Cocky Puck: A College Sports Romance (Hockey Hearthrobs)

by Vanessa Winters

  Today is our first home game after a week of traveling. The team got off the bus and immediately came to the locker room. I haven’t seen Sophie since I left last Friday.

  It’s probably for the best. If I had to see her every day, I’d never be able to keep the secret I’m keeping right now.

  “Alright, boys,” the coach says, calling me to attention. “The Rocket have nothing on you. I expect to see greatness out on the ice. Do you hear me?”

  “Yes, Coach!” we yell in unison. It’s been an adjustment, playing for a different coach. I spent four years in college listening to the same guy yell at me. Now, I have a whole team of guys yelling at me. I don’t mind it so much. I’ve become a better player since starting with the Rangers program.

  Coach dismisses us out on the ice for the anthems. I immediately find my family and give them a slight wave. I blow a kiss to Sophie, too.

  The team loves to give me shit for my girlfriend. When she comes out to games, I always blow her a kiss before we start. They love to rag on me for it. They also love the fact that she only comes to like two games a month, if that. She’s not like the other girlfriends who are in the stands for every game, and sometimes practice.

  Sophie sends a kiss in my direction. Beside her, Carmen laughs. They agreed to sit together even though they’re cheering for opposing teams. Sophie’s parents came up for the game, too. I met them over the summer and Sophie and I have gone to visit a few times. I like them a lot. Hopefully, they like me, too.

  The game is far from easy. The pros are entirely different from college. I’m glad I had so much time to practice before they threw me to the wolves.

  My team wins. We celebrate on the ice, and even Travis comes over to congratulate me.

  I can’t believe I won my first AHL game! And, I didn’t allow any scores. That’s what matters most for my position.

  Coach talks to us after the game, but I’m honestly only half listening. My parents, Sophie, her parents, Carmen, Travis, and I are going to dinner at Sophie and I’s new favorite spot. It’s a diner that reminds us of the one on campus, but the food is even better.

  We reserved the private room since our group is so large. By the time Travis and I arrive after showering, the rest of the party is already seated.

  Sophie runs over to me and jumps into my arms, kissing me hard.

  “I missed you,” she says when we part.

  “I missed you, too,” I say.

  My heart is racing. I was planning to wait, but this seems like the perfect opportunity.

  “Thank you all for coming out tonight,” I say. “It was great having you all here for my debut. It means the world to me.”

  My mom tears up. I don’t know if it’s because of my debut or what I’m about to do.

  “I want to give a special thanks to Sophie, though. Lord knows we’ve had our share of struggles, especially when we first started out. But she has stuck by my side through all the ups and downs we’ve gone through. I can’t imagine a better person to spend my days with.”

  I turn to just Sophie. There’s a question in her eyes, like she knows what’s coming but isn’t sure she should believe it.

  “Sophie, I love you more than words can say. You’re the best thing to have happened to me. I don’t ever want to go back to before I knew what it was like to have you in my life. So, Sophie Abigail Dunlap, will you do me the honor of being my wife?”

  Sophie’s face morphs into a smile. “Oh my God. Yes, of course!”

  She hugs me again, our lips meeting in a passionate kiss. Our guests surround us with hugs and congratulations, but I’m only paying attention to my future wife.

  A year ago, we were just starting out after a long, crazy road. Today, we’re starting a brand-new journey towards our forever future.

  There’s no one I’d rather be on this road with than Sophie.

  “I love you,” I whisper.

  “I love you, too,” she responds.

  Everyone settles down and we make it to the table to eat. I had planned on proposing during dessert, but when the moment presents itself, you take it.

  Sophie is showing her new ring to her mom, my mom, and Carmen. Travis slaps me on the back and tells me I did good.

  I take it all in.

  Life is a game, and right now, I’m winning.

  Free Preview of my Free Book!

