Chapter 2 #3
He set his fork on his plate and leaned back. “I’m sure you can find plenty of game footage on YouTube. Why don’t you start there?” He scoffed a laugh. “You’ve had all summer to prepare for this. I can’t believe you waited so long.”
“I’m a quick learner. Why dive into the information before I need it?” I wasn’t sure what my problem was, besides disinterest. I’d never cared about sports. I ate a bite of ravioli.
Setting his forearms next to his plate, he leaned in. “Okay, so there are six guys on the ice at a time and they take shifts, except for the goalie. You have three forwards who score most of the goals, and two defensemen who work as a pair.”
Rolling my eyes, I groaned. “Do we have to do this now?” Boring…How did I end up in a family with a hockey franchise?
“Yes, we have to do this now. I don’t want you looking like a complete idiot when you walk into work tomorrow.” Shaking his head, he ate some pasta. “Your best three forwards are Mason Hopkins, Jett Jarvis, and Alex Volkov.”
“Okay.” I knew better than to stop him now. He was on one of his let’s fix Julian missions.
“Did you know Hopkins and Jarvis are married?” He gave me a sly grin.
“What? No, you can do that in hockey? Marry your teammate?” I stared at him.
Wouldn’t it be a breach of contract? I’d have to look into that.
But…two of the best players identified as queer.
Maybe it was more interesting than I expected.
I’d figured the nameless ones would be the queer ones. The guys who didn’t play as much.
“Yes, and your goalie, Ace, has a figure skating husband, and one of your defenders, Archer Carlson, is married to a man. The other has a boyfriend and is Mason’s little brother.”
“Damn, hockey sounds a little incestuous.” How many hockey players were gay? “Okay, now you’ve piqued my interest. Tell me more.” I washed my food down with a sip of wine.
“Another defender, Evan Crosby, is dating Ronan Vale from Vanta Crown. How’s that?” He waggled his brows at me.
“Are you serious?” With a stuttered laugh, I narrowed my eyes at him. “What do these guys look like?” There had been no photos in the documentation they’d given me.
He set his fork on his plate, grabbed his phone from the table, and then tapped the screen. “Here’s Mason Hopkins.” He pushed the screen toward me. “He’s your star center and played for ASU, so he’s got quite a local following.”
As I peered into the phone, I blinked a few times. He looked familiar. Where had I seen him before? “Okay.”
He pulled the phone away and tapped again. “Here’s his husband, Jett Jarvis. He’s your star right winger, started out with Dallas and moved to the Coyotes a few years ago.” He showed me the screen again.
Wait a minute…A fuzzy memory shoved through my brain. I had seen them somewhere, but where? “Very nice. Now, how about this Captain Volkov guy?”
“Okay.” He tapped again and returned with his phone. “This is Alex Volkov.”
Oh, fuck…My heart almost stopped. It was the man I hit on at Ocean Club, the one I’d called Daddy.
But he was damned hot. How could I not try?
I’d behaved like an imbecile around all of them.
They’d been sitting together at the bar, my three star forwards, and I didn’t even know it.
I swallowed hard and breathed deeply. “Um, Ian, I might have messed up.” I was in for it tomorrow. How could I recover?
Tilting his head, he set his phone on the table. “Julian? What did you do?” The hint of a smirk curled his lips.
I cleared my throat. “Before we hit the Velvet Spur yesterday, we pre-gamed at Ocean Club and those three forwards were there.” I pursed my lips. “I sort of, well, hit on Alex in the bathroom.”
“You what?” His brows shot to his hairline, and he covered his mouth with his hand as a laugh erupted from him. “Thank God you didn’t hit on Jett. Mason’s a hothead and he would’ve decked you.”
“Yeah, well, I got queer vibes from Alex and he was...The guy’s fucking hot, okay? Are you sure he’s not queer too?” As my gut clenched, I squirmed. I wasn’t sure what was worse—that I hadn’t recognized my own players or that I’d already hit on one of them. The straight one.
“If he is, he’s not out. His photos show him only with women—one woman in particular.
” He scrolled on his phone. “I’m on his Instagram feed.
It looks like he had a girlfriend back in Boston.
” He twisted his lips. “It’s funny he isn’t married, though.
Most of these guys get married early and start popping out babies. ”
“Hmmm…” It didn’t matter. Nothing could happen between us anyway, and I wasn’t looking for a hockey boyfriend, or any boyfriend. I didn’t need that kind of complication in my life. I drank some wine and dug into my food. “What do you think I should do?”
“You mean tomorrow? Speak with them and clear the air.” He ate his food.
“Yeah, but how?” Hell, I wasn’t good at messy conversations. I popped my last ravioli into my mouth and chewed.
“I don’t know, Julian. You’ll figure it out.” He let out a soft snort. “God, what I’d give to see it.”