“Come again?” Kara’s friend Madison looked at her, stunned, the following day after she’d heard about what had happened the evening before. They’d met at her café inside the book store to talk and have coffee together. Maybe even throw in a muffin or cookie. “Oh boy, he’s really good-looking though. You should just play along, see where it goes. What’s the worst that could happen?”
Madison always spoke her mind. It was one of the things Kara admired. She loved this brutal honesty and even though it sometimes wasn’t what she wanted to hear, most of the time it was the best thing to happen to her.
“I don’t know?! How about a kiss or something else? And I’m not sure whether I want something like this to happen or not.” Kara put down the mug and leaned back in her chair. She didn’t know what she’d expected from this talk. “Besides, he’s probably just making fun of me for telling him what I’m writing.”
“So what? Then you can still say that you’re making fun of him yourself, where’s the problem?”
“You know that I’m not looking for anything right now, right?” Madison had tried to set Kara up a couple of times since her last relationship had ended, but Kara had always declined. She liked being single and concentrating on her writing.
“Nobody said that you should marry this guy, but there’s nothing wrong with having a little fun, Kara.” Madison was waving her hands in front of her face, exasperated. “Just for once, be like the heroines in your books.”
Maybe Madison was right. She should maybe play along, even tease him a little and see where it went. She didn’t have anything to lose after all. And she could even get some information that could be useful for her book, who knew? The only problem was that she wasn’t as confident as most of her heroines. She’d try to work on that.
“I’ll try, okay?”
“That’s all I’m asking for.”

Around the same time a couple of guys from the team met up at Benny’s house to watch the game between the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs. They didn’t have anything else to do until the following day so watching hockey together was a good idea.
Seguin, Marchand and Campbell shared the couch. Paille got comfortable in one of the armchairs, Benoit himself took the other one after everyone had a beer and the Nachos were on the table in front of them. The game wouldn’t start for another half hour, so Soupy thought it would be a great opportunity to ask the others about Kara or more specifically her writing, since he’d skimmed one of her books this morning.
“So, has anyone of you read, what Kara writes?” He looked around, then he focused on Benoit who was smirking. There was number one.
“My wife did and she says that it’s really good stuff.” Paille said, the only one who was already married in this round.
“Oh, I bet she did.” Soupy smiled to himself.
“What do you mean?” Brad turned to look ad Gregory. “You’ve read one of her books?”
“Skimmed through it and read a few passages completely. She writes porn.”
“I’d say that’s an exaggeration.” Benny crossed his arms over his chest. He’d started her first book the night before when he’d come home and had finished it a few hours before the guys got there.
“So, you don’t think it’s porn?” Greg raised an eyebrow. “Because I definitely think it is and there’s nothing wrong with it.”
“Well, it’s women’s fiction, so it has a proper plot.” Benny thought for a moment. “But you’re still right about the porn part. The one I read had a really interesting story. And the porn parts are quite detailed.”
“Oh yes, they are.” Greg added. They were all used to Benny reading books, but he usually didn’t talk about them. He only person he sometimes talked to about books was Patrice Bergeron. They shared a love for crime-fiction. Maybe Bergy should read one of Kara’s books as well, because there was a good amount of crime in them.
“Maybe I should read this book then.” Tyler Seguin thought about this for a moment.
“You can’t read properly.” Marchand rolled his eyes at his linemate. “You would have to find someone to read it to you or buy and audiobook or whatever these things are called.”
“You don’t think I can find someone to read it for me? There are enough girls out there dying to read books for me and act out the scenes in that book!”
“Ty, you’ve been spending too much time with Tuukka lately.” Gregory shook his head. “You should hear yourself talk. Do you talk like this in front of your Mama?”
“Uh… no.”
“And here I thought Bradley was a bad influence on you.” Paille shook his head as well, but he could hardly keep the grin off his face. In the end he gave up trying.
“Oh guys, stop it.” Tyler leaned towards the table to grab a couple of Nachos. “I thought you were being serious.”
“I was. Not completely though.” Soupy gave his friend a slap on the shoulder. “But all the things she’s writing about makes me think whether she’s like the characters in her books or not.”
Oh, Benoit had been wondering about this the whole day long. Reading what was happening in her head made him think all kinds of things about Kara, about that lush body, that sexy smile and the deep green eyes. She was really something. In the beginning he’d thought that she was nice-looking, interesting and certainly confident. This confidence made her sexy in his eyes. His perception of her had probably changed the night at the hotel when he’d seen her in shorts and a shirt. And especially after he’d talked a little more to her. She had a good sense of humor and was easy to talk to.
“Benny?”
He looked up at Soupy again and apologized. It was time to turn the TV on so that they could watch the game. It was probably a good thing that they weren’t discussing Kara and her books anymore. Otherwise he would probably have problems falling asleep with all these vivid pictures in his head.

The next two games were in Boston. After that they would be on the road for three games. They’d play against Tampa Bay Lightning, the Florida Panthers and the New Jersey Devils. Kara was already looking forward to traveling with the team again and especially for longer. Not like the last time when they only had one game. This time they would be gone for six days.
During the games at the Garden, Kara and Benoit hardly saw each other. Kara only came to the games, not to practices, because she didn’t have the time. There were still things she had to learn and write down. She was more interested in watching the actual games right now while she still had to learn some terms and rule.
After the games she would have gone to the locker room to congratulate the guys, but there was no reason. They’d lost both games in OT. So, no, Kara didn’t particularly feel like going into a room full of guys who were ready to punch holes into walls. She might be crazy sometimes, but not that crazy.
So, Kara hadn’t talked to any of the guys in a couple of days when they met at the airport to leave for Fort Lauderdale. They all greeted her with a smile and the atmosphere on the plane was really nice. A couple of guys talked to her about the game, that they had been really mad about the outcome but they needed to concentrated on the next game now.
At one point during the flight, Gregory Campbell leaned over to Kara and waited for her to looks his way. When she finally did this, he said: “I read your first book.”
“Well, then you know what I write about.” She wouldn’t blush. There was nothing to be ashamed of. Her books sold like crazy and she enjoyed writing them. “Did you like it?”
“Oh yes. I’ll definitely read the second one as well.” Soupy leaned back. “As long as you’ll sign it for me.”
“Sure.” Kara smiled to herself, hiding her face behind the book she’d bought yesterday. Not that she’d wanted the guys to read what she’d written, to know what was going on in her head, but hearing Campbell say that he’d liked it, made her extremely happy.

Notes

Any comments on what happened so far? ^^