Page 16

Nine

Sheridan shifted her hips in the child-sized chair, crossing her legs before quickly uncrossing them. If Alek noticed her fidgeting, he ignored it. Mainly because he was too busy charming the clothes off Finn’s teacher. And from the looks of it, Miss Lane was there for it.

Gah!

The woman was young. If Sheridan had to guess, she’d venture that the woman wasn’t long out of a sorority meeting.

A trio of gold chains, two of them displaying Greek letters, circled the porcelain skin on her neck.

Despite appearing so youthful, she was conservatively dressed in black slacks and a cream-colored T-shirt that she’d paired with a simple cardigan—purple, no less. Coincidence? Sheridan thought not.

She looked down at her yoga pants and T-shirt, wishing she’d dressed in something that identified her as an adult.

If only she owned something like that. Her wardrobe consisted of comfy sweats and scrubs.

As a result, the recent college graduate looked more mature and worthy of Alek than Sheridan did.

Not that she wanted to impress her roommate. It was no use, anyway. She already knew exactly how he saw her. A lot differently from the way he was looking at Finn’s adorable teacher.

Her bravado from last night faded quickly in the harsh light of day. She thought she was mature enough to handle seeing Alek with someone else. Turns out, she was not.

The woman blushed at something Alek said.

Sheridan tried not to gag. She glanced around the room.

The walls were decorated with colorful bulletin boards.

On the whiteboard, it looked as if Miss Lane was charting dates on a graph.

Sheridan did a double take when she noticed the word February was missing the first r. She bit back a groan.

“Does Finn have a favorite subject?” the teacher asked Alek as if she didn’t know the man had only recently met Finn.

“Besides hockey?” Alek flirted.

Sheridan rolled her eyes. “He’s really into spelling,” she lied, tongue-in-cheek.

Miss Lane snapped her gaze over to Sheridan as if she’d realized only now that there was someone else in the room.

“That’s good to know,” the teacher said. “We have a spelling bee every Friday with their vocabulary words.”

Of course you do.

Sheridan made a mental note to make sure she quizzed Finn extra hard on Thursday nights.

“I’ve heard such great things from Gunner about your class, Miss Lane. This is a big adjustment for Finn. I’m glad he’ll have someone like you to help guide him.” Alek was laying it on so thick, she was surprised the room didn’t stink.

The teacher was blushing. “That’s sweet. Gunner is a great kid. And from a wonderful family.”

“You probably shouldn’t let them sit together,” Sheridan interjected.

Both she and Alek jerked their heads around to stare at her.

Sheridan shrugged. “You know how little boys can be. They’re already thick as thieves. I wouldn’t want you to have any discipline problems.”

Finn had never once been a discipline problem. And Gunner had been nothing but the picture of politeness since she’d met him. Sheridan was stirring the pot, that’s all. She should be ashamed of herself. Except she wasn’t.

The ringing of the bell saved her from embarrassing herself further. The three of them stood. Miss Lane extended her hand to Sheridan.

“Please don’t worry about a thing. I’ll take good care of your nephew,” she said.

Feeling like a total jerk, Sheridan nodded as she shook the teacher’s hand. “Thank you.”

The other woman turned to Alek. He took her hand in both of his. “If you need to discuss anything regarding Finn, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I left my number in the front office.”

What the what?

“I will,” Miss Lane said with a lot more moxie than Sheridan liked.

As if Alek knows the boy like I do.

Sheridan moved toward the door, but Alek seemed reluctant to release the teacher’s hand.

“You should come to a hockey game sometime,” he offered.

“Oh. I’d really enjoy that.”

Sheridan bit back a groan.

“How about a Friday night game? We can grab dinner after,” Alek said.

“It’s a date,” Miss Lane replied with a rapturous smile.

Alek answered her grin with one of his own. “I’ll be in touch next week to set it up.”

The sound of kids calling to one another filled the hallway. Alek slowly dropped the teacher’s hand. He turned and gestured for Sheridan to precede him out the door. She started to, but her inner demon took over.

“By the way,” she said. “February is spelled wrong. You might want to fix it. We are molding young minds here after all.”

