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We got to the truck as Bishop and Jaycee were backing out of their spot and waved them off before I helped Miss Claudia into the back.

Bree lifted Benny into his side and I’d never popped the locks.

Note to self: remember to lock the fucking truck.

With Bree on the brain, a man could forget a whole lot of shit, but the last thing I needed was for my ride to get jacked or to have some psycho stalker fan hide inside waiting for me.

It’d happened to other players and I couldn’t risk Bree’s or Benny’s safety.

When we got to the restaurant, I quickly realized we were in for more than a simple dinner with a couple of teammates and their families.

It was a Copperhead off-hours reunion, given the cars, trucks and SUVs of Bonner, Jones, Antonov, and Winstead.

I didn’t know how Bree was going to react to this.

She always had a friendly smile for the team and they all adored her, but we’d arranged this dinner between us and the Bishops.

“Heads-up, babe.” I pointed out each of the players’ cars. “Apparently, the dinner has grown. Bonner, Jones, Antonov, and Winstead. I had no idea about them being here.”

“Will you be okay showing up here with me and Benny? Will it make you uncomfortable?”

Me, uncomfortable? My only thoughts were of her and how she’d feel being thrust into this instead of taking the slower approach liked I’d planned. It was only a little more than a week ago that she’d been flirting with Antonov and Winstead in the locker room.

“I’m good. We’re dating now, remember? I just wanted you to know that Bishop must’ve invited the guys.”

When we walked in, the hostess’s eyes lit up right before she ushered us to a room off the back where they held parties. Okay, so it didn’t suck to have a room to ourselves. Bree and Benny stopped at my side while Miss Claudia hung back a little .

Jaycee waved. “Over here,” she called out. “We can talk more.”

“Ready?” I asked Bree and she nodded.

“’Sup?” Bonner greeted us.

“No—” Antonov fake-shouted. “Tell me, beautiful Bree, that you haven’t betrayed our love by choosing the grumpy goalie.”

“Not grumpy now,” I said before Bree could respond. “I’ve got Bree on my arm. If only you’d been man enough to win her.”

The room erupted with a chorus of “Ooh” and “Low blow,” with Bonner balling up his napkin from his lap, tossing it at Antonov’s head.

By their lack of questions, given she wouldn’t say a word to me last night at the bar, Bishop must’ve given them the lowdown before we arrived. Damn if I didn’t appreciate that. Somehow I’d missed the class on sharing my life with my teammates.

“I thought you were going to say ‘in my bed’ and got scared,” Bree said low.

“No. I did that once and won’t do it again.

That was an asshole move and it hurt you.

Not here to hurt you, Bree.” She smiled, so it must’ve been the right thing to say.

I pulled out her chair and helped Benny up into the booster seat that Jaycee had to have asked for when she’d gotten one for LJ.

He sat between Bree and Miss Claudia, and I took the seat next to her.

It put me a little far from Bree but made for the best setup in this situation.

“If you haven’t met her, this is Chesney Fox.” Jaycee introduced the cute blonde sitting next to Winstead. I shot her a chin lift. We’d met before. Family Day.

“Hey, Chesney, how’re you doing?”

She smiled. “I’m good.” Her eyes said something completely different.

Winstead was a rookie defenseman. He had skills and when you mixed skills with a club that won three Stanley Cups, sometimes that equaled a player too big for his britches.

All the flirting he’d done with Bree, I wondered if he’d taken it further with anyone else.

Not my monkey. Not my circus. Still, I felt bad for her.

“Hi, Chesney,” Bree responded. “I’m Bree. This is my boy, Benny, and this”—she pointed around Benny to the older woman— “is Miss Claudia. She’s my surrogate grandmother.”

That made Miss Claudia sit up a little straighter in her seat. Even when you knew how someone felt about you, sometimes it was just nice to hear it.

Given the women started talking women shit, I tuned them out and turned to Bishop. “A heads-up would’ve been nice. I didn’t know this was a team event.”

Bishop draped his arm over the back of his little guy’s chair. “I didn’t know. Linc called while we were getting ready to head to the library. I told him we were meeting you and Bree. This is all on him.”

“What?” Bonner asked defensively. “All of a sudden, you’re hooking up with the hottest custodian any of us will ever meet and going to story hour with her kid like you’re some big, happy family and we’re not supposed to see this for ourselves?”

“How long has this been going on?” Antonov asked. And why was she ignoring your ass last night?”

