Page 8 of Playing for Keeps (Seattle Hawks Ice Hockey #4)

I laugh, holding my heart. She definitely wasn’t saying that the last time in town at the bar.

I love how she’s managed to just let that little detail slip.

It also never fails to amuse me how she doesn’t treat me any differently from when I knew her back in school.

She’s known me long before I was anything close to being an NHL super star.

I came from fuck all, but thanks to her dad, I learned how to improve my skating, and improve my game.

Now I’m a very highly paid center for the Seattle Hawks.

And I’ve never wanted to stray. I love it here.

“You know, most girls aren’t saying ew when I give them a compliment,” I say, as I scarf the rest of the pancake down in record time. “I’m quite the catch around Seattle.”

“And according to the tabloids, every other port around America, too,” she laughs, but I hear the hints of sarcasm in her tone.

I chuckle, but again, don’t protest. What would be the point? She obviously knows my reputation. I don’t mistreat women or make false promises. No guarantees, only a fun night ahead. One night stands are all I’ve ever been into and I’ve only had one serious girlfriend.

“I’m not hurting anyone,” I throw back. Noticing her smooth, glowy skin in the dappled light coming through the window, reflecting off her face.

She looks too sweet to be in this space of a bachelor pad.

The side of her sweater pulls slightly down over one side, exposing her left shoulder and her creamy skin.

My eyes flick back up. “You know I wouldn’t do that. ”

Her lips twitch. “Hey, it doesn’t worry me where you lay JJ Jun?—”

“God of thunder!” I interrupt before she can even get the words out. I’ll have to do something drastic to my eardrums if I hear JJ Junior come out of her mouth again.

Her snort almost causes her sip of coffee to spray everywhere, but luckily she manages to swallow it first. She holds her chest as she splutters, trying to regain her composure.

I frown. “Glad I amuse you.”

“I’m not laughing at you,” she maintains. “Just no to the God of Thunder.”

“Oh, you’re laughing with me?” Sarcasm drips off my tone.

“Something like that.”

“Am I that awful?” I pretend to flutter my eyelashes toward her like I’m so hard done by.

Lashes that women have told me they’re envious of and that I don’t deserve to have, being that they’re so long and dark, framing my light blue eyes; the color of the sky on a clear day, or so I’m told.

It’s not like I can help what I was born with.

She thumps me on the arm. “Only when you’re trying to pick up your best friend’s sister without knowing it.”

“Listen, you were in silhouette, and it was dark. And seriously, you weren’t complaining about it.” Sure, we sort of talked about it, but not in depth. I wondered when it was going to come up again.

“I didn’t know it was you! I hadn’t seen you for several years, plus, you danced with me from behind! It isn’t like we were face to face until we left the dance floor, and even then it was dark.”

I frown again, something inside me not liking that fact she let a stranger do that. Even though I’m not a stranger, she didn’t know that at the time. “Is it a usual thing for you?” I ask, not wanting to sound rude, but I wanna know the score.

If she’s annoyed at my question, she doesn’t show it.

“No, not at all. I was a tiny bit tipsy. I honestly didn’t know it was you, you can ask Beth,” she goes on.

Beth is a friend of hers that lives in Seattle, the one she’s been staying with while she’s here on her work trip.

Though I’m starting to wonder if she isn’t taking some time out from her everyday life after her breakup.

She doesn’t seem in a hurry to go back home.

I haven’t seen Jade in years, not through a lack of trying, but our schedules have just never lined up.

I always make the effort to catch up with Tanner and their folks when I’m in town, but she was living in California and wasn’t there much when I visited.

Her family was so good to me during my final years of high school and looked out for me when my own mother didn’t want to know.

Robbie is still around, too. It always makes me happy to hear he’s doing well in his senior years.

Her family's help is something I’ll never forget.

I spent my final few months of school at their place, much to the annoyance of my mom, while I got my shit together.

But in the end, she was too wrapped up in her precious Gus to care or do anything about it.

Then I moved to live with my grandpa, that’s a long story, and things got good again.

“I must have good taste then, if I picked you out from a sea of many.”

She rolls her eyes at me. It makes me chuckle because she’s never been one for my bullshit.

I can always rely on Jade to keep things real.

If I ever needed a fresh reality check, or if my boots ever got too big for me, Jade would be the one to knock me down a peg or three. And it’s something I admire about her.

“You sure you don’t think I’m the least bit cute?” I muse, clutching my chin and giving her my best rendition of a perfect pose. I try a pout with hooded eyes, then a dazzling smile with an eyebrow waggle, knowing my dimples are well and truly on display.

“Is that your attempt at a pin-up pose?” she laughs, one snort away from another eyeroll, and reaches for her coffee.

You wouldn’t believe that just a few months ago she was all over me like a bee to a honey-pot when we sexy slow danced in the bar and shared more than an illicit kiss.

“I can see my usual charms are rendered powerless on you.” I shake my head. “So I should really stop.”

Over the years, my youthful good looks have made me a favorite amongst women, puck bunnies mainly, that tag along to every game and give a whole new meaning to the term hockey groupies.

I think my baby face helps in most matters, and I keep my body strong and solid.

I’ve been told I can get away with anything with my cheeky smile and dazzling baby blues, and don’t have to try too hard to get it.

The only thing is, Jade doesn’t seem to buy it and that is kind of annoying.

She hits me on the arm again, and I rub the place where she made contact.

“Ow.”

“That didn’t hurt.”

“You still didn’t answer the question.”

“Do I find you cute? Was that the question?” she asks.

“The only one that matters,” I snicker.

That earns me another look of exasperation. “You’re just JJ to me, not the big superstar,” she says, pointing her fork at me. “And yes, you’re cute.”

I nod with a satisfied air to the notion, sitting back in my seat, quietly triumphant that she admitted it.

Until she adds… “In a squidgy kind of way.”

I tilt my head, looking at her from under my lashes. “Squidgy?”

“You know what I mean.”

“Clearly, I don’t.”

“You’re all cute and boyish charm around the edges, but at a closer glance, you’re a little quirky, a little floppy. Maybe it’s the hair?”

“Floppy!” I burst out laughing.

She runs her hand through her shoulder length ice blonde tresses that she alternates from wavy to straight, depending on the day. I notice a faint pink dust of a blush painting her pretty cheeks. “I’m saying it all wrong.”

“Trust me, Kiddo. I ain’t in the least bit floppy.” And neither is the morning missile I’ve been trying to hide. I’m not jonesing for my best friend's sister, I just woke up like this.

I need to have another coffee and sort my wood out in the shower before I can even attempt leaving the house.

She pats me on the shoulder good-naturedly. “I believe you, Flopster .”

We both laugh together. Fucking hell, this girl.

“Thank fuck I have you, Jade. Who would keep me in line if I didn’t?”