PARKER

Nashville is incredible. Not only the city but also the team. The guys have accepted me with open arms, and they even invited me down to skate around with them in the Bridgestone Arena after practice ended. Now, I'm out with them, learning all there is to know about the nightlife of Nashville.

I'm staying sober, I want to remember every moment of this trip. After dodging many of my future teammates and the women crawling around the bar, looking for hockey stars to hook up with, I finally am able to sneak into a corner and call Dakota.

Admittedly, I haven't been texting her much, I want to tell her everything in person when I get home.

She answers on the fourth ring, "Who the hell is calling me at two in the morning?"

Her harsh tone throws me back. I didn't even realize it was that late, "uh, hey baby. Did I wake you?"

I hear her lightly sigh, adding to the guilt beginning to cloud in my chest. "Yes, but it's fine. How's everything going?"

"So good, Kota. I realized I forgot to call yesterday, I'm so sorry."

She responds, but I miss it when one of the first-line defensemen calls out to me, "Cadell, we're going down the street, are you coming?"

"Yeah, just give me two minutes," I yell back to him before returning the phone back to my ear. "What was that, love? Sorry, one of the guys just asked me something."

"It was nothing," she snaps. "You sound busy, I'll text you in the morning, goodnight," and the line clicks.

She hung up on me.

I try calling her back three more times, but every time it rings and rings until her voicemail sounds. Shooting her a few texts, I tell the guys that I'm done for the night and head back to my hotel. I don't sleep, though, my night is spent tossing and turning, wishing she was with me and feeling like the world's biggest dick.

Every five minutes, I flip my phone over, hoping to see her name pop up. It never does.

After my meeting with the general manager this morning, I tried to call her once more, and when she didn't pick up I decide to call Connor instead.

"Hey, Cadell. How is Nashville?"

"It's great. Listen, I'm all wrapped up here so I'm going to catch an earlier flight. Can you and Dakota come to pick me up? I take off in thirty, so I'll be there in like, two hours." My voice sounds desperate, but I don't care.

"I can come to get you," he pauses. "Between you and I, she didn't sleep at all last night. She and Brooks are passed out in my bed, and I'm not waking her up."

His confession feels like a punch to the throat. "Oh," I manage to get the one word out, but it's weak.

"Yeah," he's quiet for a moment. "Text me when you land, man."

"Will do. Thank you, Connor."

"Anytime," he finally responds, both of us knowing I'm thanking him for more than just a ride.

~

The last thing I would've expected to see walking out of the airport was a dog hanging its head out of Connor's window.

My head drops in laughter, "what the hell?"

"Dakota let him in my bed, this was the only way I could get him to leave her," he just shrugs.

"She got a dog?" My jaw drops.

He rolls his eyes, " she found a dog. You know her, she and El love animals way too much to let him keep running on the street."

"True," I jump into the passenger seat, and the dog comes over the console, straight onto my lap, even though he must weigh a good sixty pounds.

Connor hands me his phone, opened up to a picture of Ellie, Brooks, and Dakota cuddled up in his bed. She's laying on her back, has dark circles under her eyes, and her mouth is wide open. She only sleeps like that when she's really tired.

"Cute," I cough, handing the phone back hastily as I continue to pet the big dog in front of me, not eager to see the result of my actions.

"So how come I'm picking you up a day early?" Connor gets straight into it.

Shrugging, I look out the window before responding, "I finished up what I had to. The rest of the weekend would've just been spent going out with the team."

"You're one of my best friends, Parker, but Kota is my girl." He glances over at me, and I can see just how sincere he is. "I can tell when she's upset."

"I fucked up," I groan. "I wanted to tell her everything that happened in person when I came home, so I stopped myself from texting her too much. Then, last night, I lost track of time and called her way too late, and ended up accidentally being an ass."

He nods, listening. "You probably should have told her that before you started half-assing text messages."

"Do you think she'll turn me down when I ask her on a date tonight?"

"Nah," he laughs, "she'll forget about all of it the second you step through that door and hug her."

I start to chuckle, but a thought sobers me and the words are out before I even realize I'm speaking. "I almost told her I love her."

I watch Connor's jaw go slack, and my timing is shit because he's pulling onto our street, meaning we can't even unpack the depth of my statement.

Brooks is waiting for me in the living room the second I step into the threshold. "Parkey boy," he screams, running to me with open arms, "I missed you."

Patting his back awkwardly, I hold back a smile. "I wasn't even gone for two days, man."

"Tell me all about it," he tries to usher me into the living room, but I detach my body from his.

"Where is she?" I don't even have to specify who I'm looking for, he immediately points upstairs and I'm taking them two at a time as I run to my room.

I don't really know what I'm expecting to walk in to, but I take a hesitant step inside as I open the door and see her spread out on my bed, eating mini donuts while watching a movie. "Hey, pretty girl."

"You're early," she gasps, standing up on the bed before bouncing off and into my waiting arms.

I hold her tight, to the point where I'm probably robbing her of air, but she never complains. Moving to sit on the bed, I drop one hand, pulling her legs around my waist so she remains on my lap while I do. We stay like this for way longer than is probably normal, me rubbing her back and her fingers running through my hair. Neither of us seems to know what to say.

Finally pulling back, I run a finger under her eyes softly, tracing the dark circles that still remain. "What do you say we take a nap first, then talk?"

Her eyes bore into mine as she shakes her head, "I'm okay, I don't need a nap. Let's just talk."

My heart stops when she climbs off of my lap, afraid she's trying to physically separate from me, but she just lays back down in her previous spot. "Come on," she opens her arms, and I scramble to get my shoes off before laying right next to her.

"Kota, I'm a goddamn idiot. I wanted to tell you everything that happened this weekend in person, not over the phone, I should've told you that."

