Hockey Holidays Read online

  “I’m fine. The guy embellished,” Alex muttered, taking a seat in the sin bin, tapping his leg in frustration. Cheesy wasn’t wrong. Alex had been distracted all night. He refused to look up at his suite to see if she was watching, and then he felt like an asshole for not looking up to see the kids.

  He’d never lost his focus like this before, and he’d be damned if he was going to let Maggie get to him. He’d get his answers from her, but for now, he had a game to win. He concentrated on his teammates. Anaheim fired the puck on Gally, but the Strikers’ goalie dropped to his knees and covered it.

  Alex hated being the cause for his team to be a man down. He glanced at the clock. Thirty seconds left. He took a sip of water and stood up, his stick ready, and waited for Gally to hit his stick on the ice, signaling a few seconds left in the penalty before he could go back on the ice.

  The penalty box door opened, and Alex darted onto the ice, catching Sully’s slight head tilt right before he passed the puck. It hit the center of Alex’s stick and Alex was off. Within seconds, he sent the rubber disk flying over the blocker-side shoulder of Anaheim’s goalie.

  The goal buzzer blared through the arena and his teammates came crashing into him.

  He looked up at his box. The kids were cheering and jumping up and down. He gave them a salute, loving how excited they were to come to the games. That’s why he’d created the Warriors. Every kid in that suite had gone through more than he could imagine, and if he could give them a reason to smile or not think about what they were going through for one minute, he would do whatever he could.

  Before he turned back to his teammates, he spotted Maggie clapping in the corner. He hoped her smile was wide, like that smile she always used to give him when she watched him play.

  Yes, he definitely had questions for her and he wasn’t going to let her avoid him again.

  Maggie finished her first rotation Wednesday morning and stopped off at the nurses’ station.

  “Heard someone had a good time at the game last night,” Callie, one of the nurses and Maggie’s first friend in the city, called out.

  “What?” Maggie asked, setting down her tablet.

  “The game. Westie. Heard it was a good one. He’s so dreamy,” Callie said, smiling as a few of the other nurses extolled Alex’s better qualities.

  “Wait. What did you hear?” Maggie said, stopping next to Callie. No one knew about her and Alex. She’d kept their history under wraps, and until one of her colleagues had asked her to take his place at the game last night, she’d always found a way to get out of attending. To get out of seeing him.

  Because what would he say to her? It’d been years since she’d ended their relationship. She’d had her reasons, which had seemed hollower as the years had gone by. She’d believed ending things had been practical, but logic hadn’t made it hurt any less when he’d tried to reason with her. It’d been for the best. They’d been so young, and she was preparing for medical school and he’d just been traded. Their lives were just starting, and they weren’t going in the same direction. She’d repeated her reasons over and over, drilling them into her brain, but if she was completely honest with herself, her heart had never gotten the message.

  No man had ever measured up to her first—her only—love.

  “Maggie? I take it you fell under his spell. We all have,” Callie said, cutting through Maggie’s memories.

  “No, no. Of course not,” she said. “Aren’t you engaged?”

  Callie grinned. “Yes, but I’m not blind. So, what’s your deal with him? Come to think of it, you’re never around when he stops by. At least from what I remember.”

  “I should get back to my patients.”

  “I know for a fact that you just did your rounds and I’m due for a quick break. Want to grab coffee?” Callie asked.

  Maggie’s phone buzzed.

  Saved by a meeting.

  “Sorry, I can’t. Forgot I have a meeting with Sandra,” she said, backing away from her friend.

  “This isn’t over, Maggie,” Callie called out as Maggie headed to her boss’s office, hoping her meeting ran long and that Callie would forget about the game.

  Five hours later, Maggie couldn’t wait to crawl into her bed. The combination of a late night last night after the game went to overtime and checking in on Camilla, her ten-year-old patient who was back in the hospital after she’d gone through remission twice, had taken its toll. She both loved and hated her job, but seeing Camilla back in a hospital bed hit a little too close to home. Camilla reminded Maggie of her sister, Grace. Same bright smile through the pain, and a giggle that brought Maggie back to high school, when her eleven-year-old sister was battling the same aggressive cancer that plagued Camilla.

  Grace was why Maggie had pursued pediatric oncology. She hadn’t been able to save her sister, but she’d do everything she could to help other kids battling cancer.

  “Hey, you up for that coffee yet?” Callie said.

  “Crap, you startled me,” Maggie said, laughing and shoving aside thoughts of her sister.

  “I’m about to clock out and you look like you need a breather.”

  “That obvious, huh?”

  “I saw Camilla was back,” Callie said, shaking her head. “I’d really hoped…”

  “Me too. And yes, I could use a caffeine boost,” she said, locking up her tablet and following Callie to the elevator. She didn’t want to talk about Camilla.

  “Don’t think you’re getting out of telling me how you know Westie,” Callie said over her shoulder, her grin back in place.

  Maggie paused. Crap, she’d forgotten all about her upcoming inquisition. Maybe she didn’t need coffee after all.

  Callie linked her arm with Maggie’s. “Don’t even try to escape. You’re holding out on your best friend. It really hurts, Mags, like a lot.”

  Maggie couldn’t stop her smile. Maybe confiding in her new friend was a good thing.

  They found a table in the hospital café and tucked into the corner with their coffees and a cookie or two. Okay, she’d grabbed two. A balanced diet was a cookie in each hand, and she excelled at stress eating. Good thing she also enjoyed cardio, and working at the hospital kept her constantly moving.

  “Now spill.”

  “It was a great game. I’m glad they won. The kids had so much fun. I’d forgotten how loud kids can get when they’re excited.” And she had loved it, loved watching him play live again. It’d been way too long.

  The penalty had been bullshit, but they’d killed it and she was not ashamed to admit how loud she’d cheered when he’d sunk the puck into the back of the net twice. Nor could she forget the heat in her cheeks when he looked up at this suite and saluted the kids. She swore he’d spotted her in the corner, but that was ridiculous.

  “Yeah, yeah. It was a great game. They won. Now stop hedging. How do you know Westie? I’m honestly a crappy friend for not calling you out on your clear avoidance skills before,” Callie said over her coffee cup.

  “I’m not avoiding him. I’m just busy. Being a new resident isn’t easy,” she said.

  Callie waved her off. “Yeah, yeah. Spill, lady.”

  She took a deep breath. “I grew up with Westie—with Alex, in a suburb outside of Chicago. He lived on the street behind mine and sat behind me in school.”

  “And?”

  “We may have dated.”

  Callie’s grin widened. “I knew it. Why didn’t you say anything? Did he break your heart? How dare he.”

  Maggie laughed, and then ducked her head, focusing on the exceptionally delicious toffee cookie she was picking apart.

  “Not exactly. We dated in high school and for most of college. He got traded to the Strikers the semester before I graduated. He was coming here, and I was going to med school in Chicago. We were young, and long-distance relationships rarely work. It was easier to just end it.”

  “Oh, Maggie.”

  Maggie shrugged. “Yeah, he didn’t agree with my decision,