Second Shot (Austin Sting #1)

Chapter 1

“Someone with several hundred million dollars to spare,” Rosa cut in, snickering into her martini glass.

Someone with several hundred million dollars to spare who’s still bitter about not making it to the NHL himself, I added to myself, then immediately felt bad. My brother Andrew hadn’t ever done anything to deserve me snarking on him, even if it was only in my own head.

Except for signing my old crush, and quite possibly the first guy I had ever loved, to his brand-new team. Which meant said crush would soon be residing here in Austin, if he wasn’t already. Yeah, my brother had done that. So maybe I was justified in feeling a little bitter.

“Andrew has always loved hockey,” I told my friends, trying to focus on the topic at hand—and stop obsessively thinking about a certain superstar center who had undoubtedly not thought about me once in the past ten years.

“You know he went to school on a full ride to play at Michigan? Honestly, I probably should have expected he was going to try something like this when he had the arena built.”

“But he told everyone in the press the arena was for concerts and stuff,” Rosa pointed out.

That had been part of Andrew’s pitch when he was negotiating with the city to get Knight Plaza built a few years ago.

In addition to housing the world headquarters of Knight Corp, the sprawling property included high end condos, retail space, and a twenty-thousand seat entertainment venue right in the middle.

Andrew promised the plaza would bring money and jobs to the city while simultaneously making music-crazy Austin one of the premier concert draws in the region.

Apparently, he’d also had it built to the specifications required to house an NHL hockey team. Who knew?

“So he didn’t tell you he was going to buy the Atlanta team and relocate it?” Peyton asked.

I snorted at that. Andrew might be the only family I had left in this world, and one of my very best friends to boot, but he never talked to me about his business.

Probably because he knew my eyes would start glazing over after just a few seconds of hearing him drone on and on about profit margins and diversification.

“She hasn’t really been around this summer,” Rosa told Peyton pointedly, her voice quiet, worried eyes darting over to me.

I made a face at her. “I’m sitting right here Rose. I can hear you.”

“It’s loud in here,” she said, gesturing to the noisy bar around us. “I thought you might miss it.”

“Well, I’m perfectly aware that I’ve been out of town for the last month. You don’t need to keep it a secret on my account.”

Rosa’s eyes were wide. “I just figured you wouldn’t want to talk about…” she dropped her voice to a whisper. “Him.”

I tried to hide my grimace in my martini glass. I most certainly did not want to talk about my ex—or the reason I had fled Austin on my own for what was supposed to be a romantic couple’s get-away in the Bahamas.

Peyton had never possessed the same tact as Rosa.

She waved her hands dismissively, blonde hair swinging around her shoulders.

“Screw that. I want to hear all about this vacation.” She leaned across the table, a wicked grin playing on her lips.

“Tell me you met someone. Tell me you had hot revenge sex with a mysterious gorgeous stranger on the beach.”

I snorted out a laugh. “Yeah, that really sounds like me.”

“It could be you,” she argued. “If you’d stop being uptight for five minutes.”

“Peyton!” Rosa looked scandalized. “Don’t be mean!”

“I’m not being mean,” Peyton argued. “I’m looking out for the girl. A month ago, she found out her boyfriend—the guy she thought might be the one—had a secret wife. That shit is messed up. She deserves to have some easy, uncomplicated fun for once in her life.”

“Don’t forget the secret kids,” I muttered.

I stabbed at the olives at the bottom of my martini glass with the little plastic stirring thing, feeling a familiar wave of anger, regret, and shame building up in me.

Even all these weeks later it was still hard to believe.

Matt had seemed like such a good guy, so charming and sweet.

It had taken me far too long to realize that he had been way, way too good to be true.

I would never forget the absolute shock of walking into Jefferey’s, my favorite steakhouse in Austin, with Peyton and Rose for a celebratory dinner the day school let out for the summer, and running straight into Matt.

He had told me he was traveling for business that weekend—in hind sight, he seemed to do that a lot.

It turned out his “business” actually meant having a romantic dinner with the wife he had never mentioned. Fun times.

