Ice Hockey 101 Ch. 01

Rebecca watched the game, sipped lightly at her own lager and asked a few questions. Josh could tell quickly that she wasn't really into the game but she was being polite by sitting here with him.

Another point for her.

As if she needed it.

Josh took the opportunity to again check her out. She'd removed her heavy winter coat after sitting down so he was treated to the more than pleasant site of her bright blue turtleneck sweater that hugged her curves like nobody's business. She was wearing loose-fitting dark jeans and wore a heeled boot that Josh was certain added three inches to her overall height of five-five, maybe five-six. Her hair, so dark a brown it was almost black, was long, falling past her shoulders in a straight line and framed her pale face, giving it a glowing contrast. And finally, Josh had to fight the urge to pull her face close so he could stare into her bluer-than-blue eyes. When she'd first smiled at him in that coffee shop, her eyes had sparkled like jewels and shimmered with each blush that crossed her cheeks.

She was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen, making Josh feel less than adequate, a not too comfortable feeling.

"So the team wearing yellow and black is Pittsburgh?" she asked suddenly, startling Josh out of his ogling.

"Uh, yeah, that's right," he said, flicking his eyes to the screen just to confirm for himself. He'd forgotten for the moment which game they were watching.

Any more time with her and he might forget which team he played for.

"And why are they called the Steelers?" she asked.

Josh grinned. It was such a strange question. Maybe not for her, but guys didn't tend to think of the teams in terms of their colors or the history behind their names.

At his smile, Rebecca blushed that pretty shade of pink again and took a long swallow of her beer.

"I'm sorry," she murmured when she set her glass down again.

"For what?"

"I must sound like such a moron to you," she said, glancing up through a fringe of thick, dark lashes. "I don't know anything about this game."

"It's all right," he assured her with a smile. "Football's not for everyone."

"What do you prefer to watch?" she asked.

"Hockey," he answered immediately.

"Of course," she replied and shook her head. "Of course you do. You play hockey."

"Don't feel bad," he said. "I actually don't watch a whole lot anymore."

"Why not?"

He shrugged and thought about the reasons why. "Mostly because I'm too busy," he said. "We have a game at home or away nearly every other night. I can't watch another game while we're playing and I don't watch other teams play on my nights off because I don't want it to affect how I play."

"Oh," Rebecca said slowly with a nod.

Josh grinned at her expression. He could tell she didn't get what he was saying but considering how little she knew about any sports, it was understandable.

"Do you want to go?" he asked when she said nothing else. "This must be pretty boring for you."

"No!" she exclaimed and reached a hand towards him, as though he was about to stand up and bolt any second.

He chuckled as she blushed immediately. "OK, we can stay. But you're not enjoying football."

She sighed and shook her head, some of the color fading from her cheeks. She glanced over at him and smiled shyly. "No, I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry," he replied and reached out to pat the hand she'd lifted towards him. God, her skin is so soft! he thought and swallowed hard as some of the blood in his body was suddenly diverted to a lower location. "Like I said, football isn't for everyone."

"So is there another game we can watch?" she asked as she glanced around at the numerous television sets in the busy pub. They were pretty much all showing the Steelers game. "Maybe some baseball?"

"Uh, the World Series is on and there's no game today," Josh replied, following her gaze.

"World Series?" she repeated with a little frown.

"I'm sorry," Josh said with a laugh and patted her hand again, having not released it since the last time he'd touched it. "The World Series is the championship for baseball."

"Oh, OK," Rebecca replied and nodded. She glanced back at him and smiled. "And no hockey today either?"

"Well, there are a few games later tonight I'm sure," he said. "But it's only three now and the earliest game doesn't start until seven probably."

Her face fell and the hand under his flexed slightly. "Oh. I guess you have stuff you need to do," she replied and nodded. "I shouldn't take up all your time."

Josh blinked and slowly her words sank in. He squeezed his fingers over her hand and shook his head, keeping his eyes on her face. She looked back up at him and the shy look in her sapphire eyes sent more blood singing through his veins to a new location. "You're not," he assured her, his voice coming out slightly thicker than before. "I'm the one who dragged you in here."

"You didn't drag me," she replied, a smile spreading across her face.

