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

This isn’t awkward at all.

I sink further into the couch, hoping it’ll swallow me whole. It’s silent in the living room. I can hear every little thing: the shifting of Rhodes on the opposite end, the quick typing on his phone, my heart beating in my ears.

I’m tempted to go see if Ellie needs help doing her chores. Though, that would probably be counterproductive since they’re her chores. I wonder if Rhodes would think it’s weird if I asked for chores too?

An alert goes off on his phone, and I jump. He eyes me quickly with a furrowed brow.

The more he is around me, the more he’ll notice how skittish I am.

“Is the pizza here, Daddy?” Ellie slides into the living room on her fuzzy socks. Rhodes catches her by the waist and hauls her up onto his shoulder like she weighs no more than ten pounds.

“Printsessa,” he grumbles. “Be careful.”

He’s two for two tonight. First, he catches me, and then he catches her.

“Why don’t you keep Sunny company and figure out what movie you want to watch?”

Ellie nods enthusiastically and tumbles onto the couch cushion beside me. She’s mid-whisper to me that she wants to watch Tangled for the third time this week when she perks up at a deep voice floating in from the entryway.

The hairs on the back of my neck stand.

“Who is that?” I ask.

Ellie springs from the couch and calls over her shoulder on her way to the entryway. “Malaki!”

“With pizza!” he finishes for her.

I breathe a sigh of relief. Oh, thank god. I wasn’t sure I was going to survive with just me, Ellie, and Mr. Hot-And-Cold.

I get up from the couch and slip into the kitchen to get plates ready for the three of them.

I listen closely to their conversation.

Ellie: What are youuuu doing here?

Malaki: I thought you requested my attendance?

Ellie: Huh? No, I didn’t.

Malaki: Oh, how interesting.

Rhodes: *makes grunt noise like a caveman*

When they enter the kitchen, I smooth my face and place three plates out onto the counter. Malaki snags my eye, and something flashes across his face. He has boyish features that show every thought going on in his head.

He’s surprised to see me, and if the dimples on the sides of his mouth have anything to say, he’s also a little amused.

“Ellie invited me,” I add, trying to get whatever he’s thinking out of his head.

His smile lights up the room. “Funny, she invited me too…”

It seems like he wants to say something else, with the obvious twinkle in his eye, but Rhodes plops the pizza boxes onto the counter right in front of him, and he decides not to say whatever remark was brewing.

I open the box and grab a slice for Ellie to keep myself busy.

This isn’t weird. I’m just making it weird because of a past that has nothing to do with Rhodes or Ellie.

Before I realize it, I’m serving Ellie her pizza and dishing some for Rhodes and Malaki too. My boss stares at me from across the counter with a hitched brow that makes him look even more attractive than usual.

“Oh,” I blurt. “Sorry, I’m just used to⁠—”

“Don’t be,” Malaki interrupts. “You can come to my place and serve me pizza anytime.” It’s obvious he’s joking, with the wiggling of his eyebrows, so I laugh quietly to appease him.

He takes his plate and follows after Ellie, leaving Rhodes and me alone in his expansive kitchen. For a room so large, it’s annoyingly difficult to hide from his piercing gaze.

“Here you go.” I slide a plate over to him. He catches it with a catlike reflex that I try not to notice.

I turn around and busy myself with yesterday’s half-eaten salad, pulling it out of the fridge along with the vegetables I picked up at the store. The cool air of the fridge lessens the heat on my face, and I exhale slowly. I pray he’s gone by the time I turn around, but he’s still standing on the other side of the island, watching my every move with a slice of pizza in his hand.

My coping mechanism is to pretend he isn’t there.

Rhodes who?

My teeth sink into my bottom lip. I pour the salad mix into a bowl and move around the kitchen like it’s my own. I grab a cucumber with a firm grip and place it on the cutting board and slowly begin slicing.

“You can eat the pizza, you know.”

I pause my slicing and peek at him before going back to what I’m doing. “Oh, no. It’s fine. I don’t expect you to feed me dinner.”

His loud sigh crawls over the glossy counter and hits my ears. “I got you the cauliflower crust.”

I stop what I’m doing and glance at him again. This time, he’s staring directly at me with a knowing glint in his eye, as if he knows that I’m wondering how he knows I like cauliflower crust.

My mouth waters. “You did?”

His mouth twitches—just barely—but I catch it. “I did.”

“How do you know I like cauliflower crust?”

“Because…” He pulls out his phone and does something to it before facing it in my direction. I recognize the front porch footage. It only takes me a second to see that it’s a live feed. “I get an alert when the pizza boy comes to the door. He’s rattled off your order every time with his shaky, teenage croak of a voice when you answer the door.”

