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?

you telling

And I didn’t wanna hit it!” Nina huffed on the other end of the line. I could almost see her pouting, her

strong and independent woman who pretty much single-handedly saved the entire town of Mountainview from the Crescents, survived on

you alone anymore,” 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.

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

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

to pick up Nina, I hung up and prepared to leave. Just as I was heading out the door, however,

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 1 wanted to share with

missed him. I wanted nothing more than to make up

would have loved the bright colors and the eclectic furniture. I think that my father would have

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

note

the nearly finished living

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

my concern, her sulky expression struck me as comical,

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

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 winner,” I continued, my lips curling up into a teasing grin as