Page 10 of How to Puck Your Boss (L.A. Hawks Hockey #3)

Chapter Six

T hey would still be in her bed.

If he wasn’t him and she wasn’t her, they would still be in Penny’s bed, having orgasms number five and six.

He could take a shower and wash her scent and the feeling of her hands on his body from his skin, but the memory would remain.

And he hated it. Because the sex had been fucking fantastic — and yet it had only confirmed why he didn’t date during the season.

Shit like this couldn’t happen and disrupt his focus.

Neither he nor the team could afford that.

If they wanted to make the playoffs, they would have to work hard over the next few months.

But he was probably worried for no reason. One night couldn’t affect him. He was good at pulling himself together, focusing on the here and now, focusing on…

“Jack! Are you listening? It’s been your turn for five minutes!”

Blinking, he glanced up. “What?”

Anna rolled her eyes and Dax snorted loudly. “Yeah, yeah, the most considerate player in the league my ass.”

“You’re just jealous because you didn’t win the title,” her sister remarked in amusement.

Dax stared at her gloomily. “It’s not an official title!”

“But he’ll be in Sports Illustrated,” she said, shrugging before asking Jack, “Where was your mind?”

“About to smash your knight power,” he said hastily. There were some things you just didn’t explain to your little sister. For example: In my mind, I was just putting horn-rimmed glasses on a pretty brunette’s nose and acting out my professor fantasy with her.

He realized that Penny didn’t teach math, but actually…

He frowned. Only now did he realize that he still had no idea what her job was.

Becoming the owner of the Hawks was obviously a new position for her.

So, what the hell had she been doing in South America?

There for years, if Gareth Clark was to be believed.

“And he’s gone again,” Dax replied dryly. “I’m calling Sports Illustrated tomorrow to tell them to retract the article.”

“Huh?” Jack said absentmindedly, pulling himself out of his thoughts. “Oh, come on. Nobody reads Sports Illustrated. They all just look at the pictures and sigh. And rightly so.” He pointed to his face — which was beautiful, according to Sports Illustrated. And they should know.

He reached for the dice and picked up a sheep after rolling a nine.

They were at Anna’s house playing Settlers of Catan.

Jack hadn’t played Settlers in twelve years, not since moving out of their mother’s house overnight.

Anna, however, had always loved board games, and they had been a good distraction when Jack’s stepfather and her real father were yelling at her mother or staggering drunk into the kitchen and accidentally breaking dishes.

And when Jack let his mind wander, when he forgot that Anna was now twenty-six, not twelve anymore, it almost felt like it used to be, before he ran away. Before they had a falling out — when their world was broken but they were whole together.

Jack had never mentioned it to Dax, but he had set out to be traded to the L.A.

Hawks. He had been popular in New York, had the perfect apartment, the perfect casual relationship, and a Stanley Cup.

Nevertheless, he had been so damn unhappy.

And one morning, when he thought about the last time he had been truly happy, he realized that it had been with them, with his siblings, who had loved him, not his hockey skills or money.

And even if they weren’t quite out of the woods yet and Dax needed a little more time to fully forgive him, at least they were all here together.

“Your turn, Anna,” he said, pushing the dice across the board.

“Can’t we just stop?” Dax asked. “We all know who’s winning. Jack has his stupid grain monopoly and you’re not going to do anything with your knight power anymore — and I’m fed up.”

Jack grinned. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. The game could still turn.”

“No, it couldn’t,” Anna contradicted and sighed. “God, I forgot that Jack always wins. And he wasn’t even concentrating!”

He merely shrugged. He hadn’t forgotten. He was bad at losing, so he won. That was his motto in life.

“Okay, we can stop,” she added, laying her cards on the table. “And you can leave now.”

Dax and Jack exchanged a discreet glance.

“Oh, stop looking at each other like that!” their sister shouted.

Okay, it wasn’t that discreet.

“No. I want to stay,” Dax responded slowly.

“Yeah, me too,” Jack agreed hastily. “It’s our last night before we start the season tomorrow and we’ll be on the road all the time, so we want to enjoy this free time with you.”

Anna’s expression darkened. “Nonsense. You want to make sure I take a break from studying!”

Yes, that too.

“Breaks are important,” Dax stated.

“Oh yeah? Tell that to your ridiculous abs,” she remarked sourly. “And Jack even worked over the holidays and missed Christmas Eve with us!”

