’t seen my favorite movie. Since it happens to be the first in a trilogy, I thought we could spend the day watching them. I don’t think you’ll be able to quote it word-for-word like I can, but you’ll at least be able to make sense of things when I start quoting it.”
“Are you sure that’s necessary? Half of our call last night was you reciting that dang movie.”
Annie wasn’t kidding. She’d never been interested in action films, and according to Doug she’d been missing out, because he knew way too many catch phrases. He’d brought a halt to the conversations a few times when she had to ask what in the world he was talking about.
“I couldn’t believe you’d never watched it, so I had to test you.” Doug turned the television on and started clicking buttons.
“I’ve watched guys bash each other into the boards for years. Are you going to tell me that what I’m about to see is more realistic than that violence?”
Annie couldn’t remember the last time she’d watched a movie. She was more of a reader than a watcher. It was easier to paint her own world around the words in a book. The hard part for her was staying away from the romance novels that made her think impossible things. A few too many of them, and she started thinking that hooking up with her best friend was a good idea. And while she was already going down the road of impossibilities, having his baby was downright genius.
“Since the first one is about twenty years old, I’m going to guess you won’t think anyone is really getting shot. I know you’ve seen enough fights to know the punches in the movie are fake. You’re not squeamish, right? There are some scenes that may be a little gross.”
He moved his hand to tilt her head over on his shoulder. To keep from pulling away, she pretended it was Nelson. That seemed to help, even though Doug smelled of an odd, probably trendy, cologne. Annie had no idea what to compare the scent to, but it always seemed to be strong on him.
“As long as you provide the food and point out the bathroom for when my bladder feels like it’s going to explode, I’m your captive audience. At least until I get tired of the fake blood.” Right after the words were out of her mouth, a pool of bright red liquid started leaking across the screen in front of her.
“Should I get a stopwatch out? I’m not going to say this is the world’s greatest cinematic feat, but it was the first movie I saw in the theater when I was a kid.”
Annie let a little of the movie play before she decided to question whether Doug was raised by actual parents or if he was just allowed to run around the streets of Duluth on his own. There was no way she was letting her baby see the movie before they were twenty, and nothing had really happened yet in the film.
“I’ve counted seven deaths, most of which were brutal, in the first three minutes. How old were you when you first saw this? You had to be four or five.”
Eventually there had to be some kind of storyline involved in the movie, but Annie wasn’t sure she’d even met the main character. There seemed to be a person who liked to kill people and all Annie could surmise was it was probably a woman based on the red fingernails that appeared right before someone died.
“I didn’t say I watched it when it first came out. There are theaters out there that play things other than first-run movies. For my tenth birthday my parents took me and a group of friends to see it.”
“No wonder you’re so screwed up. So, am I supposed to be rooting for this crazy lady, or is she the bad guy some gorgeous detective is going to track down and kill at the end? It’s not like she isn’t leaving a trail of bodies that will probably lead right back to her.”
As if on cue, Mr. Perfect appeared on the screen looking at o
ne of the bodies. Annie rolled her eyes and sighed, relaxing a little further into Doug. She hoped that by the end of the movie she’d be able to pinpoint exactly what he smelled like. For some reason the artificial scent was bothering her and she wanted to put a name to it.
“Are you going to tell me you haven’t seen this movie after you just predicted the end?” Doug’s voice sounded distracted as he was already zoned into what was happening on the TV.
Annie couldn’t believe anyone would find the carnage going on in front of her that enthralling. He’d said they’d managed to make two other movies to go along with the first one, and if they were anything like what she was watching, she was in for a long day.
The good news about Doug loving the movies so much was what had been a somewhat artificial conversation from her side of things was brought to an end. The bad news was she didn’t find the plot interesting at all, which left her plenty of time to think about other things.
Through the almost six-hour movie marathon, Annie went through the dozen or so scenarios she saw playing out between her and Nelson. From her moving back home to them falling in love and having a real marriage, nothing was left out. In the end, the only thing Annie knew for sure was that she wasn’t taking the baby away from Nelson, but then she already knew that.
Chapter Nine
“Seriously, Nels? If you don’t stop screening the shots, I’m going to make it so you can’t have kids.” Doug lifted his stick between Nelson’s legs to show he wasn’t messing around. The quick shot hit him in his upper thigh.
“Screw you,” Nelson eloquently replied as he skated after the puck.
It was just an exhibition game, and only a few of the starters were even playing. During the preseason, the coaches liked to give the prospects a chance to prove they had what it took to play at that level. There were five veterans trying to teach the kids the system, and evidently they weren’t getting things across.
