Chapter 8
MATT
“Bar tonight?” I asked, looking around the room at my sweaty teammates.
It pissed me off that I was a healthy scratch tonight, and I needed to release this tension. Earlier, Riley had pulled me aside and told me not to worry about being benched. He took the mantle of Captain to heart after G retired. He was a good guy, and I appreciated it, but it still didn’t make me feel better.
I spent most of the game watching from the executive box and scrolling social media. That was bad. Half the time, I scrolled through Maddie’s account like a lovesick puppy, and the other was spent reading all the tweets from fans bemoaning how we sucked.
That was why Noah advised me to not check my mentions and to not, under any circumstances, search my name. I listened to him on that one, but it was hard when you got tagged in stuff. No wonder so many of my teammates didn’t do social media.
TJ gave a sad shake of his head. “Nah. Max had a rough day with the kids.”
Before I got here, everyone said TJ was the biggest party boy, but lately, he rushed home to his family. Max let him loose on the road—that’s when I saw the wildcard come out. But at home, he’d fallen into settling down as a good husband and father. Which meant the boys ragged on him non-stop about it.
“Really?” Benny asked. “I never thought I’d see the day. TJ ‘party boy’ Desjardins’s an old man!”
TJ threw a towel at Benny. “Shut it. Not like you can’t wait to get home to my sister. Rather spend time with my family than hang out with you jerkoffs.”
“Well, I’m in. Buy me a beer, Cally,” Benny told me.
I laughed. “Okay.”
“I could use a drink,” Noah said.
“Who else?” I asked.
Cully already snuck out of here. He wasn’t one to go out for drinks when we were home. He was more content rushing home to his girl and their kids. I roomed with him on the road and knew that was mostly because they were total nerds and he wanted to get some gaming in with her. A lot of the older guys with kids shied away, especially if it was a school night.
“Nope. My wife’s pregnant and tired,” Riley announced.
We all stared at him at the revelation.
“For real, dude?” Noah asked.
He gave us an infectious grin. “Yup. Baby number two, we’re excited.”
“D didn’t say anything to me,” Noah grumbled.
Riley laughed. “Fi asked her to keep it a secret until we were sure.”
A scowl formed across Noah’s face. “She’s not supposed to keep things from me. She knows I can keep a secret.”
Panic flared up in my chest because Dinah was keeping something else from Noah. I’d be so fucked if he ever found out I hooked up with his sister. In my defense, I thought she was Dinah’s sister, not his. How was I supposed to know that? It’s not my fault Noah never introduced us.
Benny clapped Riley on the back. “Congrats, man.”
We all gave our captain congratulations and worked out who all wanted to grab a drink at the bar tonight. Naturally, we went to Eileen’s Tavern. Even though Blaise moaned about it because it was his dad’s bar, and he got razzed by his little brother who worked there.
I could use a drink. Maybe it would soften my grumpy mood. It was one in a million to play in this league, and not everyone came out as a superstar, but I wanted to prove myself. I couldn’t do that if I wasn’t even riding pine, but sitting out completely.
I drove over to the bar with Noah since he was my ride anyway.
“You’re agitated tonight,” he said.
I rubbed the back of my neck. “I got benched.”
“I don’t think it was because of anything you did. Coach is shifting the lines up.”
“I don’t want to get put on waivers.”
“You won’t.”
“Okay,” I muttered, not quite believing him.
Noah was number two in his draft year, and he hit the ice with fire under his skates, making the team at eighteen. At twenty-six, he was killing it, and his opinion meant everything to me. His mentorship and guidance were why hanging with his sister was a bad idea. It had been torture sitting next to her on the couch earlier today while we scrolled through photos. God, she had been so cute how she got excited about helping me. But Maddie Kennedy needed to be safely in the friendzone. My career and my nuts counted on it.
“Mads did alright today?” he asked.
“Huh?”
“With the ad you needed help with. She said you ran into each other last night.”
I inclined my head in recognition. “Right. My buddy goes to Franklin, and he just got dumped. Ran into her at the bar.”
He frowned. “I don’t like her going out by herself.”
“She wasn’t by herself, but…I made sure she got to her dorm safely.”
Noah sighed in relief. “Thanks, bro. Appreciate you looking out for her.”
“Of course.”
Not gonna mention her friend ditched her, and that’s why I walked her to her dorm. Or that she wanted me to help her find a guy to deflower her. Still needed to iron out those details, but I was hoping she’d forget about it. Why she wanted me to help and not one of her girl friends was a mystery to me.
