Christ.
Even after a night of partying, she’d looked gorgeous.
And once she’d put a veil on—and held the bouquet of roses?
I was a goner.
Pure and simply gone.
Just like now as I held her in my arms.
I’d love to lean down and kiss her.
The song still played, and I had to admit—the lyrics hit a bit closer to home than they normally did.
I was thirty-three years old.
In a sport that valued youth.
Thirty-three in hockey years equaled about eighty-three in human years.
And, just like the song, I had more than a bit of dust on my bottle.
I felt it every day.
Especially in the mornings.
Fuck me but was it ever hard to get going.
Everything in my body protested the second I woke up.
Lately, since the accident, it had been a thousand times worse.
If it weren’t for the pain pills, I probably wouldn’t get out of bed until noon.
So, yeah, I was aging rapidly in a career that added more and more younger guys to the pool every day.
We danced for a few more songs—Lexi smiling up at me, making me forget every ache and pain.
For now, anyway.
That coconut scent of hers floated into my senses, and I swear it made me dizzy.
A thought popped into my head, and I rolled with it. “Kiss me,” I whispered into her ear. She leaned back and narrowed her eyes on me.
I chuckled, and whispered again, “For the cameras.”
“Oh,” she said, forming the cutest ‘O’ shape with her lips.
Right before I kissed her.
Bubble gum.
I loved how this woman tasted.
Lexi kissed me back and pressed her sweet, soft body to mine.
“That’s quite a kiss,” she said as I was still taking full advantage of the situation.