Score Her Heart: A Marriage of Convenience Hockey Romance (Philadelphia Bulldogs Book 2)

by Danica Flynn

  “I’m sorry, man. I’m on my way now.”

  I ran a hand through my blond hair and hung up the phone. It was not like me to forget about a meeting, but when I walked in today and saw Fi sitting there on the couch, all rational thoughts fell out of my head. All I wanted was to take her in my arms and show her what she had been missing. Which I totally did, so it was worth it being late for this meeting. I just had to think up a good excuse for my agent. The “sorry, I was too busy pleasuring my new wife” wasn’t exactly the type of thing I could lead with. Plus, Fi probably would have murdered me if I told Steve that. Steve had been Cillian Gallagher’s roommate in college, and he’d known both of us since we were small children.

  I got to the restaurant in no time and found Steve in a booth in the back. I slid into the seat across from him and quickly ordered when the waitress came over. I looked up at Steve, and he had this smirk on his face that I couldn’t place. I scratched my jaw, feeling the itchiness of my facial hair coming in. Steve’s eyes landed on the ring on my finger, and he furrowed his brow in confusion, and then it turned into an even bigger smirk.

  “I thought TJ was joking,” he commented.

  I rubbed the back of my neck. “Uhh…”

  “That explains you being late.”

  The color drained from my face, and I knew he could probably see the mortification from what he was implying. Thankfully the waitress came back with my beer, so I was able to take a sip of it without having to answer the question.

  When I set it down, Steve gave me that stern fatherly look. “What?” I asked.

  “Did you get a prenup?”

  I sighed. Yeah, I was not going to bring that up with Fi at all. “Um…”

  “Riley!” he scolded.

  “I don’t need one with her.”

  He stared me down and shook his head. “Okay, who is this woman that you up and married with no plans whatsoever?”

  “Fiona Gallagher.”

  I swear Steve’s eyes bulged out of his head. He took a huge sip of his own beer. “Does Cillian know about this?” he finally asked.

  I nodded slowly. “Yeah, he was there. I got his blessing if that’s what you’re asking. Although, if Fi knew that, I think she would be pretty pissed about it.”

  “Damn it. I owe your mom money.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

  Steve laughed. “Oh, we’ve had a bet going on about if you two would ever get together.”

  My mother had failed to mention that to me when I visited her a couple weeks ago. That was odd since she kept trying to talk me into letting Fi go. “Huh. Well, it’s kind of complicated, so I would hold on to that money,” I told him.

  “How is it complicated? You look really happy.”

  I sighed. “Well, she was left at the altar, so we got married instead, and we’re kind of trying to see if this will work between us.”

  Steve nodded. “Marriage is tough. If you really want to make it work, you’ll find a way. Still pissed at you that you didn’t get a prenup, but I know Fiona. She’s good people.”

  I smiled. “She is.”

  “Oh man, she has you ensnared, doesn’t she?” he asked, amused.

  I smiled again. “Yeah, she does. But did we come here to talk about my weird marriage or to talk about contract stuff?”

  He shook his head. “I DO NOT want details. Okay, let’s talk about negotiations I want to put in front of the Bulldogs in the postseason.”

  “I want to stay in Philly.”

  “Okay, I figured. So here’s what I’m—”

  I cut him off, “No, Steve. I have to stay in Philly.”

  “Riley, I get it. We’ll put numbers in front of them, and if they don’t bite, we can consider our options. You could make a lot of money in a different city.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t care if I have to take a pay cut. I literally do not give a shit about how many zeroes are on my check. I want to play hockey, but it has to be for the Bulldogs.”

  He frowned. I frustrated him all the time because I played hockey for love of the sport. But there was no way I was going to a different city when my marriage was still so fragile. I couldn’t tear Fiona from her home or her friends.

  “Riley, you’re the weirdest client.”

  “I can’t do that to her,” I admitted.

  “To who?”

  “Fiona.”

  “Oh.”

  I nodded. “Do whatever you can, but I want to stay in Philly. I have to stay here for her, for my marriage.”

  His eyes widened, and he nodded in understanding. “Okay, I get it.” He took a swig of his beer. “You really love her, don’t ya?”

  I nodded and twisted my ring around my finger. “She was the one that got away. I need to prove to her that this thing between us is real. I can’t do that if I have to move to a different city come next fall.”

  “Okay. I’ll get it done, but don’t say I didn’t warn you when it’s not enough money.”

  “I don’t care about that. I only care about her.”

  He shook his head. “Christ, kid, you’re lovesick.”

  I gave him a dopey smile. I was, and I didn’t fucking care.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  FIONA

  “Do you think you could talk to Dinah?” Riley asked me as he stood at the door about to leave for another game on the road after only being home for two days. This hockey wife thing was harder than I wanted to admit. Having him home for a few days for him to only be back on the road again did kinda suck.

  I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. “I’ll try. Is Noah really torn up about her breaking up with him?”

  He grimaced. “She did it via text.”

