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?

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

hit it!” Nina huffed on the other end of the line. I could almost

her relentlessly; to think that Nina Harper, the strong and independent woman who pretty much single-handedly saved the entire town of Mountainview from the Crescents, survived on her own with a bullet hole in her leg, got spooked by a

I continued to tease as I stood and wiped the sawdust off of my hands. “Raccoons today, and what’s

she said, ignoring my jabs. “And

sighed, trying to smother my laughter as my voice took on a

a small sigh of relief. “Just artnoyed, both at

to pick up Nina, I hung up and prepared to leave. Just as I was heading out the door, however, a glint caught my eye. I frowned as I approached the little hallway table that sat near the front

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, for all of the moments that

mom died, I still missed him. I wanted nothing more than to make up for those lost years, to finally

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 after

liked the color gray. I think that it was really just a way for him to punish himself, a

note to pick up a new frame while we

satisfied look around the nearly

I pulled up next to Nina’s car in the ditch, I found her sitting on the hood with a stubborn pout on her

me as comical, and I

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 dust. It was a nice

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.