  Chapter One

  Melody

  My hands shake as I hit the button for the seventh floor inside the elevator. Technically, the Snax offices start on the fourth floor, but my new job is as an assistant to one of the co-CEO’s, which means I get to spend all my time on the executive floor. I’ve heard the view from up there is amazing, especially in the fall.

  The elevator seems to take ten years to reach its destination. The building is only seven floors high. Why is it taking forever?

  The elevator finally dings and the doors open. I had my final interview here three weeks ago, but the place looks totally different now that I’m working here officially. I take in the floor to ceiling windows, with a beautiful view of the park below and all the trees with changing leaves. The carpet is light, so I’m terrified I’m going to spill something on it. I’ll have to take my lunch elsewhere.

  I look around for someone to tell me where I’m supposed to be, but the floor is completely empty. There are two offices, one on each side of the far wall, each with a desk in front of it. I assume one of those is mine. The one to the right looks relatively empty.

  I head for the office and knock on the door, expecting to find my boss, Jack Colter, there. Instead, a younger guy with a scruffy face and light blonde hair opens the door. My heart races. Who is this attractive man? He’s exactly my type. Tall, blonde, with piercing blue eyes that can probably see directly into my soul.

  “Can I help you?” he asks, his voice harsh. His eyes study my body. Does he feel the electricity between us, or is it just me? “We don’t want your girl scout cookies.”

  “Excuse me?” I say. Okay, so the guy is hot, but he’s clearly an asshole.

  The man rolls his eyes. “Whatever it is you’re selling, we’re not interested. If you’re here for the assistant position, it has already been filled. Goodbye now.”

  He tries to close the door, but I stick out my foot to stop it. I’m glad I wore comfortable black flats instead of heels. “I am aware the position has been filled. By me. Now if you could point me in the direction of Jack Colter, I’ll be on my way.”

  “Figures you’re Jack’s assistant,” he says. “I’m Cameron. Do your job and stay out of my way. Jack’s office is on the other side.”

  Cameron points to the far office. I nod, turn on my heel, and march triumphantly towards my boss’s office. It figures that Jack’s office has a glass door. I’ve heard from other employees that Jack is the approachable one while Cameron is the one to avoid.

  Through the clear door, I see Jack hold up a finger for me to wait. He finishes up his phone call and joins me outside his office.

  “Hi, Melody,” he says. “Sorry, I wanted to meet you downstairs, but I got stuck on a call with a potential new vendor. Did you find the place okay?”

  “I did,” I say. I decide against tattling on his rude brother. I’m not sure how close Jack and Cameron are, but I don’t want to get involved in any family drama, nor do I want to start it. “Thank you again for this job, Mr. Colter. I’m really excited to work with you and learn more about Snax.”

  Jack grins. “Please, call me Jack. It gets confusing with three Mr. Colter’s around.”

  I laugh. Snax was started by Jack and Cameron’s father, who still owns the company. He told me in our initial interview that he and Cameron prefer their first names to avoid any confusion. It’ll take some getting used to, but I like the informality of the office space. It’s a huge difference compared to my last job.

  I shake away the thought. I really don’t want to go down that road right now.

  Jack claps his hands together. “Okay, how
about a tour? I know you saw some of the space during your interviews, but I want you to get a feel for everything. You’ll be running things between different departments for me, so it’s important that you know where everyone is.”

  I nod. “That sounds great. Can I put my things down?”

  “Oh, of course. Your desk is right here.” He gestures towards a messy desk. “Sorry, I haven’t had a chance to clean it up since my last assistant left.”

  “No, worries. I’ll take care of it.”

  “Perfect. That way, you can organize it how you like. You’ll get a feel for what you’ll need to have. My only request is that you have a specific bin where I can put paperwork every morning. That’ll basically be your duties for the entire day.”

  “I’ll make sure to label a bin for that.”

