Romance Ice Hockey 101

After the first few weeks, Rebecca slowly started to get the hang of it. She learned how to get from campus to work and back again. She knew how to get home and to the library. The path to the local coffee shop a few blocks from both her apartment and campus was what she learned most quickly, though. Whenever she began to feel homesick, she'd take her computer to the shop, named Only a Mug Away, and email her friends and family back home. Sometimes she'd get lucky and someone would be on-line at the same time. She'd be doubly happy to get her friend Mary on-line.

Mary had been busy lately with her new boyfriend, Max, but usually tried to be on-line at the same time every day, just in case Rebecca wanted to chat. Occasionally Max would kidnap Mary's computer and chat with Rebecca as well. He was constantly trying to get her to meet up with some of his friends in the city. He'd been on the Penguins hockey team before being traded to Calgary. Not that Rebecca knew anything at all about that world. She just continued to repeat herself to him, explaining that between school and work, she didn't have time. Still, he kept trying, giving her several names; Bill, Marc, Sean. He'd often mentioned how some of the guys were still single as well.

Most of the time, she'd just laugh it off. Sometimes, like this evening, with a busy coffee shop around her and no one on-line, Rebecca felt the deep ache of wanting someone nearby. She gazed across the small table to the empty seat in front of her and sighed.

Well, nothing I can do about it now, she told herself and decided to give her latest essay a shot.

It only took about five minutes before the words started to blur. With another sigh, she sat back and rubbed her eyes. A distant shouting floated into the coffee shop and she looked up to see a group of guys coming across the street. They were wearing black and white jerseys with a logo Rebecca was slowly becoming familiar with. She watched the group of five guys walk into the shop before her, talking and laughing about 'the game.'

What game? Rebecca wondered with a smile as the guys high-fived a few other patrons sitting around the coffee shop.

Rebecca had grown up the only child of a single mother and sports had never really been a big part of her life. She was completely clueless about football, baseball, hockey or whatever. She could barely tell each sport apart. As she sat there, wondering which sport they were so excited about, she eavesdropped on their conversation. It wasn't difficult; they were practically shouting at each other.

"What an opener!" one guy said and laughed as he smacked palms with one of his companions.

"I know!" another guy said as he jostled his friends. "That last goal was great!"

Goal, Rebecca thought with a nod as she casually shut her laptop and settled back in her seat. That should be a clue. Max and Mary talk about goals all the time. Is it hockey these guys are talking about?

She sighed to herself and rubbed her face with one hand. I'm so sad. I don't even know hockey and I'm from Canada!

She listened to the group of friends chatting about the game for a few more minutes before getting up and packing her things. She walked slowly towards her home and thought that maybe she should try to look up one of Max's friends. They weren't all men and then she would at least know one person she could talk to about something other than school.

Once she got home and got ready for bed, she decided to sleep on it and maybe call Max and Mary in the morning.

"Hey Max, how are you?"

Josh looked over as Sean answered a call on his cell phone. They were all still lingering in the locker room following their first game of the regular season. It had been a good win and they were still celebrating.

"Oh, you watched?" Sean went on with a broad grin. "Shouldn't you be more concerned with your own games?"

Josh grinned and shook his head. Marc met his gaze across the room and they shared a knowing look. Their old teammate and friend, Max, had been traded to another team in the previous season but he stayed in touch.

Never mind the fact that they were on opposing teams and would one day meet up again.

Until then at least, they were all still good friends.

"Yeah, most of us are still here," Sean said then and looked up at the faces left in the locker room. "You want to talk to someone? What do you mean you don't know who?" Sean paused after a short laugh and listened, his expression sobering. Then he burst out laughing and shook his head. "Don't you ever give up?"

Josh wondered what the other half of that conversation sounded like. He hadn't been Max's closest friend on the team but he remembered him as a guy who enjoyed hockey, loved life and lived to make his buddies laugh. Last they'd all heard, he'd somehow managed to score an actual girlfriend; someone who appreciated his sense of humor, apparently.

And someone who doesn't mind the beard, Josh added silently as he leaned down to lace up his shoes.

When he looked up again, Sean was looking over each of the guys, one at a time. He had a considering look on his face and was murmuring to Max over the phone. His eyes came to rest on Josh and a slow smile spread across his face.

Oh crap, was Josh's immediate thought, followed quickly by, This can't be good, when he saw Sean rise from his seat.