Josh lifted his eyebrows. "No?"

"No," she agreed.

For a second, neither of them said anything. Josh flicked his eyes back and forth across her face, watching as her smile widened, revealing just a glimpse of her white teeth. He felt her hand move under his and he realized then that he'd been lightly stroking her wrist with his thumb. Blushing hotly, he jerked his hand away and sat back in his seat. Rebecca was still smiling though and she hadn't moved her hand away from the table. Josh cleared his throat and tried to adjust his seat without giving away the fact that he had a hard-on in the middle of a Sunday afternoon.

"So... you, uh... you want to... hang out?" he asked, hating that he wasn't in control of himself.

"Sure," she replied.

They fell silent again and after a minute, they both laughed.

"Why don't we have another drink," Josh suggested. "Then we'll go have some dinner and you can decide then if you want to watch a hockey game."

Rebecca nodded. "Sounds great."

So they did. After that awkward little exchange, they fell into easy conversation. After the game ended, it was close to five and Josh suggested a few different restaurants in the area. Rebecca picked the nearest Italian restaurant and he drove them over there after leaving the pub. Over dessert, the conversation turned to sports again.

"So maybe you should tell me a little about hockey before we go watch a game tonight," Rebecca suggested and Josh had to repeat the words to himself a couple times before responding.

He couldn't help himself. She'd licked her dessert spoon right before asking the question and Josh was mesmerized by the sight of her pink tongue sliding over the silverware.

Get a grip, man, he told himself. You're not a sixteen-year-old boy anymore. You can hold a conversation with a beautiful, sexy woman without thinking about sex.

"Uh, all right," he replied at length. He lifted his eyes from her lips and smiled into her sparkling blue eyes. "What do you want to know?"

"Why don't I just tell you what I know and you can fill in the blanks?" She offered.

"Sure."

"OK," she said and set her spoon down to tick the points off on her fingers. "It's played in the winter, on ice. The guys wear a lot of padding and I think they get a break in between... uh, the innings." That last she said with a bit of a question in her tone.

Josh grinned and nodded. "You've got the first couple things right but we play periods, not innings. That's baseball."

She blushed but smiled anyway. "Well, I knew I'd heard the term before."

"So what else?" Josh asked.

"That's it," she replied and looked away in embarrassment.

"Oh wow," Josh breathed and sat back slightly. "That's a lot of blanks to fill in."

"Too much of a challenge?" she asked with a grin.

"I love a challenge," he replied smoothly.

She laughed and nodded. "Why doesn't that surprise me? You are an athlete after all. Don't you guys live for challenging each other?"

Josh shrugged. He supposed that was true. Otherwise, what was the point of playing? "You know, I think it might be easier to just explain as we watch," Josh decided after a moment.

"Really? Won't that be annoying?"

"It doesn't bother me."

"No, I mean, for other people around us," Rebecca replied.

"Oh," Josh said and nodded. "I see. Well, I'd offer to take you to my place to watch a game but I have a couple roommates and they aren't always..." he trailed off, thinking of his two teammates that he shared a small house with. They were great guys, all of them on the team were great guys, but these two didn't have the same... manners as the rest.

"Friendly?" Rebecca offered when he didn't complete his thought.

"Dressed," Josh said instead and Rebecca snorted with laughter. As her giggles died away, Josh leaned forward again, wondering how he could get her to keep laughing. It sounded amazing.

"All right. I live on my own," she said. "Why don't we just watch the game there?"

Josh blinked, more than surprised by her offer. No matter that they both knew Max; he hadn't expected a woman he'd just met to ask him to come over. Not that she meant what immediately sprang to mind. Shaking his head to rid himself of the extremely graphic thoughts that bombarded his brain suddenly, Josh looked up at her.

"That's fine," he said, hoping he sounded casual and hoping she wouldn't notice his erection when they stood up to leave. "As long as you don't mind."

She waved a hand at him, dismissing his concern. "Don't worry about it. I'll kick you out before it gets too late. I have classes in the morning, after all."

