Falling Fast (Loving the Sound Book 1)

by Kat Obie

  “Hey, shouldn’t that be a Sound hoodie by now?” he asked teasingly like he normally would. Honestly, he thought it was fitting. The two bears both seemed well loved and he didn’t think she should swap the shirt out just for him.

  He made the comment to give Alice any sense of normalcy he could. It seemed like she was settling down again as she sat there. He was glad. He hated knowing that she was scared and fighting something fierce inside of herself that she wasn’t sharing.

  “No, Hextall will always be a Flyer. I don’t care if he got fired as our GM. Hextall was the goalie when I was growing up and he just fit all the ideas of what it meant to be a Flyer in my book: strong player, can score, protects his own, and doesn’t take shit from anyone. I would never switch out this guy’s hoodie as long as he is named Hextall.”

  Scott was tempted to tease her about what would happen if Ron Hextall got hired by the Sound in some capacity, but figured it wasn’t worth it. Instead, he wanted to know more about her. “So, if that’s Hextall, who is the other guy?”

  “China.” She said it so simply, like it was plain as day.

  The bear had some sort of clothing on, but it didn’t look Chinese. Her other bear’s name fit its clothing. Scott felt like he was missing something. “Why China?”

  “So, it’s actually China the Second. I have always wanted to go to China ever since I saw Big Bird Goes to China. Someone told me you should make names inspirational or a wish you have. So, the 3-year-old me named my favorite bear China. When I lost that one in London, it wasn’t good and I brought home a bunch of bears trying to replicate the comfort China gave me. Of course, it was the bear given to me for doing a good deed on the flight back to the states. Literally from the moment I held him, it was like holding onto China again. So I gave him the same name.”

  Scott heard Chloe coming back towards them with slow deliberate footsteps. Once she came into the room, the pit bull climbed up onto the couch and buried her head in Alice’s lap.

  That stunned him since Chloe had always been a daddy’s girl and seemed to be jealous of any woman he got serious with. After a few moments, Alice pulled a well-chewed black hockey puck from her lap. Scott chuckled when he realized what it was: Chloe’s favorite toy. Alice just seemed confused.

  “Chloe must really like you and wants to make you feel better. She almost never shares her hockey pucks with anyone, except if I’m having a really bad day or if she wants to play.”

  “A puck? Is it even a good thing for her to chew on all the time?”

  Scott just shrugged. He’d thought about it a long time ago but since she seemed like a normal healthy dog, he never even asked the vet about it. “No idea. But she would always steal pucks from me ever since she was a puppy. I just kinda gave up on the idea of taking them away. At most, I limit it to one or two pucks at a time. That way she has something to chew on but I don’t have too many pucks sacrificed to her.”

  They settled into the moment. In many ways, he wished he could take a photo of it. He had his two favorite girls with him on the couch, and they were all cuddled up. But it wasn’t the right time, even if it was Instagram-worthy.

  The longer they sat there, the more relaxed and sleepy Alice seemed. He kissed her forehead again to get her attention. “Hey, what time do you need to get up for work?”

  “Um, I guess 8 a.m. I have to be there by 9:30 a.m., but I will need to take a shower in the morning and I’m sure I’ll have to talk to my family since I left a few voicemails.”

  Scott nodded and dug out his phone from his pocket to set the alarm. While he wasn’t going to fall back asleep anytime soon, he didn’t want to make her day any worse than it was by oversleeping.

  Alice had fallen asleep. He waited a few moments to make sure she was fully asleep before he tried to pick her up. As soon as he did, Chloe jumped down from the couch. They went up to his bedroom for some real sleep.

  5

  Alice

  Alice still felt knackered when an unfamiliar alarm went off. It was like she had been run over by a truck. So much had happened to her night, she hoped it was a weird dream caused by too much drinking even though she knew that she didn’t have anything.

  She looked around her, and everything seemed unfamiliar. The walls were bare and the bed was a king size bed with grey sheets. She was also holding onto a puck in one of her hands, besides having her two bears in the crook of her arm.

