Page 40

CHAPTER FORTY

KENDRA

“ Y ou know, I’ve always thought I could never move away from England.” Darcy looks around the arena and then back at us all sitting in the family box. “But I see the appeal of New York. It kind of feels like anything can happen when you’re here. Sort of like you have the world at your fingertips.”

Collins snorts a laugh as the Dallas goalie stretches out on the ice. “Oh, there are some benefits all right. You can invite me along to as many hockey games as you like. Speaking of eye candy …” She pulls a packet of jelly beans from her coat pocket and pours a ton out on the table next to her, sorting all of the red ones into a neat pile.

I quirk a brow as Darcy and Jenna watch on from beside her.

“What are you doing?” Darcy asks.

She slides the rest into the packet, leaving only the red ones to eat. “This color tastes way better.”

“Or you could just buy the red ones?” Jenna suggests, looking out onto the ice.

Collins shrugs a shoulder and pops a few more into her mouth. “Where would the fun in that be? I think there’s something to be said for working for it.”

“Speaking of which, how’s the new job?”

She waggles her brows at me. “Well, the head mechanic offers a great servicing package.”

Jenna throws a hand over her mouth as Felicity returns with a tray of drinks for us all.

“You are not getting into it with your boss?” Jenna gasps. “That’s never a good move. I remember back in high school, the principal started dating the head of science, and let’s just say, it didn’t end well. She had to leave and?—”

“He’s not my boss,” Collins clarifies. “We’re just messing around, and like I’ve been telling Kendra, it’s been way too long. I needed the light relief.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Jenna says, taking a sip of her soda and practically serenading it. Sugary drinks are a rarity for her, especially now that she’s stepping up her conditioning for international duty.

My heart drops a little. It’s been three weeks since I received the email from Team USA, and it still feels just as raw.

“You and Lee are constantly at it,” I gibe. “When I was living at your place, that’s all I heard. Literally.”

Darcy waves a dismissive hand in front of her. “Let me tell you, that all dies down after a while. Give it a few more months, and you’ll be waking him up for snoring rather than round two.”

I open my mouth to argue since I can never see a time when Jack isn’t laying me on a random surface and “stealing some sexy time,” as he calls it, but Felicity gets there first.

“Jon and I go at it most nights.”

Darcy holds up a hand, feigning to puke, when her attention snags on the Jumbotron. The players are skating off the ice after warm-up, and the camera pans to Archer as he pulls off his helmet.

Jenna side-eyes me, curiosity written all over her face. I look at Felicity and she wears a similar expression, but none of us says anything.

Silence stretches for a few more beats before Collins breaks it.

“I didn’t know Sawyer Bryce had a kid.”

We all turn to look at her in unison.

“Told you, Kend. Baggage,” Collins adds.

“And you felt it necessary to look into his personal life because …” I trail off, waiting for an answer.

She lifts one shoulder very gently, pouring more jelly beans onto the table. “He did this interview in a magazine I was randomly reading on the subway the other day. It was about him raising a child as a single dad.” She blows out a breath. “Snaps to him. I couldn’t do it. I can barely take care of myself, let alone have a kid.”

“Liam had that talk with me the other day. He asked me if I wanted a family. I told him maybe when I’m forty,” Darcy adds.

“For real?” Exasperated, Felicity throws her head back. “I was banking on you two for my first grandchild.”

“Yeah, well, don’t look at me either,” I reply. “These ovaries are on lockdown for the next five years. Paris is the year I make it to the World Cup—I can feel it.”

Jenna leans across to offer me a high five. “Your ACL issues will be but a distant memory.”

My mind travels back to last night. Every time Jack joins me for a Pilates workout, it finishes with him ripping off my Lycra shorts and fucking me on the new mats he bought us.

“Sit on my face and fuck it, Kitten.”

I squeeze my thighs together as his commands literally come flooding back to me. I’ve got his mom sitting a couple of chairs down from me, watching as her son takes the ice for his first game as starting center, and I’m tingling from head to toe as I swoon over other talents he possesses.

Collins leans into me and whispers, “You’re thinking about fucking him, aren’t you? ”

I snatch a red jelly bean and bite down. “Yep.”

She snorts softly. “Can’t say I blame you. I would take that butt to town.”