With that ugly salvo launched into the air, she marched down the hall, heading in the direction of the drop-off lane where she was meeting Claire.

“What the hell was that all about?” Alek growled quietly beside her. “I have a hard time seeing Finn as a discipline problem. And what’s all that BS about molding young minds? ”

She tried not to cringe, but it sounded as awful coming out of Alek’s mouth as it had coming out of hers. Still, in for a penny . . .

“Someone needed to point out her mistake. We don’t want her students picking up any bad spelling habits.”

They’d reached the front of the building where the younger kids were lined up neatly, waiting to enter. She didn’t dare look for Finn. Hopefully, he’d never know what a fool she’d made of herself back there.

She spotted Claire’s big Suburban and trudged toward it. If only Alek didn’t have longer legs and quicker reflexes, she might have made a clean getaway. He wrapped his fingers around her arm and pulled her to a stop outside Claire’s SUV.

“Did you have to be so bitchy back there?” he demanded.

That depends. Did you have to be so damn attractive?

“I was looking out for Finn,” she snapped. “Isn’t that my role? Mama Bear to your Good Cop Best Friend?”

The hardness around his mouth eased. He sighed heavily. “Sher?—”

“Don’t.” She yanked her arm free from his warm grasp. “I know my part in all of this. Jamie made it perfectly clear how he wanted Finn’s life to play out.” Her throat grew painful saying the words.

Alek opened his mouth to speak again, but she waved him off.

“Miss Lane barely registered I was in the room. You needn’t worry. I doubt anything I said ruined your chances with her.”

The car window lowering pressed them both into silence.

“Everything okay out here, kids?” Claire asked.

Sheridan tore her eyes away first. “Mission accomplished,” she announced. “Finn is safely ensconced in his classroom, and Alek has a date with Miss Lane.”

“You don’t say?” Claire sounded a bit mystified.

“Mm-hmm.” Sheridan pulled open the passenger door.

“She’s perfect for him. Young, attentive, and eager.

She’ll look adorable in his jersey. Purple brings out the red in her hair.

I’ll bet she’ll even let Sloane give her a makeover.

It will be so sweet. They will be social media’s favorite couple in no time. ”

“That sounds promising.” Claire shot Alek an expectant look as Sheridan climbed into the SUV and pulled the door closed behind her.

For his part, Alek kept his expression stoic, his arms crossed over his chest.

“Have a great practice,” Sheridan told him.

He looked like he wanted to say something, but he pressed his lips together instead before taking a big step back and waving them on.

Sheridan focused her attention out the passenger window so Claire wouldn’t see her fighting back tears.

The talking heads on the sports news show were blabbering on about the Milwaukee Growlers and their record-setting quarterback.

Alek tuned them out from where he sat in the canteen eating a lunch prepared by the Mayhem’s chef.

The team had finished morning skate and the postmortem on last night’s game.

Most of the guys grabbed lunch to go, hurrying home, where they jumped online to play video games with one another.

Alek wasn’t much of a gamer, preferring to delve into the history book his father had recommended as a way to tune out the hockey noise for the afternoon. He was scrolling through the first page when a mention of his name caught his attention.

“The Mayhem may be having buyer’s remorse after signing Alek Bergeron to one of the richest contracts for a goalie,” the sportscaster on the television screen said.

“Most of us gave him a little grace period last season,” the other guy added. “The Mayhem were weak in defenders, forcing Bergeron to carry all the load. But the team picked up a pair of decent defensemen during the offseason.”

Alek snorted. Merriweather might be decent if he put his mind to it. So far, the hoser hadn’t put in the effort, though.

“Bergeron’s stats haven’t improved since last year, and he’s far from his record-breaking season the year before,” the sportscaster droned on.

Tell me something I don’t know.

Earlier today, he’d worked one-on-one with Henrik Lund, the team’s assistant coach for an hour. There was nothing wrong with Alek’s reflexes, Lund had declared. It was what Lund hadn’t said that didn’t set well with Alek, however.

I need to get my head in the damn game and stop overthinking everything.

Easier said than done. Too many other things were living rent-free in his head including anxiety about his dad’s health and several distractions wandering around his house. Hence, the reason he was eating lunch at the training facility. He didn’t want to risk another chance encounter with Sheridan.