He strode across the room, weaving in between some of the guys and then stopped in front of Josh. "Phone call for you," Sean said and handed his phone over.

Rolling his eyes, Josh took it from him. "Who is it?" he asked sarcastically to which Sean merely shrugged innocently and walked away to finish changing.

"Max, what's up?" Josh said into the phone.

"Hey, Gronk, what's happening?" Max's boisterous voice filled his ear and Josh laughed at the old nickname. No one had really called him by the comic book character's name for some time.

"Not much, just laid waste to some unfortunate team," Josh replied.

Max chuckled. "Sure, whatever you say. Just wait until your western road trip this year."

"Is that a challenge?" Josh asked.

"Not really," Max answered and then moved on to a new topic entirely. "Hey, you're single, right?"

Josh blinked and looked across at Sean who was watching him with a goofy grin on his face. Josh narrowed his eyes, not liking where this conversation was going already.

"Why do you ask?" Josh replied cautiously.

"Well, I got a huge favor to ask and I just wanted to make sure it wouldn't be pissing off a girlfriend or fiance or something," Max told him.

"Oh God, you want me to go on a blind date or something?" Josh asked as memories of his last experience with that rose up. He hadn't been on a blind date in five years, not since he'd hit the NHL.

Max laughed at him. "Not exactly," he said. "I've got a friend who just moved there for school and she doesn't really know anyone."

"This is a blind date, isn't it?" Josh demanded, glaring as Sean hooted with laughter from across the room. A few of the other guys had quieted down as well to hear what was going on. "I won't do it!"

"It's not a blind date!" Max shouted over the phone. "Calm down, jeez. Just listen for two minutes."

Josh listened as Max explained that his friend was in town for school, didn't have any friends or really any social life that he knew of. He was asking Josh to meet up with her a couple times, show her the sights, maybe introduce her to some other people.

"Why doesn't she have any friends?" Josh had to ask.

"She's kind of quiet around new people," Max replied slowly. "She's great once you get to know her, or if she's in familiar surroundings but Mary tells me she just has a hard time introducing herself to new people."

"Mary?" Josh repeated and smiled. "Is that the woman who took pity on you?"

Max laughed. "Yeah, man. And she takes pity on me every night. Sometimes twice in one night!"

Josh burst out laughing and shook his head. "It's nice to know that you haven't changed, Max."

"So will you meet up with her? Show her around?" Max asked after the laughter had died down.

Josh sighed and wanted to think of a reason to say 'no' but he couldn't come up with anything. "All right, fine."

"You're awesome!" Max exclaimed. "I'll owe you one for this."

"You can let me beat you up when we come out west in January," Josh replied.

"You can try, shorty," Max replied and Josh had to laugh again. He was easily several inches taller than Max and probably outweighed him by thirty pounds.

They made arrangements for Josh to meet up with his friend, Rebecca, in another couple days, after an early road trip for the team. He hung up the phone and tossed it back at Sean who was still watching him with amusement.

"So you think just because you're married off you have to destroy everyone else's lives too?" He asked.

Sean scoffed as he caught the phone. "Destroy lives? Hardly. You just don't know what you're missing."

Josh shrugged as he stood up and pulled his jacket on. "I don't know, Sean. Limiting yourself to one woman forever, seems kind of... inhumane."

A few of the guys overheard and started laughing. Josh glanced around at them with an amused smile. Every one of the guys laughing just then was either married or in a long-term relationship.

Why does that not surprise me? He wondered and gave the guy nearest him a shove.

"Josh, one of these days some woman is going to knock you over and you're not going to know what hit you," Bill spoke up, his wide grin revealing his missing front teeth. "Then we'll all have this conversation again."

Josh laughed them off and walked out of the room. It's not that he dated numerous women at once or that he was a real hound dog on the road or anything. He just didn't feel he had time to work on a real relationship. So instead he focused on hockey and having a good time with the guys.

Now he had to meet this Rebecca and find time to show her around.

That thought led him to others that he'd forgotten to mention to Max. Like, was she even close to his age? Did they have anything in common?

Oh God, Josh thought and paused in the corridor leading to the parking lot. I hope she's not some Penguins groupie.

Shaking his head, he decided there was no reason to keep worrying about it. He'd meet up with her as he'd agreed to and he'd let things happen as they would.