"Parker," she whispers, but I cut her off.

"I should've told you because I didn't even think about how it could come across when I wasn't texting you, but I was sending Connor updates every twenty minutes." Finally looking up at her instead of the wall, I keep going when I'm met with a blank face. "Then I went out with the guys last night, and seeing them with their wives and girlfriends made me miss you, so I decided to call you in the middle of a fucking bar at two in the morning like a fucking idiot."

She runs a finger over my lips, silencing me. "You don't have to keep going, I'm not mad. Sure, I was pissed as hell after that call, but the more I've thought about it, the more I understand that your main goal this weekend was getting to know the team. Hockey is your priority right now, I just need to take a step back sometimes and remember that."

"Baby, I wouldn't have asked you out if I wasn't prepared to make you a priority, too." I lift my head from her chest, kissing her softly. To my surprise, she kisses me back with just as much desperation, and I bask in every moment of it.

When we finally pull back, she smiles brightly at me, and I mirror it. "Now, tell me about that dog downstairs."

"No," she laughs quietly for a moment, before turning serious and whispering, "tell me about Nashville."

"You want me to?" My eyebrows lift in surprise.

"I've been waiting to hear about it all weekend, so yeah," she giggles.

Jumping off of the bed, I run to my suitcase and rip it open, digging around until I find exactly what I'm looking for. Dakota is watching me from the bed, and I toss the fabric at her, laughing as it lands straight on her face.

She opens it up, glancing between me and the Nashville Predators jersey in her fingers. "Park..."

"I had a meeting with the GM this morning, he said I should keep an ear out during call-ups," I can't wipe the smug smile from my face. "I went straight to the team store after, but I left the jersey blank just in case I can't keep twenty-two."

Her eyes look glossy, "holy shit."

"Don't wear it yet, though, I don't want to jinx anything."

As I kneel back on the bed, she meets me halfway. "I'm. So. Proud. Of. You," she punctuates every word with a kiss around my face.

Grabbing her chin, I bring her mouth exactly where I want it, on mine. "How about we ditch this hockey talk for the rest of the day, and I take you on a date?"

"But there's probably so much more that happened," she half-smiles with a tilt of the head.

"There is, but I realized something on the flight home," I squeeze her arms. "I haven't taken you on a proper one since the day I asked you to be my girlfriend."

She clambers off of the bed and out of my hold, heading to the dresser. "Well, if you insist," she says playfully.

"I'll meet you downstairs in thirty, Brooks and Connor are waiting for the details, but I wanted to tell you first," because I love you.

~

"The arcade?" She laughs.

I hold the front door open and gesture for her to walk inside, "Damn straight. Now come on, hot stuff, I'm gonna win you a big ass prize."

She bites her lip, clearly amused, but walks through the door anyways. "You're such a goof, Parker Elliot."

"I'll take it," I shrug, tucking her body under my arm and leading us to the first game I see.

For someone who thought this was a weird idea, Dakota is having the time of her life. I can barely keep up with her as she runs from machine to machine, beating my sorry ass in every two-person game. To be fair, it's probably due to the fact that I can't seem to tear my eyes away from her face.

She hasn't stopped smiling once, and her brown eyes have lightened along with her mood. I'm so excited to take her home with me next weekend.

"Park," she waves a hand in front of my face.

I shake out of my thoughts, "what's up?"

"Whatcha thinking about?"

Wrapping my arms around her shoulders, I bring her close enough so that our chests can touch. "You."

She swats at me, "stop making me blush."

"It's too easy. You're really not mad at me?"

She smiles sadly, holding me tight. "Baby, I meant it when I said it earlier. It's okay, we're good."

"And you still want to come home with me next week, right?"

"Parker," she groans, putting her forehead on my chest. "Yes, I want to go home with you. Yes, I'm really happy for you about Nashville. Yes, I still really, really like you."

She only pauses when I can't keep from kissing her any longer, molding our mouths together. "Way too much," she breathes heavily, pulling away.

"I like you way too much, too," I leave my forehead on hers.

"Really? I couldn't tell," sarcasm is dripping from her voice.

Seeing some parents giving us the stink-eye for the PDA, I reluctantly pull away from Dakota, leading her towards the Marvel game I've been eyeing since we walked inside.

Two hours later, we're walking back out to my truck. Well, I'm walking. Dakota is tripping over the gigantic teddy bear in her arms that she insists on carrying, claiming that I 'do too much for her' and that the least she can do is 'let me walk empty-handed for once.'

Bullshit if you ask me.

We have a brief discussion about her safety after Dakota tried to ride with the damn thing in her lap. And okay, maybe I also have a problem with it because it would stop me from putting my hand on her thigh.

Sue me.

Not even bothering to ask, I drive us straight back to my place, knowing neither of us got much sleep last night and that we'll sleep much better being together.

Dakota is already in bed waiting for me as I finish up in the shower, but tonight, there seems to be a special guest in my usual spot.

"Never thought I'd be cockblocked by a damn dog."

Rolling onto her back, she smirks at me, eyeing the towel sitting low on my hips. "You may be a great lay, but you wouldn't be getting any tonight even if he wasn't here if you know what I mean."

I throw on boxers quickly and get into bed, laying straight on top of her. "A period stops nothing but a sentence, baby," I smirk.

"Never happening, Cadell," she laughs.

Making eye contact with the dog, I scoff, "do you hear this chick? She's delusional."

"Go to sleep." She puts a hand over my eyes and I chuckle, but quickly give in, the exhaustion from the past twenty-four hours finally hitting me.

______

Hi everyone!

This may be my only update for the week unfortunately, I have COVID and haven't been able to write as much. I'm writing chapter 35 now, but don't want to accidentally run out of stuff to post if I'm not able to write as quickly.

Thank you for your understanding!!