"Sounds great then," Josh replied with a grin. Sounds like she's not as horny over the prospect as I am, he added silently, trying to forget about his disappointment. He didn't need a girlfriend right now anyway and he'd only agreed to meet her as a favor to Max. She was basically all alone and the last thing she needed was a boner-sporting hockey player making moves.

***

"It's a small place," Rebecca said apologetically as she led the way into her little one bedroom apartment. "But it's walking distance to my school and the rent is cheap."

Josh looked around and nodded as he took his jacket off. "It's fine," he told her. "Cozy."

Smiling, Rebecca hung up both their jackets and told him to go ahead and find the game on TV while she found something to drink. As she searched through her half-empty fridge, she wondered what had possessed her to invite him back to her apartment.

I've never invited a guy back to my apartment, she thought. Even guys she'd dated didn't come over. She was very shy about how she lived and preferred a more open setting when it came to guys. Mary didn't know that about her and Rebecca figured she put on a strong enough act around work most days that she'd never guess.

She was painfully shy when left alone with men.

"Got one," Josh called from the living room.

"Cool," she replied and grabbed a couple soft drinks. "I'll be right there."

Josh was reclined on her battered couch as she walked out, with his long legs stretched out and his feet resting on her coffee table. He jerked upright, setting his feet on the floor as she came close and smiled sheepishly at her.

"Sorry about that," he said and took the soda from her.

"For what?" She asked as she sat down beside him.

"I shouldn't have had my feet on your table," he explained.

Rolling her eyes, Rebecca sat back and propped her feet up in their customary place on the table. Josh chuckled and sat back as he had been, mirroring her position.

Rebecca's eyes went to the television screen and she watched as a couple commentators discussed the men skating around a broad expanse of blinding white ice. "So this is hockey?" she asked apprehensively. She hadn't minded the thought of watching football but because she knew Josh played hockey, she desperately wanted to not sound like an idiot now. "Who's playing?"

Josh squinted at the screen and smiled. "It's Columbus at Washington," he said.

Rebecca nodded even though she had no idea what that meant. She must have worn that same blank expression as before because Josh chuckled from her side. "What?"

"The Columbus Blue Jackets and the Washington Capitals," he said, elaborating on their names. "And they're playing in Washington."

"Are they good teams?" she asked.

Josh shrugged. "I would say yes since they're both tough teams to play but I don't want to sound like they scare me."

Rebecca laughed. "Do they scare you?" she asked playfully.

Josh scowled at her but she could see from the glint in his eyes that he wasn't really put out by her question.

"We've had trouble against the Caps in the past and the goalie for the Blue Jackets, Dominic Baddano, is really good. I hate playing against him," Josh confessed.

Rebecca grinned. She had no idea what a goalie was but it sounded fun. Drawing in a deep breath, she decided she had nothing to lose at this point so she took the plunge. "What's a goalie?" she asked, hoping it wasn't too stupid a question.

Josh blinked at her before laughing shortly. Then he nodded and leaned forward to set his soda on the table. He pointed at the screen and began to patiently explain who each of the players were. The goalies wore the heavy armor and full face masks while the others wore lighter padding and plain helmets. Josh said that he was a center and tried his best to score goals which meant that he didn't like most goalies on opposing teams.

"Because they guard the home base?" Rebecca asked, picturing them all on some miniature battlefield. It seemed to be the clearest way of understanding what was happening.

"The net," Josh corrected.

Rebecca glanced shyly in his direction and nodded. She wondered how long it would take before he got fed up with explaining things to her. For the moment, he was still smiling at her so she took that as a positive sign.

"So you try to score a goal and the goalies try to stop you," she said.

He grinned and nodded. "That's the basic gist of it."

Turning her attention back to the screen, Rebecca pushed down the feeling of butterflies in her stomach and tried to watch the game that had started. For a few minutes they were silent and she could feel Josh tensing and relaxing as the players skated around.

She tried to follow the action on the ice but it all looked completely random to her. She sipped her soda and managed to follow the flying black dot for a minute when suddenly all play stopped at a whistle.

"What happened?" she asked in confusion.

"Offside," Josh replied shortly.

Rebecca looked sideways at him and lifted her eyebrows. He glanced her way and then flushed under her gaze.

"Sorry," he muttered. "I forgot for a second that I was explaining everything."

