Page 8 of Game On

And that damn midriff.

Jamie cleared his throat. “He seems cool.”

“That’s all you’ve got for me? Lame.”

“I only met the guy for ten minutes before I went to shower the plane off me.”

“Fine, fine.” Niall’s expression turned serious. “How are you?”

Jamie shrugged. Opened his mouth to answer with the standard I’m fine. But this was Niall. Nye. At less than fourteen months apart, they’d always been close. So Jamie went with the truth. “I’m nervous about meeting my new teammates tomorrow. It’s been a long time since I was the new guy on the team.”

And Jamie didn’t quite trust that he’d made the right choice by coming here. After royally screwing up his relationship with Scott, a relationship that should’ve been a given, it was hard to trust anything anymore.

“The Orcas’ social media team has really stepped it up this year, and I’ve been watching their videos online,” Niall said. “They seem like a good crew.”

“Seem being the operative word. Nobody really knows what a team’s like until they step foot in the locker room.”

“What about your coach? What’s he like? He’s been getting a lot of praise for turning the Orcas around this season.”

That was putting it mildly. Last season, the Orcas had come in at the bottom of the standings. Now, they were first in their division. And the roster hadn’t changed much between seasons, meaning this year’s new coaching staff knew what the fuck they were doing.

“Nice guy,” Jamie said. “Very direct and to the point. I get the feeling he’s a no-shit-taker.”

Niall sighed. “Love no-shit-takers. He single?”

“I don’t know. Jesus.”

Niall cackled.

“Aren’t you seeing someone, anyway?”

“I was. That ended,” Niall said neutrally.

“When?”

“Yesterday.”

“Shit.” Jamie sat up. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Niall shrugged, clearly going for cavalier, but it was anything but. “It was casual. A few dates over the past few weeks. But there was no spark, so we decided to be friends only.”

“Still. That sucks.”

“It is what it is. Nothing like ending a three-year relationship.”

Jamie sucked in a breath.

“Sorry.” Niall winced and ran a hand through hair the same shade of light brown as Jamie’s. “I didn’t mean to sound callous.”

“No, it’s...” It was Jamie’s turn to shrug. “It was just... hard, trying to move past it when my teammates wouldn’t let me forget that I broke the captain’s baby brother’s heart.” Hopefully, being here, where no one knew what had happened, would finally allow Jamie to move on. Because going to work had been a fucking chore lately, and hockey should never be a chore.

“Don’t they know the breakup was mutual?”

“They do. They just chose to ignore that. Anyway.” Jamie waved a hand as if he could simply dust away the past six months. “The team doesn’t have anything scheduled on Monday, so I thought I’d drive to Kelowna on Sunday, come back Monday.”

Niall’s face split into a grin. “Yeah? Awesome. You’re welcome to stay with me, as usual, though don’t be surprised when Mona cuddles up to you during the night.”

“Your dog farts in her sleep, you know.”

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