Question answered. Bishop definitely didn’t give them the lowdown.

“We fell into it pretty quickly. But there’s no halfway with Bree. She’s the kind of woman you jump in with both feet or leave her the fuck alone. I said something dumb the other day, but we’re solid now.”

“So you’re saying I took too much time?” he asked.

“Please, you took as much time as you were ever going to take. Everyone here knows your longest committed relationship was that one chick from Texas who actually got to fall asleep in your bed before you kicked her out the next morning and ghosted her.”

He shrugged. “Fair enough.”

“I tell you what, though—she has this calming effect on me. Who needs Xanax when you’ve got Bree?”

“It’s hard to stay an uptight bitch when you’ve got pussy that sweet in your bed,” Winstead said, grinning right before Bonner and Antonov smacked him upside the head at the same time.

Chesney shot him a look, one laced with pure hurt, and for a second, the smug fell right off his face.

“Say that again and your rookie year will be your retirement year,” I warned. You did not disrespect the women at this table in front of me.

Just when the punk opened his mouth to shoot it off again, our server came to the table.

Everyone else gave their dinner orders. I’d forgotten to look at the damn menu.

The four of us—well, okay the three of us because Bree ordered for Benny—gave our drink orders along with our food orders.

I chose a Modelo and the surf and turf. The sirloin cooked to medium.

And you damn well better believe I listened closely to what Bree and Claudia ordered.

A ribeye for each woman. When I heard that, I tuned them out again.

All was right in the world. She’d listened.

“What was that look about?” Bishop asked once the other men were deep into shop talk.

“Look?” I asked.

“You were pretty invested in her order.”

Fuck, this guy paid attention to everything.

As our center, it was his job, but still, I didn’t invite him to hang to be harassed about why I did or didn’t do something.

But rather than get upset and ruin our meal, I gave it to him this once.

“Bree and I are new. She doesn’t earn the kind of money we do.

I told her at the library that I was paying so she better not order a side salad and water because this place is a little rich for her, usually.

I wanted her to have a good time out with new friends enjoying a good meal. ”

Bishop balked. “ Shit —I’m sorry. I didn’t even think about that.”

I shrugged. “Benny needs help. She’s been paying for his therapies alone.”

“His dad?” Bishop asked.

“Piece-of-shit loser, from what I gather. Doesn’t have anything to do with his son. I can’t even fucking imagine it. How do you not want to care for your own kid?”

“I don’t know. I had to fight Jayce to be able to take care of them both.”

“Yeah, I remember. My dad was a piece of shit like Benny’s dad, but my mom’s a teacher, and back when, you could live a comfortable life on a teacher’s salary.

We weren’t rich, but had everything we needed.

How do you even call yourself a man when you don’t make sure your kid has everything he needs?

Benny needs his therapies. That dumb fuck better hope we never meet.

” I meant that too. Bree and I might not’ve been a real couple, but I cared what happened to her. To Benny.

“This is real, then, between you two?”

I froze for a second. Bishop could read minds now? “What kind of question is that?”

“Listen, we all can see Bree’s gorgeous.

She’s always sweet to us when she’s cleaning the locker room and doesn’t put our business out for the masses, which is a huge selling point and I see why you’d want her in your bed.

But the fact remains, you’re the guy who only, like, last month when Jones was harassing you about settling down said you planned to stay single until you died. ”

Who the fuck did he think he was, coming at me like this?

“This really how it’s going down?”

He put his hands up in a ‘ calm down ’ motion.

“I’m not trying to step on your toes here.

I just want you to remember that little kids get attached fast and then if you get bored and leave, he’ll internalize it.

The kid has enough issues. He doesn’t need abandonment on his plate. That’s all I’m saying.”

Despite how badly I wanted to put my fist in his face, I couldn’t because I got where he was coming from, and it was all to protect Bree and Benny. How could I hate on a guy who went up against me to protect two people he hardly knew?

Fuck me, Grant Bishop was a damn good man.

“All I can say is people change. You always brought Jaycee around as a friend, but it wasn’t until she ghosted you that you realized she was the one.”

He chuckled, but we both knew it wasn’t funny. “The one who got away,” he said and yeah. That man hit the lowest point I’d ever seen him once she’d taken off. Not on the ice. On the ice, he’d stayed on fire. Off the ice, it wasn’t pretty.

“You get me, then?”

“I get you,” he replied.