  I set my laptop bag on the messy desk, along with my lunchbox. There are only four people on the executive floor, so it should be safe there. Cameron was a jerk, but I doubt he’ll steal from me. He and Jack are both billionaires. They don’t need my five-year-old laptop. I haven’t met Cameron’s assistant yet, but I’m going to assume she won’t take my things. If she does, it’ll be pretty obvious who the only suspect is.

  “I’m ready,” I tell Jack. He’s fiddling with his phone, answering a text.

  Jack looks up like he forgot I was there. He quickly pockets his phone and claps his hands again. He did this like a hundred times in our interview, so it must be his go-to move. “Great. Let’s go. We’ll start from the fourth floor and work our way up.”

  “Sounds great.”

  We take the elevator down to the fourth floor, which opens up into an open plan just like the executive floor, except this one is packed. “This is our call center,” Jack explains. “All of our customer service flows through this room. Our sales department is located here, as well. They call stores and try to get our product on the shelves, or they answer questions from our current vendors.”

  I nod along, taking in the craziness. There are about fifty people in the space, and most of them are talking on the phone. I have no idea how any of them concentrate. I could never work down here. I’d be listening in on other conversations the whole time.

  “You probably won’t have to come down here too often,” Jack says. We walk towards the back of the room, which looks just like the seventh floor. The view isn’t as good, but I still catch a glimpse of those beautiful fall trees in the park below. “If you ever need to communicate with this floor, it’ll be with Andrew or Cassidy.”

  We reach two bigger desks at the back of the room. A man and a woman, both probably close to twenty-five like me, sit behind their desks.

  “Hi,” the guy says. “I’m Andrew, the customer service manager. You must be Melody.”

  I nod and shake his hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”

  Cassidy holds out her hand to shake, too. “I’m Cassidy, the sales manager.”

  They each get a call before we have a chance to talk more, so Jack leads me to the stairs. “I might have you grab sales reports from Cass or get updates from Andrew about call volume and stuff. Cameron and I split duties, though, and he usually takes care of sales and customer service.”

  This admission surprises me. From what I’ve heard, Jack is the more personable one. I would think he’d be the one handling the consumer experience side of things.

  On the fifth floor, things are a lot quieter. We stay at the doorway to the stairwell. “This is the accounting department,” Jack whispers. “They don’t like a lot of noise. So, try to stay quiet if you come down here. I take care of a lot of the money stuff, too, so you’ll be here quite a bit.”

  I nod, not wanting to disrupt the quiet of the room. We leave quickly, but Jack stops on the landing halfway to the sixth floor.

  “I want to talk more about accounting, but I didn’t want to disturb them.” Jack leans against the railing. He’s slightly taller than his brother, and his hair is a little darker. They don’t look much alike, but now that I’ve met Cameron, I can see some similarities. They have the same nose and their eyes are the same shade of ice blue. “This is your most important task. There are a few levels of managers before me, but the CFO reports directly to me, which is why I need to be in tune to everything going on with accounting.”

  “That makes sense. I think one of my first interviews went over that.”

  “Good, good. I’ll give you specifics every day, because your duties are constantly changing. But the gist is that you’ll get expense reports, accounts payable and receivable, and other reports from accounting. I like to go over them with our CFO, so you’ll get those to me. However, I want them all in a single report to make it easier. I have some examples from my last assistant, Savannah, that I can show you. You can organize the reports however you want, as long as they cover all the bases.”

  I wish I had a notebook to write this all down in. Hopefully, I can remember something as simple as “create one report from many different reports.” So far, this job doesn’t seem like it’s going to be too difficult. I was an assistant at my last company, too, so I’m used to the administrative tasks. I’m mostly excited to learn about how Snax runs.

  Snax is a snack company, as made obvious from the name. It was started in Jack and Cameron’s dad’s basement forty years ago. I love it because they use only natural flavors for their chips and pretzels. Plus, they’ve been slowly unveiling these green initiatives that make the company even more appealing. They were using natural ingredients and environmentally conscious practices before it became the “cool” thing to do. It’s no wonder the company became a multi-billion-dollar corporation less than ten years after it opened.

