Chapter 26
TWENTY-SIX
AUSTIN
The bar’s main door banged open as a crowd of well-built, familiar men entered, and my finger slipped on the screen as I fumbled with the phone. I caught sight of Alec Wright among the newcomers, and my stomach lurched. Apparently, we weren’t the only NHL team making an appearance here tonight.
From the end of our table, Delacrue shouted at them to get lost. I cringed. While heckling was okay, we didn’t want to cross the line into outright hostility.
Luckily, at that moment, Jesse stood and made a smart-ass comment about how they were welcome to stay as long as they didn’t mind losing at pool as well as hockey. I flashed him a smile, grateful to him for taking the heat out of Delacrue’s words. He winked back.
The staff hurried to make room for the Dragons on the opposite side of the bar from us. I waited until I was sure they weren’t paying attention and then slunk along the tables to Delacrue.
“You can’t pull that kind of bullshit this year,” I told him, holding his gaze even when I sensed frustration rise inside him, simmering behind the brown of his eyes.
“But they’re our enemies,” he protested, gripping tightly to his pitcher of beer.
“Only on the ice,” I reminded him. I returned to my seat, knowing that saying more wouldn’t achieve anything. He’d been too indoctrinated by Taggert to change overnight.
Our meals arrived and we started to eat. I was halfway into my meal when I noticed Alec approaching our table, his gaze darting from me to Nick and Matt at my sides.
When he reached me, he crossed his arms and scowled. “How come Jane isn’t here?”
I frowned. I thought he’d been there when we’d discussed our plans, but when I racked my mind, I realized he’d left before we made any decisions.
“Going to the game was a lot for her,” I pointed out. “She went home to lie low and take a breather.”
“Uh-huh.” He looked skeptical. “Was that her decision or yours?”
“Hers.” It wasn’t as if I could tell her what to do. She wasn’t my assistant anymore. She was my girlfriend.
He cocked his head. “So she didn’t want to come out?”
“No. She might have done it if I’d asked, but she looked worn out, so I suggested she go home with your parents instead. I didn’t want her to get overwhelmed.”
He nodded slowly. “Hazel messaged me—she must have gotten my number from Jane—and asked me to talk to you if I saw you while we were out.”
My stomach bottomed out. Oh, shit. I didn’t like where this was going. “Why?”
“She said you mentioned something about being photographed with another woman.” His muscles bulged, and I had a feeling it was intentional, a non-verbal threat. “Any idea what that might be about?”
Fuck. I hadn’t yet gotten the shovel talk, but it looked like this conversation might take that turn.
“There’s a reporter who has it out for us,” I admitted, ignoring the glares from Drew and Matt.
“I saw her with her phone pointed at me when a woman came onto me earlier. I told the woman I wasn’t interested, but she did touch my arm at one point, and I was worried about how the reporter might make it look. ”
He stared at me for a long minute, until the back of my neck began to prickle with nerves. I wasn’t the kind of person who could easily be intimidated, but I didn’t usually have so much on the line. I wanted Jane’s family to like me.
“So let me see if I’ve got this straight: You suggested that Jane stay home because you’re worried about her, and then you got photographed looking cozy with another woman.”
I nodded.
He sighed. “You can see how that might appear to her, right?”
“Yeah.” I didn’t have to be a genius to work that out.
He ran his hand over his stubbled jaw. “Look, man, I can see where you were coming from. I know how easy it is to fall into the trap of wanting to protect your woman from everything that could possibly upset her. The problem is, Jane has been very clear with us that she doesn’t like people being overprotective and smothering her. ”
“I’m not doing that.” I was just giving her a reasonable amount of time to process what she had been through.
Alec held out his hands to show he meant no harm. “I’m not saying you are. Just that you might want to consider asking her opinion and listening to her rather than assuming you know best. Like, say, straight up telling her what happened instead of asking your sister to run interference.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to say that I’d planned to do that as soon as I got home, but I swallowed the words down.