For a week straight I’d existed on a steady diet of ice cream and Netflix, barely able to leave my bed, let alone my apartment.

On the eighth day post-betrayal, Peyton and Rosa had arrived.

Without a word to me, they swept into my bedroom and began to pack my suitcase.

“You’ve been looking forward to this trip for weeks,” Peyton said, grabbing the bikini I had just attempted to free from the suitcase and putting it right back.

“You have two months before school starts again. You’re going. ”

“I was looking forward to going with him,” I sniffed, fresh tears gathering in my eyes at the sight of my suitcase. I was supposed to be packing for two weeks at one of my brother’s most exclusive resorts with the guy of my dreams. God, I had thought he might propose. What an idiot I had been.

“Well now you can look forward to going by yourself,” Rosa said, wiping at my eyes with a Kleenex. “You’re far better company than him anyhow.” Then she’d kissed my cheek.

Her sweetness had, of course, set me off on another round of waterworks.

It continued until Peyton showed me a text she’d gotten from Andrew—apparently, they’d been talking about my breakdown behind my back—promising that he’d arranged for me to have all my meals comped and as many free drinks as I wanted at his resort if I went on the trip.

“Why don’t you guys come with me?” I whined.

“Because we’re not school teachers with the summer off and we have to work,” Rosa explained patiently. “Besides, Peyton has Elliot.”

“Though I would totally be willing to leave my kid for a few weeks if I had the time off,” Peyton added cheerfully. “I could just leave out a bunch of boxes of cereal. I’m sure he’d be fine.”

When I still wasn’t convinced, Rosa called Andrew, who informed me he’d already ordered his private jet and if I didn’t get on it, I’d be responsible for wasting the fuel it took to get back to Austin from wherever his CFO had been using it on the east coast. He knew I was a stickler for wastefulness. Sneaky jerk.

So, in the end, I’d headed off to the Bahamas with red eyes and messy hair.

And, to my surprise, I was glad I did. A few weeks of sun—and countless umbrella decorated fruity drinks—was just what I needed.

I caught up on all the leisure reading I’d been too busy for during the school year.

I went snorkeling. I even learned to drive a jet-ski.

When Andrew called to remind me that I could extend my stay as long as I wished, I took him up on it.

The last thing I wanted to do was run into Matt around town, and weeks of feeling sorry for myself before school began sounded awful.

I’d come home a few days ago, just in time to get my classroom set up, more rested than I had been in ages, and with a pretty decent tan to boot.

And while I was gone, apparently, my brother went out and bought an NHL team.

“We’re not talking about Matt, we’re talking about you getting some,” Peyton said firmly, reaching over to nudge my glass away. “And leave those poor olives alone. What did they ever do to you?”

I looked down to see the olives I had been stabbing were looking pretty brutalized. I sighed. “Look, what happened sucked. But you guys were right, getting away for a while was just what I needed. I really don’t feel sad about him anymore.”

Rosa gave me a skeptical look.

“I’m serious! I mean, I still feel angry and majorly embarrassed, but I don’t miss him. The truth is, he was way too charming. He swept me off my feet but it didn’t ever feel real, you know?”

Rosa nodded. “To be honest, I kind of thought he was all talk.”

“And he was busy all the time,” I agreed, then winced at my words. Yeah, busy with his wife and kids. God, I had been such an idiot.

“Well, I’m glad you’re over him,” Peyton said, and I knew from the glint in her eye I wasn’t going to like whatever came out of her mouth next. “Now we need to get you under someone else.”

I rolled my eyes then looked at Rosa, expecting her to look as exasperated with our friend as I was. Instead, I found her nodding thoughtfully.

“Seriously?” I asked.

“You need to get laid,” Peyton said bluntly.

“I do not!”

“You do too.”

Knowing the two of us could go around in that circle for ages, Rosa cut in. “I think a fling might be good for you.”

Peyton smacked a hand on the table. “You need to just have some selfish fun for once.”

I gave her a pointed look. “Sponging off my brother at a fancy resort in the Bahamas was plenty selfish for one summer.”

Rose made a face. “You know your vacation was not even a drop in the bucket for Andrew.”