Traded (Nashville Grizzlies, #1)

by Carly Marie

After far too little sleep, I found myself loading bags of balls into the back of Trevor’s SUV as he tossed a bear and a gym bag into the back seat of his car. I understood the bear, in an abstract way at least. After the third mesh bag filled with kickballs, I couldn’t help asking why I’d just loaded a playground’s worth of balls into his SUV. “Um, what are you doing with all those?” Trevor climbed into the driver’s seat and waited until I was in and buckled before responding. “They’re for practice.” I blinked. He’d spoken a complete sentence with words I fully understood the meanings of. What I couldn’t wrap my head around was how the playground balls related to hockey. “I’m sorry?” My brain was stubbornly refusing to believe that these would be used for hockey practice, no matter what the rumors around the league were. The Grizzlies had numerous trades a year. There was no way that the games had never been confirmed by someone. He focused on backing the vehicle out of the garage, then glanced over to me. “I’m so tired of tag. We’ve been playing it for two weeks now.” Leo would slap me upside the head if he saw me staring like I was. “Tag?” A light blush stained Trevor’s cheeks and he averted his blue eyes, focusing way more intently on the road than the neighborhood warranted. “Um, yeah. It’s a tradition.” “You mean… you mean it’s real?” The question had his eyebrows creeping up his forehead. “Real?” My hands waved about of their own accord. “Yeah. The rumors about sill...