  I cringed. “Oh, that’s bad. I liked them together. I’ll see what I can do.”

  Riley smiled at me and leaned down to give me a long, lingering kiss goodbye. I was starting to wonder why my heart fluttered whenever he kissed me or why it banged deep in my chest whenever he left me.

  “Please don’t hole yourself up here when I’m gone,” he told me sternly. His hands gripped my waist and pulled me flush against his chest.

  “I have to work on edits!” I exclaimed.

  He squinted his eyes at me. “I better not hear from Katie while I’m away again.”

  Damn her. I rolled my eyes at him and shoved him away. “Go on, get out of here.”

  “Not like these games matter now,” he muttered.

  Despite their best efforts, the team had found out that they were officially out of the playoffs. So even though they needed to finish out the season, there was no drive left in the boys.

  I frowned at him. “Riley, I’m sorry.”

  “Not your fault, sweetheart. It’s just hard to go and have to play more games when we know there’s nothing at the end of the tunnel.”

  I kissed him quickly. “I know it sucks.”

  I felt bad for my husband. He worked so hard to be good at the sport he loved. He spent a lot of time studying stats and video, and the Bulldogs still weren’t making the playoffs. Let’s just say I spent a lot of time on my knees trying to cheer him up about it. I only think it partly worked, but at least my husband was sexually satisfied.

  His thumb rubbed across my cheek. “I know, sweetheart. I better go.”

  I put my hands on his face, and he smiled big at the gesture. “I’ll miss you,” I told him sincerely. I tried not to think too much about what that meant. If I thought too much about that, the doubts would start to creep in again.

  “I’ll miss you too, sweetheart. So much,” he whispered, and then he kissed me again, his tongue sliding across the seam of my lips.

  “Baby,” I protested and tried to push him away. “You have to go.”

  He groaned and rested his forehead against mine. “I know. I hate leaving you.”

  “I know, but you gotta go play hockey. Stop taking bad penalties and make sure you protect the slot in front of Metzy.”

  He laughed. “Okay
, coach!”

  “I’m your favorite coach.”

  “A sexy coach.”

  I pushed him away. “Oh my God! Leave now before I make you really late and Kat Metz calls me asking why you aren’t on the jet again.”

  It might not have been the first time that Riley had been late getting to the jet and the GM’s assistant had called me demanding where my horny husband was. I think the travel team called her because she was scary and kept all those hockey boys in line. I hadn’t met the woman yet, but I had mad respect for her. She got shit done.

  He gave me one last lingering kiss, and then he was out the door. Him leaving all the time was not getting any easier. I knew it was bad, but I was secretly glad the Bulldogs weren’t making the playoffs because then I got to spend more time with my husband. I tried to push down the feelings of why that was.

  I spent the next couple of days while Riley was on the road working on the edits for this new book. The first draft was painful, and I did have to rewrite a lot of it. Riley had given me a lot of the same notes as my editor, which was kind of surprising, but also really sweet that he cared enough that he read my book and wanted to help me make it better. I did hole myself up for a couple days, but only so I could hunker down and get work done.

  I tried to talk to Dinah, but she hadn’t been responding to anyone. We had gone to the last home game together and grabbed lunch beforehand. Noah had taken a bad hit in the game, and they made him sit out because of concussion stuff. Her reaction was weird about it, though. We had talked before the game, and she seemed really unsure about her feelings for him since he had told her he loved her and she hadn’t said it back yet. I felt like she was ready to say it back, but Noah took that hit, and she freaked out. A few days later, when Riley told me she broke up with him, I felt awful for the young guy. I had been trying everything to talk with her. TJ had, too, since the three of them had been close before she and Noah started dating, but she had shut everyone out.

  It was hard to watch our guys take the hard hits and wreck their bodies, but that was what they signed up for. I guess watching Riley do it all his life, I had grown accustomed to it. I really liked Dinah, and it was great to have a new writer friend in this city to bounce ideas off of. I didn’t like how she hurt Noah and how she was shutting me out right now, though. I was going to have to try her again and coax what happened out of her. I didn’t understand why she would break up with him because he got hurt during a game. He played hockey! It was kind of expected.

  I groaned again at her dodging my calls and put my phone down, but then it flashed with my brother’s name showing up on the screen. Finnegan never called me, so I assumed the worst.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked suddenly, my heart pounding in my head, thinking something had happened to one of our parents. I might not ever see eye-to-eye with my mother, but that didn’t mean I didn’t care about her. Or worry about her health.

  Finnegan laughed on the other line. “Nothing’s wrong.”

  “Oh. Well, then what do you want?” I asked.

  “Nice to talk to you too, Fiona. No ‘Hi, Finnegan, how are you? I haven’t seen you since my bizarre-ass wedding. That was really fucking weird, huh?’ RUDE!”

  “Bite me.”

  Finnegan and I were like typical siblings in that we bickered constantly, and him being older, I was always his annoying little sister. We didn’t always agree, and he was kind of a douche, but he was still my brother, so I guess I was supposed to love him or some shit.

