Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Cam
“Bro, bro, bro.” Alice clicked her tongue and shook her head at me as if she was the older sibling, not younger than me by four years.
I gave her the side eye, but didn't stop chopping vegetables for my quick stir fry. “It's not that bad.”
“It's definitely that bad.” She tapped on her phone screen with one hand while taking a sip of wine with the other. My sister was nothing if not skilled at multitasking. “Have you read what people are saying?”
“That's your job,” I said. “I've been avoiding reading anything about myself for the last few years.” I sliced a carrot with a bit more force than necessary.
“Right,” she said in that unapologetic way siblings got away with. “Well this is a different situation. You can bury your head in the sand if you want.”
“I think I will, thanks.” I tossed the vegetables into the wok and started to turn them over with my spatula. Again, with more force than necessary.
“Cam, you can't avoid this forever,” she scolded.
“You just said I could.” I glanced at her quickly before returning my attention to the wok.
“I lied,” she said. “You can't bury your head in the sand forever. People have opinions, and opinions can make or break someone's career.”
“I'll tell you where they can shove their opinions,” I muttered. “Andi isn't using me and I'm not using her. We're just friends.” Most of my friends didn't make my cock want to jump out of my pants, but sooner or later, he'd accept that she was off-limits.
“What?” Alice's tone made me turn and glance at her. “Bro, that was yesterday's news. Today, everyone thinks you'd be adorable together. In fact, the Internet has already given you a couple name. Candi. Isn't that cute?”
“We're not a couple,” I said before returning my attention to the vegetables. “Like I said, we're just friends.” Candi? Where did people come up with these things? Okay, it was kinda cute, but it was one kiss and now they'd decided we were, what? Destined to be together?
Maybe you are , the back of my mind said.
I couldn't tell you what my balls said, it wasn't coherent. It might have involved a party whistle and a bunch of confetti.
“Why are you bringing this up?” I asked. “If they're not saying bad things about us, then what does it matter? You can go back to your own clients, trying to make them look good.”
“The Sea Dragons offered me an ongoing contract,” she said easily. “I'm going to be around a lot more. That makes you my client. Also, I think you should milk this. If you're not a couple, where's the harm in letting people think you are? It'll be good for your image, and hers.”
“You want me to pretend we're involved?” I turned off the heat and leaned my hip against the countertop to stare at her.
Who said we'd be pretending? my cock wanted to know. I've never faked it before, I don't need to fake it now.
I was starting to think my body was supplying too much blood to that part of me. I needed more in the head on my shoulders and less in the one in my pants .
“She's still the boss,” I pointed out. “And I'm not going to play games with her just to please a bunch of strangers. Been there, done that. Fucked if I'm doing it again.”
I turned back to throw rice and vegetables into bowls. I all but slapped one down in front of Alice and tossed a fork roughly in her direction.
Somehow, she managed to catch it without losing her grip on her wine glass or her phone.
“I'm not asking you to pretend without her knowing what's going on,” Alice said. “I know you don't do sneaky.”
I stabbed my fork into a piece of carrot. “No, I don't. I'm not going to pretend, with or without her knowledge.” That was the end of the story, as far as I was concerned.
“Would you really be pretending?” She eyed me over a chunk of broccoli.
“What are you talking about?” I was more snappy than I intended. She was stepping too close to dangerous territory.
“I'm talking about the fact my oldest brother wouldn't go around kissing anyone if he didn't care about them,” she said. “You do, don't you? That's why you're all prickly and defensive.”
“I'm not defensive,” I argued. Defensively .
She snorted like a pig with a head cold and a mouth full of food. “You're so full of shit.”
“It takes one to know one,” I said. Why not pretend to be grade school-aged again? Wasn't that what siblings were for?
She laughed. “That doesn't even make any sense.” She stabbed the air in front of her with her fork. “Which is typical Cam.”
“It is not,” I protested. “I make perfect sense. Some of the time. I mean, most of the time.”
“You were right the first time,” she said. “Prickly, defensive and now deflecting. You must really like this woman.”
“Me, deflect? Oh look, a seagull.” I pointed my fork towards the window.
“You're such a dork,” she said. “I'm not falling for the old seagull out the window trick.”
“It used to get your attention,” I grumbled.
“When I was three.” She sipped her wine and shook her head at me. “You need to up your game if you're going to divert my attention.”
“Chris Hemsworth just flew past?” I suggested. Yes, I was also a comic book geek from way back. So was Alice. She'd seen every Marvel and DC movie a hundred times each, at least. She was more than a little obsessed with the Australian actor who played Thor. If he went past, she'd be out the door like a shot.
