Score Her Heart: A Marriage of Convenience Hockey Romance (Philadelphia Bulldogs Book 2) by Danica Flynn (free novels .TXT) 📕

plane ride to my home state devouring Fi’s book. I was completely amazed that the things on print had come out of her head. I would be lying if I didn’t say I flipped to the back jacket flap a couple times to see her author photo staring back at me because damn, did I miss my wife of three days already, and I wondered if she would ever miss me like that too.

Depending on travel plans, we usually got to a city a day before game day, which was nice because it gave us time to get settled into the hotel, do any meetings, and then be fresh for game day skate and all the pre-game rituals. So once we all got settled into the hotel, I went to go visit my mom. Mom tried to come to games when we played the Minnesota Tundra, but it didn’t always work out. Sometimes she was too busy grading papers.

Even though I told her I would pay off the house for her and take care of her, she wouldn’t hear of it. She loved her job as a high school English teacher, and even though she complained about the bad pay, I knew it was what she wanted. At least she was only working one job these days. Guilt had wrapped around my chest every day as a teen, knowing she was working herself into an early grave when Dad left.

Dad was basically dead to me. We hadn’t talked in years. That was kind of what happened when you were the one to find your dad in a compromising position with his secretary, and then he left your mom for her. I didn’t think I would ever forgive him for that, so I never returned any of his calls. Ever. Fuck that guy.

After Dad left, things were hard for my mom, and the Gallaghers really stepped in to help. It’s why Fi and I had gotten so close in the first place. I worried about my mom; it had just been me and her for so long that I was a wreck when I left for the NHL as an eighteen-year-old. When Mom got remarried a few years ago to Ted, I felt a sigh of relief, but I was uneasy about it. Ted was a good guy, and he made her happy, but I was a bit wary of him. I used to think my dad was a good guy too.

Mom lived in a small split-level in the suburbs of St. Paul, so it was lucky for me that the Tundra played in that city, and I was able to make the trip out to see her. I opened the door to my childhood home and was greeted by my mom and step-dad Ted, who were in the living room watching TV. Being six-foot-tall, I had to bend down to my mom’s five foot nothing frame to hug her and kiss her on the cheek.

“Oh, honey, it’s good to see you,” she greeted me with a smile. “Did you eat yet?”

I smirked. “Yeah, Mom. I’m good.”

Ted shook my hand, and I took it firmly, keeping eye contact with him the whole time. “Ted,” I stated flatly.

“Riley, good to see you,” he greeted and pretended not to hear the tension in my voice.

I followed my mom into her kitchen and took a seat at the table, hunching my big frame into the wood-backed chair. Mom made a cup of tea and sat in the chair across from me.

She had this funny look on her face that I couldn’t place. “What?” I asked, annoyed that I was about to get a lecture.

She set her teacup down and sighed. “I have to ask. Why did you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Marry Fiona.”

I looked down at my shoes. “What do you mean ‘why?’ She’s my best friend; it felt right.”

She looked unsure and ran a hand through her short-cropped, pale blond hair. She gave me a sympathetic smile and put her hand on top of mine. “Baby, I love you, and I want to see you happy, but…is your marriage real?”

“What?” I scoffed. “What are you talking about? Of course it’s real.”

She dropped her gaze from me and ran a hand over the rim of her teacup. She breathed out and looked back up at me. “Look, I love you, and I love Fiona, and I would love it if you two were really together. But I know you only did this because you couldn’t stand to see her so hurt.”

I stared back at her, my jaw twitching in annoyance. That was only partly true, but I didn’t want to admit to my mom that the reason I did it was that Fiona was the love of my life.

“You married her immediately after she was left at the altar; she didn’t even get a chance to grieve over the end of her five-year relationship,” she explained. She must have seen the sea of torment spread across my face because she squeezed my hand. “I’m sorry, but I felt like you rushed into a marriage neither of you was really prepared for.”

I scratched the back of my neck because I didn’t know what to say. This was exactly why Fi had asked me for a divorce the next day. We had rushed into this marriage, and now I had trapped her in it with my ridiculous romantic notions that I could get her to fall in love with me. Maybe she should have kept her apartment. Fuck, now I felt like an asshole.

We were quiet for a minute because I honestly didn’t know what to say. My mom was right; I had made a mess of things, and it might have been at the cost of the best friendship I ever had.

“She asked for a divorce,” I admitted.

My mom’s eyes softened. “Oh, baby, I’m so sorry.”

I cringed, knowing now I had to explain the next part to my mom. “But we’re not getting one. At