Falling Fast (Loving the Sound Book 1)

by Kat Obie

  “Within reason.” Alice said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Scotty gave her a look asking what she meant. She caught on and said, “So, no ponies unless they have been in lessons for a couple years. Nothing super absurd like a miniature playhouse that is an exact replica of our house.”

  “What about the best hockey camps in the world and tournaments every weekend?”

  “As long as they want to play,” said Alice without skipping a beat.

  Scotty had to laugh. He needed her temperance. He kissed Alice lightly on the temple and asked, “So, besides spooking you with the housing search, did you have a good day?”

  “Yeah. It was with you. We got to go to an actual game together. That was awesome. Everything has been good. I liked looking at those places, but here and now isn’t the right time. Plus, we got to go to one of my favorite places for dinner.”

  “So, we’re good?”

  “Of course we are.”

  Scotty smoothed down Alice’s hair. “I’m sorry about that. But it wasn’t your bad day that prompted the viewings with the realtor. It was you saying how you always wanted to get a place like the one on Elfreth’s Alley. It does take more than a few hours to get that arranged. Even realtors sleep during the wee hours of the night. I wasn’t trying to cut you out. Are you sure there isn’t anything more on your mind?”

  Alice shook her head, then she moved. She climbed on top of him and kissed him rather passionately. She smiled and said, “Nothing right now.”

  Scotty realized how damn lucky he was. That could have been a major fight between them. Now they could get back to the love making.

  Alice

  Alice had awful dreams all night long. Suddenly, she felt Scotty’s lips along her neck. She turned and saw that his face looked a bit pained. Hell, it looked like he’d taken more than a few hits. She realized that she wasn’t still while she slept poorly.

  “You okay?” asked Alice, hoping she hadn’t ended up hurting him.

  “I could ask the same of you. I haven’t seen you move like that before.”

  Alice’s face dropped. She felt guilty. “I’m sorry, babe.”

  “It’s okay, but what was going on in that pretty head of yours? You had to be running from something,” asked Scotty as he relaxed.

  “It was weird. We were all living underground and taken over by the Nazis. There was a search for art supplies for a crazy scavenger hunt project which included trying to get miniature goats in a pool. I hid in the Nazi leader’s office and discovered that the guy who looked like Mark Ruffalo was actually the Hulk. Then I had to run away to make sure that no one suspected I knew that secret. It seemed like a secret that was dangerous on all sides and you had to run away if you wanted to live.”

  “What the hell? How does that even come to mind?”

  “I don’t know, but that was my dream. Sorry if I hurt you. Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. You got the brace, but after a wild arm to my junk I figured that it might be better to wake you up. Besides, it’s always so much fun to wake you up that way.”

  Alice tried to make herself small and curled up into a ball as she tried to clear her mind from the dream. She put her head onto her knees. Scotty rubbed her back, trying to give her some comfort while giving her space. Alice said quietly, “I’m sorry. I haven’t had dreams like that in a while.”

  Scotty lifted her head up and looked in her lovely eyes. “Hey, it happens. We all have dreams like that. I would be running and turning in my sleep too if that was my dream. Come on and lie back down with me.” Alice didn’t move at first. She wanted to clear her mind and body of the nightmares. It was the best thing for her. He said, “Come on, Alice. Let’s go back to sleep.”

  His hands were waiting to envelope her, and she leaned in towards them. She felt safe and warm in his grasp. It was amazing how much comfort he could provide. Almost instantly, she fell back into a deep sleep. It was a sleep filled with no memorable dreams.

  She woke up to kisses. She held onto Scotty’s strong and muscled arms, trying to give him some strength and love with her grasp. “Up for some breakfast?” she asked.

  “Okay, what’s the deal? You never want breakfast, especially this early. What is wrong?” asked an even more concerned Scotty.

  Alice just laughed and said, “Nothing. Philly has great breakfast and brunch places. I thought you might like to try one of them since I know you love breakfast. If we walk there, I should be ready for food. Plus, I love walking the streets of Philly.”

