Skate the Line: A Single Dad Hockey Romance (Blue Devils Hockey Book 2)

Ellie is hard to crack.

She doesn’t demand my attention but doesn’t discourage it either. I’ve been her nanny for one week, and although I’ve gotten her to laugh and smile multiple times, she isn’t openly comfortable around me yet.

I suspect there is a lot of pent-up anger inside of her. Or fear? Abandonment? Maybe all of the above.

She watches me closely. If I leave the room, her green eyes follow me, like she thinks I might disappear, but she never asks where I’m going.

“This is a record, you know.” A deep voice says.

I spring away from leaning against the kitchen island and spin to meet my new boss, whom I’ve really hardly spoken to since being hired.

How can someone so large be so quiet?

Like always, he smells decadent. Each time he comes home from his second practice of the day, he’s freshly showered with damp hair and a clean, manly scent lingering behind him. It’s hard not to notice.

“What’s a record?” I ask, gathering my things.

Rhodes leans against the cabinets and crosses his arms over his black hoodie. He stares past me at Ellie, who’s putting birdseed into the new feeder that Marco gifted to her.

I’ve learned more about Marco this last week than I have Ellie or her father. He’s much more open than either of them. He reminds me of Gramps, with his soft-spoken tone and kind smile.

“Having a nanny stick around for more than a few days.”

I pause. Is he serious?

Silence passes between us.

God, he is serious.

“You’re kidding me,” I say.

Rhodes glances to the ceiling. “Nope.” His gaze shifts back over to me. “By now, they would have tried getting me in bed—or worse.”

I’m afraid to know more, but I can’t help myself. “Worse?”

Rhodes pushes off the cabinets and rests his hands on top of the island counter. He stares at me intensely. “Yes, worse.”

My eyebrow hitches as I wait for him to explain.

He sighs. “Two of them ended up in my bed.”

I tilt my chin. “Well…did you invite them?”

His eyes narrow. “No.”

“Okay, well…that’s⁠—”

Awkward.

He finishes the sentence for me. “Called desperation.”

I laugh weakly and continue gathering my things. I put my back to him and glance at Ellie again. She tilts her chin while looking up at Marco, who seems to be teaching her all about birds.

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

My heart slips with his question. I freeze with my hand on the zipper of my bag.

Out of my peripheral vision, I see him stand upright and cross his arms again. The stance seems so defensive. There’s an edginess to his tone that I’d usually ignore, but with the question sending the hairs on my arms erect, I can’t help but become wary. It’s too…personal. Too much like he who must not be named.

And for once, I’m not referencing Harry Potter.

“Wondering why I haven’t tried to seduce you like all the other nannies?” I blurt.

Oh my god. Did I really just say that?

Rhodes’s throat bobs as he eyes me from across the counter. I wait with a held breath to see what he’ll say next. I can see why the other nannies would want to seduce him—his prickly personality is sort of tantalizing. They viewed him as a challenge, just like I was once viewed as one. But there are lines that can’t be crossed, and this is one of them.

“No,” he answers me confidently. “You’re not that type of woman. That’s why you still have a job.”

I laugh out loud, but it’s as sarcastic as it gets. Rhodes tilts his head and observes me.

“Oh? Is that why I haven’t expressed some sort of attraction to you? Because I’m not that type of woman?”

His eye twitches. My heart beats fast, and I know I should shut up, but there’s something pushing me to lengthen my spine and act with confidence. Otherwise, I may find myself in the same position as I was in before.

“What if I told you it’s because I just don’t find you attractive, Mr. Volkova?”

I pride myself on remaining professional, but there is something frustratingly irking with his tone of voice and question over whether or not I have a boyfriend. It stings, because although he’s unaware, I am very much aware as to why I don’t have a boyfriend or why I haven’t expressed any sort of interest in any male for almost a year.

Not to mention, I’m lying through my teeth.

I’d have to be blind not to be attracted to him. His green eyes rimmed with dark lashes alone are enough to lure anyone into his bed.

I’m not anyone, though.

Rhodes grumbles under his breath. I stand completely still while he rounds the side of the counter. He’s so close I can feel his warmth. I stop breathing when he leans down beside me.

I’m not afraid of him.

Though, it surprises me.

With any other guy, boss or not, I felt the need to run.

With Rhodes? There’s a strong compulsion to turn my head and face him.

“Good.” The word is no louder than a breath. “I was only asking because tomorrow is the first game you’ll be attending with my daughter.” He pauses, and I have no idea where he’s going with this. “And once my teammates see you, they’re going to advance.”

I blink with surprise but keep my features intact otherwise.

“That means they’re going to make lewd comments and try to fuck you, Sunny.”

My lips part with a soft gasp.

I’m not sure how he made such a racy statement sound ordinary, but he did.

“You’re not to fraternize with my teammates, Ms. Edwards.”