  She rolled over to see Scott looking at her. He looked too perfect. Half naked and propped up on his elbows. “Hey there,” he said with a sexy smile. Almost as if he had been waiting for her to finally wake up.

  It had happened, and he had taken her back to his place. The last thing she remembered was being cuddled up on the couch with him. She was so safe with his arms keeping her all together. Without him, she might have fallen completely apart last night.

  “Hey.”

  His warm hands rubbed her arm and sent heat through her body. “How are you doing?”

  Alice took a deep breath and assessed herself. The more she thought about the evening, the more shaken she’d become. Yet waking up beside him was magical, and for a few seconds she could forget the horror.

  She wanted to wake every morning with him shirtless by her side.

  “Given everything, okay. Although I’m still pretty shaken up.” She was tempted to tell him about how she felt in his arms, but she didn’t want to sound needy.

  He pushed himself up to a seated position. His dog jumped off the bed and ran down the hall, most likely in anticipation of food or a walk.

  Instead of moving from the bed, Scott passed over her cellphone. “Your phone has been going off all morning. You might want to check out what’s going on.”

  Alice flattened herself back into the bed. “Why didn’t you silence it?” She opened the phone to see if there was anything she had to deal with. It was silenced, but the vibrate mode was on. “Ugh, I don’t want to deal with birthday wishes today. Wasn’t the burglary enough?”

  Scott rolled on top of her, almost as if he wanted to start foreplay. She barely had time to tuck the phone into some pillows between them. She already had to replace her iPad with a barely-there budget. She couldn’t afford a new phone on top of it.

  Pinned to the bed, she saw his scruff coming through which made him look even more sexy.

  “What do you mean ‘birthday wishes?’”

  “It’s my birthday today. I got to be one of the few people who had to deal with a break-in and the police first thing on their birthday.”

  Scott kissed her ear, which set off sparks throughout her entire body. He continued kissing her down the line of her neck. Once he reached the top of her white shirt, he asked, “Why didn’t you say anything? I could have gotten you something or done something to treat you.”

  “Because until this morning, the only thing I wanted to do on my actual birthday was spend time with you, especially since my Philly birthday trip won’t happen until next month. We already had plans so why say anything? You even had me all set up to go to your game tonight before we go out. In some ways, I just want my birthday to go away so I don’t have to think about how awful it was this morning.”

  Scott rolled them both over as he hugged her. Now she was on top of him but he continued to shower her with kisses as he pushed up her t-shirt. There was something about it that felt so sweet and perfect to her.

  He kept her anxiety at bay with his love, and she wasn’t even sure he realized the kind of power he held over her.

  “Would you mind if I did get you something now that I know it’s your birthday? What kind of a boyfriend would I be if I got you nothing?”

  “No. You don’t need to go overboard with anything,” she said as she started to lustfully kiss him and fist his hair.

  Once they separated, he said, “Would a new iPad be going overboard in your book?”

  She had to think about that one for a second. It was too much. She could never afford to spend the same amount of mone
y on him for his birthday. She made a lot less.

  She dreaded having to purchase a new iPad on her budget because it would take a couple months before she could afford a new one and in the short time period she’d had the iPad, it had become an everyday tool for her. She would use it as her main media center, whether it was for podcasts, music, or hockey games. She loved to use it at work when she needed to look up things quickly. She kept workouts on there and could answer emails.

  She said, “Usually but it’ll be okay in my book.”

  Suddenly, she heard the familiar sound of dog nails clicking on the hardwood floor and then an audible whine from Chloe. Alice rolled off Scott.

  Scott looked guilty. “Sorry, she’s not used to me being awake for so long and not getting up out of bed. She’s hungry and bored. When you were asleep, it was easy for her to tell that it was still bedtime.”

  Alice realized the weight of those words and felt guilty herself. She looked at him and said, “Please don’t tell me that you stayed up all night long.”

