Page 20 of Matched with the Player

“Ignore him.” Axel was in his face before Kyle could fire back something he’d regret.

The Finn dropped a heavy arm around his shoulders and steered Kyle away from their teammates as they headed toward the tunnel to the locker rooms and workout facility.

A foul mood had dogged him ever since he and Marissa exchanged a terse “good-night” when he’d dropped her off at her car yesterday. He’d hoped that a hard practice this morning would take the edge off, but if anything, he felt fiercer than ever following his sloppiest performance since joining his new team.

“I don’t miss that shot,” he told Ax, even though his foster brother knew it as well as he did. “Leandre isn’t taking my spot on the top line because of one missed goal. I don’t worry about him. But I don’t know what the hell went wrong just now, and that...”

Scares the crap out of me.

He didn’t finish the sentence because he didn’t need to. Ax would understand because hockey was a language they spoke fluently. Hell, some sports writers had suggested they had a telepathic connection on the ice, their passes to each other as fluid as any in the game since they had a sixth sense for where one another would be.

“What’s wrong today?” Ax let go of him and pulled his helmet off. A dark red U-shaped scar on his cheek added to the intimidation factor of an already big guy.

The coaches were heading in now, the ice clear of everyone but them. Outside the glass boards, Kyle could see the rink was about half full of fans who’d come to see a Phantoms’ practice. Too bad he’d put on such a crappy show.

Ax wanted to know what was wrong?

“Marissa Collins.” His problem had a name. “The woman from the fundraiser.”

“You’re kidding me, right?” Circling Kyle on his skates, Axel gave his shoulder a light punch. “It’s you who always said women complicate the game. I didn’t buy into it until the last one cheated on me and I started to play like crap. Now?” He made a decisive sweep with his hand. “No women until the off-season. End of sentence.”

“Yeah. That’s the principle I’m working under, too.” Although if Marissa had shown any inclination to take things farther last night, he had the feeling his dictate would burn to ash in the face of the heat they generated. “But I can’t stop thinking about her.”

“What do you mean?” Axel stopped, glowering. “You said she was married.”

“She wears a wedding ring as a decoy because she’s a professional matchmaker and she doesn’t want to attract attention.”

“Doesn’t she know some guys hit on married women just for the hell of it?”

Unfortunately, they had a guy like that on the Phantoms’ team.

“I’m not sure. Either way, nothing happened between us.” Other than Marissa giving him a matchmaking questionnaire to fill out.

The memory still ticked him off.

“Interesting.” Axel nodded toward the tunnel since the fans were clustered by the players’ exit now, hoping for autographs or the chance to say hello. “You played it safe with her, yet you’re still paying the price for it today.”

More like she’d played it safe with him. But the end result remained the same. His game sucked and he needed to get on track before the next game in Pittsburgh. The Phantoms franchise hadn’t brought him here to play like he had this morning.

They halted their conversation as they reached the mouth of the tunnel where fans could stand above them and reach down with programs to autograph. Mostly, on a practice day, they came to just shake hands or exchange a word. These were the hardcore fans, local diehards or faraway supporters who’d made a trip to catch a couple of games and a practice. A few hockey groupies showed up every day, a handful of women who’d had a hard go of it in life and enjoyed the sense of family that a sports team offered.

Ax took as much time as Kyle did, shooting the breeze with some, signing pucks and flyers for others. When they finished, they trudged over the carpet on their skates toward the locker room.

“Maybe the rules don’t apply to this woman,” Axel observed, picking up where they’d left off their conversation.

“Marissa?” How did she manage to get in his head again so fast when he’d avoided thinking about her for at least five minutes?

“The matchmaker,” he clarified, his round vowels still carrying the sound of Helsinki. “We know it kills your game to be with the wrong females. But maybe there are other women- the ones you’re meant to be with – who mess with your head when you avoid the inevitable.”

“You think I should break the No Women Until the Off-Season rule?” Pausing outside the locker room with a big Phantoms logo on the double doors, Kyle wasn’t entirely sure he could win over Marissa even if he caved.

“Well,” Axel grinned, his new front tooth blending seamlessly with the rest after being knocked out in a game the week before. “You see how you play when you’re not with her. I would take a chance and see if being with her straightens you out. So to speak.”

The Finn was surprisingly gifted in the double entendre for a foreign dude, but then, he’d been around a lot of smack- talking, innuendo-loving, crude conversationalists in U.S. hockey clubs.

Then again, he probably learned everything he knew from living with four brothers in the Murphy household.

“What if that doesn’t help? What if being with her makes it worse?”

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