If she turns out to be a psycho stalker, I'm so out of there, he thought as he climbed into his car.

Rebecca found herself sitting at the coffee shop in another few days, chatting on-line with Mary. Mary had called her late last night and told her to be on-line at this time in the morning and she'd be there too so they could chat. So Rebecca had happily bustled off to Only a Mug Away, sitting at a window table and turning on her computer.

She and Mary had been chatting for about an hour when suddenly Mary stopped responding. Frowning, Rebecca waited, sent another message and listened absently to the dinging bell over the coffee shop entrance as someone came in.

"Rebecca?" A male voice spoke quietly to her and she glanced up in surprise at the man who'd walked in.

Oh jeez, he's hot! she thought and felt a blush stain her cheeks immediately.

He had to be several inches over six feet tall since he absolutely towered over her table. He was broad-shouldered and obviously worked out regularly to maintain such a body, though it was dressed up modestly in faded jeans and a heavy wool coat. He was fair, with reddish-gold hair cropped close to his head and his eyes sparkled a brilliant blue. At her confused scrutiny, he smiled, a cute crooked smile that revealed teeth not quite straight.

And for some reason, he looked vaguely familiar to her.

"Do I know you?" she blurted out.

"No, we've never met," he replied. "I know your friend, Max, though."

Rebecca relaxed and nodded, though the heat stayed in her face. "Oh, Max. Right."

The smile on this man's face drooped a little and he shifted nervously on his feet. "Did he not tell you?"

"Tell me what?" she asked, feeling incredibly underdressed. She shifted on her seat and pulled at the ends of her open jacket in an effort to look less frumpy.

"Uh, he told me to meet you here today," the man before her said. "He said you're new in town and didn't really know anyone."

Rebecca's flush deepened and she didn't know what to say to that. "I...uh, yeah, I am new...in town," she stammered as she stared up at him.

For a minute neither of them said anything. Rebecca had to look away from him and hoped that he didn't think she was a complete idiot. She noticed a blinking icon on her computer and clicked to see a new message from Mary.

Please forgive Max, it read. He means well.

And that was all. Mary had signed off.

"Huh," Rebecca commented with a rueful smile. "Looks like we're supposed to meet up today."

The tall, handsome man before her smiled again and she couldn't help the blush that stained her cheeks again.

"I'm Josh," he introduced himself and held his hand out towards her. "Josh Saunders."

"I'm Rebecca Junison," she replied. "Oh, but you knew that." Stupid! She silently berated herself. He must think I'm such an idiot!

"Do you mind if I sit down?" he asked.

"Of course! Sit down, please," she said and rubbed one hot cheek with her hand, wishing she could get herself under control. She just hadn't been expecting to meet a hottie today. She didn't enjoy surprises.

"So what brings you to Pittsburgh?" he asked.

"I'm going to school at Carnegie Mellon University," she said.

"What are you taking?"

"Social Sciences," she replied and smiled when his eyes widened a fraction.

"Wow, so you're probably a genius, huh?" he asked.

She laughed and shook her head. "Hardly. I have been trying to get into this school for a while so I don't think that makes me a genius."

He grinned and she felt her stomach lurch. She cleared her throat and shifted in her seat again, trying to cover her discomfort.

"So, uh, what do you do?" she asked.

His blue eyes widened again and she blinked, stunned by their startling shade. "You don't know? Wow, Max really didn't tell you a thing, did he?" This he asked with that same crooked smile so Rebecca knew he wasn't upset.

"Oh wait!" she exclaimed and held a hand up, palm towards him. "Max plays hockey. You play hockey too?"

Josh blinked at her before bursting into laughter. "You could say that," he agreed with a grin.

Flushing, Rebecca looked away. Here was the usual moment with guys where she found herself awkwardly floundering. Sometimes they didn't care that she didn't know anything about sports and other times, they stared at her as though she had two heads. On the positive side, Josh wasn't giving her any strange looks.

"You don't follow the teams at all?" he asked when she still didn't say anything.

She shook her head, feeling the heat in her face grow.

"So you really don't have any idea that I'm on the hockey team Max used to play for?"

"That's right."

He smiled at her. "Well, how interesting. I guess you probably don't meet a lot of people who know about the Penguins where you're going to school anyway."

