Chapter Seven

Then

I really didn’t dig holiday parties.

I didn’t mind the booster club parties—the ones held at the bowling alley or wherever—but holiday parties were stuffier. We were expected to wear our pre-away game attire, and as someone who preferred his sweats and skates, slacks, button-downs, and ties were not my favorite.

Thankfully, Coach and the club were allowing us to ditch the ties and sport coats. If it were a holiday party just among the team, none of this would be required, but because it was a party for our fans, we were expected to put on a show.

I was messy-spiking my normally messy hair—I was low maintenance that way—in the half-bathroom of the house the boys and I were renting, when Jason Thompson came barreling into the apartment through the door across the hall. Dude didn’t even live in this complex, so what the hell he was doing here was beyond me. He’d have had to drive past the hotel where this shindig was being held, to get here.

I leaned out the bathroom door, watching as the rook moved into the kitchen, where he grabbed what I assumed was one of my beers, to shoot the shit with Caden.

Rook didn’t care for Caden’s big-name brews, and often gravitated toward my local microbrewery ones.

I was going to make him start paying, the shit; they weren’t cheap. Caden’s Milwaukee’s “Beast” was far easier on the wallet.

I stepped back into the bathroom to finish my hair and wash my hands, and when I headed into the kitchen, Jason was already gone.

Sure enough, as the bottle on the counter was an indication, the fucker took one of my beers—and only drank a quarter of it.

“He’s going to start paying,” I threatened, which only sent Caden into a deep laugh.

“You’ll forgive him.” There was something about the way Caden said it that had me pausing, but then pushing past it and ignoring the thought.

“That shit’s expensive.” I could afford it, but still. Respect.

“It’s a fall beer, Press; they’ve moved on to their winter lagers.”

“All the more reason to savor them.”

“Whatever. You done in the bathroom, Beauty? You’re such a fucking girl.”

I grinned crookedly, giving my friend the middle finger. “Hey, now, some of us like to look good.” I ran my hands down my light blue dress shirt, then tucked my hands in the pockets of my brown slacks. With a shrug and a grin, I added, “Can’t help that I’m pretty. You should probably stop breaking your nose.”

“Caro digs the ruggedness.”

“When is she due back, anyway?” Caroline Leigh, country superstar sensation, was headlining a West coast tour. When it wasn’t hockey season, and she wasn’t on tour, Caden and Caroline lived in Nashville—just like every one of her closest country crooning BFFs. I liked to give Caden shit about it. He was the furthest thing from a cowboy.

“She’ll be in town next Monday, and we’ll head down to her family for Thanksgiving Thursday morning.”

Shit, I hadn’t even considered that Thanksgiving was coming up. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was going to do with our big thirty-six hours off from the game. Thankfully, my family was only six hours north, so I could probably make that work.

“You make plans for the holiday? You hanging with Teague?”

I shook my head, moving to dump Jason’s basically untouched beer. “Nothing yet. We got a week.”

“Yeah. Hardly. We’ve got five days.”

My lips kicked up to the left and I nodded. “Yeah. Plenty of time.”

“Well,” Caden said, pushing away from the counter, “what we don’t have plenty of time for, is getting down to the party. We’re going to be fashionably late, so it’s a good thing you put on your makeup.” Then, he tossed my truck keys at me. “You may be the lady, but you’re driving.”

***

From my spot at the banquet hall bar, I watched as Jason fucking Thompson walked into the room with Ryleigh Scott on his arm.

What the ever-loving-fuck?

I shook my head, a bad taste on my tongue, even though I’d been expecting this very moment. On the drive over, Caden slipped that Jason stopped over to inform him, us—me?—that he was picking up Ryleigh who, funny story, lived in the same complex that we did.

I lifted the longneck bottle of Leinenkugel to my lips and watched the two of them as they crossed the floor. She looked like she felt both out of place and uncomfortable, but she certainly looked good, wearing a little black dress with thick straps over her shoulders, and a criss-cross action going on over her middle. On her arm, a sweater was draped and, as much as I fucking hated him for bringing her, I cursed Jason for making her carry it.

Beyond that, though, she looked real fucking cozy by Jason’s side.

All sorts of shit started to race through my head. She said she wasn’t a puck bunny, and as much as I believed it at first, here she was, with a guy who wasn’t the recipient of her note.

She looks uncomfortable.

She was here with Jason.

I shook my head and tried to turn back to the bar. It wasn’t like she came out and told me she was looking to screw me and no one else on the team. Maybe the shyness was just an act. Maybe she was looking for a stepping stone, and Jason presented the perfect opportunity.

Maybe…

“Who’s the girl with Thompson?” Nick said, pulling me back into the conversation he was having with Kyle Connor. “Isn’t that your Ryleigh?”

“Not my anything,” I said shortly, taking another drag from my beer and forcing myself not to look at them again. “But yeah, that’s her.”

What the hell was she trying to do? The longer this played out, even as short of a time as it had been, the more it was bothering me. Here I’d been, trying to figure out how to possibly respond to her note, trying to find a way to breach her shy guard, and there she was.

Not on my arm.

But on Jason fucking Thompson’s.

“What is she, like, eighteen?” Nick asked, with a squint to his eyes. He must not have gotten that great of a look at her before, if he was only seeing her younger features now.

“Twenty-three.” But it wasn’t me who answered.

I swung my gaze to Kyle. “How the fuck do you know that?” It came out a little...harsher...than I thought it would.

The guy just shrugged, not at all put off by my tone. “Jace and I bumped into her at the mall the other day. Then he invited her here. She said yes.”

With a short, slow nod, I turned my body back to the bar, away from Jason and Ryleigh. So be it. I really was just a stepping stone, it would seem. If she wanted the rook, good for her.

“Why?” Kyle asked me. “You have a thing for her too?”

Nick barked out a laugh but before he could say anything, I shook my head, bringing my beer to my mouth once again. “Nope.”

Not anymore.

Some things died fast.