  “So, Mom’s literally making me call you because she knows you won’t answer.”

  I rolled my eyes. Last time I talked to mom, she hammered in the grandkids speech again. I ended up being a total brat and hung up on her. Since then, I had been screening her calls and texting her that I was super busy. Which wasn’t exactly a lie, but she still called it my “little writing career” and didn’t take my livelihood seriously. Now that I was married to Riley, I think she thought I was going to become a housewife and abandon my writing. No, I worked damn hard at this stuff, and there was a reason I was able to quit my job to do it full time. Although I had been debating if I should go back part-time, so I had a fall back since in the back of my mind, I was still worried this marriage with Riley wasn’t going to work out.

  “Sorry,” I offered while making myself another cup of coffee. I was going to need more caffeine to deal with this. “What does she want?”

  “Wants to know if you’re gonna come visit once the season’s over.”

  Riley did tend to go visit his mom during the off-season, but we hadn’t talked about that at all. The last two days he had been home, we used our mouths a lot, but there were not a lot of words coming out of them.

  “We haven’t discussed it.”

  Finnegan sighed on the other line. “Are you doing this for real? This marriage with him?”

  “Yeah, I guess we are.”

  “It’s not like a—” he cut himself off and was quiet for a moment.

  “Not like what?” I asked and took a sip of the coffee.

  “A business arrangement?” Finnegan asked.

  His question shocked me, but I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. My marriage to Riley had been a surprise. More surprising had been how eager we both were to get into bed together. We were enjoying ourselves for sure, and it wasn’t exactly love, but at the same time, it wasn’t exactly whatever the hell my brother was trying to insinuate.

  “What?” I finally asked in disbelief.

  “Fi, did he tell you?”

  Panic wrapped tight around my chest, thinking only the worst thing possible. “Tell me what?”

  “You know he loves you, right?”

  “Of course. We’re best friends.”

  I could almost see Finnegan face-palming over the miles we were apart. “No, dude. He really loves you.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Why do you think he married you?”

  “Because he said he was tired of the single-life, and he thought we could find happiness together,” I explained, but when I said it out loud, it sounded really dumb.

  My brother finally sighed into the phone. “Riley is full-fledged in love with you. That’s why he offered to marry you when that douche-canoe stood you up. It’s why he asked Dad for his blessing. It’s why he convinced you that you two could have a shot together.”

  My mouth went dry. No. There was no way that Aaron Riley was in love with me like that. No freaking way. He asked my dad for his blessing to marry me? No way! Why would he do that? Because my dad knew getting his blessing didn’t matter to me, but he wanted to be asked. He had been pissed when Eric never even told him he had an interest in marrying me.

  “Fiona?” Finnegan’s voice cut into my thoughts, but it sounded like he was on another planet.

  “I have to go,” I said suddenly and hung up.

  My heart beat louder and louder in my chest, and my mind raced with all the thoughts in my head. Why would Riley up and marry me and convince me to stay? I thought of all the times his eyes slanted over me and the way he looked at me like I was the only woman in the world. Was that really lust the whole time? Or something more? I kept thinking back to our first night together, and how slow and gentle he had been with me on that first round of sex, how hurt he had been when I asked him for a divorce the next day. If he really felt that way, why hadn’t he said anything?

  I didn’t want to think about this right now. I didn’t want to think about how much I missed him when he was on the road and how much my heart melted when he told me how proud he was of me about getting my first book published. I especially didn’t want to think about how I thought I was falling in love with him too and how much that scared me. Like really scared me because if he loved me, that meant he would eventually leave me like everyone else did. Like he already did once when he left for the NHL. He may have told me the ring on his finger was a promise that it wouldn’t happen again, but I couldn’t help the doubts from creep
ing in.

  I went into the pantry and grabbed a bottle of whiskey. My hands flew back to my phone, ignoring the follow-up call from my brother, and tried Dinah once more. This time, she answered, and I berated her about breaking up with Noah. Then I promptly told her I was coming over and we were going to get drunk together. I was going to push my feelings to the side and pretend they didn’t exist. If only to help my friend get back together with her super cute boyfriend who thought the world of her. I didn’t want to think about the possibility that I had fallen in love with my best friend.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  RILEY

  Noah’s eyes cut across to mine when we were getting off the jet. I saw he was on his phone and gritting his teeth. He sighed and then shoved his phone at me. I threw my hands up in a shrug, and he mouthed, “Your wife.”

  Oh no, what did she do?

  “Heyyy…” Her words slurred into the phone.

  I shot Noah an apologetic look. “Hey yourself. What are you doing?”

  “Trying to fix everything,” she sighed.

  I raised my eyebrows at Noah, and he sighed. “Are you at Dinah’s?” I asked.

  “Yesss,” came the slurred response. Oh geez, she was definitely drunk. I’d recognize drunk Fiona speech anywhere.