Chapter 4
four
. . .
Jason
I don’t like this.
Amelia, my gorgeous new neighbor, is basically on a date with Robby Andrews. Doesn’t he know she has a family at home?
They’re sitting close together at a table in the bar, each sipping a beer. As she talks, Amelia twirls her hair around her finger, a bright smile on her face. Andrews laughs, throwing his head back, and her satisfied smirk makes my stomach twist.
How do they know each other?
Gonzo and Logan sit across from me at a four-top, my seat giving me the perfect line of sight to Amelia’s table.
She works for the team.
She’s even more gorgeous up close. Her eyes are a rich, chocolate brown, her skin bronzed with the vestiges of a warm, summer tan.
The impetuous shape of her mouth painted in dark red lipstick sends my heartrate into overdrive.
And the way she rattled off each players’ ailments…
Fuck, I got hard in the middle of the players’ lounge, watching her dress down each of my teammates.
And now she’s on a date with Andrews. Doesn’t she know the team frowns on fraternization?
There’s a relationship declaration form that has to be filed with HR. When Larsson and Vanessa, our logistics coordinator, first got together last season, it caused a storm in the dressing room. Everyone likes Vanessa. We don’t want her to go anywhere.
But then Larsson announced everything was aboveboard, that they’d already filed the form with HR, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. They’re engaged now. I don’t think she’s leaving the team anytime soon.
“What’s your deal?” Gonzo asks as the waiter sets a new beer in front of me.
“What do you mean?”
“You asked us to grab a drink, but you’ve spent the last twenty minutes glaring at the new PT. What’s going on?”
With a sigh, I shake my head and take a pull on my beer. “Just distracted.”
“Dick-stracted?” he taunts.
I roll my eyes. “No. I’ve never met her before today.”
“Oh, so it’s a lust at first sight situation,” Logan says, with a knowing nod.
“Fuck off. It’s not like that.”
“Then what’s it like?” he asks.
“It’s… I don’t know.” Running my hand through my hair, I search for words that won’t come. “I honestly don’t know.”
Gonzo chews on his lip. “Have you gone out?”
“What do you mean?”
“Since everything was finalized with Harper. Have you gone out and gotten your dick wet?”
Wincing at the crude words, I know there’s no way out of this.
“Not yet.”
“Well, what are you waiting for?” Gonzo demands.
“Hey, if he’s not ready, he’s not ready,” Logan says.
“Thanks,” I bite out.
“It can’t be easy starting over at his advanced age,” he finishes.
“Oh, fuck off.” I take a drag on my beer. “I’m not that old.”
“Nine years older than me,” the bastard says, with a grin.
Rolling my eyes, I turn it back around on him. “So, when will you ask Hailey out?”
Logan scowls. “Fuck off.”
“What, my sister isn’t good enough for you?” Gonzo chimes in. “You have to go after MacGregor’s sister?”
“I’m not going after anyone’s sister, because I’m not going after anyone,” Logan grits out. “Hailey and I are just friends.”
Logan and MacGregor went to high school together. They’re both from the same small town in Wisconsin. Logan signed with Boston last summer after a few seasons with Minnesota, and MacGregor’s been a mainstay on our first line for years.
He thinks we don’t know it, but everyone sees the way Logan moons after Hailey MacGregor. His best friend’s little sister. Like that won’t blow up in all of their faces.
“How is Cari doing?” I ask Gonzo. His sister graduated from college last spring. “She plays rugby, right?”
“With the Revolution,” he confirms. That’s the city’s women’s rugby team. He signed a three-year deal with the Grizzlies at the start of the summer, bringing him back to his hometown. “Their season starts in the spring.”
“Well, we’ll have to go to a game,” I decide, making a mental note. “Send her schedule to Vanessa in logistics, and she’ll make sure we show up to support her.”
“Thanks, man. That would be great.”
“This team is a family. We all support each other.”
Gonzo grins. “Well, I’m currently living in my childhood bedroom, so I’ve had it up to here with family.”
“You’re staying with your parents?” Logan asks.
“Well, my parents’ house. They live in Florida to take care of my abuela. My brother and sister live there, too.” Gonzo shudders. “I thought about getting a place of my own, but it’s not like we’re home that much during the season.”
“True,” I reply. Harper hated how frequently we traveled. No matter how many years we were together, she never understood the demands of a professional hockey career. She wanted the galas and vacations; she didn’t want to be there for the slog of back-to-back games and road trips.
I know it’s a good thing we got divorced. We were simply incompatible, but I don’t know how to reconcile the life I thought I had with the life I still have ahead of me. I had this picture of how everything would turn out, and now I have to toss it all away. Start fresh.
My eyes flicker across the bar to where Amelia and Andrews are talking. His hand is on her arm now.
Is he making a pass at her? On her first day, no less?
Before I know what’s happening, I stalk across the bar to their table.
“McKittrick,” Amelia says with a smile, nodding at me. “What can we do for you?”
My eyes narrow as I stare her down. “There’s a non-fraternization policy with this team.”
“Oh? Does that mean I can’t grab a drink with a coworker?” Her eyes drift across the bar to my table. “Does that mean you can’t hang out with your teammates outside of the arena?”
“What? No. Of course not.”
“Then why does it matter if an old friend and I grab a drink after our workday?” She cocks her head at me. “Do you interrogate every new hire?”
“No.”
But she’s not simply another new hire. She’s my showgirl.
“What, exactly, is your problem with me?”
“You are.”
Her glare sharpens. “Because I’m a woman in a man’s job?”
“Don’t you have a family at home?”
“Because I have a uterus, I automatically am not complete if I don’t have a child?” The scathing look sends chills up my spine. “Fuck you, McKittrick. I thought you were different.”
This is going all wrong.
“Because I saw you with your baby!” I burst out.
Her eyes widen. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“My apartment faces yours. I saw you—” I clamp my lips. Fuck. I wasn’t supposed to say that.
But I also couldn’t let her go on without knowing. I saw her intimately, in a way that she probably wouldn’t want her coworker to see her.
“You saw me?” The blood drains from her face.
And now she knows exactly how much I saw.
“Yeah. You and your husband. I notice you’re not wearing a ring, though.”
Amelia blinks a few times. “I’m not married. I live with my brother.”
Andrews coughs to cover a laugh. Rounding on him, he meets the full force of my glare with a pissed off scowl of his own.
“But—the baby—”
“My niece,” she says tightly.
Scrubbing at my forehead, I try to make it make sense. It doesn’t.
“I don’t get it.”
“Ainsley is my brother’s daughter,” she says slowly. “We’re all living together, one big happy family.”
“Why?”
Her laugh is incredulous, on the border of manic. “Because rent is fucking expensive, because my brother has a newborn, because my other brother travels three quarters of the year. Because I have nobody in this city, I’m starting over, and I needed a fucking break. Fuck.”
“Hey,” Andrews cuts in. “You have me. I’m on your side.”
“I know. I appreciate you, more than I can possibly say.” Amelia smiles at him, but when she turns back to me, the sharp glare is back. “Did I pass your interrogation?”
There’s no saving this. No coming back from this.
With a curt nod, I turn on my heel and walk out of the bar.