Meet Me in the Penalty Box: A Small Town Hockey Romance (Orchid City Book 1)

Shifting my weight on my feet, I checked the time on my phone again. Harper told me about twenty minutes ago that she was leaving the venue. She should be here any minute. I couldn’t help but feel a little awkward standing outside of her door with a bouquet of flowers. I didn’t tell her I was going to be coming by and I suddenly felt nervous about being here.

What if she didn’t want to see me? Was it weird that I came here with flowers like she just won an award? I was insanely proud of her for chasing after her dreams and making a name for herself. I just wanted to show my support and this was the first thing that came to my mind.

Movement from down the hall caught my attention and I looked down to see Harper walking toward me with her bags of equipment. She was wearing a light gray dress that hugged her curves in all the right places. Her black heels clicked against the floor beneath her feet and I couldn’t stop my eyes from trailing along her bare legs.

Fuck. She was breathtaking.

Harper fumbled with the keys in her hands and her eyes bounced to mine as she let out a gasp. “Nico,” she said breathlessly as a wave of confusion passed through her irises. “You scared me. What are you doing here?”

Her eyes dropped down to the flowers and then back up to meet my gaze. A pink tint spread across her cheeks and she instinctively batted her eyelashes at me.

“Here,” I said to her as I reached for her bags while handing her the flowers. “Let me carry those and you take these.”

She didn’t argue as she slid the straps from her shoulders and I took them from her. She looked down at the flowers in her hands and back up to me. “What are these for?”

“Just because,” I told her with a shrug as she unlocked her apartment door and let me in with her. “I wanted to surprise you and let you know how proud I am of you.”

Harper paused just inside her apartment as she turned to look at me. “You got me ‘just because’ flowers? And showed up at my place to surprise me?”

I swallowed roughly over the walnut-sized lump that formed in my throat and nodded. “I did,” I said quietly, not fully trusting my voice.

The look in her eyes was a mixture of surprise and contentment. No words needed to be spoken between us in that moment. The meaning behind the flowers shook me to the core and it wasn’t until she questioned me on it that the reality of the situation hit me in my fucking soul. I didn’t just go out and buy people flowers.

“The only person I’ve ever bought flowers for before was my mother,” I told her with nothing but pure honesty. My voice was barely audible and Harper’s eyes searched mine. “The last ones I bought were a week before she passed away.”

Harper’s eyes were soft and I watched the moisture collect on her lashes. She took the bags from me and set them on a bench that she had by the entrance. She stepped closer to me, wrapping her arms around my torso as she pressed herself flush against my body.

Instinctively, I wrapped my arms around the tops of her shoulders and held her close as I buried my face in her hair. It wasn’t often that I allowed the grief to settle in, but I couldn’t help myself right now. There was something about the moment that had a rush of feelings slamming into my chest. My heart constricted and I blinked back the tears.

I had already grieved the loss of my mother, but those damn flowers. They had emotions rushing back to me in a moment and I needed to focus on Harper. She was the one who could ground me in this moment.

“Thank you for the flowers,” she murmured against my shirt as she held me tightly. “They’re beautiful.”

I slowly pulled back from her and she leaned her head back to look up at me. “Then they’re perfect for you. You deserve everything in the fucking world and I want to be the one who gives it to you.”

She stared back at me. “Nico…”

“Shh,” I shushed her as I lifted a finger to press to her lips. “You don’t need to argue with me. I won’t say anything more. I just want you to know that you’re important to me, okay? And I’m so goddamn proud of you. You had the opportunity to explore another avenue in your career and you killed it.”

She laughed quietly and shook her head in disbelief. “You haven’t even seen any of the images, so how could you possibly say that?”

“Because I know you,” I smiled down at her, “and you are nothing short of amazing.”

Her eyes were bright as she stared into my soul. Harper Jensen had crawled her way through my veins and into my heart. She nestled herself deep inside and made it her home. Harper was my home and I never wanted to be without her.

“Let me take you out. We need to go celebrate this tonight.”

“Tonight?” She glanced at the clock on the wall. “Isn’t it getting kind of late?”

I shrugged. “I guess it depends on where you want to go.”

“What did you have in mind?”

I held up the bottle of champagne I brought over for her. “Grab two glasses and I know of somewhere we can go where we don’t have to worry about them closing.”

Harper eyed me skeptically, but I didn’t miss the excitement in her eyes. She pushed away from me and went into her kitchen before coming back with two glasses. I slid my hand into hers and laced our fingers together before I pulled her back out of her apartment.

