Score Her Heart: A Marriage of Convenience Hockey Romance (Philadelphia Bulldogs Book 2) by Danica Flynn (best mystery novels of all time .txt) 📗

I coughed into my hand, and she laughed again before coming into the bathroom to plug in her straighter. She wasn’t wrong, so I got out of the way before I did anything too bold. I shuffled into my suit jacket and offered her my hand when she finally came out of the bathroom. Surprising me, she took it, and I guided her out of the suite.

“So, where are you taking me?” she asked when we stepped onto the elevator.

“Sushi.”

Her eyes lit up. “I love sushi.”

“I know.”

“You actually listen to me?” she asked with a surprised look on her face.

I rubbed my thumb on the back of her palm. “Of course I do.”

“Oh,” she said and looked down at her shoes.

My gut told me she was thinking again about whether we should call this thing off. The idea of her leaving and not giving me a chance to show her that I could be the right man for her gutted me. She didn’t try to wrench her hand out of mine, though, so I thought that was at least a good sign.

The silence filled me with dread, but once we got into my rental car, the music from the stereo made it not as noticeable. I focused on driving, even though I could tell that her mind was on something else.

I knew something was up when she was still quiet after we were seated at the restaurant. She sipped slowly on a glass of red wine, staring off at something behind my right shoulder. I reached across the table and put my hand on top of hers. She jerked suddenly and looked at me with a sheepish look.

“Sorry,” she offered.

“Where did you go?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I get in my own head sometimes. I’m trying to figure my way out of this plot hole.”

The waiter brought our dinner, and I smiled at how happy she looked once she started eating. Huh, maybe she was just hangry. I took a sip of my wine and speared a California roll with my chopsticks.

“Oh my God, I was pretty hungry,” I admitted.

“Oh, me too,” she agreed and took a huge gulp of her wine. I poured her some more from the bottle on the table. We clinked glasses, and I loved seeing the sweet smile across her face. “This is really nice, Aaron. Maybe too nice; this place is fancy.”

I couldn’t help the grin spreading across my face, especially at her using my first name. “I’m kind of surprised you’re gonna let me pay for dinner.”

She stuck her tongue out at me. “Usually I would fight you, but you know I can’t afford this place.”

“You know you don’t have to worry about that. I’m—”

“Don’t start with that.”

I held up my hands in surrender. “Fine, fine. So tell me about the book.”

She looked taken aback. “You want to hear about my work?”

I furrowed my brow in confusion. “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I?”

She avoided the question by shoving another piece of sushi in her mouth and then taking a long sip of her wine. I cocked my head at her, waiting for her answer.

“Sorry. Eric never wanted to hear it. He was actually pretty pissed when I quit my job last year. But, I mean, the sales on the first book allowed me to.”

I narrowed my eyes. The more she revealed about her relationship, the more I thought it was a good thing that Eric didn’t show up yesterday. There was no way she would have been happy with him. I curled and uncurled my fist under the table. Man, did I want to throttle that guy.

“I liked the first book, but I haven’t read the second one,” I admitted.

I watched her bring her hands to her chest. “You bought my book? Really? I mean, I know you read the very bad first draft I wrote, but...”

“Of course! I’m so proud of you. You always wanted to write, and you’re finally doing it.”

She clenched her hands to her heart and gave me a look of adoration. “You have no idea how much that means to me to hear you say that. My family hasn’t been that supportive about this career change.”

I nodded. I vaguely remembered my mom saying something about how Katherine thought this was just a passion project. That really rubbed me the wrong way. It was clear that this was what made Fi happy, and when she talked about her writing, her eyes sparkled with delight, and her hands waved about excitedly. I definitely had to remind myself to pick up book two in her trilogy for my upcoming road trip.

“Tell me how it’s going,” I encouraged.

“No spoilers!” she exclaimed and then launched into vaguely telling me about trying to fix the problem she found in her draft today. She had a deadline that she really needed to meet, and she was super close, but having discovered this plot hole today, she was afraid she wasn’t going to meet it. I nodded while she told me all of this, feeling like she really needed someone to listen to her rather than have a solution to her problem.

She paused after a long breath to take a sip of her wine, and then her eyes widened.

“What?” I asked.

She downed the rest of the wine. “Holy shit, I think I figured it out!”

I laughed. “Just like that?”

She nodded, then pulled out her phone and typed away at it. I tried to say something, but she held a finger up to shush me and continued whatever she was doing. A few minutes later, she put the phone down again and looked at me with an apologetic look on her face. “Sorry, sometimes I have to write out some notes, or I will lose it,” she explained. “Enough about my stuff. Are you going to truthfully tell me how you think the Bulldogs are doing this season?”

I groaned, and this time, I shoved