Page 8 of Breakaway (Nashville Knights Hockey #3)

Chapter Eight

DAX

F uck. That feels good. Really damn good. It’s not like I ignore my workouts during offseason, but I’ve spent more time than usual outside of the gym.

With Chloe.

Once she started planning her wedding, I happily spent every spare second in the gym training when I wasn’t helping her. It helped get my mind off her nuptials.

This summer? I’ve wanted to spend my time with her.

Not that anything is going to happen with her. But a guy can want to hang out with his best friend, right?

I would run, she would work on her jewelry, and we’d hang out at night together. Have dinner. Low-key things that friends do together.

With offseason activities officially starting, it marks the end of summer.

The plates clank together as I finish my set, dropping my elbows onto my knees. My sweaty T-shirt clings to my chest. A few of the guys are on the treadmills, but since it’s not an official practice, not too many people are here .

“You ready for the season?” Jasper asks as he strolls in, hitting me with a towel.

Glancing down at my watch, I see that he’s on time. For him, that’s late. On our first day of offseason training, Jasper is usually the first person in the locker room.

“Are you?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You’re late.”

He rolls his eyes at me. “I’m on time.”

“Which is late for you,” I clarify.

Jasper flips me off as Bode walks in.

“Why are you pissing off the old man already?” Bode laughs.

“He’s on time.”

Bode eyes me before swinging his gaze back to Jasper.

“Are you feeling okay? You’re never late.”

“I’m on time.” He pushes a frustrated hand through his hair. “Sue me. I slept in a little longer today.”

“But you never do,” Bode says. “Are you sick? Do we need to be worried?”

“Seriously, fuck off.” Jasper flips off Bode this time.

“Someone’s getting cranky in their old age,” Noah jokes as he joins us from the treadmill.

“I’m the same age as you.”

Noah waggles his eyebrows at him. “Yeah, but I have a boyfriend. He keeps me young.”

“That’s your secret?” Jasper crosses his arms over his chest. “Dating someone younger than you to keep you from feeling old?”

“Doesn’t hurt.”

“Weren’t you just in the ice bath?” Bode throws back at him.

“Just because I feel young, doesn’t mean my body can’t do with some good old-fashioned therapy before we start the season,” Noah says.

I move to the free weights, starting bicep curls as Noah and Bode argue about getting old. Looking in the mirror, I notice Jasper smiling down at his phone. Something that he would have yelled at us about having in the training room, but he doesn’t seem to mind.

Something is definitely going on with him.

It’s then that Noah notices. “Hey! You can’t have your phone in here.”

“What?” Jasper looks like he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “I was texting my massage therapist.”

“No one looks that happy texting their ‘massage therapist,’” Noah says, adding air quotes around the words.

“Unless you’re Bode,” Jasper deflects.

He shakes his head, starting his own set of reps. “Nope. Stevie is an aesthetician. Big difference.”

“You couldn’t have thrown me a bone?” Jasper whines.

“You needs a bone?” Marcus asks, coming into the locker room with Graham.

“Maybe if Jasper got a different kind of bone, he wouldn’t be so grumpy,” Noah whispers.

Not all that quietly because we all hear him.

“I’m going to kick your ass.” Jasper punches him in the shoulder.

“That’s not my ass.” Noah grins back at him.

“Just you wait. When we’re done in here, it’s going to happen.”

“If you can catch me.” He winks at him before dodging out of Jasper’s reach.

“Can you two behave? I’m not at home. I don’t want to have to discipline you for behaving like children,” Marcus tells them. “Why can’t you be mature like Bode? Or Dax? ”

I burst out laughing. “Who knew Bode and I would be the mature ones around here?”

Marcus takes one of the empty treadmills and starts his workout. “You’ve always been mature. Bode is a new development.”

“What can I say? Being a father does that to you.”

The dopey grin on his face tells us all he loves it. After discovering he had an eight-month-old son last year, he quit the playboy lifestyle and gave everything up for him. Even falling in love in the process.

That thought stings. All of the guys are starting to fall in love and find partners that are perfect for them.

Noah and Graham.

Marcus and Harper.

Bode and Stevie.

Hell, even Jasper is suspiciously happy.