That wasn’t the point. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure what the point was.
Perhaps that I needed to start like I intended to continue, which meant treating Jane like a capable adult rather than someone who needed protecting.
“I’ll make sure to ask her next time, and don’t worry, I’ll listen to what she says. I do want to take care of her, because she deserves that, but I also don’t want to be another person stepping on her toes.”
He tipped his chin up, his expression serious. “You do that, and we won’t have any problems.”
“The thing is…” I trailed off. “Well, let’s just say that things between us haven’t been exactly how they seem, and I really don’t want to mess up and lose her.”
“Uncomplicate it for me. We have time.”
I bit my lip. I couldn’t exactly explain that our relationship was a lot newer than it seemed, and that I still wasn’t sure exactly where we stood or what to do next. It wasn’t my place to tell him. If Jane wanted him to know, she’d break the news.
But then… who better to give me insight into how to hold onto Jane and keep her happy than her brother?
This could be exactly the help I needed.
“Can we talk in private?” I asked, glancing down at my meal and deciding that I wasn’t hungry enough to bother finishing it right now.
Alec’s eyebrows rose. “Yeah, okay. How about outside? There are too many people who could listen in here.”
“Sounds good.” I rose from my seat, and together, we made our way out of the bar. There were still a few guys lingering outside, most of them smoking, so we waved at them when they stared at us and then put enough distance between us to be able to speak privately.
“What’s up?” Alec asked.
I jiggled my leg, then almost laughed. That was such a Jane thing to do. She was already rubbing off on me.
I drew in a deep breath, hoping I wasn’t about to make a terrible mistake. “This needs to stay between us.”
I held his gaze, so he’d know I was serious.
He drew a cross over his heart. “Unless you tell me anything that I think Jane needs to know, then no one else will hear it from me. Well, except perhaps my girlfriend, but she’ll keep your secrets.”
I stared at a patch of dirt on the wall that looked kind of like a face.
“When our team made the announcement about our relationship, it wasn’t real.
Jane and I were only pretending to be together.
It’s real now,” I hurried to add, “but at first, she agreed to help me become a more attractive prospect for the team’s management to choose as captain. ”
Alec’s jaw clenched, but he exhaled roughly and didn’t hit me, so that was a positive start. “Seems like it worked. Jane actually agreed to that?”
“It took a bit of convincing. She was scared about getting negative attention or losing progress with her stutter.”
“She always hated attention.” He shook his head. “I’m honestly amazed she went along with it.”
“But you aren’t shocked about what we did? Just that she participated?”
He gave me a look. “Haven’t you heard about how I got together with my girlfriend?”
I shrugged. I’d never paid much attention to gossip, especially when it had to do with people’s personal lives.
He snorted. “Figures. So, Tally’s cheating ex was going to her cousin’s wedding as one of the bridesmaid’s dates.
I pretended to be her boyfriend to shield her from embarrassment and we ended up falling in love.
Although, actually, in hindsight, I think I had loved her all along. I just didn’t realize it.”
“Wait, seriously?” Why hadn’t Jane mentioned that before? It was the kind of thing that might be relevant.
“Yep.” He leaned against the wall and crossed his legs at the ankles. “So, to answer your question, no, what you did doesn’t shock me, and I’m guessing that Jane was a willing participant because, despite how quiet she can be, she’s stubborn as hell when she puts her foot down.”
I chuckled and rubbed at the back of my neck. “You can say that again.”
“It’s real now, though?”
“Yeah.” Perhaps it should have been strange to talk to Jane’s brother about our relationship, but oddly enough, it felt natural. “I care about her in ways I never have for anyone else before.”
“Good. I’ve seen that photo—it fucking scarred me—and if you’d done that with her and left her high and dry, we’d have some serious issues.”
“You mean we don’t already have a problem because I dragged her into this mess?”
“How do you mean?” he asked. “How is it your fault?”