Rebecca thought back for a moment about all the students she'd met and slowly shook her head. She could honestly say that no one had ever started a conversation about the Antarctic creatures. Though why they would when she attended the social sciences school was beyond her. She said as much aloud to Josh and watched with a smile as he laughed again.

"This is great!" he exclaimed. "I know exactly what to do with you now."

Blinking, Rebecca drew back slightly. "What do you mean?"

"Well, Max called me a few days ago and asked me to introduce myself to you," Josh explained. "He said to show you around, maybe meet some more people."

"Oh, I see," she said. "So what do you plan to do with me now that you know I know nothing about sports?"

For a second, he didn't respond and Rebecca watched in fascination as a light blush crept over his cheeks. She looked down, hiding a smile when she thought about how her question must have sounded to him. Check another one off in the stupid column for Rebecca, she thought.

"Uh, I think we should go watch a game," he said finally in response to her question.

"What kind of game?"

Josh shrugged. "What interests you the most?"

She stared at him. "I know nothing about any of them so I couldn't even take a guess about which one is the most interesting."

"Right. Well then, do you trust me?"

"I don't even know you!" she replied with a laugh though her stomach flipped just a little bit at the grin on his face.

For a second they just stared at each other, grinning broadly. Then someone else walked into the shop, setting off the bell over the door.

"Whoa!" A male voice exclaimed and both Rebecca and Josh looked over to see a man bundled up against the cold weather. He was staring at them; or rather, staring at Josh. "You're Josh Saunders!"

Rebecca sat back in surprise. She didn't know he was famous. Maybe if I knew more about sports, I'd have known that, she thought.

"Yes," Josh replied mildly with a smile for the man.

"Oh wow," the man said and walked closer. He reached into his jacket for something, keeping his eyes on Josh as though he might disappear. "I'm a huge fan. And my son would kill me if he knew I'd seen you and not asked for your autograph." As he spoke, he pulled out a small daytimer and pen. "Will you sign this for me?"

Josh nodded and took the daytimer as the fan flipped it open to a blank page. "What's your son's name?"

"Wesley," the man replied.

Josh wrote a quick note and signed the bottom of the page before handing it back to him. Grinning widely, the man shook his hand and thanked him several times before heading to the counter for his coffee.

"That was really nice of you," Rebecca commented quietly. "I don't know that I'd have the patience to deal with people when I'm not working."

Josh shrugged it off though she could see the smile on his face and in his bright blue eyes. "I don't actually get recognized that often. People are more into the football and baseball teams." Then he grinned and shook his head. "Even my friend Sean, who is like, the biggest star in the league, doesn't get harassed in this city."

Rebecca smiled, relaxing a little bit more with him. "It's still nice."

"Hey, I figure if someone wants my autograph badly enough to ask, it's the least I can do," Josh said.

They sat silently for another minute, just staring awkwardly into each other's faces. Then the man who'd asked for his signature walked past on his way out, thanking Josh again.

"Well, are you in the middle of a term paper, or can we go somewhere else?" Josh asked, surprising her.

She blushed and looked down at her closed computer. "I... don't have anything important to do," she confessed. "What were you thinking?"

"We'll start with a football game since its Sunday," Josh said as he stood up. He waited patiently while she stood and gathered her things. "There's a nice pub not too far from here and they'll be showing all the games."

Rebecca nodded in agreement and went with him out onto the street, wondering what had just happened.

When Max had set him up, he definitely had not been expecting the dark-haired knockout who'd been in the coffee shop. As Josh sat sipping a beer next to Rebecca in the dim pub, he kept sneaking glances at her, enjoying the way her forehead wrinkled in confusion at what she saw on the big screens around them. She'd been pretty quiet for the past hour or so, watching the football game that was currently being shown on the main screen. The home team was the Steelers and the visiting team, the New York Giants. So far, the Steelers were trailing but Josh knew they were a tough team who could probably pull out a comeback like it was nothing.

Rebecca watched the game, sipped lightly at her own lager and asked a few questions. Josh could tell quickly that she wasn't really into the game but she was being polite by sitting here with him.

Another point for her.

As if she needed it.