There’s a very child-like response on the tip of my tongue, but I have enough maturity to bypass it. I turn my head slightly and am smacked right in the face with his hot mouth no more than a few inches from mine. I pull my attention to his eyes, and he lifts an eyebrow.

Unfortunately, I see it as a challenge, and I yield too much clout, preventing me from being able to keep my mouth shut.

“What about with the other team?” I ask, testing my limits. What am I doing?

His green eyes light up, but before he can do anything, the door swings open, and he steps away.

“Are you ready, Sunny?” Marco asks, shutting the door behind him.

Ellie comes bouncing through the kitchen with her messy braids swinging behind her shoulders. “Hi, Daddy!”

Rhodes sighs before bending down to get on her level. Ellie’s bottom lip plops out, and her eyebrows scrunch.

Rhodes has obviously clicked into dad mode, which is…sort of adorable. With me, he’s stony-faced and somber. From the few clips I’ve seen of him playing hockey, he’s even more intense on the ice. But with his daughter, he’s gentle.

“Do you know what I’m going to say?” he asks softly. His eyebrow hitches, and I rest against the counter, watching the interaction play out.

Ellie drops her head slightly and looks off to the right. “No.”

Rhodes sighs again. “Don’t make it worse by lying to me, Printsessa.”

A gush of something warm swoops through me. I know that Rhodes is Russian, but according to the media, he came to the United States at such a young age that he hardly speaks the language anymore. The only tell was his last name before he added an A to it in his early twenties for some reason. He doesn’t even talk with an accent unless he’s using the language. Even then, it’s minimal. Those snippets, though? They snag my attention.

Ellie blows a big breath out of her mouth. Her forehead puckers with big emotions before she explodes. “Ugh!” she shouts. “It’s not my fault that I don’t want to play family on the playground with the other girls! It’s stupid!”

Ellie runs past Rhodes and disappears somewhere throughout the house.

Part of me wants to go after her, but I know better. She left because she doesn’t want to be bothered, not because she wants us to chase her. Ellie isn’t like most little girls I know. She’s different.

Marco and I catch each other’s attention before we both turn and glance at Rhodes. He’s abandoned his kneeling position and is standing with his head hung low, with his hands bracing himself against the counter.

I sort of feel bad for him.

His gruff, sarcastic chuckle breaks the silence.

I nibble on my lip and debate whether or not I should insert myself.

Marco nods when I look back to him, and I take it as encouragement.

A shaky sigh leaves me. “Anything we can help with?” I ask, roping Marco into the situation too. We’re a team, even if he doesn’t know that.

Rhodes twists his neck and stares at me. His knuckles are white from the pressure he’s forcing onto the quartz counter. “She climbed the fence on her playground today and walked over to the middle school playground to play soccer with the older kids.” He drops his head again and clenches his jaw tightly. “Her teacher keeps saying that Ellie rebukes against any socializing with kids her age. I just don’t understand.”

Oh.

I step forward. “I do.”

Rhodes pops up from the counter and stares at me.

“The other little girls were playing ‘family’?” I ask, using quotations around the word family.

He nods. “Yeah, whatever the fuck that is.”

I rest my hip against the counter. “It’s where they play pretend.” I put a finger up for each role that I list. “Someone is the dad, mom, and then the baby. Occasionally, they’ll throw a pet in there too.”

Rhodes and Marco share a look, and each man looks equally confused.

I shrug. “It’s something little girls do. We like the whole make-believe, perfect-family thing. My guess is that Ellie feels uncomfortable playing that because…” There’s a twinge in my heart, keeping me from explaining the rest. I’m not sure if Rhodes and Ellie’s mother were in love or close in that regard. There aren’t any photos of them on the internet, according to Ruby’s deep dive, and the only one in the house is one where she’s alone. Ellie isn’t even in the photo.

The scruffing of Rhodes’s hand moving against his five-o-clock shadow pulls my attention. “Fuck,” he mumbles.

“Do you want me to go find her?” I ask softly. “I can sort of…relate.”

Rhodes doesn’t make eye contact with me. He only shakes his head and spins, heading in the same direction that Ellie went.

Marco and I follow him with our eyes before it’s just us in the kitchen.

There’s a sadness in the room—one that wasn’t there before. My own mother died when I was too young to remember her, so I know the emptiness that void brings. It’s something she’ll eventually fill, maybe not all the way, but little by little, she’ll fill it.

The clearing of Marco’s throat brings me back to the present. His smile warms the sadness lingering. “Where are we headed this evening, Sunny?”

I sling my bag over my shoulder and pull out my phone for the address to the new Airbnb. It’s in a completely different neighborhood, and when I show Marco the address, he grimaces.

Must be in a great neighborhood.

“Don’t worry.” I pat Marco’s arm. “I’ll be fine.”

He sighs disapprovingly before leading me toward the front door.