My Hockey Alpha

Chapter 305

Bonus 5: The Tease

Enzo

Dust and sweat clung to my skin as I wrestled with the new living room furniture.

It was a final touch to the renovations we’d been slogging through for months, transforming our once dull house into a vibrant home. Despite the exhaustion tugging at my muscles, a sense of satisfaction washed over me as I looked around the house. Our house.

Just as I was finishing up on the final bench for our massive dining room table, my phone buzzed in my pocket.

A picture of Nina lit up the screen, her smile making my lips curve in response. “Hey, love,” I answered, using my cleanest elbow to press the speaker button.

“Enzo,” she started, and I could already hear the hesitation in her voice.

“I… uh… had a little run-in with a raccoon. I maybe… sort of… kind of got myself stuck in a ditch.”

The last part of her sentence came out all at once like an avalanche. I could tell immediately that she was embarrassed. And I was a man; it was my job to capitalize on her embarrassment. What good would it be if I didn’t tease my fiancee a little?

laughing. A raccoon?” 1 chortled. “Are you telling me you swerved off of the road because of

Nina huffed on the other end of the line.

who pretty much single-handedly saved the entire town of Mountainview from

don’t know if I should leave you alone anymore,” I continued to tease as I stood and wiped the sawdust off of my hands. “Raccoons today,

said,

smother my laughter as my voice took on a more serious tone. “I’m on my way. You’re okay though,

relief. “Just artnoyed, both at myself and that damn bastard

leave. Just as I was heading out the door, however, a

was a photograph of my mother in a cracked frame, forgotten in the whirlwind of renovations. I picked it up gently, tracing the image of her smiling face. I missed her. It wasn’t fair that she wouldn’t be there for my wedding with Nina,

father, too. As much as he could be a bastard sometimes after my mom died, I still missed him. I wanted nothing more than to make up for those lost years, to finally come to a respectful

the bright colors and the eclectic furniture. I think that my father would have liked it, too, although he seemed

think that it was really just a way for him to punish himself, a way to convey the feeling in his heart that his life had become void of color since my mom

a mental note

around the nearly

ten minutes down the road, I spotted her. As I pulled up

sulky expression struck me as comical, and I couldn’t suppress

I climbed out of my pickup truck – it was really my father’s truck, but I decided

they didn’t seem to steal much of anything. The act of ransacking my dad’s house was more of a way to show their disrespect than anything else. They may as well have spat on his grave. But I supposed that it was a good thing that they didn’t know where he was buried. “I think we can safely declare the raccoon the