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

it!” Nina huffed on the

who pretty much single-handedly saved the entire town of Mountainview from the Crescents, survived on her own with a bullet hole in

leave you alone anymore,” I continued to tease as I stood and wiped the sawdust off of my hands.

up,” she said, ignoring my jabs. “And we still need

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

sigh of relief. “Just artnoyed, both at myself

was heading out the door, however, a glint caught my eye. I frowned as I

it up gently, tracing the image of her smiling face. I

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

them would have liked the renovations we 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

just a way for him to punish himself, a way to convey the feeling in his heart that his life

and made a mental note to pick up a new frame while

the nearly finished living room, I

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 hood with a stubborn pout

sulky expression struck me as comical,

raccoon,” I quipped as I climbed out of my pickup truck – it was really my father’s truck, but I decided to use it rather than let it sit in the garage and collect

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