DAKOTA

"Come on, you know you wanna let me lick the bowl."

"El, get your nasty ass mouth away from my batter," I swat her head away.

"Why not? We're supposed to be best friends," she whines dramatically.

Looking over at Ellie, I can't stop from busting out into a laugh at her begging eyes. It's been a few days since the party, and the boys are back from their road trip. As a congratulations for their multiple wins, I decided to make them my blueberry muffins.

"I can get another whole muffin out of what's left. Can we settle on the spatula?" Her eyes widen as she nods eagerly, reaching out with grabby hands.

"So," she says, still licking the spatula. "You weren't with Connor and Brooks when I left the party on Friday."

"Is that a question or a statement?"

"You know who else wasn't there?" She ignores my words, "a certain tall, muscular, handsome hockey player," she says with a full-blown grin.

"That's because we were outside talking. Just talking, nothing else," I look at her sternly.

"I'm gonna pretend to believe you because I'm a nice person, but just know I'm lying. I know Connor says he's your best friend, but we all know it's actually me because I can see right through your shit." She points the spatula at me as if it's a wand.

I chuckle at her antics, "I'm not lying, we really just talked that night." After a brief pause, I mumble out, "we also may have sent a few texts back and forth while they've been gone."

"I knew it!" She screams, "you never make muffins unless you're trying to impress a guy."

My jaw drops, "that's such a lie."

"Nope nope nope," Ellie says pointedly. "The last time you made muffins was sophomore year when you had that really hot economics tutor."

"Get out of my kitchen."

Ellie is practically in tears, snort-laughing as she walks out of the room.

~

Walking up to the door of the hockey house, I tuck the box of muffins under my arm as I ring the bell. The door opens a few moments later, and I find myself staring straight into Parker's naked chest.

My eyes flicker between his six-pack and tattooed arm, unable to decide which one to settle on. A few moments later, I hear a muffled chuckle that breaks me out of my trance. "Hey, hi, good morning," I rush out, "I brought the muffins."

Parker simply looks at me, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

Fuck. Now I'm looking at his lips.

"Come in." he steps back, opening the door wider, "Connor and Brooks got stuck at the rink, so it's just me, but I've been looking forward to these all morning." He says, referring to our texts.

I nod, giving him a tight-lipped smile before stepping in and walking towards the couch.

"I'll be right back, do you want anything to drink?"

"Just water, please," I respond, my voice hoarse.

The second Parker disappears out of sight, I let out a shaky breath. You barely know the guy, keep it together Dakota.

Parker returns after a few moments, drinks in hand, now wearing a hoodie. Damn it.

Setting our cups down, he sits close to me on the couch, the outside of our thighs pressed against each other.

"Is Connor going to be pissed when he finds out I got to these first?" He questions, reaching out to grab one from the box.

I clear my voice before responding, "he might, I haven't made them in a long ass time."

Parker lets out a loud moan as he chews. "Fuck, Dakota these are incredible. They would probably have my dad in tears."

"He likes blueberry muffins?"

"My dad loves any sort of baked goods. My mom always says by the time he dies, he'll have eaten five bakeries worth of food," he chuckles.

"Are you close with them?" My curiosity gets the best of me.

"Oh yeah, we're super close. They're the absolute best, I wouldn't be where I am today without them." He smiles, "my mom is the greatest, she's always been the loudest fan in the rink, cheering me on."

He looks at me kindly, eyes bright, before continuing. "She wears a bedazzled version of my current jersey, with a hat that says 'Parker's #1 fan!' You two would get along well, actually. She also enjoys verbally harassing the refs."

"It's a tough job, someone has to do it," I laugh, lightly pushing his shoulder. "She sounds great, though. I want to meet her, see about getting a bedazzled version of Brooks' jersey, I think he'd love it."

Connor gives me an amused smile, "he'd never let you take it off."

"Where are you from again?"

"North Carolina, the greatest place on earth. I miss it so much, but I know there's always a chance I could end up there if I get drafted," his shoulders shrug. "So, who was the guy with Ellie the other night? Seemed like an ass," he states.

"That's because he is," I roll my eyes. "That's her boyfriend, Josh. They've been dating for a while but he's super controlling, I leave the apartment every time he's over so I don't 'accidentally' cuss him out."

"I take it you and the guys don't like him?"

I scoff, "spot on. The day they break up will be a day of celebration."

The two of us fall into a comfortable silence, picking at the muffins as a Marvel movie plays at a low volume on the TV.

"When are you gonna teach me to make those cookies?" Parker looks over at me.

"I actually don't have any plans today, do you want to start now?" I don't even finish my question before Parker is standing up, gathering our wrappers and now empty cups.

"What are you waiting for, Kota, we've got cookies to bake!"

~

"Are you sure I'm doing it right?"

"Parker, there's no wrong way to pour chocolate chips," I giggle at his stressed demeanor.

He's been really quiet the whole time we've been baking, listening to my every word, and watching my movements like a hawk. I don't know why though, it's pretty hard to mess up a simple recipe like this.

I quickly ball up and place the dough on a cookie sheet, throwing it in the oven, knowing it would probably take him fifteen minutes. As I turn back around, I see Parker leaning his side against the island, arms crossed, watching me.

"Connor and Brooks were surprised you were coming over today, said you didn't normally hang out with anyone else from the team. What's that about?"

I knew this was bound to come up eventually, I guess I might as well get it over with.I start washing the dirty dishes, giving my hands something to do while I speak. "I actually used to be close with a lot of the guys."

Parker stays silent, waiting for me to continue.

"Last year, I started dating Lincoln Ricard, one of your defensemen," he nods in recognition. "Connor wasn't super excited about it, knowing Lincon could be sorta sleazy. He started to get weird after a few weeks, pushing sex on me any chance he could get. I found out one of the guys offered him twenty bucks for every time he 'fucked Connor's bitch.' Now I obviously still show up to support Con and Brooks, but try to avoid the rest," I shrug my shoulders, making it seem like it's no big deal.

The joke's on Lincoln though, I never actually slept with him. The most we ever did was make out because Connor's worry made me nervous to go any further.

"Connor and Brooks obviously know, right? Why do they still talk to him on the ice?" He sounds confused.

"They do, yeah. They're obviously upset the whole situation, but I told them their future career comes before my problems, so the most they've done is slam him into the boards harder than necessary during warmups." I let out a light laugh, trying to ease the slight tension in the room.

The timer goes off for the cookies, and I rush to pull them out.

"Enough of that bullshit," I pick up a warm cookie, placing it on a napkin. "Eat up, Cadell."

Parker chuckles, taking the cookie and shoving the entire thing into his mouth, throwing his head back in delight. He eats two more as I finish cooking the last of the batter.

"So, I did my part of the deal. When am I learning to skate?" I look at Parker with a smirk.

"Say the word and I'll be there, Kota," he looks me in the eyes.

"You have a few days off in two weeks right?"

"Yep," he nods, eating yet another cookie.

"Does that Saturday morning at nine work?"

"Counting down the days," he smiles.

______

I was gonna wait to post another chapter but couldn't help myself ;)

I know I've said it so many times but please bear with me on these shorter chapters, after 10 they start averaging 2200+ words (13 is over 3000)!!

See you later this week with number 5!