  “Do you have any questions?” Jack asks.

  I shake my head. “It’s all pretty straight forward.”

  He smiles at me. Jack really does have a lovely smile. I wonder what Cameron looks like when he’s happy. I doubt it happens often.

  “Great, there’s one more floor to see. It’s Cameron’s department, so you’ll rarely, if ever, be going there.”

  I follow him up the last flight of stairs. The office we get to is hugely different from the last two. This one’s walls are covered in bright colors. Natural light fills the room, unlike the accounting floor which had curtains covering its windows.

  “Wow,” I say.

  Jack grins. “This is our marketing department. They say the décor brings out their creative juices. I think they just wanted a week off work to decorate.”

  I chuckle. That seems on par with the creative types I’ve worked with. Maybe if my last company’s marketing department looked like this, they would’ve been better at their jobs. I should send a recommendation to…

  I force the thought away again. No, I remind myself. Don’t think about him.

  “So, marketing falls under Cameron’s instruction, like I said. He has a degree in business and marketing, so it makes sense.”

  It only makes sense on paper. Someone so angry at the world should be doing math all day, not deciding what ad campaigns to run.

  “They also do package design here. Cameron gets the final say on every new branding opportunity, but I do like to look things over before they go out. We’re a team here. Our dad encouraged both of us to learn every aspect of the company.”

  “I get that.”

  He claps his hands once again. I can’t lie, that might get annoying after a while. “Great. Let’s head back upstairs, then. I have a meeting in five. The cafeteria is on the third floor. We share it with the businesses on the bottom of the building, but it’s usually pretty quiet down there. Feel free to take your lunch hour outside, though. It’s beautiful out this time of year.”

  When we get to the seventh floor, we’re immediately accosted by Cameron. His blue eyes burn with frustration. He’s angrier than he was before, and somehow that makes him even sexier. “Where have you been?” he demands.

  Jack rolls his eyes. “I was showing Melody around.”

  “Emma cou
ld have shown Melody around,” Cameron counters. “You knew we had a board meeting. Do you take anything seriously?”

  “Relax, Cameron. I’m here now. Let’s go.”

  The two men leave me to my own devices, but I’m okay with it. I need to process what just happened. Cameron didn’t have to be such an asshole to his brother. It makes sense that my boss would give me a tour. I don’t get what Cameron’s issue with me is, but I don’t like it.

  I let out a frustrated sigh. I can’t get involved in workplace drama, not again.

  Instead, I settle down at my new desk and start organizing. Everything around me might be a little messy right now, but at least my desk will be neat.

  Chapter Two

  Cameron

  Jack may be older, but he’s certainly not wiser. My assistant, Emma, easily could have given his new assistant a tour of the space and given her some stuff to do. Instead, Jack decided he would be late to our board meeting so he could play tour guide.

  I roll my eyes. Jack will never take this job seriously. I have no idea why our father put him in charge of the finances. Luckily, we have a CFO to make sure Jack doesn’t fuck it up.

  Jack and I take our seats near the end of the table in our executive conference room. Our father takes the head of the table. The CFO, Ali, sits across from us. The rest of the board is scattered around.

  “Sorry we’re late,” I say, the words tumbling out. Dad gives me a stern look. He’s always on me about apologizing.

  “No problem, Cameron,” Sheila says. She blushes a bit. Sheila is our board secretary, which means she takes excessive notes at every meeting. She also has a crush on me. We went on a date about a year ago, but we didn’t hit it off. We didn’t even make it to the goodnight kiss. I’m not sure why Sheila still gets nervous around me. It’s a little disconcerting.

  Dad clears his throat. “Shall we begin? We have a lot to cover.”

  I fold my hands on the table. Today’s meeting is extra important. The board is voting on my proposal to incorporate solar panels at our factories.