“Closer, but it lacks plausibility,” she said. “Since, as far as I know, even he can't fly.”
“You never know,” I said with a nod. “If anyone could, it'd be him.”
“No wonder you're so good at playing hockey,” Alice said slowly. “You're good at keeping the topic of conversation away from the goal. Andi Welling being the goal.”
“I figured,” I said half under my breath. “Has it occurred to you that I don't want to talk about her?”
“It has, but I ignored the thought.” Alice smiled. “Because the Internet wants to talk about you and her, so I do as well. Admit it, you like her. Putting aside the fact she's technically your boss, you're both consenting adults. As far as I know, there are no laws against you being together. So what's the obstacle?” She cocked her head and frowned. “Don't tell me, she doesn't like you.”
“I think she likes me,” I said. She didn't push me away when I kissed her. She kissed me back. She'd even made a soft little moan that made my dick twitch.
“Then what's the problem?”
What was the problem ?
“For one thing, she's out of my league,” I admitted. “You've met her, she's fucking gorgeous. Smart and successful.”
“You never heard this from me, but some people would describe you that way.” Alice wrinkled her nose. “Not me though. To me, you're just my dorky big brother who used to use my dolls as pucks.”
I grinned. “Yeah, I did. I was a shit back then.”
“I know. I'm still in therapy for it,” she teased.
At least, I thought she was teasing.
“Then there's the fact the Internet hated us a couple of days ago,” I said. “They might hate us tomorrow.” Softly I added, “They might hate her tomorrow.”
“So you want to protect her from trolls?” Alice concluded. “That's really sweet. Who knew you had that in you?” She grinned before biting into a green bean, which was covered in grains of white rice and sauce.
I raised my middle finger from my fork and flipped her off. “I can be sweet. Just don't go telling anyone. If people think I'm a grumpy asshole, they tend to stay away from me.”
“It would be very good for your image if people knew you were sweet,” she said. When I glared at her, she raised her hand in front of her, palm out. “ Okay, okay. I'll do my best to make sure they don't know the extent of how sweet you are. But seriously, have you spoken to her about this?”
“Of course I have,” I said. “We agreed to be friends. That's all we're going to be, all right?” I looked at her sideways, sternly, waiting until she nodded her agreement.
“Fine,” she said reluctantly. “But now people have grabbed hold of this scenario, they may not want to let go. They're going to keep shipping you as a couple until they latch on to someone else.”
“They can latch onto Nate,” I said.
There must be hundreds of guys more interesting than me. Thousands. I played hockey, and I was good at it. Apart from that, why would anyone bother gossiping about me? I was just a regular guy who was lucky enough to be living his dream, doing his dream job. That didn't seem newsworthy to me. Not unless you're a hockey mad kid, like I was, who wanted to know his dreams could come true too. Then, I supposed I had something to offer.
“The Internet prefers couples who last longer than an hour,” Alice said dryly. “Besides, they already adore him for who he is. The team's resident playboy. They'd be surprised if he was seen kissing the same woman twice. ”
“Why does that not surprise me?” I asked.
If I acted the way he did, I'd be universally loathed by the monetized gossip machine. Nate always came off smelling like roses. Maybe because he was nice to reporters when they wanted to interview the members of the team. Whereas I preferred to glare and respond with one-word answers. Anything to keep them from coming back for more.
“The public loves to think they know famous people personally,” Alice said. “And they love nothing more than to ascribe personalities to their favorite players. The grump.” She gestured at me. “The Playboy. The serious, fatherly type.”
“The asshole,” I said thinking about Zack.
“The jokester?” she added. "Who might be misunderstood."
I made a face. “Or not so misunderstood, in some cases.” Obviously, she was talking about someone else. There was no way in hell my sister would be interested in Blake Eastwood. If he so much as looked at her the wrong way, I'd rearrange his face.
“Either way, the Internet will have an opinion until the end of time,” she said. “Just be aware they aren't done with you yet. While you're both involved with the Sea Dragons, they'll persist with rumors and speculation. You'll be under the proverbial microscope for a while.”
“It might be time to consider retirement,” I grumbled.
Alice stared at me. “You have it bad, don't you? You must have, or you wouldn't even suggest retiring from hockey. You'd really do that to save her from scrutiny?”
“Don't read too much into it,” I said. “I was throwing out a thought, that's all.”
“Oh, I'm reading all right,” she said. “My big brother is in looove.” She drew out the last word until she ran out of breath and had to stop. She sucked in another and grinned.
Love? It was too early to talk about love, but Alice wasn't too far off the mark.
Retiring never seemed plausible before, but now it wasn't completely off the table. If it helped Andi, how could I not at least consider it?