“Ovechkin? You’re telling me that the Alex you spent two weeks with in Moscow is Alexander Ovechkin?” Madison asked incredulously, clicking through the pictures on Zoey’s computer. After recovering from the discovery of the figurine, Zoey had confessed everything to her friend. Now two days later, she still repeated his name in disbelief. Zoey, stuck in the car with her for the last three hours, was beginning to get annoyed by it. She almost liked it better when Madison had gotten mad at Zoey for holding out on her.
Madison had talked her into going to Washington to see a game. It was an exciting idea for Zoey, but she was nervous. The swans clearly meant he would be thinking of her. But that was five months ago. She couldn’t expect him to still be thinking of her now. But the chance to see his face again was too much and Zoey had agreed. She’d changed her mind three times on the drive. The last hour, she’d decided she would stay at the hotel and not join Madison at the game. She’d finally found a place where her dreams weren’t filled with him and she should just leave it alone. Of course, that was before the swans, she reminded herself. She’d dreamt of him each night since she discovered the treasure.
She gripped the wheel of her Acura TSX a little tighter. The traffic on the I-45 was getting a little heavy. Zoey hated driving in heavy traffic. In Manhattan, almost everything she needed was within walking distance and if not, there was always the subway. The only time she really had to deal with traffic was when she had to venture outside the city. Her palms were getting sweaty. She was already nervous enough. She didn’t need traffic. Madison was chattering non-stop next to her. She was terribly excited to introduce Zoey to hockey. She’d been so excited about her friend in DC getting her seats at the glass.
“You never get seats at the glass this close to the game. These seats are always gone right away. I can’t believe how lucky we were that Danielle couldn’t use her tickets. Zoey, you just don’t understand. The stars must be aligned for something special. Maybe we’ll see a hat-trick! How great would that be for your first game?”
Zoey barely heard her. She registered the hat-trick comment, even someone with her limited knowledge of hockey knew that a hat trick was three goals by the same player in the same game. She also knew that they were very hard to accomplish. Alex had explained it to her. He only has ten of them in his whole career. Zoey remembered thinking that seemed like a lot, but then she remember that hockey played eighty-two games a year. Alex had played several hundred games in his career.
“Oh, shit,” she exclaimed, pressing on the brake, as a flashy, brand new Camaro slipped in front of her on its way weaving through traffic. “Dumb ass,” she grumbled under her breath, gripping the steering wheel a little tighter.
“You want me to drive for a while?” Madison offered.
“Letting you drive would not help my nerves any more than letting Alex drive!”
“Oh, really? Does he really drive crazy like the tabloids say?” asked Madison. She was so eager to hear any little tidbit about Alex. Zoey understood that it was so exciting for her, but each question brought up a memory that Zoey wasn’t sure she wanted to linger over.
Zoey sighed. “Of course not. He drives fast, yes. But he is safe.”
Her mind wandered to the day he drove her to his dacha. The wind coming in from the open window ruffled his hair. She recalled his mischievous smile as he revved the engine. Was she falling even then?
She finally had to admit to herself that the fall began the first time she looked into his blue eyes.
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