Limelight Love Story

5. A Book

Between weekend performances, Lucy did not do much throughout the week, so after she finished settling in by midday Tuesday, she just sat on the couch in Tim's living room and watched a trashy reality show.

When he got home from practice, Tim was a little surprised to see Lucy asleep on his couch in front of the TV that was still on. He went over to find the remote in the hopes of shutting it off, but it was precariously between her legs, and he really did not think he could reach for it. Instead, he went up to the screen and tried to find the manual button, since that functionality still had to exist, right? Tim blindly tapped around and was finally successful, grateful that there was silence to allow for Lucy to sleep better. Then, he grabbed the blanket off of the back of his couch and draped it over her.

She felt the weight of something, and it caused her to stir. Then, Lucy heard a sharp intake of breath and partially opened her eyes. "Tim?"

"D-did I wake you? I'm sorry," he apologized. There was something so adorable about how sleepy she still looked.

"That's alright. I wanted to see you when you got home from practice," she replied and sat up straight. Then, she realized there was a blanket over her. "Did you put this on me?"

He could not recall the last time someone was at home waiting for him to return from practice. It felt nice. Tim hoped he had not upset someone who was being so sweet to him. "Yeah. You were sleeping...I-...is that okay?"

"Angela says you're out of practice, but you know what you're doing."

"Out of practice?"

"With dating. Angela came by earlier, since she's not working today and wanted to check in on me."

"She came here? And, you two were alone? What-what did you talk about?"

"We were talking trash about you of course," she smiled. He did not look amused at all, so Lucy chuckled. "She spent most of the time talking about how great you are and then told me to be patient with you since you're out of practice with dating and how to treat a woman, but Angela might've been wrong about that." She glanced back at her lap where the blanket he put on her had fallen.

"Angela may be my best friend, but she doesn't know everything about me. Whatever she said was probably wrong, so just forget it."

"Wrong? I don't think she was totally wrong."

That glint in Lucy's eye made his chest tighten. "What does that face mean?"

She stood from the couch and folded the blanket before leaving it behind and sashaying into the kitchen. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Lucy," he groaned.

"My chef left us steaks and pasta to heat up for dinner. I read that hockey players need to eat a lot of protein and carbs before and after games and practices." She changed the subject.

"You Googled a hockey player's diet?"

"Well, I'm married to a hockey player now. I gotta know this kind of stuff." Lucy wiggled her hand where she wore her wedding band.

"Crap. I don't know anything about what musicians eat."

His guilt was sweet. Lucy took one of his hands and smiled. "No dairy before performances, and aside from that, I don't eat meat, but that's a personal thing and not a musician thing."

"Got it. I promise I won't forget."

"If hockey doesn't work out, you could write a book."

"A book? I'd rather coach instead of writing a book about hockey."