Page 21 of Breaking the Ice (Denver Stampede #6)

DANI

“ I demand all details about my future brother-in-law, and I brought wine.” Mal flashed me his trademark brilliant smile and walked past me and into my house when I opened my door to him the following night.

I snorted. “Nice to see you, too. You look tanned and energized.” While I’d gotten my mother’s fair coloring and struggled to maintain anything aside from a burn, Mal looked more like our dad and tanned frustratingly easily.

Bastard.

“Ten days in Hawaii will do that to you. Highly recommend. Want a glass now?” He continued into my kitchen without stopping and grabbed two glasses and the bottle opener.

“No Rick?” I asked, shutting the door behind me.

“He’s been around long enough to know you and I need our catch-up time, big sis.” Then he smirked. “Especially when you had the audacity to go and fall in love with another hot hockey player—a goalie, even—while I was away.” He shook his head and started pouring. “Seriously, how could you?”

I grabbed the glass he held out for me and set it on the counter behind me. “It’s not like I did it on purpose.”

“When did you meet? How did you meet? I need to know everything.”

“Geez, Mal. Take a freaking breath before you pass out.”

“Your stall tactics are weak.”

“You haven’t even hugged me yet. Just barged in and started demanding shit. So rude.” I faked a pout.

He tugged me into his arms and gave me a tight squeeze. “There. Hug accomplished. And I missed you terribly. Maybe we can double-date for a vacation soon. How’s Tucks handle the sun?”

“Whoa. Getting way ahead of yourself a bit? I have no idea, But I bet he tans,” I said.

“Because you looked him up online and found a few shirtless boating pictures with his fellow hot teammates?”

My mouth gaped. “No. Oh my god, did you do that?”

“Please, of course I did. Any normal person does a full online search when their loved ones start dating someone new. That’s just common sense.”

I chuckled. “You’re such a weirdo, but did you learn anything good? I actually didn’t google him.”

“He’s from Seattle, parents still together, has three sisters and a bunch of adorable nieces.

Oh, and a dog. He’s clearly a golden retriever of a man and he has a golden.

They have their own Instagram page and make adorable videos.

His hockey stats are solid and he’s been in the league for ten years. ”

“Fucking hell, Mal. Did you hire a PI or something?”

He took a sip of his wine and then waved his hand. “Basic social media search. The more important question is, why didn’t you do that?”

“I don’t know. Figured we’d just get to know each other.

He has filled me in on some of his family and the hockey stuff.

” I wasn’t sure it even mattered since we weren’t actually dating.

And I was going to tell Mal the truth about the fake dating stuff.

I couldn’t keep that from him. But he seemed enamored of Gabe already, so I had to let him down easy about Gabe not being his future brother-in-law.

“What’s that little smirk thing you just did?”

I took another sip of my wine. “Are you hungry? I could make a quick picky plate.” I’d walked in the door about fifteen minutes before Mal had shown up and had only had time to change out of my work clothes and toss my hair up into a messy bun before he was knocking on my door.

“Food can wait.”

“I’m hungry,” I said.

“Fine. Make it fast and start talking. You still have those parm herb crackers, right?” He moved toward the pantry, pulling the door open as I grabbed cheese, prosciutto, and fruit from the fridge.

“Of course.” I snagged the garlic and herb cheese spread while he grabbed the box of crackers and a platter from the top shelf.

Might as well just go for it.

“So, um, we’re actually not dating,” I blurted out, trying not to burst out laughing when my brother froze, his brows raised.

“What?”

“It’s fake.”

“What’s fake? You’re clearly dating and sucking face all over social media.”

“Hey,” I squawked. “There have only been a few pics of us kissing online, and I thought they were tasteful.”

He snorted. “You two are eye-fucking each other in every shot where you’re not looking at the camera.”

“You can’t see that if we aren’t facing the camera,” I shot back.

He quirked a now unfrozen brow. “You didn’t deny it. But back up. You would never agree to fake date anyone. You just broke up with Roger, and I highly doubt you would pick another goalie to make our father proud or some shit, so what the hell is going on? Are you okay?”

“What? Yeah, totally fine. Perhaps not sane, but then again, who is?” I tried to sound nonchalant.

“You’re evading. So what gives? Is he just a hookup? Which is completely fine ’cause that man is fine. Boy-next-door adorable. Reminds me of Rick.”

“He’s totally sweet like Rick. So nice it’s ridiculous sometimes.” I knew I was smiling, so I ducked my head and finished slicing up some cheese and an apple. I needed some melon on this plate, too.

“I haven’t seen you smile like that when talking about a boyfriend, fake or not, probably in forever.”