She’d been all over the place emotionally this morning. If he hadn’t known better, he might have guessed she was actually jealous of the attention he’d paid to Finn’s teacher. Of course, that had been his intent. To tick her off.

The night before, she’d been so cavalier about him dating someone.

Encouraging it even. He’d wanted nothing more than to call her out on it.

Which was cruel because there couldn’t ever be anything between them.

She was Jamie’s little sister. The line wasn’t drawn in the sand but in concrete.

And no matter how tempting, Alek wouldn’t cross it.

But the anguish on her face when she’d described Alek as the good cop nearly broke him. She was right. Jamie had set things up that way, damn him. Well, one way to combat that was to make sure Finn always knew that his aunt was his champion. Alek could do that for Finn.

And for Sheridan.

“Don’t listen to their bullshit,” Valentine said as he picked up the remote and switched the channel to a rerun of The Big Bang Theory . “Those guys like to hear themselves talk. Nobody in this building is thinking that. Trust me.”

He sat down across from Alek.

Alek squinted at his teammate. “Are you wearing eyeliner?”

Valentine grimaced. “I promised Sloane I’d give one of her sponsors a shoutout on social media. I didn’t realize she was going to turn it into a live production here at the rink.”

He almost felt sorry for the guy. “Please tell me you weren’t pitching makeup. Or a feminine product.”

Valentine scratched his nose with his middle finger. “It’s a suitcase. She’s moving into the travel influencer sphere.”

“Interesting.”

Valentine didn’t appear too enthused. “Whatever.” He propped his elbows on the table. “So how did the meet cute with Finn’s teacher go? Any sparks?”

Oh, there were sparks. Most of them coming from Sheridan. Not that he was sharing that morsel of information with Valentine.

“She was nice,” he said instead.

“Not exactly a ringing endorsement.”

It wasn’t. Miss Lane was attractive and very personable. She seemed enthusiastic about getting to know him further. He was sure he’d enjoy her company. She had a pretty laugh and was intelligent.

For fuck’s sake. She sounded like a dog he was thinking of adopting—if he was into dogs. He needed to try harder.

“I invited her to our next weekend home game. I’m going to take her to dinner afterward.”

“Now that’s what I’m talking about.” Valentine reached his fist across the table for a bump. “Too bad Picard’s restaurant isn’t open yet. You could really impress her. Women love the royal treatment and a good meal.”

“You don’t say.”

Valentine rolled his eyes. “I didn’t mean to imply you didn’t know what to do with a woman, but well, your track record speaks for itself. And we want this one to stick, am I right?”

No. Yeah. Maybe.

He’d forgotten how invigorating it was to have someone in the stands whose express purpose for being at the game was to cheer for him.

Or how much more enjoyable his post-game meal could be having someone else to unwind with.

He could imagine that instead of a cold plunge, he and his someone would enjoy a long hot shower together. And everything else that came after.

If only the “someone” he was imagining wasn’t Sheridan. He swore under his breath.

“Are you listening to me?” Valentine was saying.

Alek refocused his attention on his teammate. “Yeah, sure.”

“Uh-huh. I was asking how things are with Finn.”

“Good. Great even,” Alek replied. At least there was one thing he could be honest with himself about. “Sheridan ended up picking up a shift at the hospital tonight. Finn’s school is having a fundraiser at the pizza place downtown. Gus and I are taking the kids there for dinner.”

He was surprised he was looking forward to it. For some time now, Alek felt like he was on the outside looking in at the families around him. He was beginning to realize it was nice to have a reason to be included.

“Maybe Miss Lane will be there.” Valentine wiggled his eyebrows.

Hmm. He hadn’t thought of that. It wouldn’t hurt to get more face time with her. Without Sheridan there tossing out Howitzers, Alek could put some effort into getting to know her.

“You’re brilliant.” He shoved his tablet into his gym bag and stood. “I’m going to hit the showers before I pick up Finn at school. I might even drop back into the classroom.”

“That’s the spirit.” Valentine stood too. “I have a good vibe about this.”

Alek wished he could say the same. He was going to give it his best effort, though.