  “Okay. But what do you want to do? This is your trip. My work stuff is done, and it’s all about you until we have to go to the airport.”

  “Honestly, breakfast sounds good.”

  “I see,” said Scott with a pleased look on his face. “I know I say it a lot, but je t’aime.” He nuzzled at her neck. Alice loved each and every movement he was doing to her body. He whispered into her ear, “You are close. Let’s see if you can last a little longer.” The low huskiness and lust in his voice wasn’t helping her want to last. She wanted to submit and be one with him. He gave the best morning sex she’d had in a long time.

  “That was amazing,” Alice said, enjoying the moment. Scott lay beside her, spooning her.

  Before they met, Alice wouldn’t have believed how easy it was for her to just let herself be protected and loved by someone. Her walls had come down. It was something she hadn’t done in a long time and she just hoped that she didn’t get hurt.

  Eventually, Alice went to the bathroom to get cleaned up. They both got ready for the day.

  Alice led the way to the Green Eggs Cafe on South 13th St. It was a few blocks south. Scotty held her hand throughout the walk. There was something different about the walk.

  Alice just felt more exposed. While she was home in Cleveland, Scotty recognized but no one paid attention to her. Now it seemed like some people recognized both of them. Alice tried to ignore it. Fortunately, once they arrived at the Green Eggs Cafe, they were seated immediately.

  As they were getting seated, Scotty whispered towards her, “It’s still so weird you want breakfast. You even blew past several coffee places without even a longing glance. Are you sure you are okay?”

  Alice just smiled and said, “Of course I’m okay. Can’t I take you out for breakfast?”

  “Of course, you can. But I might just keep saying how it’s weird unless you do it more often,” said Scotty as he looked over the menu. He licked his lips in pleasure. Alice had known her suggestion would go over well, even if he thought it was weird. He said, “Okay. If this tastes even half as good as it sounds, it could be a wonderful meal.”

  Alice laughed and leaned over on the table. “Babe, it won me over. Don’t you think it must be good?”

  “Not sure. You skip breakfast all the time. You might not know what a good breakfast is.”

  Alice rolled her eyes. She didn’t care that he had a valid point. The server came up to the table, so Alice didn’t feel like it was a good time to defend her taste in breakfast places. Scotty surprised Alice by ordering the short rib benedict. She wasn’t sure what he was going to order but, for some reason, it seemed like a weird order. Alice got the pecan pie French toast.

  They talked about how the hockey world was talking about the interaction with Gritty and the speculation over her. His phone had been blowing up with notifications all morning. Alice was almost afraid to see what would be said about her on other parts of the internet, but Scotty kept telling her everyone loved her.

  The two plates were dropped off on the table along with two coffees. Alice wasn’t surprised that Scotty pulled out his phone and took photos. He loved making Instagram foodporn photos of any meal that seemed to be worthy. Alice held off on taking a bite of her French toast until he was done. He smiled as he pocketed his phone.

  Alice then took a bite of her decadent French toast. Instead of closing her eyes to truly savor that first bite, she kept them focused on Scotty. When he took a bite of his meat
y eggs, he looked like he just climaxed with that bite. Despite knowing full well his appreciation of the meal, she asked, “So, you like it?”

  “Dude, this could be the best thing ever. You might need some dynamite to get me out of here.”

  “So, you would give up your career to just eat here every day?” asked Alice with a cocked eyebrow. She took another bite of her French toast. He wouldn’t give up hockey easily. He lived and breathed hockey. She cut off another square of the French toast, speared it, and held the fork out for him as she asked, “Want a bite?”

  “Okay, I won’t stay here forever. I love hockey too much, but damn this is good.” He took a bite from the outstretched fork and again savored the food. “Are you sure you don’t want to have a place? We could come here all the time.”

