Page 67 of On the Power Play

He chuckled. “That’s not a thing.”

“I think it’s a thing. Ooh!” She lit up. “Maybe that could be something we do together? I could take you shopping?”

Jack slipped a button-up shirt onto a hanger. “I’d rather go curling.”

Delia shot him a look. “But then you’d have to sleep with other curlers.”

“You said there were options. Plus, if I would’ve known that was all I had to do to get laid, I would’ve bought a push broom years ago.”

Delia put a hand on her hip. “You keep saying BS like that, and it’s completely unbelievable, you know that, right?”

“How so?”

She grabbed more hangers and traded them for the full ones he had in his hands. “There is no way in hell you couldn’t walk out that door and bring home any girl you happened to run into out there. I see the way women look at you.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Stop answering with questions, Jack Harrison.” She drew out his name, and it sent a shiver down his spine. “It’s like you’re playing this part. Like you should be this cocky athlete, but you can’t quite bring yourself to do that, so you pretend you’re just unlucky in love, but that doesn’t work either.” Delia slowed her hands and lifted her chin. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that to sound?—”

“No, it’s fine.” His brows knitted together as he put the last shirt on the hanger. “It’s probably true.” It was true. Exactly true. Something swirled inside him, and he felt unsteady on his feet.

She took the hanger from him and smoothed out the collar of the cream shirt that zipped up the back. It looked like it would drape over her hips and cut low down her chest. Maybe he did like V-necks after all.

“It’s her, isn’t it?” Delia didn’t meet his eyes.

The air sucked out of the room. Jack’s hand started to shake. Not because he was upset by her question. He wasn’t. He couldn’t think of the word for what he was until the lyrics from Delia’s song ran through his head like he’d flicked on the faucet. She’d sung them in French, but he’d looked them up multiple times in English since. He’d listened to her sing it on TikTok, along with all the other songs she’d posted there before IndieLake.

With relief and regret. Nobody ever talked about Angie with him besides Clara. She was the only one who was willing to bring her up, and even though his ribs cinched, it was a relief. To have someone else validate that she was real—that his pain was real. The regret came second. Without exception.

Now this girl he barely knew, who he’d told once about what happened, had just read him like a damn book. Twice. And had the balls to call the shot.

Jack struggled to draw in a breath. “What happened to the coat?”

Delia looked at him, assessing. “Big Rick? I wore it every day until I heard some guys joking that I was Antoine’s property. Then I gave it away in a coat drive.”

Jack’s heart beat like a kick drum. “You never bought a new one?”

She shook her head, then set her jaw. “Have you slept with anyone since Angie died?”

Jack shook his head. He didn’t even try to sugar coat it. Three years. “It’s been a long time since I played hooky.” He hadn’t told anyone that. Not his teammates. Definitely not Clara.

Delia didn’t blink. She didn’t look away, and the intensity of her focus made him feel like a moth with its wings pinned to a corkboard. That invisible string tugged with such force, Jack nearly leaped up from the bed and reached for her.

Instead, it was Delia who jumped when her phone ringer punctured the silence. She nearly tripped over her suitcase, and Jack reached out a hand to keep her from falling into his lap. As she righted herself, her hand left a trail of heat across his forearm.

“Hey! Tony!” Delia’s tone was too bright, and she was out of breath even though she’d been standing perfectly still in front of him. “Mmhmm, we’re both here. A link? I haven’t checked my email, but I’m sure it’s there.”

The skin on her neck had turned two different colours. Jack had zero memory of anything she said to Tony after he noticed that.

Chapter Sixteen

Delia sat in the chair Jack pulled over next to its counterpart on the opposite side of the fireplace. She propped up her phone against a vase that looked like it had been shattered and glued back together.

"Aren’t you two adorable?" Tony leaned back from the camera. "Having fun playing house?"

Delia smiled, pretending his comments didn’t pull tight on the tangle in her stomach. "This place is amazing. You and Mary outdid yourselves."

Tony pointed through the screen at Jack. "You have him to thank. It was the perfect option."

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