“If I hadn’t convinced her to pretend to date me, then none of the bad shit would have happened to her and she’d still be going to classes and leaving the house without a care in the world instead of sneaking around, constantly afraid of being recognized and humiliated.”
Alec tilted his head from side to side. “I get it. In your shoes, I might feel the same way, but she agreed to the plan, and Jane doesn’t just go along with things without thinking them through.
She knew the risks and was prepared to take them.
Things went wrong, but that isn’t just on you.
The way I see it, the only thing that matters now is what you intend to do next. ”
My lips quirked. “Did you just ask me what my intentions with your sister are?”
“Come on, you had to have been expecting that.”
I joined Alec at the wall, leaving a safe distance between us in case he didn’t like what I had to say. “My future is up in the air. I don’t know if I’ll still be captain in a month, or if I’ll get a contract next year. If I do, it might not be with the Chaos.”
“So?” he prompted. “People have made relationships work before in similar circumstances.”
“I know.” I was getting to my point, but I wasn’t used to talking about my emotions. The guy needed to be patient. “What I was about to say is that the only thing I’m sure of is that however my future turns out, I want Jane to be part of it.”
“Have you told her that?” His tone was light, but there was a weight to the question that made me uneasy.
“Not exactly.” I’d told her I didn’t want to end things and that I wanted to see where our relationship went, but I hadn’t committed and she hadn’t asked me to.
He glanced over at me before gazing over toward the nearest building. “You want my advice?”
“Sure.” It couldn’t hurt.
“Make it completely clear to Jane that you want to be with her but that you aren’t sure what that might look like in a year or two.
Talk it over with her rather than trying to figure it out on your own.
Maybe she’ll have suggestions you didn’t think of, and even if not, she deserves to have all the facts so she can decide what she wants. ”
“You’re right.”
He smirked. “I know. Also, for the love of fucking God, keep the dirty stuff indoors from now on.”
I groaned and dragged my hand down my face. “I’m going to be so paranoid from now on, but I promise you, I won’t risk that happening again.”
He straightened and turned toward me. “Shake on it?”
I clasped his hand and gave it a firm shake. “Should we go back inside and find out what the damage is?”
“I’m sure it’s fine.”
I wasn’t, although I was cautiously optimistic. There were enough level heads on the team that I hoped they’d stop the more hot-tempered ones from aggravating the Dragons’ players.
We headed back to the door, nodding to the smokers as we passed, and I held it open for Alec. He gave me a weird look, and I ignored it because I had no explanation for being strangely chivalrous. I supposed my subconscious wanted to impress Jane’s brother.
We weaved through the crowd, many of whom were now up and mingling.
The Chaos’s tables were largely empty, and when I looked around, I noticed that the team was gathered around the pool tables.
At one, Rasmussen and Brown were teamed up against a pair of Dragons players, and at the neighboring table, Jesse and Schmidt were doing the same thing.
“Do you think they’ll notice if I leave and go home to Jane?” I asked Alec.
At that moment, Jesse raised his head and focused on me with laser precision. “Harris! I need your help to beat these guys. Schmidt’s not much of a pool shark.”
Alec gave me a little shove. “Go on. She’ll still be there in half an hour.”
I joined the others, surprised when a grumbling Schmidt thrust a pool cue into my hands. I’d expected him to want to keep playing just to spite Jesse. He was a bit of a contrary guy. Perhaps he cared more about us winning as a team than he did his own pride.
It didn’t take long to figure out what was what, and although Jesse and I made a comeback from the losing position they’d been in, it wasn’t enough to win. We conceded defeat graciously—after all, we’d won on the ice, where it counted.
When the team finally started breaking apart for the night, Alec appeared at my side again.
“I’ll drive you home,” he said, brooking no argument. “Don’t you have a declaration to make to my sister?”
My stomach immediately knotted.
Fuck, he was right. I had said I’d do that. Now, faced with the reality, it felt a lot more terrifying to put all my cards on the table.
I’d just have to hope that Jane was as smitten with me as I was with her.