“The nausea is overwhelming tonight.” Darcy squeezes her eyes shut. “I’m going to pretend like I didn’t just hear what you said.”

I narrow my eyes playfully at her and mouth, Sex god .

She shudders and dips into her pocket, pulling out her phone. “That’s it. I’m canceling our dinner reservation. Appetite has officially left the building.”

“I can’t believe you actually canceled dinner.” I pick up a fry and dip it in ketchup. “I’m starving and eating everything I shouldn’t in this bar.”

I grab another fry as Jack slides in the booth beside me.

“I can help you work it off later.”

Darcy scrunches up her nose but is soon distracted when Sawyer and Archer join.

Sawyer’s eyes find everywhere but Collins as she busies herself with a text conversation, and I’m willing to bet it’s of the booty-call variety.

“You, um … solved your phone situation then.” Sawyer clears his throat and takes a seat next to Darcy, earning a look from Archer.

Collins is the kind of girl who exudes confidence. Literally nothing or no one fazes her. So, when she looks up and tucks a lock of pink hair behind her ear, I conclude she might not be telling whole truths when she says the Blades captain isn’t exactly her type.

She resets herself in a flash. “Yeah, weeks ago.”

The stilted conversation between them reaches around the table as Archer takes a seat on a stool at the end of the booth and his eyes fix on Jack’s sister. “How long are you in town for, Darce?”

Jack hasn’t taken his eyes from mine. Up until now.

“ Darce ?” Jack spins from me to his goalie.

The slightest tug of Archer’s lips leaves no doubt as to how much he loves winding my boyfriend up. And I’m sure that’s what he passes it off as too—banter between teammates over the rookie’s hot sister.

Whatever you say, Archer .

Darcy breaks off from her conversation with Jenna and wears her usual bright smile. The kind she would offer me as a friend. There’s no reaction to him calling her Darce as she flicks her honey hair over her shoulder. “I need to be back by Thursday since it’s Dad’s birthday this weekend.”

I feel Jack stiffen beside me. I know he didn’t tell Darcy what happened that night at the restaurant. Reading between the lines, I can tell Darcy has always been closer to Elliott, and I think it’s something Jack wishes he could change, but he doesn’t want to be the brother who turns his sister against her dad.

“You okay?” I whisper into Jack’s ear.

He runs his hand through my long hair, pushing it away from my face, and I can’t help my eyelids from fluttering at the contact.

“I’m good, Kitten. Actually just thinking about the first time we were in this bar together.” His eyes drop to his jersey I’m wearing. “Trying to figure out if I prefer the little black dress or what you’re wearing now.”

I press my forehead into his. “For me, it’s neither.”

He pulls away just slightly. “Neither?”

“Neither,” I repeat on a headshake. “The black dress makes me feel sexy, and I gotta admit, when I saw you here that night, I was happy Jenna had talked me into wearing it.”

He plucks at my jersey, the conversation going on around us reducing to a mere murmur. “And what about this?” he kisses my pulse point. “Is it because I fucked you in yours while your family was sleeping?”

I giggle like a teenager. “Oh, don’t get me wrong; I enjoy wearing your name.”

His eyes flash with heat and possession. “Maybe that’s the perfect combination then—my name, your jersey.”

“I could see that happening one day,” I say, pushing my hand through the short strands of his hair.

“So, tell me, Kitten”—Jack tips my chin to look directly at him—“what’s your favorite thing to wear?”

I pause and think about NYPAG, a night I initially planned to survive but turned out to be the start of everything between us. “The dress you bought me.”

“The green one?”

I nod slowly. “I’ll never forget your face when you saw me in it, and I’ll never forget when I spun around to find you standing right in front of me. I think that was the moment I felt it—the pull between us. I think that was when I started to believe that maybe nothing was fake. At least, that’s when I hoped it wasn’t.”

Jack brushes his lips across my mouth, his tongue teasing mine. “If it’s okay with you, Miss Kendra Independent Hart, I’d really like to buy you some more.”

“With your big starting center salary?” I tease. “I don’t know if I can allow that to happen. I might need a little more convincing.”

He smiles against me, his dimple popping and blue eyes sparkling with mischief. “When I bought you that dress, I was fantasizing over the way it would look while pooled around your feet. And what I promised back then still stands, Kendra. Now that you’re my girl, there will be nothing left to the imagination.”