I blink a few times. Oh. I can’t deny the relief that hits me, knowing he has cameras outside his home.

Rhodes leans over the counter and pops open the smaller box of pizza.

Sure enough, it’s identical to the pizza I’ve ordered more times than I’d like to admit since moving in.

“He watches you walk away every time, by the way.”

I snap my gaze to his. “What?”

Rhodes pushes the box over to me. “The pizza boy.” He takes a bite of his pizza and chews before finishing.

I watch the way his throat moves against his neck. Rhodes Volkova is all man. It’s almost hard to look at him.

“He practically drools every time you say thank you and turn. He watches you with a little lovesick look in his eye.”

A laugh flies from my mouth. Rhodes lifts an eyebrow, and this time, I am certain his mouth twitches.

“That’s silly. He does not,” I argue.

“He does too. Haven’t you noticed that it’s the same teenage boy that delivers your pizza every time? I’d bet my life that the second he sees the order for a cauliflower crust, extra cheese, no pepperoni pizza, he volunteers to deliver it.” He shrugs and takes another bite of his pizza.

My cheeks flame.

He hums in between a chew. “Do you like that the teenager is crushing on you?”

“What?” I squeal. “No!”

A grumble of a laugh comes from deep within his chest.

I panic and start to cut the cucumber faster. I don’t like that the teenager is crushing on me. It’s just embarrassing to think of some teenager crushing on me and to have Rhodes, of all people, notice such a thing.

“You’re not that much older than him,” he states. “Only a year or so and he’ll be of age.”

He is clearly amused by this.

I huff before briefly catching his eye. “Says the guy who said I was too young to nanny his daughter.”

He rolls his eyes, and I’m blindsided by how attractive the motion is. How can someone roll their eyes and make it look…hot?

Flustered by the thought, I slice faster.

He’s mid-chuckle when the knife clamors to the counter. My right hand clamps onto my left one before I even feel the burning sensation.

“Shit,” he mutters.

Rhodes is over to me before I even register what has happened. His large hand comes down on top of mine, and I almost forget that I’ve possibly lost a finger underneath our joined hands.

“Let me see,” he says.

I shake my head quickly. “I’m fine.” The hell I am.

His green eyes narrow. “It wasn’t a question, Sunshine.”

Surprised by the nickname, I let him pull me over to the sink. Cool water rushes from the spout, and he places both of our hands under the stream.

One by one, he unpeels my fingers from the wound. I focus on his furrowed brow and locked jaw instead of the sting crawling up my arm.

“Malaki!” he shouts, placing his hand over my finger.

Malaki enters the kitchen a moment later with Ellie following after him. “You summoned?”

If I wasn’t seconds from fainting, I’d laugh.

Malaki’s attention moves leisurely between Rhodes and me standing at the sink. He smirks and mutters, “Interesting.”

Rhodes flicks his chin for Malaki to come closer. I hiss when Rhodes releases the pressure on my finger. “What do you think?” he asks him.

Malaki curses. “That needs stitches for sure.”

Jerking my hand away, I shake my head. “No. I’m fine.”

I’m not going to the hospital.

My stomach twists. I reach for the paper towels, and the entire roll falls to the floor with my shaky movements.

Ellie is quick to pick them up and hand them to me. “What happened, Sunny? Did you get a boo-boo?”

I force a laugh between my tight teeth. “Yes, but I’m okay. Nothing a Band-Aid can’t fix.”

Her little brow furrows. She looks just like her father. “You’re going to need a big Band-Aid.”

Malaki snorts. “And stitches.”

I flick my attention to him. “I’m fine.”

Rhodes steps forward and looks to Malaki. “You got Ellie?”

“Yep. Uncle Malaki to the rescue.”

I shake my head. “I’m not going to get stitches.”

Rhodes, who is clearly ignoring me, bends down and swoops Ellie into his arms.

“I’m going to take—” Rhodes pauses and glares over his shoulder at me before finishing his sentence. “I’m going to drag Sunny to the hospital so she can get stitches. Be good for Malaki. Eat your pizza, watch Tangled, and then it’s off to bed for you.”

I gasp with frustration, but Rhodes’s expression is so steely that I can’t even form an argument.

Ellie leans in close to her dad’s ear. “Hold her hand, Daddy. She looks scared.”

Great. A five-year-old is braver than me.

Malaki steals Ellie from Rhodes’s arms and shoots him a devilish smile. “Yeah. Make sure you hold her hand.”

Little does Rhodes know, I actually might need his hand.