  Alice was amazed at how elated he was with breakfast. He stole more bites of her French toast. She let him since there was no way she could finish it all. But as he was eating, she wondered if that was the look of excitement and contentment she got from an expertly crafted beer. She said, “I think we are good for homes, but we can still come back. Although, if you like this place, there are at least two other brunch places that I think you would like just as much.”

  Scotty gave her a wanton look. “You shouldn’t have told me that.”

  Alice was amused. She knew he would like it here.

  He said with a pointed fork, “If you don’t tell me about those places before the next trip, there will be consequences.”

  That made Alice giggle. She was curious what kind of consequences they would be. She couldn’t imagine him doing anything worse than trying to tickle her to death or maybe giving her a hard check when they were playing. But it wasn’t worth testing the beast. “Don’t worry. I’ll tell you all about the Red Owl and Sabrina’s. Hell, there’s even the Dutch that’s pretty good too. I’m just glad that you don’t want to go to all of them today.”

  “There’s a part of me that wants to, but I know that we can’t. Between the time constraints and being mindful about nutrition . . . This is decadent and without playing . . .”

  “You have to be careful,” finished Alice.

  “I’m still surprised that you didn’t try to meet up with friends on this trip. We could have easily gone to a brewery last night.”

  “Well, we didn’t have much time. Besides, I loved the company that I was with. Next time we can do something with them.”

  20

  Scott

  Things had been crazy lately. The Sound were inching out games and stacking up several injuries. Fortunately, Lager and Dykstman were still healthy. But over the past four weeks, Corey had gotten a concussion, Wheels strained his hamstring, and Crestor tweaked his hip.

  Scotty wanted to help the team. There was still a way to go before he could get cleared. The scouting trips were so jam-packed, he barely had time to think. It was nice seeing Alice at the end of most nights, but he never felt at home.

  Last week, he’d gotten the okay to skate in addition to the off-ice training. There was a good chance of him getting cleared for tonight’s game, but he got ruled out due to the inflammation on the knee after yesterday’s practice. At least he was getting on the ice.

  It was a rare day off. Okay, not a full day off—he still had rehab time with doc and a video session with the team. But since he wasn’t allowed to play in tonight’s game, it felt like an easy day.

  Scotty and Alice were lying in bed for a lazy morning. Chloe waited at the foot of the bed as per usual. Backup played with a toy beside the bed. This had become the pup’s new normal. He was self-sufficient and happy to wait for them if he could play with a toy or two. Scotty loved lazy mornings, mainly because they were so few and far between.

  Scotty was about to wake up Alice for morning sex. She looked so peaceful sleeping. He’d noticed that since their trip to Philly, she seemed to be sleeping through the night completely without stirring. If she stirred at all, it seemed to be due to a weird dream, and Scotty learned she would have some weird ones. She stayed like that for about ten minutes before her phone went off.

  She groggily but quickly answered the phone. “This is she . . .” She pushed herself up into a seated position. “Yeah, I can talk.”

  Scotty scrutinized her face to see who could be on the other end. But then she just crashed into his chest which he knew wasn’t a good sign and she wanted to be held. He held her close and rubbed her arms, trying to give her any comfort he could. From there he could hear that she was on the phone with a prosecutor who was giving her an update on one of the juvenile defendants from her burglary.

  He looked down at her to see how she was holding up since he knew how rough previous calls with the prosecutors had been. Other than wanting to be held, she seemed to be okay.

  She asked straightforward questions of the prosecutor to find out which of the two juvenile offenders he was referring to. Then she answered questions about what happened the night of the burglary. It was the most he’d heard about the burglary in one go since her birthday. He was amazed how she joked about the weirdness and the craziness of the people walking to her place during a snowstorm and then taking the time to eat snacks. Scotty just stayed very quiet throughout the whole exchange.

  When she dropped the phone on the bed, he scooped her up and turned her so she was facing him. “You continue to amaze me.”

  “What?” asked a quiet Alice. “Why?”

