Page 26

Reid

“You’re going to drop that weight on your foot,” Theo warns, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I abandon my barbell rows and put the weight on the black gym mat. He’s right. I am way too distracted to lift such heavy weights.

“Is it your brother?” Theo asks, dragging a towel over his face.

We’re all in the gym to work on our conditioning. The assistant coaches, Jase Conner and Lucky Lynch, weave around the gym equipment, making the odd corrections to our forms.

Our trainer, Zach Palinsky, a dark-haired former hockey player in his late thirties, is over with Coach, probably filling him in on who needs to put more work in and who’s been slacking. When both their eyes slide my way, I get on the mat and start stretching.

Everyone on the team knows how hard I’ve been pushing Coach to take on Ryder as an assistant coach. But that’s not the only worry occupying my mind.

I’m starting to panic that I’m running out of time to complete my paper. Tobie is helping, but what if I left it too late to catch up?

She’s with Caleb today since Coach gave Caleb two days off. He’s back to training and the ice tomorrow, and he’s probably counting down the minutes.

Theo glances at Lincoln. “You need to have a word with Hallie, Sweet.”

The six-four-four defenseman scratches his hair. “What’s Hallie done now?”

“She looked like she was going full-on momma bear on Tobie during the last practice,” Theo says.

We all look at him.

He shrugs. “I’ve seen the look before, and when I asked her about it, she was way too close-mouthed. You know how protective she can be.”

“ Over ,” Sweet corrects him. “The word you’re looking for is over. Ever since Meredith, she’s gotten worse.”

Lincoln has been Sweet ever since he opened his locker and the grocery store candy aisle fell out. He likes candy, but he’s also sees the best in people. It’s why he missed the fact his ex wasn’t as interested in him as she was in what she could get out of him.

He never saw it coming.

Not all girls who hang around the rink are like that. Some of the guys are in happy, long-term relationships, but enough have been burned, while others are the ones doing the burning.

As we work out on the machines and use the free weights on the mat, our trainer, Zach, finishes his conversation with Coach and resumes walking around the gym.

Like most gym sessions, we never finish our conversations as we work at honing our bodies and cross-training to prevent injuries. That includes cardio and getting on the treadmill or the bikes, which we all hate.

It’s only when we’re back in the locker room, chugging from bottles of water and Gatorade or stripping to hit the showers, that we return to our conversations from the gym.

“So, you guys and Tobie, huh?” Beau rests his head on his locker with a Gatorade clenched in his fist.

“Yup.” I twist my water bottle lid.

“Wasn’t sure I bought it before,” Theo says.

He’s one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. On the ice, let’s just say there’s a reason that big slab of muscle is a defenseman, and we call him ‘The Animal.’

“She seems sweet,” Logan, one of our goalies, pulls his shirt over his head. “Wasn’t sure you were into sweet, Casanova.”

“Who doesn’t like sweet?” Javier asks.

A few heads nod.

“So, she sleeping with all of you at the same time?” Paxton asks.

I lob a towel at him.

He dodges. “What? As if we’re not all thinking about it.”

“No,” Javier says, busy pulling his clothes from his locker. “We’re not all sleeping with her together.”

“Will you?” Coach Conner asks.

Jase gets a couple of surprised glances.

The coaches generally don’t get involved when we’re digging into each other’s personal lives.

I guess this situation is a little out of the ordinary, and if he’s bringing it up, it’s because Coach asked him to.

I can see Coach wanting to make sure this isn’t going to derail our focus as we head into our last game before the championship.

Javier looks at me, relegating the question to me.

I massage the back of my neck as the locker room sounds wash over me—Coach in his office on the phone to someone, the intense spray of the shower, and the lower, murmured conversation from the other guys on the other side of the room.

“It’s not just about the sex. I’ve done the fun while it lasted thing before. This is different. Tobie is different.”

A few of the other guys are already nodding before I’ve finished explaining. Some look a little confused. Theo, I’m surprised to see, is the one who looks knowing.

I continue, “We’re still getting to know each other, figuring each other out.” This whole fake relationship was something Javier and I came up with on the fly.

It wasn’t supposed to feel this right.

“So you don’t get jealous when she’s with Jay?” Sweet asks.

I raise my eyebrow. “When have you ever seen me jealous?”

That’s not entirely accurate. Beau has made being single his personality. He doesn’t date. But he’d seemed interested in Tobie, and I’d been a little jealous.

But of Javier and Caleb?

No.

“And after the championships and the draft?” Irish asks.

I’m not the only one who blinks at him in surprise.

This is the first time he’s brought up the subject of the draft.

He’s still a junior, so I guess he has time to figure things out, but he’s not even mentioned any potential team he’s dreaming about.

Most of us have been dreaming about the team we’d give everything to play for since we were kids.

“How about we win the championships first,” I say dryly.

Theo balls up a towel and lobs it at my head, then winces, straightens his arm, and rolls his shoulder. “Fuck, those drills were killer the other day.”

Someone throws a foam roller at him, and he grunts when it smacks him on the back of the head.

He twists around, scowling as he rubs his head. “Fuck you, Matthews!”

Lucky walks over to me. “How’s Caleb handling the enforced rest?”

“Only had three texts from him asking me to sneak him into the building the other day. Apparently, Coach deactivated his security pass. Nothing from him today, though, but he’s with Tobie.”

“On a date? Before the championships?”

I grin at him. “I know, right? I was expecting him to squeeze himself into my gym bag to get into the arena.”

Jase clears his throat. “I heard someone say your girl is friends with Max.”

A tense, awkward silence fills the locker room.

I get up, ready to hit the showers. “Uh, yeah.”

“So you’ve seen her?” Paxton asks.

“Briefly,” I say.

I’d been on my way to class when she’d warned me not to hurt Tobie. I told her I had no intention of hurting her. After a suspicious stare, she’d walked away.

I’m glad Tobie has a friend like Max to watch her back, but it couldn’t have been easy for Max to approach me at all.

Another silence stretches out.

“And has she said anything about?—”

“Probably best for everyone if we let that conversation die.” Coach steps into the locker room, scowling as his office door slams shut behind him.

That’s a warning if there ever was one.

His timing is suspect. Clearly, he was listening from his office next door.

“Sure thing, Coach.” I grab my towel and head for the showers.

No one says anything for a while, and after a few beats of silence, Coach Conner asks if anyone saw the football game, and the subject moves on.

I have seen Coach so pissed he was practically shaking, and it had everything to do with Maxine Ryan.