When will it be my turn? At some point, I’m going to have to move on from Chloe and find someone to love. I don’t know if it will ever be the same, but I have to at least try.

Because she is adamant that she never wants to date another player. I could retire, but I don’t think that’s the point.

“You good?”

Bode elbows me in the side.

“What?” I look at him in the mirrored wall of the weight room. “Yeah, I’m good.”

“You were spacing out there for a minute.”

I smile at him. “What did I miss? Noah giving Jasper shit?”

“You’ve been relatively quiet this summer. What have you been up to?” Bode asks.

“Yeah. You hightail it out of your brother’s wedding and it’s like you’re ghosting us. ”

Jasper snickers behind me.

“I didn’t ghost you guys. I texted you the next day,” I remind them.

“Only because we were bugging you,” Bode says.

“And I responded.”

“Have you been spending all this time with Chloe?” Marcus gives me a cautious eye.

“Not all of it.”

They don’t need to know that it’s an outright lie. But they know my feelings, so I know one of them will call my bluff.

“Is she doing better after everything went down?” Bode asks instead.

Huh. They never drop anything, so it surprises me Bode sidestepped my answer.

“Yeah. She got her own place and is working on starting her own jewelry business,” I say.

“Wow. Good for her,” Noah says. “Good thing to distract yourself with after being dumped.”

I point a finger at him as I move to another weight machine to start leg exercises. “Technically, she dumped him.”

“Because he was cheating.” Noah rolls his eyes at me. “The same old Duncan. Only caring about himself and getting his dick wet.”

“Are we allowed to say that around Dax?” Graham whispers to Noah.

Noah pats him on the cheek. “You don’t know how to whisper. And Dax knows it.”

“Do I ever.”

On the one hand, if it hadn’t happened, Duncan and Chloe would be married right now. On the other, at least Chloe is single. Not that she ever wants to date a player again, but there might be a one percent chance in the next five-to-ten years she changes her mind.

Slim, but there’s a chance.

Again, another reason I need to move on.

“What are you going to do about it?” Jasper asks.

“What do you mean?” My brows furrow as I look at him, pushing the plate on the leg bar to work my hammies.

“You have feelings for her, right?” Jasper looks at me like I’m the idiot for not knowing this. “Are you just going to let her get away?”

“Right now? Yes.”

I start counting my reps to myself to not have to look at any of the guys. This is so not the conversation I thought we’d be having right now.

“Really? I would’ve thought you would have made a move on her by now,” Bode says.

“She just got out of a relationship. Give her some time,” Marcus says. “I have a feeling she’ll come around.”

“Really?” That has me stopping and sitting up. “Why would she want to date her ex-fiancé’s brother? She’s sworn off all men and hockey players.”

“Ouch.” They all answer at the same time.

“You have an uphill road ahead of you,” Jasper says, “but love is worth it.”

“Okay, did I miss something?” Bode sets his weights on the floor and rests his hands on his hips. “Why is Jasper all loved up?”

“The list of whose ass I need to kick keeps growing,” Jasper fires back. “I can want my teammate to be happy.”

“No, I want to know more about this too,” I agree. Anything to get the heat off of me and my very slim chance with Chloe.

“There’s nothing to tell.” Jasper finds one of the treadmills, jacking up the speed to ignore all of us .

“There’s definitely something to tell,” Marcus says.

“Hey, if he doesn’t want to talk, we can leave him alone,” I say.

“Want to talk about your love life then?” Bode asks.

“Why don’t we talk about if Noah and Graham are going to get married?” I deflect.

“Seriously?” Noah whines. “What is with all the love talk today?”

“You started it.” Bode gives him a satisfied grin. “Only right you have to deal with it too.”

“Noah wants to win a Stanley Cup together before he proposes,” Graham answers for him.

“And I didn’t want to say it so I don’t jinx anything.” Noah rolls his eyes, but he has the same look on his face as the rest of the guys.

That same happy, in love with the best person in the world face.

Does my face look like that when I think about Chloe? Staring at myself in the mirror, I answer my own question.

Yeah, it does.

And it fucking sucks when the person you love most in the world has no idea how you feel.

And will never know if she has anything to say about it.

Being in love sucks.