She didn’t question me as I led her to my car. She held on to my hand as we headed through the city until we were leaving the city limits. It wasn’t a far drive to the lake and I parked my car under a canopy of trees by the one dock. Harper looked over at me with a tender smile as I got out of my car.

She followed suit and met me around the front of the vehicle. She was still wearing the dress from earlier and the night air was cold. I watched her for a moment as she wrapped her arms around herself and rubbed her arms. Grabbing the back of my hoodie, I pulled it over my head and handed it to her.

Harper looked up at me. “You’re going to be cold.”

A chuckle rumbled in my chest and I shook my head at her. “Don’t worry about me, love. Put it on. We won’t be out here long. I don’t want to risk you freezing.”

Harper’s hand was back in mine and I led her to the bench by the dock. Out here, there weren’t many lights and we had a perfect view of the stars scattered in the sky above us. Had I thought about this more in depth, I would have brought a blanket or something to make us more comfortable. Instead, this was all on the fly.

Harper held both of the glass flutes in her hands and I popped open the champagne. The sound of her laughter slid across my eardrums like silk as I poured some of the bubbly liquid into each glass. I set the bottle down onto the ground and held my drink into the air.

“To you, my love,” I said with a smile as I stared into her bright blue eyes. “The sky is the limit for you and your dreams. I can’t wait to see where this will take you and I’m so proud of you for trying something you’ve always wanted to do.”

She stared at me for a moment as emotion welled in her eyes. Her tongue darted out to wet her lips and she tapped her glass to mine. We both took a sip and I slid my arm around the tops of her shoulders, pulling her flush against my side. Harper leaned her head back and rested it on my bicep as she looked up at the night sky.

“How do you always know the right things to do and say?”

My eyes trailed over the side of her face, memorizing her facial features. She looked angelic with the way the moon cast its light across her cheek. Everything about her was perfect and no one could ever tell me otherwise. It was like an angel had reached down from the heavens and handcrafted her.

“I don’t,” I told her quietly. “I just say whatever I’m feeling when it comes to you. The things that I say to you—they’re words that were made just for you and no one else.”

She slowly sat up and turned to look at me. “Why me, though? You could literally have anyone else on this stupid planet, yet you chose me.”

“And I’ll always choose you,” I told her as I slid my hand to the base of her neck. “I don’t want anyone else, Harper. I know things are complicated but I don’t give a shit.”

Harper’s eyes shimmered under the light of the moon. She fell silent and I pulled her back against my side. She shifted her body and tucked her legs up on the bench underneath her. Her arm snaked its away around my torso and she rested her head on my chest.

“My mom would have loved you,” I said as I gently stroked her long silky hair. “I wish she could have been around to meet you.”

“Tell me about her.”

A smile began to bloom as I allowed my mind to drift into those happier thoughts. Not the ones about her being gone, but the memories of when she was here. When things were simpler in life. When she was still around, acting as the glue that held our family together. Before our father became a shell of a person and Giana and I were the only ones who really had each other anymore.

“She was so caring and loving. She was always cracking jokes and thought that she was the funniest. There wasn’t a single thing she missed. Between my sister and I, she had spread herself so thin, but you could never tell. She was always on the sidelines cheering both of us on in life.” I paused for a moment as my heart ached. “She never had a mean thing to say about anyone, but if someone said anything about either of us, she went into momma bear mode.”

“She would be really proud of you, Nico.”

My smile fell a bit. “I would like to think she would. She was around to see me get drafted, but she never got to see me play professionally. She was the one who was waking up before the sun when I was a kid, making sure I was getting to practice and tournaments on time. She was the definition of a hockey mom and she never complained about it—well, not to me at least.”

“I’m sorry she didn’t get to see you play. I’m sure her getting to see you get drafted was an amazing experience for her,” Harper offered, her voice soft and gentle as she held me a little tighter. “She’s always with you, Nico.”

I swallowed back the emotion that built in my throat and nodded. “I know she is. I just wish she were physically here too, you know? I wish she could have met you,” I repeated my earlier sentiment.

“I wish I could have had the chance to meet her.”

I held Harper for a little longer as we watched the stars shine above us. She shivered in my arms and I knew it was time for us to get out of here. “Let’s get you somewhere warm, love.”

Harper rose from the bench and I followed along with her after grabbing the empty glasses and the half-empty bottle of champagne. She smiled at me as she slid her hand into mine and I led her back to my car. She fell asleep as I drove back to her place and when I parked in front of her building, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her.

She was exactly where she belonged—right beside me with her hand in mine.

And I was going to do whatever I had to, to make sure that was exactly where she stayed.