“That was different,” he replied, looking away. He had the feeling she might be able to read the lie on his face. Truthfully, he hadn’t been in New York because his former team had to sort something out with him.

“It’s the same!” she complained. “Only my job saves lives, whereas yours is giving away black eyes and selling cereal boxes with your stupid faces on them!”

“I wouldn’t say we give them away,” Dax objected thoughtfully.

“Nah,” Jack agreed. “It’s hard work. And I’m in Sports Illustrated. How stupid can my face be?”

“I have a hot girlfriend who says she loves me and my face, so I don’t understand this attack on our beauty either,” Dax remarked.

Anna let out a deep sigh that she had only uttered as a child when he and Dax had left her an empty Nutella jar. “You know, I liked you better when you weren’t talking to each other.”

Jack grinned and reached his arms over his head to stretch his back, which couldn’t get used to Anna’s hard chairs. But she wouldn’t accept money from them for new furniture.

“You shouldn’t lie, Anna,” Dax said, emphatically disappointed. “Haven’t we taught you anything? So, what are we playing next?” He glanced at his watch. “I have about two hours. Then it’ll be eleven and Anna has to go to bed.”

Sighing, she started throwing the game pieces back into the box. “Guys, I appreciate that you want to smother me with your love... but you do know that you don’t have to look after me anymore, right?”

Hmm. She apparently didn’t understand how being a big brother worked.

“If you went shopping and stuff and took breaks like a normal person, we might believe you, but since you don’t, we’ll always end up right back here,” Dax said apologetically.

“I have to study!”

“You need to breathe,” Jack objected. “You spent twenty hours a day last week with your nose buried in a book or slaving away in the hospital.”

“It was only nineteen a day. I set the alarm.”

Dax snorted and glanced at Jack. “And she thinks she’s the smartest of us.”

“I have my own mechanisms for dealing with stress, okay?” she said, annoyed.

“I’ve already prepared myself for the fact that the next few months are going to be tough, right up through the second state exam.

So, can we stop talking about me and ask Jack why he has a hickey on his neck?

” Her jaw dropped. “Oh my God, how did I miss that until now?”

“What?” Dax whirled around as Jack felt his neck, a little taken aback.

“That’s not a hickey,” he said quickly. “That’s…a bruise.”

Anna raised her eyebrows, amused. “Someone wasn’t paying attention in sex ed class if he believes we can’t tell the two apart. I’m a doctor, you idiot. I know bruises and this one was caused by a pair of lips sucking on you.”

Oh, shit.

“I agree with Anna’s professional opinion,” Dax said, shaking his head.

“What the hell? I thought you didn’t fuck during the season!

Is that the real reason you stood us up for Christmas?

You were with a woman instead of us?” His voice grew menacingly louder with each word.

Since his brother, unlike him, was not so keen on controlling his emotions – and was also a bit sensitive – it was time to de-escalate the situation.

“No! I was in New York. On business,” he lied. “Really. I couldn’t postpone the stupid thing. I told you. I would have preferred to be with you. The woman came after that. By chance.”

“A random woman, I see,” Anna piped up, her eyes sparkling with excitement. “Tell us more.”

“There’s nothing to tell! I met her on the plane and then a little more intimately, and we won’t be seeing each other again.” At least not in the biblical sense. “It was a meaningless one-night stand.”

Dax narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Meaningless? Yet you broke your stupid rule that earned you the nickname Saint ?”

“I was drunk.”

“You drove from the airport! You couldn’t have been drunk,” Anna objected.

Oh, hell, did everyone feel the need to play Sherlock Holmes today?

“Can we change the subject?” he asked anxiously. In the last ten minutes, he had managed to push Penny out of his thoughts for the first time since that night. He had no desire to start the cycle again. “I gave in, it happens to the best of us.”

“Not you!” Dax objected in disbelief. “Dude, two weeks ago, twins came on to you at the Ice Lounge and suggested a threesome and you said no, thank you ! Leon started crying because of it and Matt handed you the number of a psychiatrist!”

Anna made a face. “Seriously? Are there that many groupies throwing themselves at you?”

“No, no, forget you heard that,” Dax said, looking at her somberly. “My first time ever was with Lucy and I’m glad I waited so long. Remember: sex is bad. Makes you stupid, makes the exam more difficult! You should definitely wait. Until you’re married.”

Anna snorted. “Dax, I’m in my mid-twenties. That train has left the station!”

His brother made a face. “I don’t want to hear any of that!”