  “I know that wasn’t an easy call for you. But here you are, nice and strong. There’s no tears or anything. Last time, I found you in the fetal position hours later.”

  Alice just shrugged. “Dude, I’m not that strong. You are the strong one. Not crying over a phone call is a super low standard for strength. It’s not like I had a bunch of surprises this time, like there was a third person who was charged and that they broke in multiple times. Besides, how do you know I won’t break down later?”

  Scott tipped Alice’s chin up so she would look at his eyes. He delicately kissed her lips. “I know you well enough to know that you won't. You aren’t using one word answers as a way to keep yourself together like I have seen you do in the past. I’ll say you are doing pretty damn good.”

  “I guess I'm getting used to it. Besides, it’s much better when you are holding me. I know I’m safe. The last time was just so much harder since I had to handle it on my own.” He was so close to pointing out how she didn’t need to handle it on her own, that was her choice. But that would only piss her off and wasn’t worth it.

  “Hey, I’m here for you always.” He kissed and searched her eyes to see if she believed him at all. He wasn’t sure if she did. “You know that, right, kid?”

  Scotty didn’t know why he called her kid at times like this. They were practically the same age: he was only six months older than her. He’d heard her dad call her kid before, and it was something she seemed to like. There was always a slight smile on her lips when someone called her kid but treated her like an adult.

  “I do.”

  Alice was hiding something. He pulled her into him closely. He loved his girl so much and wanted her to feel safe instead of making her dwell on the negative stuff. So he changed topics and said, “What's your day like?”

  “The usual. A mix of everything: lessons, guarding, managing, and catching up on my inbox.”

  Of course, with her schedule, he knew that could really mean anything for her day. “What time will you be done?”

  “Just before puck drop.”

  “Still want to go?” asked Scotty. He pretty much knew the answer, but he had to ask anyway. Alice looked at him like he was crazy. Then again, it was dumb to ask if she wanted to skip out on the Flyers vs. the Sound play for their final match-up of the year.

  The Flyers weren’t at the bottom of the rankings anymore, but Scotty still didn’t think they had a real chance of making the playoffs, no matter how much Alice believed they could. He hated that he was going to be watching the game, especially as he was so cl
ose to being healthy. He smiled and said, “Okay, I know it was a dumb question, but I had to ask.”

  Scotty was tempted to ask her what team she was rooting for but he knew she probably wouldn’t answer him. Plus, there was a good chance of her saying it would be for the Flyers since he wasn’t healthy. There was already enough speculation about her fan support for the game. He didn’t need to add to it.

  Alice

  Alice felt anxious all day long. While the morning phone call weighed on her, she was more anxious about the game. Ever since the Flyers game, she felt way more self-conscious. She liked being anonymous.

  Everyone would make a big deal about what team she supported. She had told Scotty that she would behave at the game. She thought about wearing something Sound-related, but then she knew her dad and the Flyers fans would give her so much shit for abandoning her team.

  She pulled out her phone and texted Meghan on WhatsApp: Help. I can’t decide what to wear to the game tonight.

  Meghan: Why not team colors?

  Alice: What team? It’s Flyers vs. Sound. You know anything I wear will garner attention

  Meghan: That’s your fault. You did fall for him and he took you to the Flyers game where he told the world everything.

  Alice: Can you blame me? He’s seriously hot and he’s wicked awesome to me. How could I not?

  Meghan: True. Is he playing yet?

  Alice: Not yet. He’s practicing some but the knee is still bothering him. So he’s not cleared just yet.

  Meghan: So why not just look cute without any team colors?

  Alice: That’s not a cop out? I was leaning that way but I needed to hear it from someone else.

  Meghan: Nah. You’ll be fine.

  Alice: Thanks!

  Alice went over to her side of the closet and got out one of her favorite pairs of leggings and an oversized grey sweater. It was her go-to look. She felt cute and knew that it would be a safe option. Not showing a fan girl would irk some people, but it was true to her.