Body Check: Post 21-

Chapter 12: “I’m in love!!” Realization Tropes

Good grief. 20 posts already? This book only has 165 pages total. I did not think I’d write this much about it. Some of the books I have lined up for future critiquing have four times as many pages. Well, at least I won’t run out of material? Although I suppose if/when I find a really good hockey romance (or dozens) where I don’t have anything to critique, I’ll have nothing to say, no matter the page count.

Anyway, we are 2 chapters and an epilogue from the end (all of which happens in 25 pages from this point.) So mach schnell we have game-throwers to apprehend! Bribery to punish! Liars who set out to ruin Brody to catch! And oh yeah, a romance to repair. We have to surmount the insurmountable obstacle!

But first Hayden has to get home from Brody’s house. She takes a cab to the arena to get her rental car, then heads back to the hotel. Evidently, this cabride “was probably the most mortifying experience” of her life because she burst into tears (139). I totally get that not everyone is as emotional as me, for example, and some people rarely cry and find doing so in public to be truly horrifying. But even so, for crying in a cab, where only one person sees you (and he kindly offered her tissues!) to be the “most mortifying” experience of one’s life? That’s a rather un-mortified experience Hayden’s been living. And seeing her picture in the Chicago sports paper with Brody grabbing her ass wasn’t mortifying, apparently. And as an instructor of any kind to not have a mortifying experience in the classroom? I’m impressed.

While in the cab, Hayden also recognizes that she’s “brokenhearted.” That sounds like Hayden has recognized her feelings for Brody, that they’re very strong and might even be considered love. But no, this is only page 139 so it’s too early for that. That realization is later.

When she finally gets to the hotel (since she had to detour to the arena) a clerk in the lobby tells her that there’s a man waiting for her in the bar. (It’s like 9am, but maybe he’s having a mimosa?) Hayden hopes it’s Brody, hopes he’s realized that that ending things because of the article in the paper was a bad idea. But this is page 139 so it’s too early for that.

Which means that really the only people it could be are Presley or Doug, right? I suppose it could also be someone from the team (maybe Craig come to explain something about Sheila?) But we only have 25 pages left so it has to be something that needs clearing up.

And it is, in fact, Doug. Hayden is not happy to see him, first because he’s not Brody and second because all she wanted was to hide under the covers.

If there was ever any question about which man Hayden would end up with (there wasn’t), her first view of the man who teaches “a renaissance course” answers it. She finds that his “conservative attire kind of irked her” (140). They go up to the penthouse to talk and when he steps forward, she steps back. He touches her cheek and “[d]iscomfort crept up her spine” (140). This is not the man for Hayden.

And you know what? I really like this scene and this realization. I wish poor Doug hadn’t had to fly to Chicago for it to happen, but besides that part. Personally, I’ve dated people in the past where I feel like I should like them more than I do, should love them and settle down or whatever. And even had people from the outside looking in telling me that this person is perfect for me, but I just didn’t feel it. Granted, I didn’t have a hot hockey player come along and want a relationship with me instead, but that’s not my point. Much. Heh.

Doug doesn’t read the signs quickly enough, and declares, “I decided we’ve waited long enough. I want to cross that bridge. I want us to make love” (141). Which nearly sends Hayden into a fit of giggles. Regardless of Doug’s ridiculous insistence on bridge terminology (I suppose it could be worse… could be tunnels or something), I’m a lot less keen on Doug’s behavior in this scene. Don’t get me wrong, he doesn’t do anything physically wrong and he accepts Hayden’s decision that this isn’t the right time for her and that she wants more than just a “comfortable” life (141), even though Doug doesn’t understand. But his “I’ve decided” is problematic on his part, ‘nice guy’ or not. Yes, Hayden’s telling him the previous day that she’s seeing someone else (And holy carp, how did he get to Chicago so quickly?! Perfectly timed red eye flight, evidently) gave him the impetus to realize how much he wants to be with her. Which, I get that. But his “I’ve decided” is a unilateral. True, Hayden had made it clear in the past that she would have liked things to have already gone further as far as physical intimacy, but since they’d been on a break ever since she left Berkeley, he doesn’t get to decide “Okay, sex now.”

Hayden’s realization that she no longer just wants a comfortable relationship, that she wants passion, comes at the same time she realizes she’s fallen in love with Brody. As I said before, I have a difficult time accepting that Hayden knew she was heartbroken (in the cab) but didn’t realize that’s because she’s in love, but it is definitely a romance novel trope to have a Big Realization and another to realize one’s feelings based on a comparison with another suitor. We get both here.

The Insurmountable Obstacle certainly hasn’t been surmounted, but Hayden has realized on her side that it’s worth trying. Which is good, since she has only 23 pages left in which to do so.

Body Check: Post 20-

Chapter 10: The Insurmountable Obstacle

Hayden spent the night and the couple is woken up very early by Darcy calling Hayden’s cell phone. With no greeting or preamble, Darcy asks if Hayden has seen the paper and tells her that she’s in it, sports section, front page, “with your hockey player’s tongue in your mouth and his hands on your ass” (135). In disbelief, Hayden goes and gets Brody’s paper. (Considering this is current, I’m surprised she bothers to go for a paper and doesn’t just look online. Why does Brody even get the paper? He’s gone half the time, as Hayden points out so often.)