"You don't have to if you don't want," she replied.

"No, I do," he assured her and reclined on the couch as the players skated into a new formation. "Offside is when there are players from the opposing team in the zone before the puck crosses that blue line."

"There are zones?" Rebecca blurted.

Josh laughed and nodded before proceeding to explain the team zones to her. By the first commercial break, Rebecca understood that the goalies at each end were in their zones and the opposing teams had to do everything in their power to stay in the zone. If they left the zone, they had to scramble to get back before the other team moved into their zone.

"I think I get it," she muttered at one point and downed the last of her soda. Her head was starting to ache in all her zones.

Josh glanced her way and smiled. "This is boring you too, isn't it?" He asked.

Keeping her eyes on the screen as the players came back to begin another round, Rebecca shook her head slowly. She still didn't know all the subtle nuances but there was something very intense about this game. She felt her heart rate increasing as the players scrambled at one end or the other and unconsciously clenched her hands at every close call.

"It is definitely not like the other sports," she said slowly.

"No, you're right about that," Josh replied and she could hear the note of pride in his voice.

She looked over at him to see a very relaxed look on his face. In fact, his entire form was relaxed. He was slouched down on her couch, his head resting against the back and one leg bent at the knee while the other remained stretched across her table. Slowly she ran her eyes from his handsome face all the way down to his flexing toes and back up again. She met his blue gaze and blushed when she realized he'd caught her checking him out.

"Why are they stopped now?" she asked and cleared her throat as her voice came out much hoarser than she'd expected.

"Its intermission," he said, not taking his eyes off her face.

Rebecca was beginning to feel excessively warm. She wondered if she'd turned the heat up too high or something. Rising, she hurried from the couch and deposited her empty can in her recycling box. She turned around to her kitchen entrance again only to find Josh there, leaning against the door frame.

"Are you bored with the game?" he asked with a smile.

"No," she replied.

"It's all right if you are," he went on. "I won't be offended. Lots of women don't enjoy hockey."

"No, really, I am interested in it," she replied, taking a few steps closer to him. "I just don't understand all of it yet."

Josh nodded silently, studying her face. She flushed under his scrutiny and looked away, fidgeting where she stood in the center of her kitchen. She wondered how long this intermission lasted so she'd have an idea of what to do in the mean time.

"You should come see a live game," he said.

She laughed. "Yeah, right. And sit close to the team so you can answer all my inane questions?"

He chuckled as well and shook his head. "No, I guess that wouldn't work. I just don't know when I'll be able to watch another game with you."

"I don't want to dominate your free time," Rebecca said. "I know Max asked you to take me out to see the sights but you really don't have to."

"I want to," Josh replied quickly.

Blushing, Rebecca looked away. Well, that was flattering.

"I...uh, I guess I should be going," he said.

"Why?" she asked, whipping her head back around to stare at him.

"It's getting late and you have school tomorrow," he said. "And I've got an early morning practice."

Rebecca nodded in agreement. She really did need to get a good night's sleep, though how possible that was after the day she'd just had with this man, she didn't know. She followed him from the kitchen and handed his jacket over.

"Well, thanks for the impromptu lesson," she said with a smile. "I had fun today."

"Me too," he agreed with a grin. "Shall we have another lesson in a couple days?"

Rebecca blinked in surprise but smiled. "I'd love to," she breathed, hoping she didn't sound too eager. Most guys were turned off by overeager women.

"Great," he said. "I'm out of town for a couple days but I'll be back on Friday. You want to get together then?"

"Sure," she agreed.

They exchanged phone numbers and then Josh opened the door to leave. Just as he walked out, he turned back to face her. Rebecca smiled up at him, taking in one more good look at his sparkling eyes and reddish blond hair. Josh's smile drooped slightly and he suddenly leaned very close to her. His blue eyes were shadowed and Rebecca was caught in his dark gaze. She sucked in a breath, frozen where she stood as she watched his lips part.

But he didn't kiss her. His eyes flicked from hers to her lips and then back again before he grinned. A slow, sexy grin. Then he straightened and winked at her before walking down the hallway.

Holy moly, Rebecca thought as she eyed his backside.