“She doesn’t make the best choices,” he admitted, the frown still etched across his face.
I couldn’t ask him to elaborate because he parked his car and cut the engine.
And after that sobering thought, I needed several drinks.
When we entered the bar, Noah’s face lit up at seeing Dinah at the bar talking to a tall brunette. It took me a second of staring at the stranger’s ass to figure out it was Maddie.
Dinah practically jumped into Noah’s arms, and I made a face at spying her tongue down his throat. I’d give them a pass since they were newlyweds. D might say I wasn’t cramping their style, but there was definitely a reason I preferred living in their basement.
I went to the bar and ordered a beer. I shot a smile at Maddie. “I thought you weren’t coming to the game?”
“I didn’t,” she shot back. “Came here after my night class. I didn’t even watch the game and barely caught the post-game presser.”
I grabbed my drink from the bartender and threw a tip on the bar. “Hey, it impressed my agent with the work today.”
I had texted her earlier about it, but I wanted to make sure she knew she did a good job.
Her blue eyes brightened. “Really?”
“Thanks to you.”
She beamed, and it was cute watching her chest puff out in pride. She should be proud of her hard work. I glanced across the bar and noticed Dinah had led Noah over toward Rox and Benny, distracting him.
Was Dinah trying to set up Maddie and me?
Maddie took a pull off her beer and scanned the bar. “When will you uphold your end of the bargain?”
“Not with any of these assholes.”
She frowned. “Why not?”
“Too old for you.”
“Come on! The guy at the other end of the bar’s cute.”
I glanced over and saw a guy with greying hair nursing a beer. “He looks like he’s forty.”
“Ageist!” she teased.
I shrugged and took another sip of my beer.
“What if I like an older man?” she asked with a cheeky grin across her face.
“Okay…but not your dad’s age.”
“Why not? Maybe I have a daddy kink.”
I groaned. This girl was gonna be the death of me. My dick wanted to yell, ‘pick me,’ but yeah, no, I wasn’t going there.
I scanned the bar. There were a lot of attractive women hanging off the words of my teammates and South Philly bros trying to get lucky with them when my teammates weren’t interested. None of those guys were good enough for Maddie.
“Tell you what,” I began and pulled out my phone to check my schedule. “We find you a guy closer to your age. How about some night I have off, okay?”
Her face lit up. “Really?”
“Sure,” I lied.
Did I want another guy to be with her? To feel her soft lips on theirs? Absolutely not. But I owed her for helping me out earlier, and there was no way I could be that guy. Not if I valued my friendship with her brother.
She grabbed my arm. “Matt, that would be amazing. I’ve got zero game. I need a wingman.”
I cocked my head at her, processing what she said. How could this gorgeous girl have zero game? All she had to do to get a man to fall in love with her was to flash those pearly whites. Maddie was a smokeshow, and she didn’t need my help. I was pretty sure that old guy at the bar was ready to propose. But fuck him. He wasn’t worthy of her greatness.
“I travel tomorrow, but what about next Wednesday?” I suggested.
She opened her phone and checked something, her cute nose wrinkling as she thought. “Okay. I’m free, and it’s university. There’s usually a party going on.”
Ah, college parties. That wasn’t something I had experienced. After getting drafted at eighteen, I never did the college route. Some guys played college hockey until they got sent to the minors, but I went straight to our minor team in Reading. Played there a few years until last year when I got called up. My life had been nothing but hockey since I could skate. College had never been something I considered, but…a college party could be fun at least.
“Okay, it’s a date,” I relented.
“YAY! Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she gushed.
I knew it was good I was helping her, but it didn’t help the rock that lodged itself in my gut.
* * *
Christ, this guy was a douche, and Maddie was hanging onto his every word. This was the third guy she’d shown an interest in since she dragged me to a house party on campus. I regretted coming as soon as we entered the house. I was beat from a shitty game in Toronto last night, and this guy had done nothing but talk about himself and stare at Maddie’s tits.
Sweet pea had a type—douchey hockey players. Not that I was a saint, but man, was this guy a fucking pylon. Didn’t need to get on the ice with him to know that. Guys who talked about their success on the ice this much were full of shit. Even TJ didn’t talk up his game this much.
“Right, babe?” he asked her.
She smiled up at him. “Right.”