  Scott didn’t say anything at all. Alice respected that he wasn’t lying to her, but she felt so guilty. She knew he had a game. She just figured he would get some sleep too. He was the ultimate soothing balm for her, but she felt inadequate for not having the same sway over him.

  “Scotty. Why didn’t you sleep when I did? Hell, why bring me here if you weren’t going to sleep yourself? I was fine cuddling up next to you on the couch.” It didn’t take a genius to know he was the one responsible for her waking up in his bedroom.

  “I couldn’t sleep. I wanted to make sure you were safe and comfortable all night long. It’s okay, I swear. I moved you up here so you could sleep comfortably.” A more desperate whine emanated from Chloe. “Use the shower. It won’t take me long to get her some food. I can bring up your bag. I forgot to grab it last night, but I wasn’t going to leave your side in case you woke up in a panic not knowing where you were.”

  Scott kissed her forehead, as if he was saying it was okay and she shouldn’t feel guilty. She didn't feel any better. She hated imposing herself on others. He headed out the door.

  Alice knew she should get into the shower as Scott said, but she was pretty sure she’d seen a few missed calls on her phone before she got distracted by Scotty. She dug out the phone from where she’d stashed it among the pillows.

  It was littered with Facebook notifications which she was sure included a bunch of birthday messages. She had missed calls from her family and a message from her mom on Messenger.

  She paced by one of Scotty’s windows to see if he had a view of Lake Erie from his place. She replied to her mom on messenger while she called back her dad.

  “Hey, kid, are you okay?”

  “Yeah. More shaken than anything. I was pretty lucky. As soon as I said anything, they ran out.”

  “So you did see someone. Did they get anything?”

  “My iPad and initially my Echo Dot, but the police recovered that.”

  “Are you still there now?”

  “No. Scott picked me up last night after the police left. I’m still at his place, but I have to get ready for work soon.”

  That piqued his interest. His tone said that he knew what she was saying but, at the same time, he needed her to confirm his suspicions. “You know, I have to ask you, kid, who’s Scott?”

  “My boyfriend.” Alice’s voice softened. The love that she had for him was clear in her voice.

  While she was close with her dad, she never liked to share any information about boyfriends until she was serious. The last time she fully opened up to her dad about a boyfriend was her previous serious partner over 5 years ago. Her dad laughed. “So you are finally sharing his name. I was wondering when that would happen. I know you said that he traveled a lot for work. What does he do?”

  “He’s the all-star center for the Cleveland Sound.”

  Alice was shocked as she was hugged from behind tightly. She felt the heat rise up though her body. Scott whispered in the ear that wasn’t next to the phone, “I love hearing you say that.” She smiled.

  In the other ear, she heard her dad laughing. “Well, that certainly explains why you are suddenly interested in the Sound.”

  “Yeah. Sorry, Dad, I got to go.” She was getting way too distracted by Scotty. She had to get ready for work, but she liked being in his arms too much to think about work at that moment.

  “Make sure you call your mom and sister. And I want to meet Scott the next time I’m in town.”

  “Will do. I’ll talk to you soon.”

  Scott turned her around so they were facing each other. She smiled, feeling calm in his arms. Her emotions were still running wild and having to talk about the evening’s events didn’t help.

  The shit-eating grin that Scott wore was almost too sexy to handle. “How much did you hear before you snuck up on me?”

  “Enough. But don’t you have a few more calls to make and/or a shower to get into?” He seemed to be placing emphasis on the shower. Probably hoping for an invite to join her there.

  “I’m getting there. I didn’t ask before you went to take care of Chloe—are there specific towels that I should use?”

  “Any are fine. They should all be clean. What do you want for breakfast?”

  Alice wasn’t used to so much attention in the morning. Then again, this was the first time they’d actually spent a morning together. While she wasn’t much of a morning person and certainly didn’t eat much, she was thinking she could get used to waking up with Scott every day.

  “Um, just a coffee with cream and sugar.”