Josh took the opportunity to again check her out. She'd removed her heavy winter coat after sitting down so he was treated to the more than pleasant site of her bright blue turtleneck sweater that hugged her curves like nobody's business. She was wearing loose-fitting dark jeans and wore a heeled boot that Josh was certain added three inches to her overall height of five-five, maybe five-six. Her hair, so dark a brown it was almost black, was long, falling past her shoulders in a straight line and framed her pale face, giving it a glowing contrast. And finally, Josh had to fight the urge to pull her face close so he could stare into her bluer-than-blue eyes. When she'd first smiled at him in that coffee shop, her eyes had sparkled like jewels and shimmered with each blush that crossed her cheeks.

She was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen, making Josh feel less than adequate, a not too comfortable feeling.

"So the team wearing yellow and black is Pittsburgh?" she asked suddenly, startling Josh out of his ogling.

"Uh, yeah, that's right," he said, flicking his eyes to the screen just to confirm for himself. He'd forgotten for the moment which game they were watching.

Any more time with her and he might forget which team he played for.

"And why are they called the Steelers?" she asked.

Josh grinned. It was such a strange question. Maybe not for her, but guys didn't tend to think of the teams in terms of their colors or the history behind their names.

At his smile, Rebecca blushed that pretty shade of pink again and took a long swallow of her beer.

"I'm sorry," she murmured when she set her glass down again.

"For what?"

"I must sound like such a moron to you," she said, glancing up through a fringe of thick, dark lashes. "I don't know anything about this game."

"It's all right," he assured her with a smile. "Football's not for everyone."

"What do you prefer to watch?" she asked.

"Hockey," he answered immediately.

"Of course," she replied and shook her head. "Of course you do. You play hockey."

"Don't feel bad," he said. "I actually don't watch a whole lot anymore."

"Why not?"

He shrugged and thought about the reasons why. "Mostly because I'm too busy," he said. "We have a game at home or away nearly every other night. I can't watch another game while we're playing and I don't watch other teams play on my nights off because I don't want it to affect how I play."

"Oh," Rebecca said slowly with a nod.

Josh grinned at her expression. He could tell she didn't get what he was saying but considering how little she knew about any sports, it was understandable.

"Do you want to go?" he asked when she said nothing else. "This must be pretty boring for you."

"No!" she exclaimed and reached a hand towards him, as though he was about to stand up and bolt any second.

He chuckled as she blushed immediately. "OK, we can stay. But you're not enjoying football."

She sighed and shook her head, some of the color fading from her cheeks. She glanced over at him and smiled shyly. "No, I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry," he replied and reached out to pat the hand she'd lifted towards him. God, her skin is so soft! he thought and swallowed hard as some of the blood in his body was suddenly diverted to a lower location. "Like I said, football isn't for everyone."

"So is there another game we can watch?" she asked as she glanced around at the numerous television sets in the busy pub. They were pretty much all showing the Steelers game. "Maybe some baseball?"

"Uh, the World Series is on and there's no game today," Josh replied, following her gaze.

"World Series?" she repeated with a little frown.

"I'm sorry," Josh said with a laugh and patted her hand again, having not released it since the last time he'd touched it. "The World Series is the championship for baseball."

"Oh, OK," Rebecca replied and nodded. She glanced back at him and smiled. "And no hockey today either?"

"Well, there are a few games later tonight I'm sure," he said. "But it's only three now and the earliest game doesn't start until seven probably."

Her face fell and the hand under his flexed slightly. "Oh. I guess you have stuff you need to do," she replied and nodded. "I shouldn't take up all your time."

Josh blinked and slowly her words sank in. He squeezed his fingers over her hand and shook his head, keeping his eyes on her face. She looked back up at him and the shy look in her sapphire eyes sent more blood singing through his veins to a new location. "You're not," he assured her, his voice coming out slightly thicker than before. "I'm the one who dragged you in here."

"You didn't drag me," she replied, a smile spreading across her face.

Josh lifted his eyebrows. "No?"

"No," she agreed.

For a second, neither of them said anything. Josh flicked his eyes back and forth across her face, watching as her smile widened, revealing just a glimpse of her white teeth. He felt her hand move under his and he realized then that he'd been lightly stroking her wrist with his thumb. Blushing hotly, he jerked his hand away and sat back in his seat. Rebecca was still smiling though and she hadn't moved her hand away from the table. Josh cleared his throat and tried to adjust his seat without giving away the fact that he had a hard-on in the middle of a Sunday afternoon.

"So... you, uh... you want to... hang out?" he asked, hating that he wasn't in control of himself.

"Sure," she replied.

They fell silent again and after a minute, they both laughed.