This is what Hayden and Brody get, apparently, for breaking Hayden’s rules about being seen together in public, since the photo had been taken when they’d met at Brody’s car at the arena. I somehow don’t think that’s the point the text is trying to make, nor the one that the characters will take away.

None of that matters in the moment, however, as Brody reads the article and discovers that it says he took a bribe and that Hayden is sleeping with him order to shut him up about her father. He seems surprised by this, despite the fact that it’s exactly what he thought to himself in order to accept Hayden’s rule that they not be seen together in public back in chapter 6.

Brody goes further though. He points out that everyone will believe the article because the author is an award-winning journalist. He then declares that “someone is trying to ruin” him. Now, I can see if someone was maybe saying Brody accepted bribes in order to point fingers away from himself (if he, whoever he is, was one of the players who did take a bribe.) The photo of the two of them was convenient, though, and not something that anyone could have predicted. I don’t see how someone could have an actual vendetta against him.

From the assumption that someone is out to ruin him, Brody moves on to declaring that he and Hayden should take a break in the hopes that he can avoid losing his career. And he makes a lot of good points about how hard he’s worked and how the investigation could destroy it. But Hayden thinks back to the night before, to all of the things that Brody had said in order to convince her of how great they were together and she realizes he’s not putting her first.

Given that they’ve known each other two weeks, I’m not exactly surprised he’s putting his career ahead of her. Maybe I’m a cynic (Ok, I *am* a cynic) but I’d be more concerned about his attachment if he didn’t. Granted, the romantic in me (I’m one of those, too) wants to believe there’s a middle ground.

Hayden is tired of people not putting her first.

How many times had the men in her life let their careers take the front seat while she sat in the back begging to be noticed? (138).

Well, according to the book, twice. Right now and her father throughout her childhood. But I think the answer is supposed to be “every time except with Doug.” But what happened to her realization the day before that her desire to have a man put her first made her like her stepmother? Y’know, the one who flat out said she wanted a man to put her first in every way, including emotionally and financially? And when Hayden realized how similar that was to her own desires (which at the time I thought weren’t similar but this chapter is proving me wrong), she was uncomfortable. Not to mention she wanted it to be a fling.

Anyway, Hayden uses this to instead of take a break with Brody, as he sees it (where they get back together after the investigation and media attention die down) to end things entirely. And this I do get, and it is in character for her. She wanted a fling. We’ve seen that she’s not entirely self-confident anyway. And she does want a significant other who is consistent—even geographically—so Brody ending things even temporarily, putting his career first, would be a red flag for her.

(I’ll end by pointing out that to become a professor, at least in the last couple of decades, you have to put your career first, ahead of almost everything. So Hayden should understand that. But that’s in the real world where you already need a PhD to be a “junior professor” at Berkeley.)

Body Check: Post 19-

Chapter 11: Gazebo Sex

Brody is playing his “fantasy” by ear, so he basically does what Hayden did to him during her fantasy—having her lie down naked on a bench and entice him. (Given the previous scenes between them, it seems to me that his fantasy isn’t control so much as it is public(ish) sex. Yeah, the neighbors can’t see them while they’re in the gazebo (according to the text) but the text also makes a point of telling us later that Hayden is so loud the neighbors can hear her.)

He takes it further, though, and has her bring herself to orgasm, which she proceeds to do incredibly loudly. So much for the neighbors. They then have sex and he apologizes for how quickly it will be over.

“I love everything you do to me. Fast, slow, hard, I don’t care. Just make love to me.”

…it was the phrase make love that caused his chest to tighten. It was the first time she’d referred to what they were doing as making love… (130).

This, along with all the changes to Hayden’s earlier choices, suggests the feelings that Hayden is developing for Brody. Granted, his travel due to his career still presents an obstacle to her wanting a relationship with him, but she’s now in the heroine’s position of wanting the hero, even if she hasn’t necessarily admitted it to herself in specific words.

Hayden dashes into the house (still naked) and Brody follows her in. Unfortunately, Hayden catches sight of a bottle of wine which is enough to send her into a spiral of concern for her father, despite just having amazing sex out in the gazebo. (Brody even calls her on it, “We just had mind-blowing sex and you’re thinking about your dad?” (132).)

This leads to Brody admitting to Hayden that he has pretty much gotten confirmation of Presley’s guilt. Since he’s about to face a league investigation, Hayden melts down and asks him to lie, at least by omission, for her father’s sake.

The chapter switches to Hayden’s point of view at this point, but the scene remains the same. The manufactured conflict of Hayden asking Brody to cover for her father continues on for a short time.

“I just want to protect him.”

… “What about me? Don’t I deserve to be protected, too?”

“Your career isn’t at stake,” she protested.

“Like hell it isn’t!” His eyes flashed (133).

Amazing how well Hayden can read everything in Brody’s eyes.

This exchange goes on for another moment, long enough for Brody to declare he won’t throw away his career for the owner, “not even for you” (133) which makes Hayden physically stumble backwards, “assaulted by the force of his words.” Those are some fierce words. But it’s enough to bring Hayden back to herself and to feel bad about even asking and so she apologizes.

I know I haven’t been particularly snarky about these scenes but there hasn’t been much to latch onto. This scene does tell us how upset Hayden is about her father, but I can’t get too hung up on it given how she vacillates between “all the sex!” and “my poor dad!” Besides, it reads as, as I said, manufactured drama since it’s over as soon as it begins.