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“Okay, fine. How about we go eat before I start chewing off my arm?”

“Uh-oh.” Zoe grimaced theatrically. “Don’t want Beans getting hangry.”

At least that got us out of the locker room. The lounge wasn’t much better, but eating and talking with my mom and sister kept me distracted from everything else.

Well, mostly.

The celebratory vibe had followed us in here. The whole room thrummed with excitement and elation, which just made my food sit in my stomach like a rock.

It didn’t help when one of the reporters swung by our table. She was getting interviews and clips of players with their families, and she promptly lost interest in me after she realized my dad wasn’t here.

As she walked away, I sat back and picked at my food. “Never fails, does it?”

Mom frowned and shook her head. “I wish I could tell you that’ll go away, but…”

Zoe made a face. “So nice of them to want to celebrate a man in an article about women’s hockey.”

That got humorless laughs out of both Mom and me.

Right then, Lila and her parents strode in. She was laughing at something her dad was saying, and I almost fumbled with my fork.

There was that bolt of jealousy of course, but also something much more pleasant. Yeah, I envied how happy she was—how loved she was bybothof her parents—but that relaxed, perfect smile was just…

Oh my God.

Her eyes flicked toward me, and her mood dampened ever so slightly. She quickly jerked her gaze away.

I dropped mine to my plate.

My dad wasn’t here and he never would be.

The most beautiful woman on my team couldn’t look at me without scowling.

Well, at least the game had been fun, because the rest of this evening was depressing as hell.

Chapter 9

Lila

For an entirely new team playing against other teams who had a few seasons under their belts, we were holding our own. We’d crushed the opposing teams in our home opener and the game after that, only to get utterly blown out in Charlotte. That loss was probably good for us; Charlotte was one of the Original Ten, and they were well-established and solid, but they weren’t one of the top tier teams like New York or Calgary. Having them make mincemeat of us—destroying us 8-2—was more than enough to bring us out of the clouds after going 2-0-0 for our first two games.

“Oh, right,”we all realized.“We have to actually work at this if we want to win.”

Yeah, that was common sense, but sometimes it only took a couple of easy wins for a team to get lazy. That thoroughly humbling game in Charlotte definitely reminded us to keep our foot on the gas.

After that, we held our own, even if we didn’t win every game. By the end of our first month as a team, we had a respectable 7-3-0 record, which was enough to give us a firm hold on thethird place spot in our division. Detroit was only a point behind us, though, so we needed to stay on our game.

We’d come in late last night from a game in Denver, and today was a day off. No practice. No game. No morning skate. We didn’t even have a team meeting. Days like this were rare during the regular season, and everyone was taking full advantage. My teammates posted on social media about outings with their families, sleeping in, or spending the day at the spa.

I took advantage in my own way—I hit the gym at the training center, seizing the opportunity for a quiet workout on my own. Maybe one of these days I’d be able to afford a place with my own private home gym, but Faith and I didn’t have the space or budget for that.

Fortunately, the training center had state-of-the-art everything. Great strength trainers, too, but I wasn’t working with anyone today. I loved being able to have a gym to myself and just lift some weights and hit the bike without needing to drown anything out with my Air Pods. I hated wearing those things anyway, and right now was great—lifting happily while a local radio station played on the gym’s stereo system.

My knee was sore today thanks to an awkward collision a couple of nights ago. It wasn’t reinjured, just achy after I’d checked another player and our skates had tangled a little. Collette and my orthopedist weren’t worried about it, but I did take it easy today, focusing on my arms instead of my legs. Even my back and shoulder workouts could put some strain on my knee, but arm workouts weren’t too bad on the lower body.

I was halfway through my third set of hammer curls when the door opened from the hall. Damn. So much for having the place to myself. It was hardlymygym, though, so I couldn’t really be upset.

Oh, but I could be annoyed as hell when the mirror showed mewhohad just walked in.