Darkroom: A Moo U Hockey Romance, Kate Willoughby [best books to read for young adults .TXT] 📗

“There’s that beautiful birthmark,” he said, brushing a thumb over it.

I glanced away. “It still feels weird, letting you see it.”

“The more you do it, the easier it’ll get. Pretty soon, it’ll be second nature.” He caressed my backside and kissed my shoulder. “You feel like fooling around?”

“Why do you think I got in here with you?”

He grinned as he pulled me to him and covered my mouth with his. We’d never had shower sex before, but I had to say, anything that involved Hudson’s body, wet and naked, was worth doing.

27

Indi

The next morning, the smell of coffee woke me up. Hudson was still out like a light so I snuck out of the room in search of caffeine. My mother loved flavored creamers and so did I. She usually dedicated a whole row of the fridge door to them.

“There’s my beautiful girl,” my mom said as I entered the kitchen.

Unlike the commercial kitchen at Slice, which was all industrial stainless steel and white subway tile, our family kitchen was small and cozy, with moss green walls and antique wooden cabinetry. The fridge was covered with pictures of me at various ages, coupons of every sort and take-out menus.

I got myself a mug and filled it with coffee and a liberal amount of pumpkin spice creamer while my mom pulled ingredients out of the fridge.

“I thought I’d make breakfast pizza this morning,” she said.

“Breakfast pizza. Trying to impress Hudson?” I asked.

She smiled. “I’m certainly not going to toss cereal boxes on the table.”

“Honestly, he’d be fine with that.”

“Well, it’s not every day my daughter brings home a boy who could star in his own season of The Bachelor.”

“That’s not too far from the truth,” I said. “He’s one of the stars of the hockey team and girls fall all over themselves to talk to him. After games, especially.”

“But he didn’t go on a week-long road trip with any of them,” my mom pointed out. “Are you two serious?”

“Mom, don’t. We’re just enjoying each other’s company right now. Hockey keeps him very busy and I’m scheduled to take the MCAT at the end of January. Neither of us have a lot of time.”

As she mixed frozen shredded potatoes, shredded cheese and eggs together in a bowl, my mom shrugged. “People make time for what’s important to them and if you ask me, you’re very important to Hudson.” She sprayed a sheet pan with olive oil, dumped the mixture onto the tray and began shaping it into a circle. “He’s head over heels with you.”

“He is not.”

“Oh, really? Last night was all about impressing you.”

“No, it wasn’t. It was about impressing you and Dad.”

My mom shook her head. “We’ll have to agree to disagree on that one. He kept stealing glances at you while you were working, and when you and Walt were talking about that music video, he quietly glowered. In fact, if memory serves, that was right before he started spinning the pizza pan on his finger and singing ‘That’s Amore.’”

Out loud, I poo-pooed that, but the idea that Hudson had been jealous last night amused me. I was so in love with him, I could barely think of anything else, but I had no idea if he felt the same way, so any evidence he did was more than welcome.

“Well,” she said, popping the pan into the oven to bake, “I can think of worse things than being married to a professional athlete.”

“Mom, shhh!” I glanced toward the stairs, terrified Hudson had come down unnoticed.

He hadn’t, thank God.

“We haven’t even talked about being exclusive.” I wrapped my hands around my coffee mug.

“Do you want to be exclusive?” she asked.

“Maybe,” I hedged, but at her arched eyebrow, I gave in. “Okay, yes. I absolutely hate the idea of him dating anyone else but me.”

“Then you should have a conversation with him, let him know where you stand.” She chopped some bacon and tossed it in the hot cast iron skillet. The tantalizing aroma filled the room.

“But I don’t want to scare him off,” I said, still keeping an eye on the stairs.

“Indi, honey, I understand that, but you owe it to yourself to be with someone who recognizes how wonderful you are and wants to be with you as much as you want to be with him.”

Of course, I agreed with her in theory. It was obviously a bad idea when one half of a couple was wildly in love, while the other was indifferent. But when, against all odds, you ended up with someone completely out of your league, better safe than sorry. That way, when they took off looking for greener pastures, you weren’t taken by surprise.

After the crust had cooked for a while, my mother cracked four eggs over it, tossed on more cheese and finished it with the bacon before putting it back in the oven. My dad and Hudson wandered downstairs just as the timer went off.

“Good morning,” Hudson said before leaning down to give me a kiss.

“Good morning. There’s coffee there on the counter,” my mom said, pointing with the oven mitt on her hand. “Hudson, how did you sleep?”

“Coffee sounds great. Thank you. I slept like a baby. Is that…are we having pizza for breakfast?”

“Yes we are,” my dad said as he took a seat at the table. “Bonnie makes the best breakfast pizza. She always gets the hash browns really crispy. I like to dump ketchup and sriracha on mine.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but do you have pizza at every meal?” Hudson asked.

“It sure seems like it sometimes,” I quipped.

“Funny story,” my dad said, “when I was a kid, I loved pizza day at school and I would often say, ‘I’d eat pizza every day, if I could,’ and look at me now.”

“I’d probably eat pizza every day if it was pizza like you make at Slice,” Hudson said. “I have to tell you, I don’t usually eat all the