The Definition of Icing: A Dallas Demons Hockey Romance (Dallas Demons Series) by Aven Ellis

he’s going with this.
    Nate hesitates for a moment, and I see in his eyes he’s back in Minnesota, at the moment when it all went wrong.
    The server returns with our glasses of cab and then we’re alone again. Nate takes a sip and continues.
    “It all went to hell in April,” he admits. “I had made plans to go fishing with my dad on an off day, but the weather got bad, so I came home early. Apparently way too early. Because I found Megan in bed with another guy.”
    Megan cheated on him. I can’t even imagine the level of betrayal he must have felt.
    “Oh, Nate, I’m so sorry,” I say, squeezing his hand.
    “Oh, wait, it gets better. Not just any guy. But the guy who I thought was my best friend on the team. She was fucking my line mate, Kenley. The guy who I went to war with every game, the guy whose back I always had, the guy I told everything to—was screwing Megan.”
    “No,” I gasp in disbelief, my hand flying to my mouth. “Your best friend? ”
    We’re silent for a moment, that bombshell hanging in the air between us.
    “Yeah. So you can imagine what happened after that,” Nate says, reaching for my hand again. “All hell broke loose. I punched Patrick, kicked Megan out, and then had to go to the locker room with this guy who had betrayed me in the worst possible way. The team cratered as a result, and we went out of the playoffs in the first round. At the end of the season, I told the Black Bears one of us had to go. I just never dreamed it was going to be me.”
    “Why was it you?” I ask, confused. “You were the star.”
    “I was the idiot who didn’t have a ‘no-trade’ clause in his contract,” Nate explains. “Patrick did. So I ended up in that blockbuster trade here, and he’s now living with Megan.”
    My heart squeezes tight inside my chest. Nate had been violated in the worst way possible. His trust was broken by the two people closest to him, and the Black Bears dealing him away was the final insult.
    “So here I am,” he continues. “I was shipped to Dallas, a city I knew nothing about other than the hotel I stayed at when we’d have a game against the Demons. It seemed foreign and strange and hotter than hell when I arrived in July.”
    “You must have been furious when you came here,” I say.
    “Oh, I was pissed, ” Nate admits, taking another sip of his wine. “This was the last fucking place I wanted to be. But what choice did I have? None. So I thought, ‘Okay, this is it. You’re going to go to Texas, deal with living there and make hockey your only priority to get through the season until summer.’”
    “So you could go home,” I finish for him. “Back to Minnesota.”
    “Yeah.”
    We’re silent for a moment, and I turn and gaze out at the lights of Dallas, hating how miserable Nate must be here, how badly his heart must still be hurting—
    “But all of a sudden I’m deked out of position,” Nate says, breaking the silence.
    I glance at him, confused.
    “Faked out of position,” Nate explains without waiting for me to ask. “But here I am, determined to be business only, focus on hockey and being a good player, and then I meet this girl.”
    Nate smiles at me, and I feel my heart begin to pound inside my chest.
    “She’s beautiful, but so much more than that. She’s strong. And when I watched her take on these morons at Dallas Details trying to make her use her sexiness to sell her product, I watched her fight back with everything she had. This girl didn’t need me to rescue her. Not by a long shot. But it totally faked me out of my position of no involvement, and I had to help her.”
    I swallow hard, listening to Nate see things in me no man ever has before.
    “And I swore I wasn’t going to like Texas,” Nate continues, “but I find that Harrison Flynn is not only a good hockey player, but a good guy . With a positive locker room and great team atmosphere. So I’m thinking it’s going to be okay for me professionally. But now