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

I pretend to sleep on the way home to avoid talking, which is probably something Ellie would do. Therefore, I’m acting like a five-year-old, but who could blame me?

Not only did Rhodes—my boss—witness me in one of the most vulnerable states I’ve ever been in, but he is now very much aware of something I wanted to keep private.

My body heats.

What if he wants to fire me because he thinks I’m too weak to watch his daughter now? What if Ellie has to go to the hospital, and he thinks I can’t handle taking her because of my near panic attack?

I’ll have to get a different job to survive living out here. I could waitress. Or sell feet pics. Anything.

“We’re home.”

My eyes spring open.

I hiss when I use my sore hand to open the door.

Rhodes’s sigh doesn’t go unnoticed. He mumbles something about me not waiting for him to open my door, but I ignore his muttering and hop onto the sidewalk to race up the porch stairs.

The house is locked, so I have to wait.

Which is unfortunate.

“If you would have waited three seconds, I would have opened the truck door for you.” He leans past me to unlock the front door.

His cologne erases the smell of the sterile hospital.

“I didn’t need you to open the door for me,” I say quietly. “I’m fine.”

He angles his head toward me, blocking the entrance. “I know you are. It’s called being a gentleman, Allison.”

My stomach caves. “Please don’t call me that.”

He squints at me, and I take his confusion for granted to slip past into the quiet house. After kicking my shoes off, I scan the area. Most of the lights are off except for the faint glow of the TV in the living room.

I jump when I hear a loud noise.

Is that a freaking monster?

Rhodes’s hand presses on my shoulder. “It’s just Malaki,” he says quietly, heading to the living room.

I follow after him and see that Malaki is asleep on the couch with a hockey game playing on the screen. He opens his mouth and growls angrily, but he’s clearly asleep.

Rhodes bends his head closer to me. “He dreams about hockey. He’s probably angry we’re losing a game.”

I laugh quietly, but as soon as the silence falls between us, I’m back to feeling cagey.

“I’m going to go check on Ellie,” he says.

A heavy breath rushes from my lungs as soon as he’s gone. I take advantage of it and all but run up the stairs to hide in my room like a child. My hand hurts. The numbing shot has worn off, but I’d rather deal with the throbbing pain than ask Rhodes where the medicine is.

I flop onto my bed and shut my eyes. My bandaged hand is cradled on my stomach, and I focus on my breathing. I replay the entire evening at the hospital. My stomach turns, picturing the doctor’s furrowed brow when he pulled up my medical history on the computer.

It’s been almost an entire year, and I’m still on edge.

I blow air out of my mouth. “Ughhh.”

“In pain?”

I jolt upward, strands of my hair flying past my face. My gaze lands on Rhodes standing in my doorway, leaning against the door as if he doesn’t have a care in the world. I’m not dense, though. He probably has hundreds of questions roaming inside his head after being in that hospital room with me.

The rattling of pills pulls my attention to his hand. “I brought you some pain medicine and water.”

As callous and grumpy as he seems at times, he surprises me more than I care to admit.

“Oh, thank—” I clear my throat and try again. “Thank you.”

Rhodes walks farther into my room and steals all the air with him.

He’s so intense that even his long strides draw my attention.

I reach out with a shaky hand and take the two pills he’s spilled onto his large palm. He unscrews the top of the water bottle and hands that to me next. I wipe my mouth with my sleeve when I’m finished, and he takes it from me, placing it on the little table beside my bed.

In an attempt to ease the tension, I try to make a joke. “Who knew you could be so attentive?”

He chuckles. “Don’t tell anyone.”

“Afraid it’ll ruin your rep?” A tiny smile curves against my lips.

“The team would never let me live it down,” he says. “But I am a dad, after all. I know how to take care of someone.”

Is that what he’s doing? Taking care of me?

My heart races with the subtle reminder of the last time that very action was implied.

The room spins.

I suddenly feel sick.

“Sunny.”

“Huh?” I snap my eyes to the doorway. Rhodes made his way over there at some point, but he’s headed toward me again.