I pulled myself away from my thoughts. Maddie gave me a look to ask what I thought, and I raised my eyebrow back at her. I didn’t know why she needed a wingman. If this was the kind of guy she was interested in, she didn’t need my help. To him, Maddie was just another pair of tits for him to stare at.
“You know who needs to get cut from the Bulldogs?” he asked, staring at the Bulldogs v-neck Maddie wore.
“Who?” I demanded.
I don’t think he recognized me. In my backward Bulldogs cap and plain black t-shirt, I blended in with the college athletes.
“Kennedy,” he sneered. “What a useless waste of money.”
I watched Maddie clench her fists, and her features hardened.
“Bro, are you for real?” I asked.
But Maddie didn’t need me to stand up for her brother. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. My brother works harder than you ever have in your entire life. He has more talent in his pinky than your whole body.”
Dude-bro’s face morphed into an ‘oh shit’ expression, and I shook my head with a laugh as he looked to me for guidance. “Come on, sweet pea, let’s get out of here.”
“Fine by me,” she huffed. She muttered under her breath, and I led her outside of the party, guiding her with my hand on the small of her back.
“What an asshole,” I said.
She dipped her head down in a silent agreement. “Thanks for having my back. That guy was hot but not too bright and had zero hockey sense.”
I walked beside her, not sure what direction we were heading, but she was definitely done with the party. It was still early enough that I was down to hang with her if she wanted.
“Is that important to you? A guy who knows his hockey?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Not entirely, but if you’re going to talk shit on my brother, you better back it up.”
“No criticism from me. I learn so much from him.”
“I know I complain about Noah, but I love him. I really do. He just…”
“Can be too overprotective?”
She nodded.
“Is there a reason he’s like that?”
Her mouth sank into a sad smile as we walked side by side back to her dorm room. “Yes.”
“You don’t have to tell me.”
“There’s a reason I transferred to Franklin,” she muttered.
“We don’t have to talk about it.”
She released a tight breath. “Do you know what revenge porn is?”
Oh no. That would explain why Noah looked like he wanted to kill me at his wedding when I danced with Maddie. Holy shit, what an asshole.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Was dating a guy last year. I told him I was still a virgin, and he said he wanted to work up to sex. We did a lot of oral and sexted, so I felt like we were almost there…then I went to a party and found his tongue down another girl’s throat.”
“Oh, Maddie, that guy was a douche.”
The pain in her voice made me want to find the guy and punch him.
“That’s not the worst part. I broke up with him, and next thing I knew, I was getting DMs from literally every douche-canoe on the men’s hockey team. Apparently, my private photos to him got blasted out to everyone.”
White-hot rage bubbled up inside me. Because what the actual fuck? That guy did her dirty, and she got the worst of it. If anyone did that to my sister, I’d probably be protective like Noah.
“Maddie, that guy was an asshole, and you didn’t deserve that.”
“I know that, and I’m not ashamed that I sent nudes to my boyfriend!”
I held up a hand. “I’m not judging you. At all.”
She looked down at her feet. “Noah does. The first thing he asked was why I didn’t cut my face out of the photos.”
“He was just looking out for you.”
“Judging me,” she argued in a harsh whisper.
I wasn’t sure I believed that. Noah was such a great guy. If he hadn’t taken me under his wing last year and mentored me, who knew if I’d even be in the league. He didn’t strike me as the kind of guy who judged anyone for what they did. Although, he did say Maddie didn’t make the best choices. Maybe this was what he meant.
“He wants to protect you. That never should have happened to you. You know it’s not your fault, right?”
She nodded. “It sucked because I felt like the girls on the hockey team judged me too. I wanted to drop out, but Mom told me I needed to hold my head high and move on. Since then, Noah’s gotten worse about being overprotective. That’s why I don’t want to move in with them.”
“They want you to move in?”
She rolled her eyes. “Noah does. D said it’s my choice, but she’ll gladly have me.” She yawned and checked her watch. “Anyway, thanks for coming with me. Let’s do it again.”
“Maybe not another house party?” I offered.
“Where else am I supposed to meet a guy who wants to fuck me and never talk to me again?”
Literally anywhere. The guy who just passed us on the street would fuck her if she asked. I really didn’t understand why she needed my help to be her wingman.
“Maddie…”
“You promised to help me.”
I held up my hand. “Okay, okay. I did. Let me look at my schedule, and I’ll wingman for you again. I’ll help you find someone decent.”
She beamed, but the thought of someone else being with her left a sour taste in my mouth. I had no right to be jealous, but it didn’t help my feelings raging inside me.