“It’s not like that.” I huffed out a breath. “Fine. He’s just helping me out, okay?”

“A fuck buddy. Totally get it. Then why is he calling you his girlfriend all over social media?”

I sighed. “Because of Roger. Let’s go sit down.”

“What the fuck does this have to do with that asshole?”

I plopped down on the sofa and scooped a generous helping of the cheese spread onto my cracker, hoping it didn’t cave under the weight of all the cheese I needed in that moment.

“Roger’s struggling with understanding that we aren’t together anymore.”

“Fuck. What is he doing?”

I ate half the cracker—I was starving—and quickly swallowed because my brother looked like he was going to blow his top from impatience.

“He was calling and texting a lot, saying we weren’t really over and that we had a good thing going, blah, blah, blah.”

“It’s not his place to tell you that.”

“Oh, I know. But he was pestering me anyway. Such a jerk. Two weeks ago, I was at Reilly’s after work, and he’d texted a few times, but I was ignoring him. Gabe was at the bar too, and we were just chatting, normal stuff, you know.”

“You do not just chat up randos at a bar. That’s not really your thing,” he pointed out.

“Well, that night it was. I don’t know, he seemed nice and hadn’t been in before.”

“I’m missing the connection here.”

“I’m getting there.”

“Slowly.”

“Shut up,” I grumbled. “Anyway, we were sharing fries and chatting.”

“You shared food with a stranger?” His brow launched up again.

I huffed. I loved him, but damn he was annoying sometimes. “It was fries and he offered. Also, you can’t give me shit about taking too long to fill you in and then keep interrupting me.”

He waved his hand at me. “Please, sister dear, continue.”

I stuck my tongue out at him. “So anyway, I was finishing up my lovely chat when Roger walked into the bar, calling out my name.”

“Seriously?” Mal exclaimed. I sent him a glare. “Okay, keep going. But seriously, what is that fucker’s problem? No means goddamn no.”

“I know. Well, I was just tired of dealing with Roger with logic, so I asked Gabe to kiss me.”

Mal scooted closer, his eyes wide. “You did not.”

“Umm, yeah, mental lapse or something, I don’t even fucking know.

But he’d already noticed that someone was blowing up my phone, so I’d given him a few snippets about Roger, and Gabe is just a really nice guy and agreed, so we could hopefully send Roger a fucking hint since it was clear words weren’t enough. ”

“Okay, while I very much want to kill Roger, this is a total rom-com setup.”

“No, it’s not. We are not a movie.”

“Did that first kiss make your toes tingle?” His stupid eyes twinkled. “Did you lift one leg?”

“Of course not.”

“You’re a terrible liar.”

“If that’s the case, how am I pulling off this fake dating thing so well?” I shot back.

“Fine, fine. So he kissed you. Fireworks.” He narrowed his eyes on me when I started to open my mouth. “Don’t even try denying it. So, fireworks, kiss, Roger gets the hint?”

“I wish. Turns out Gabe’s a hockey player. Yeah, we know that now, but I didn’t when I asked him to kiss me. And then it turns out he’s a goalie on top of it all. I have the worst luck with men.”

He barked out a laugh. “Yeah, even the supposedly fake-boyfriend ones.”

“Would you stop that? It’s not real.”

“So then what?”

“Roger was a dick and made comments about Gabe picking up his leftovers.”

“I swear to everything that I’m going to junk punch him if I see him again. I don’t even care that he’s stronger than me. I’m quicker.”

I couldn’t help but smile at my brother’s defense.

“Hopefully, it won’t come to that. But Gabe was a total gentleman. He stood up to Roger and pretty much told him to fuck off. Roger finally left when Randy threatened to call the cops.”

“Fucking prick. So now you’re fake dating. That kiss wasn’t enough to convince him?”

“Ugh, apparently not. We were just going to let it fizzle out and not make a big deal about it, but Roger was still being an ass online and went at Gabe when they had a preseason game. So now we’re fake dating and everything will go back to normal soon. Hopefully.”

“Or you’ll fall in love and live happily ever after.”

“Nope. Not going to fall for a hockey player, especially a goalie. I don’t care that Gabe is nothing like our father or Roger, he’s still a hockey player.”

“We’ll see,” he sang smugly.

I rolled my eyes. “It’s not like that.”

“Okay, sure. But on a more serious note, is Roger going to be an actual problem? How concerned should I be?”

“Ugh. I honestly didn’t expect him to put up this much of a stink when I ended it, but it turns out he’s an even bigger jackass than I realized.

He doesn’t like being told no. I don’t think he’s physically a problem, he’s just irritating.

He showed up at the charity thing last night and was a dick, but then he left, thank fuck. ”