"Why don't we have another drink," Josh suggested. "Then we'll go have some dinner and you can decide then if you want to watch a hockey game."

Rebecca nodded. "Sounds great."

So they did. After that awkward little exchange, they fell into easy conversation. After the game ended, it was close to five and Josh suggested a few different restaurants in the area. Rebecca picked the nearest Italian restaurant and he drove them over there after leaving the pub. Over dessert, the conversation turned to sports again.

"So maybe you should tell me a little about hockey before we go watch a game tonight," Rebecca suggested and Josh had to repeat the words to himself a couple times before responding.

He couldn't help himself. She'd licked her dessert spoon right before asking the question and Josh was mesmerized by the sight of her pink tongue sliding over the silverware.

Get a grip, man, he told himself. You're not a sixteen-year-old boy anymore. You can hold a conversation with a beautiful, sexy woman without thinking about sex.

"Uh, all right," he replied at length. He lifted his eyes from her lips and smiled into her sparkling blue eyes. "What do you want to know?"

"Why don't I just tell you what I know and you can fill in the blanks?" She offered.

"Sure."

"OK," she said and set her spoon down to tick the points off on her fingers. "It's played in the winter, on ice. The guys wear a lot of padding and I think they get a break in between... uh, the innings." That last she said with a bit of a question in her tone.

Josh grinned and nodded. "You've got the first couple things right but we play periods, not innings. That's baseball."

She blushed but smiled anyway. "Well, I knew I'd heard the term before."

"So what else?" Josh asked.

"That's it," she replied and looked away in embarrassment.

"Oh wow," Josh breathed and sat back slightly. "That's a lot of blanks to fill in."

"Too much of a challenge?" she asked with a grin.

"I love a challenge," he replied smoothly.

She laughed and nodded. "Why doesn't that surprise me? You are an athlete after all. Don't you guys live for challenging each other?"

Josh shrugged. He supposed that was true. Otherwise, what was the point of playing? "You know, I think it might be easier to just explain as we watch," Josh decided after a moment.

"Really? Won't that be annoying?"

"It doesn't bother me."

"No, I mean, for other people around us," Rebecca replied.

"Oh," Josh said and nodded. "I see. Well, I'd offer to take you to my place to watch a game but I have a couple roommates and they aren't always..." he trailed off, thinking of his two teammates that he shared a small house with. They were great guys, all of them on the team were great guys, but these two didn't have the same... manners as the rest.

"Friendly?" Rebecca offered when he didn't complete his thought.

"Dressed," Josh said instead and Rebecca snorted with laughter. As her giggles died away, Josh leaned forward again, wondering how he could get her to keep laughing. It sounded amazing.

"All right. I live on my own," she said. "Why don't we just watch the game there?"

Josh blinked, more than surprised by her offer. No matter that they both knew Max; he hadn't expected a woman he'd just met to ask him to come over. Not that she meant what immediately sprang to mind. Shaking his head to rid himself of the extremely graphic thoughts that bombarded his brain suddenly, Josh looked up at her.

"That's fine," he said, hoping he sounded casual and hoping she wouldn't notice his erection when they stood up to leave. "As long as you don't mind."

She waved a hand at him, dismissing his concern. "Don't worry about it. I'll kick you out before it gets too late. I have classes in the morning, after all."

"Sounds great then," Josh replied with a grin. Sounds like she's not as horny over the prospect as I am, he added silently, trying to forget about his disappointment. He didn't need a girlfriend right now anyway and he'd only agreed to meet her as a favor to Max. She was basically all alone and the last thing she needed was a boner-sporting hockey player making moves.

"It's a small place," Rebecca said apologetically as she led the way into her little one bedroom apartment. "But it's walking distance to my school and the rent is cheap."

Josh looked around and nodded as he took his jacket off. "It's fine," he told her. "Cozy."

Smiling, Rebecca hung up both their jackets and told him to go ahead and find the game on TV while she found something to drink. As she searched through her half-empty fridge, she wondered what had possessed her to invite him back to her apartment.

I've never invited a guy back to my apartment, she thought. Even guys she'd dated didn't come over. She was very shy about how she lived and preferred a more open setting when it came to guys. Mary didn't know that about her and Rebecca figured she put on a strong enough act around work most days that she'd never guess.

She was painfully shy when left alone with men.

