Meet Your Match (Kings of the Ice, #1)(26)

Matty laughed at that, and suddenly he was shy, his cheeks a flaming red as he tucked behind his mom a little bit.

Vince took the photo with Matty alone before the mom handed her phone to Lonnie so she could get in, too. I took a video from behind them, scanning the whole park to show the clothes and food Vince had brought out.

But I didn’t post it, not yet, mostly for fear of fans swarming the park, but also a little because I didn’t want to.

It was a dangerous admission, because it was quite literally my job — to show Vince’s life to the world. But in this moment, my heart was beating a little odd, my mind swimming with the contradiction of the man before me. Last night he was pinning me with an angry glare, his hand holding my jaw like he didn’t know if he wanted to kiss me or throw me to the ground.

And this morning, he was spending part of his day off with people most of the world turned their back on.

Therefore, the world could wait.

Right now, in this moment, Vince Tanev was for my eyes only.





Free of Expectations



Maven



The amount of times I yawned throughout the day was impressive, but even as tired as I was, it was fascinating following Vince around on a day off.

It surprised me that we went straight from the park to the stadium, where he changed and headed to the team’s private gym on the top floor. There were only a few other players in there, and they goofed off a bit before each settling in to their various workouts. They weren’t lifting weights, though. It seemed to be all cardio, a couple of them jogging on the treadmills while Vince spent almost an hour on the bike.

When he was done, he spent a lot of time in what he told me was recovery. One of the trainers did an intense cupping session with him before a long massage, and he finished it all off with a twenty-minute sauna session. I had followed him in long enough to take a photo before quickly exiting, because being in a literal hot box with shirtless Vince was a sure-fire way to test my professionalism.

Afterward, he ate another meal prepared by the team’s chef before we headed back to his condo. His housekeeper had come while we were gone, and the place was now spotless.

He spent a long time meditating, which surprised me, and then he journaled, which about put me on the floor with shock. When I thought about having one day off, I imagined him bingeing Netflix, or going out with the guys. And he admitted that sometimes, he did just that. But most of the time, he had a routine he stuck to, especially during the season.

While he was journaling, I stepped onto his beautiful balcony to call Reya and Camilla. They were losing their minds over the content. Between the game and all the footage from his day off, our followers were feral. And so were my bosses.

“All of this is gold,” Reya told me. “And don’t worry about your garden, your plants, or your house. We’ve hired someone to take care of all of it for the month.”

That brought me as much relief as it did anxiety, because caring for my home and my garden was something I wanted to do — not have someone else doing.

Still, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t having fun, that this assignment wasn’t exciting. I decided to take my dad’s advice and live in the present. What were the odds I’d ever do anything like this again?

Answer: slim to none.

With the end of that phone call, I committed to throwing myself completely into the experience and getting the most out of it. And when I quietly stepped back inside, Vince glanced up at me from where he was journaling with a crooked grin.

I ignored the way my heart skipped a beat when he did.

Throughout most of the day, he was silent, and I just took photos and videos and observed from the outside. I’d told him to pretend like I wasn’t there, and after the park, he’d been incredibly proficient in adhering to my request. I almost missed it — his playboy attitude, cocky lines, and quick banter. But there was something magical about watching him from the outside, being a little fly on the wall during a professional hockey player’s day off.

I wasn’t sure what I’d expected, exactly, but it likely involved women and drugs and spending money like it would never run out. I definitely hadn’t expected him to be so focused on the season, to work on his body and his mind, to stick to a routine that would help him recover from the games this past week while also gearing up for the ones to come.

There was a reason he was one of the best rookies in the league. Maybe luck and talent had something to do with it, but this? His dedication to what he did? That played a part, too.

I thought I’d be ignored until I excused myself from his apartment, but when the afternoon bled into evening, and the sun began to sink over the city skyline, Vince grabbed two local IPAs out of his fridge. He cracked the top on one of them before arching a brow at me to ask if I wanted the second one.

And usually, I was not a beer girl.

But I thought what the hell — part of the experience, right? and nodded.

“Is it Netflix time?” I asked him as I took the first sip.

He smiled the way the Cheshire cat would, rounding the kitchen island and walking past me and across the room.

“Not quite,” he said.

And he placed his beer on the end table by his pottery wheel.

“Wait,” I said excitedly, hopping off my barstool and all but skipping over to him. “Am I going to get backstage access to the making of a Vince Tanev ceramic masterpiece?”