Page 21 of How to Puck Your Boss (L.A. Hawks Hockey #3)

“His profile was missing!”

“What?” Dax glanced from her to Jack and back.

“It doesn’t matter,” Jack said with a sigh. “Penny, wipe that panicked expression off your face, it isn’t that bad.”

“You said that after our one-night stand, and it wasn’t true then, either!” she snapped.

“Well, now it’s true, because Dax will keep his mouth shut!”

“I will?” Dax replied.

“You will.”

“He will?” Penny asked disbelievingly.

“Yes!”

“Why are you so certain?”

“Because he owes me,” he replied reluctantly, gritting his teeth and giving Dax a sharp look. “So, just go,” he said to Penny. “I’ll sort it out with my br…teammate,” he said, catching himself.

Penny didn’t need to be told twice. Without giving him or Dax another look, she hurried away and disappeared down the hallway. She probably still heard Dax shout, “Damn it, Jacky, what drugs have you been smoking?!”

Jack rolled his eyes. “God, you’re a bit of a drama queen, aren’t you?”

“ I am a drama queen?” Dax’s eyes opened so wide that the entire hockey team could have been reflected in them. “Who’s inviting disaster by sleeping with the boss?”

“Keep your voice down!” he hissed. “And I’m not sleeping with Penny. I slept with her once. There’s a difference.” A difference he was painfully aware of.

“I can’t. I have to speak loudly to hear myself because my ears are still bleeding!”

“Dax!” Jack snapped, pointing a warning finger in his face. “Neither of us had any idea, okay? Neither of us knew who the other was. When we met, we agreed to keep our last names, our jobs, and anything relating to our families to ourselves.”

“Whose stupid idea was that?”

Jack cracked his jaw. “It was the best idea ever. And it wasn’t even my own. Did you know that you can talk about things other than hockey?”

Dax stared at him, stunned. “Yes. The question is: why would you?”

“Maybe so someone will like something about me other than the fact that I play hockey professionally?” he snapped at his brother, exasperated.

Dax opened his mouth but closed it again after a second. “Wait. Did you just use the word like ? You like Penny? But she’s…” He stopped when he noticed Jack’s hostile expression.

Dax had better think twice before finishing that sentence.

“Oh, shit. You do like her,” Dax said, taken aback. “So much so that you are glaring. Which, for you, is angry.”

“Yeah, I like her,” he growled. “And it would be nice if you could stop acting like this has never happened before. I like a lot of people.”

“Yes, but mostly you try to like people who aren’t walking disasters. What did you say the other day? We had so much drama during our childhood that it would fill three lifetimes, so you didn’t need anymore.”

Had he said that? He didn’t remember, probably because he had repressed those words as soon as he’d met Penny.

“It doesn’t matter what I said or when. I like Penny and you’re right, if people found out that we slept together, there would be a huge media circus that would mostly affect her.

Women always come off worse than men in cases like this.

Women in leadership positions even more so.

So, I would be grateful if you could just keep quiet for the next few weeks. ”

His brother wrinkled his nose in pain. “I don’t know…”

Jack glared at him in disbelief. “Are you serious? For ten years, I’ve kept to myself that we’re siblings, and you can’t keep your mouth shut for a month?”

Dax let out a gasp. “You don’t understand, Jack. I’m dating a bloodhound! Lucy’s job is to track down scandals and dispel them. She’ll be furious if I keep it from her. She’ll want to come up with a strategy for when it comes out.”

“It won’t come out.”

“Says the guy who just got caught by me?”

“Well, you always sneak around like a damn panther,” Jack replied angrily.

Dax laughed loudly. “Nonsense. An army of centaurs could have marched through here and you still wouldn’t have noticed.”

Yes, there was some truth in that. “Penny and I agreed to forget the night, okay? It’s not a problem anymore.”

Dax looked at him mockingly. “Right. Like animal attraction to a completely unsuitable person never causes problems.”

“Dax…please, just keep it to yourself.”

His brother groaned and buried his face in his hands but finally nodded. “Fine. It’s our secret. I hope you know what you’re doing.”

“I do.”

“Liar,” Dax muttered and patted him on the shoulder sympathetically before moving on to his room.

Yep, he was right about that.

Jack sighed heavily and rubbed his face. But what could he do? Staying away from Penny was impossible.

Thankfully, his cell phone vibrated before his thoughts could escalate any further. An unknown number from L.A. flashed, but Jack had little doubt who it was. He didn’t feel like confronting another problem in his life right now, but he had asked for the call, so…

“Jack West,” he said, holding the keycard to the lock of his hotel room, which obediently clicked.

“Hello, Mr. West. This is Bridget from the St. Clair Nursing Home. You said we should contact you as soon as your father arrived.”

His shoulders tensed and he hastily slammed the door shut. He didn’t want Dax to catch him on the phone. “Yes, that’s correct. So, he…arrived safely?”

“Oh, yes. The trip went smoothly. He’s still a little confused. He doesn’t know where he is or why he had to move, but that will pass.”

Jack exhaled and nodded. He probably should have been relieved, but he wasn’t.

Instead, a tight knot formed in his chest, a mixture of guilt for not caring whether his father settled in well or not, and anger at that guilt.

Hell, he had the right not to care! He was doing more for his father than anyone could ask of him.

“I’m glad,” he finally managed. That was what a normal son would say, right?

“Wonderful. You know, it might help him to hear a familiar voice?” Bridget suggested. “Assuring him that everything is okay?”

Jack’s throat tightened. “No, wait, I don’t think…”

“Hello?”

Jack broke off and paused. Bridget had passed the phone, and her voice had been replaced by his father’s deep, raspy one, the result of years of chain smoking.

His dad deserved lung cancer, not dementia.

If only he had lung cancer, all of this would be so much easier.

Jack knew it was a horrible thought and hated himself for it… but it was the truth.

“Hey, Dad,” he said quietly, closing his eyes and leaning against the door. “Hello, who is this?”

“This is Jack.”

“Jack? I don’t know a Jack.”

“Yes, you do,” he murmured. “You know a Jack.” It was fitting that he was the first person his father had forgotten.

Something clicked on the line and the next moment, the nurse was on the phone again. “I’m sorry, but he’s not having a good day.”

Yeah, he hadn’t had a good day for three decades.

“Anyway, your father arrived safely, and it would be nice if you could find time on Friday to visit him and discuss the rest.”

“Okay,” Jack murmured, rubbing his forehead. Something else to look forward to next week.