"Got one," Josh called from the living room.

"Cool," she replied and grabbed a couple soft drinks. "I'll be right there."

Josh was reclined on her battered couch as she walked out, with his long legs stretched out and his feet resting on her coffee table. He jerked upright, setting his feet on the floor as she came close and smiled sheepishly at her.

"Sorry about that," he said and took the soda from her.

"For what?" She asked as she sat down beside him.

"I shouldn't have had my feet on your table," he explained.

Rolling her eyes, Rebecca sat back and propped her feet up in their customary place on the table. Josh chuckled and sat back as he had been, mirroring her position.

Rebecca's eyes went to the television screen and she watched as a couple commentators discussed the men skating around a broad expanse of blinding white ice. "So this is hockey?" she asked apprehensively. She hadn't minded the thought of watching football but because she knew Josh played hockey, she desperately wanted to not sound like an idiot now. "Who's playing?"

Josh squinted at the screen and smiled. "It's Columbus at Washington," he said.

Rebecca nodded even though she had no idea what that meant. She must have worn that same blank expression as before because Josh chuckled from her side. "What?"

"The Columbus Blue Jackets and the Washington Capitals," he said, elaborating on their names. "And they're playing in Washington."

"Are they good teams?" she asked.

Josh shrugged. "I would say yes since they're both tough teams to play but I don't want to sound like they scare me."

Rebecca laughed. "Do they scare you?" she asked playfully.

Josh scowled at her but she could see from the glint in his eyes that he wasn't really put out by her question.

"We've had trouble against the Caps in the past and the goalie for the Blue Jackets, Dominic Baddano, is really good. I hate playing against him," Josh confessed.

Rebecca grinned. She had no idea what a goalie was but it sounded fun. Drawing in a deep breath, she decided she had nothing to lose at this point so she took the plunge. "What's a goalie?" she asked, hoping it wasn't too stupid a question.

Josh blinked at her before laughing shortly. Then he nodded and leaned forward to set his soda on the table. He pointed at the screen and began to patiently explain who each of the players were. The goalies wore the heavy armor and full face masks while the others wore lighter padding and plain helmets. Josh said that he was a center and tried his best to score goals which meant that he didn't like most goalies on opposing teams.

"Because they guard the home base?" Rebecca asked, picturing them all on some miniature battlefield. It seemed to be the clearest way of understanding what was happening.

"The net," Josh corrected.

Rebecca glanced shyly in his direction and nodded. She wondered how long it would take before he got fed up with explaining things to her. For the moment, he was still smiling at her so she took that as a positive sign.

"So you try to score a goal and the goalies try to stop you," she said.

He grinned and nodded. "That's the basic gist of it."

Turning her attention back to the screen, Rebecca pushed down the feeling of butterflies in her stomach and tried to watch the game that had started. For a few minutes they were silent and she could feel Josh tensing and relaxing as the players skated around.

She tried to follow the action on the ice but it all looked completely random to her. She sipped her soda and managed to follow the flying black dot for a minute when suddenly all play stopped at a whistle.

"What happened?" she asked in confusion.

"Offside," Josh replied shortly.

Rebecca looked sideways at him and lifted her eyebrows. He glanced her way and then flushed under her gaze.

"Sorry," he muttered. "I forgot for a second that I was explaining everything."

"You don't have to if you don't want," she replied.

"No, I do," he assured her and reclined on the couch as the players skated into a new formation. "Offside is when there are players from the opposing team in the zone before the puck crosses that blue line."

"There are zones?" Rebecca blurted.

Josh laughed and nodded before proceeding to explain the team zones to her. By the first commercial break, Rebecca understood that the goalies at each end were in their zones and the opposing teams had to do everything in their power to stay in the zone. If they left the zone, they had to scramble to get back before the other team moved into their zone.

"I think I get it," she muttered at one point and downed the last of her soda. Her head was starting to ache in all her zones.

Josh glanced her way and smiled. "This is boring you too, isn't it?" He asked.

Keeping her eyes on the screen as the players came back to begin another round, Rebecca shook her head slowly. She still didn't know all the subtle nuances but there was something very intense about this game. She felt her heart rate increasing as the players scrambled at one end or the other and unconsciously clenched her hands at every close call.

"It is definitely not like the other sports," she said slowly.

"No, you're right about that," Josh replied and she could hear the note of pride in his voice.
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