“So, tell me about being a planetary scientist first, then I’ll fill you in on hockey,” I said, stretching out my legs and crossing them at the ankle. “Being a musician kind of explains itself.”
“Okay, well, planetary science is the study of planets, moons, and systems.” He took a swig of his soda.
I watched his throat work as he swallowed. He’d certainly grown way more attractive over the past two days. Not only was he Mr. Science Dork Sexy but he was really nice and utterly devoted to Madeline. Seeing him fuss over my daughter was incredibly sexy.
Woah, where did that thought come from? Joseph is her nanny and Maddie is my priority.
“I’m close to graduating though, and hope, when I’ve done a ton more studying past just a bachelor’s degree, to someday secure a position in either the astronomy or physics department at the University of Arizona.”
“Right in Tucson, nice.” He nodded. “You’ll love my grandmother. She’s all into the stars too. Like she can tell you your sign just by how you answer a couple of questions.”
He looked at me in horror. “You know that astronomy and astrology are two vastly different things.”
“Yeah, sure, I knew that.”
He shot me a sideways glance then did this funny thing where he sucked his lower lip in and nipped at it. I’d caught him doing it several times, when he was deep in thought, and each time I saw it I nearly reached over to thumb his lip and free it.
Well, shit.
“That sounded snooty. I’m sorry. Natalie tells me I get that superior tone a lot.”
“Nah, it’s cool. No offense taken. I kind of did a slow curl through college, surfing along on my hockey skills while working on a music composition degree.”
“Ah a jock music major.”
“I hear the sneer in there. Your girlfriend Natalie is right.”
He choked on his sip of cola. “No, Natalie is my sister. Did you not see the full background check that Simon ran?”
“No, just that you passed his checks, but he said that you live with her and her daughter, correct?”
“Right. Emma is my niece. She’s five.” He smiled in a loving way that spoke of how much he cared for his family.
“So, tell me about space. Is it truly the final frontier?”
His laughter startled me. “You’re the oddest person ever.”
I bowed, leaning forward, letting my brow touch my kneecaps. When I sat up Joe’s pretty eyes were wide.
“Goalies are limber,” I informed him with a salacious wink that made his cheeks flush deep pink. A sight that looked hella good on him.
“Yeah, I see that. So, uhm…”
“Space. We were talking about heavenly bodies.”
His gaze flickered over me as he fumbled around some doofy explanation about supernovas and why they were hard to see here in our Milky Way galaxy because of space dust. I was content to let him ramble on as the sun set. Odd as it may have seemed I’d never felt more settled than I did sitting on a slab of concrete with a big nerd at my side and my daughter making soft cooing noises as she woke. I could get used to this…
The following morning I woke with a smile on my face despite the alarm on my phone chiming at six a.m. sharp. Rolling to my side, I studied the door that separated my suite from Joe’s. Last night had been something special. Joe was… well, he was incredibly uptight and fact-based, which I found cute as hell while being somewhat irritating. Most of the people I hung out with were more free-spirited. My summers with the Furballs were spent roaming up and down the West Coast engaging in what I imagined Joe would term hedonistic pursuits. My winters with the Raptors, while not as overtly decadent, also included a lot of sex. Not rock star levels of debauchery but there was a lot of sexual energy. Hockey players acted on their urges. They might’ve looked all clean-cut, but when a team rolled into a city and picked a bar, there was fucking afoot.
So yeah, I lived among the sexually liberated. I had been raised to enjoy that side of myself. Alchemy felt that sexuality was a good thing, something to be celebrated and enjoyed whenever the urge struck. I got that urge a lot. And I usually acted on it. There was never a lack of willing partners. I did my best to be safe. I took PrEp daily and used condoms. Sure, that little girl in the room next door may have suggested that I failed to boot up as often as I should have. Given my faulty condom use, it was a wonder that Maddie Boo was the first kid to arrive on my doorstep.
Yeah, I know. “But what about diseases!” Well, true, there are some nasties out there, but until the last year or so I’d not given it much thought. I guess I thought I was bulletproof. That’s the curse and joy of youth, right?
Thinking of her, and Joe, made me itchy to see them, so I rolled out of bed, bent to touch my toes, pulled on a bright yellow robe with green mango slices, and slid into the adjoining suite. I paused at the sound of someone singing softly and the smell of fresh lime on the air. Grinning like a fool, I snuck over to the playpen. Maddie was sleeping, her little lips sucking air, her cheeks round and pink. I bent down to touch her hair. It was soft as puppy fur. When Joe hit a high note in the worst cover of “She Blinded