  “That’s not a real meal,” he said with a clear frown, fully disapproving of her choice of breakfast. “I’m a pretty good cook. I can make you pretty much anything you could desire.”

  Alice went into defensive mode. “My stomach wakes up super cranky. I get sick if I eat much of anything in the morning unless I’ve been awake for a while. I can normally tolerate coffee.”

  Scott still didn’t seem to approve but conceded. “I’m still going to make breakfast while you get a shower. But I’ll stay with you to help you get through those calls.”

  “Oh, you are incorrigible.” She was super happy that he was there.

  Scott laughed before he kissed her ears. “Only slightly. If I was truly incorrigible, I wouldn’t let you shower by yourself. But if you keep stalling, you are going to be late for work.”

  Alice shook her head as she called her sister. It was incredibly distracting to do it with him holding her and kissing along her ears and neck line. Her sister picked up right away.

  Allison immediately asked, “Hey, are you okay?”

  Then Alice had to go through everything yet again about what was taken and what she saw.

  “Oh no. Do you want me to get you a new one for your birthday?”

  “No. That’s okay. Scotty beat you to it and I told him he could get me one. Besides, you already got me too much stuff for my birthday already.” Scott toyed with her hair.

  Alice heard her niece, Noelle, start to chatter in the background. Allison asked Noelle to say ‘Happy birthday’, and she immediately said it to Alice. Then the little one asked if she was going to have a birthday party.

  Allison stepped in. “Not today. She’s having a bad day.”

  Scott squeezed her a little tighter as he continued to snuggle up. It was like heaven in his arms. She smelled his wonderful musk. He was keeping her safe, and the panic in her body never fully rose to the surface. She hadn’t realized how hard she was fighting back the feelings.

  “Yeah. At least the police were helpful, and Scott’s been great. I don’t know what I would have done without him.”

  “Okay, time to share some details. Not that you are seeing a guy. You don’t call a guy who means nothing to you after a burglary. You call someone who can make you feel safe. He means way more to you than just a casual fling.”

  Scott nibbled on her ear. It made her feel way too distracted. But s
he knew her sister wouldn’t let things slide for much longer. She kept so much of it a secret since she was afraid it was too good to be true and they would break up.

  “He’s my new boyfriend. We met when I played hockey a couple weeks ago. He plays hockey for the Sound. Well, not just plays for—he really carries the team. He came over last night and barricaded everything before we went back to his place. I’m still there now.”

  He seemed to be enjoying her comments about him. Alice was enjoying the moment, but she could tell her sister was getting into a bit of a mama bear mode. Alice couldn’t tell if Allison approved or not. Not that she had ever approved of Alice’s prior boyfriends.

  Allison surprised Alice by asking to speak to Scott directly. Allison had never asked to do that. Scotty looked equally surprised. It wasn’t worth the fight with Allison, so she passed the phone off. Scotty moved away from her as he said, “Hello.”

  Alice hated how he wasn’t holding her anymore and she couldn’t hear what was being said. She needed to keep her hands busy, so she packed up the two bears that were on the bed and get her work stuff out of her bag.

  She paused when she heard Scott say, “I promise, I would never hurt her. I want to provide her with everything she could ever want. Neither of us are looking for a casual fling. She’s special.”

  Scott went silent for a second, looking a little grim. It turned Alice’s anxiety up a notch. Holding her bears wouldn’t be enough. She walked over to Scott and hugged him.

  “I don’t know what would happen if I got traded. We haven’t talked about that because I have a non-movement clause and I just got signed to a five-year deal with the Sound last season. So, I doubt that would happen.”

  Shit, this is a far more serious conversation than I thought it would be. And they wonder why I don’t want to introduce a guy right off the bat.

  Scott spoke up again and said, “If she moves, then we will make it work. I can fly her out during the season and I’ll stay with her during the off season. I wouldn’t hold her back. I know how much she enjoys working in collegiate recreation—it’s why I didn’t try to talk her out of going in today like normal. In fact, I think it shows how strong she really is.”