“You’re shaking.” He’s concerned. Great.

“I’m fine!” The words zip from my mouth so quickly I don’t even believe them.

“I don’t think you are.” The scratchy sound of his hand against his jaw grounds me. “What do you need me to do? Do you want me to leave you alone? Do you want to talk about it?”

I silently repeat his question.

My eyelashes flutter with confusion.

I answer him without even thinking. “The only thing I want is for you not to fire me.”

“Fire you?” The audacity is clear as day. His heavy brow furrows, and angry lines work themselves into the creases of his forehead. “Were you expecting that I came up here to…fire you?”

I stumble over my words. “Well…I…at the hospital…” I loosen my shoulders and try again. “I just figured that with me freaking out at the hospital, you’d have concerns about the safety of Ellie. Like, what if she needs to go to the hospital, and I⁠—”

The sentence trails when I hear his heavy footsteps heading toward me. My heart pounds inside my ears, and my finger throbs even harder.

“I am concerned,” he says.

I stare at my feet dangling off the bed. Of course he is. How could he not be?

When his callused hand grips me by the chin, I suck in air and trap it behind my lips. He tilts my head back, my strands of loose hair falling away. His green eyes are dark and fueled by something I can’t decipher.

Rhodes Volkova is like a Pandora’s box. I suspect there are a lot of things going through his mind, but I’m too afraid to poke the bear. He’s gruff, quiet, brooding, intimidating, and doesn’t show many emotions. Yet, with his fingers gripping my chin gently, it’s tempting to find out.

“Oh, I’m concerned, Sunshine.” His whisper is raspy, and my pulse quickens. “But not about the safety of Ellie in your care.”

I peer up at him from the bed. My nerves are spent, exhaustion wanting to take over. The longer Rhodes scans my face, the more I surrender.

“He…” I pause.

What am I doing?

It’s like watching a trainwreck from above.

My secret is supposed to be safe and locked away for the rest of my life, yet I hear myself talking, unable to stop.

“I thought I was being dramatic and too harsh. He was going through a divorce, and he was lonely, but when his late-night talks turned into subtle touches and things were implied, I politely declined.”

Rhodes’s jaw flickers, but it does nothing to deter me.

I’m too far in to stop now.

“He didn’t like that.”

My heart beats so fast it hurts.

Rhodes stares down at me, waiting for the finale.

There’s so much more to it, but my brain fizzles out the more I look into his steely gaze.

His hand eventually falls from my face, and he steps away.

My lungs are tight.

I stare at the picture that Ellie painted hours prior and force a breath out. It gives me the push that I need to finish what I started.

“He became…” I force a rough swallow down my throat. “Sort of…consumed.”

“Consumed?”

Obsessed is more like it.

I rub the pad of my thumb against the bandage on my finger to ground myself. “He didn’t want to take no for an answer.”

“But did he?” Rhodes asks with his arms crossed over his chest. He’s shoved the sleeves of his jacket up to his elbows, and all I can focus on are the veins bursting with some type of hidden emotion that he likely will keep to himself.

My nostrils flare. There is a very thin line between anger and fear, and that night, I felt both of them. “Eventually,” I say.

He was forced to accept my rejection, but I leave that part out.

Rhodes is so quiet he can probably hear my heart pounding all the way from across the room.

In an attempt to calm his racing thoughts—because surely he’s concerned that my drama will follow me here—I stand up on shaky legs and garner his attention. He lingers on me, his face smooth and unreadable.

“He isn’t a part of my life anymore,” I add. “He has no idea where I am. I don’t have social media, and I changed my number.”

Rhodes blinks once, then twice, and by the third blink, I start to grow weak.

“If there is ever contact…” He clears his throat and reaches up to grab the top of the doorway. His shirt rides up just barely, but it’s enough to catch my eye. “You tell me.”

I dip my chin, and then he’s gone.

I stare at the empty doorway for so long my legs grow numb.

It should make me feel better that Rhodes knows what happened in Washington, but I left out some of the most important details.

At least I still have a job, though.