A Bear Victory Read Online Free PDF Page A

fists. Never had he cared so little about how the fucking game was going to turn out. He took one more step forward, moving like he was trying to get to a wounded animal while not spooking her into a run.
    “Kimmy,” he said, almost whispering.
    “Don’t you dare fucking call me that,” she said with a snarl, hopping up and taking a few steps backward, her hands held up and pain streaking across her face. “You have no right! Why did you do something like this, Cannon? Why bring me here?! I thought we had an understanding. You stay out of my fucking life and I won’t scream bloody murder every time we happen to be at the same fucking playoffs.”
    Not that anything like that had ever happened, Cannon knew. Whenever the Bluehawks had to go against the Sabres, or Cannon had played against any other team that Kimberley had ever been involved with, she’d always make sure that she was as far away as possible from the game. He couldn’t blame her. In her position, he would have probably done the same.
    “I… I didn’t think you’d come,” he said, following her with those same tentative steps, making her back away farther. “I’m sorry, Kimberley. I didn’t want to trick you. I just… I needed to talk to you.”
    Cannon scuffed a hand through his hair, feeling the short bristles slick with sweat already turning into icicles, his gloves having been left along with his skates near the bench. He felt as close to sheepish as a 240-pound bear hockey beast could, his blue eyes imploring Kimberley to listen and understand, and obviously failing brilliantly.
    She stopped her backtracking, standing up a little straighter. There was that twinge of pain again, and then her green eyes blazed with honest anger, countless emotions throbbing through her at high speed as they were doing the same in him. But he felt regret. And anger too, sure, but only at himself.
    “You didn’t think I’d come? If I’d known it was you I would have never come here, Cannon. You know that, don’t you?”
    “Of course I do. That’s why I… Look, okay, I get that you’re angry. You have every right to be angry. But it was six years ago. Can’t we sit down and talk about it? Or anything? Shit, Kimmy, we’re better than we ever were back then. Don’t lie, you’ve enjoyed every conversation, ever chat we’ve had. I know you have.”
    His hands relaxed as they stood about six feet apart from one another, six feet too far as far as Cannon was concerned. She was almost within reach and yet completely and inexplicably distant, like she was still in Montreal and he was in Chicago or Idaho, texting the woman of his dreams and hoping against hope that things would work out. The way she was looking at him now should have told even the most determined bear that it wouldn’t. That there was no way.
    But he was a damn stubborn bear.
    “That has nothing to do with it,” Kimberley said with a snort, crossing her arms over her chest defensively. “And stop calling me that .”
    “Why?” Cannon asked, stepping another pace closer, with Kimberley matching his movement backward, only to find her back against a tree now. “You never used to mind it.”
    He knew he was playing his hand far too eagerly now and she might bite it off for it. But he also knew that he wasn’t going to get a whole lot of chances at this and if anything other than a solid smack in the face and a screaming match was going to take place, he was going to have to use everything in his arsenal to trick the enraged woman before him to give him a damn moment to explain.
    His muscles tensed as he paused again, cocking a brow at her and allowing himself a smug smirk, one that made her practically growl at him. “In fact, I remember that you loved it when I called you Kimmy. When I kissed your shoulder, your clavicle, your—”
    “Shut the fuck up, Cannon!” she hissed, her cheeks burning red now.
    But that was enough. Cannon hadn’t thought his heart could beat any faster, but