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?

burst out laughing. A raccoon?” 1 chortled. “Are you telling me

It was scary, alright? And I didn’t wanna hit it!” Nina huffed on the other end of

to think that Nina Harper, the strong and independent woman who pretty much single-handedly saved the entire

Nina, I don’t know if I should leave you alone anymore,” I continued to tease as I stood and

you to come pick me up,” she said, ignoring my jabs.

as my voice took on a more serious tone. “I’m on my

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

to leave. Just as I was heading out the door, however, a glint caught my eye. I

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

still missed him. I wanted nothing more than to make up for those lost

made on this house; my mother likely would have loved the bright colors and the eclectic furniture. I think that my father would have liked it, too, although he seemed to pick up a fondness for

the color gray. I 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

I placed the photograph down and made a mental note to pick up a new frame

the nearly

minutes down the road, I spotted her. As I pulled up next to Nina’s car in the ditch, I found her sitting on the

my concern, her sulky expression struck me as comical, and I couldn’t

my pickup truck – it was really my father’s truck, but I decided to use it

and his followers didn’t bother to steal it, but then again, 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