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Matt sighed softly even though the corners of his mouth twitched. “No, never. Although you’d probably tell her about all my affairs.”

“I like your mom,” she said lightly. “And, speaking of your affairs with women: seriously, Matt? You forgot her name?”

“It wasn’t intentional!”

“I don’t care. You can’t become that kind of a man. If you do, I’ll have to end our friendship.”

He made a face and closed the trunk. “If you must know, I wasn’t exactly delighted with myself, either, so I decided to lay off dating for the time being.”

Silence. Then: “Wow. Okay.”

“Don’t sound so stunned!”

“Oh, I’m not stunned because you don’t want to spend every night in a stranger’s bed. I’m just shocked that you call what you do dating .”

He sighed. “Always nice to hear your opinion. Anyway, you’re the one pushing women on me!”

“I’m not pushing them on you, I simply point out candidates who are looking for the same thing, so that no one…”

“…gets hurt,” he finished her sentence. “I understand. It doesn’t matter.” He truly didn’t feel like talking about it anymore. “Maddie, I’m late. Oh, and my mom invited you to her silver wedding anniversary in Napa.”

“I know, that’s why I’m calling.”

He abruptly paused. Shit, his mom worked fast. “What, you didn’t just want to say how disappointed you are in me?”

“Nah. I wanted to ask if it was okay with you if I went.”

“Of course, it’s okay,” he said, surprised.

“Good. I still wanted to ask before I accepted.”

That didn’t surprise him. Maddie always thought about everyone else’s feelings before worrying about her own.

“I’d love for you to come, but only if you keep quiet about how many women I’ve slept with.”

“Deal. But that’ll be difficult because you…”

“Maddie, don’t you have that important meeting?” he interrupted hastily. “You should be preparing for it instead of pointing out my inadequacies as a man.” For the past two weeks, she’d been talking about how she would land the client of her life today.

“I’m doing both,” she said innocently. “Besides, I’ve been preparing for days.

Otherwise, I wouldn’t have gone to the Ice Lounge yesterday.

Matt, I’m so excited.” Her voice went up an octave.

“Geller will sign today and then I’ll find her dream man and she’ll tell all her rich friends about it.

I’ll never have to eat ramen again; I’ll be wallowing in oyster buffets. ”

“You don’t like oysters.”

“No, but I can still roll around in them! Wait, actually, that would be a waste of food.”

A smile crept across his face. Maddie sounded happy. That was good. His mother was right: She worked too hard and deserved success. “I’m happy for you,” he replied honestly. “And, hey, when you’ve landed the rich fish, we should celebrate tonight at the Sunny Umbrella?”

“It’s Sunday. I don’t drink on Sundays.”

“But you deserve it.”

“Um, don’t you have a game?”

“Nope. Not until tomorrow.”

“Fine. Then we’ll celebrate at the Sunny Umbrella. You can pick me up at six. And, oh man, Matt, this could be a really big deal! It’s even worth working on Sundays for this.”

“Good luck, Maddie.”

“Thanks. So, what was the waitress’s name? Jessica or Jane?”

“Jennifer,” he said contritely.

Maddie sighed loudly. “Oh, Matt.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I promise to do better. Land that music producer! See you tonight.”

“Yeah, see you later.”

After they hung up, Matt glanced at the screen and winced, cursing. He’d lost track of time again!

He rushed to the entrance of the Hawks building. Outside he encountered Jack West, one of their centers, a new addition to the Hawks…and the brother of his best friend Dax, even though Matt had only discovered that recently — and the rest of the world was still in the dark about it.

“Oh, thank God,” West said, relieved. “I thought I was the only one who was late. Always better to have company when Gray’s yelling.”

Matt snorted. “That’s the right attitude. Why are you late? You’re usually the model citizen.” His nickname was Saint for a reason: Jack never did anything wrong. He hadn’t been in the penalty box all season, while his brother was basically camped out there.

Jack avoided his eyes. “Had…stuff to do.”

“Ah. Informative.”

“If you want info, watch the news. What about you?”

“Stuff to do.”

Jack grinned and pushed the door open. “Well, calling the pretty waitress from yesterday stuff is pretty harsh. I expect that kind of talk from Dax and maybe Leon, but not from you.”

Matt chuckled softly. “Dax is a different person since he hooked up with Lucy.”

“Oh, come on. He’s a person in love. Not a different one. So, the waitress is to blame for you being late? Man, oh man, you all can’t control yourselves, can you?” he remarked, raising one corner of his mouth.

“Oh, please. Just because they call you Saint doesn’t mean you’re innocent.”

“During the season, yes.”

Right. Jack never started an affair or a relationship while he was playing, even though Matt couldn’t believe he really did without the odd one-night stand. “Seriously, you never have sex during a season?” he felt compelled to ask.

“Never.”

“Really, no exceptions? You know, I never plan to go home with anyone, it just happens.”

Jack snorted and gave him a pitying glance. “That’s because you have no self-discipline. The woman who can shake my resolve has yet to be born.”

Matt rolled his eyes even though he secretly thought that maybe he should look at Jack as a role model.

The bastard was having the best season of his life while Matt was currently a bit unfocused.

He didn’t know exactly what it was. Nothing had changed except that Dax had been dating Lucy for a few weeks and…

Yeah, he had no idea. He was happy for the two of them.

That was certainly not the reason. He would just have to scale back his private life a little and concentrate more on the game.

He actually had nothing to complain about.

His life was perfect. There was nothing he would change about it.