Page 63 of Power Play

Liam jerked away from me as if he was breaking the tractor beam he’d been caught in. He pulled Tess behind him before facing a man in a pair of unzipped coveralls with the arms tied around his waist. The tank top he wore underneath was smudged with black grease and he had a streak of it over his bicep. He wasn’t as tall as Liam, but he was thick, like a working man.

Also handsome, and in some ways…familiar?

The longer I looked at him the more he looked like Liam.

Weird.

“Nick,” Liam said with a smile, relaxing when he realized he knew the guy. “Good to see you, man. This is wild, isn’t it? I’ve been in town like five minutes, and I’ve already run into you.”

“What are you doing here?” Nick asked.

He did not look happy to see Liam, which was very strange. As a rule, people were thrilled to see Liam. He was a giant, rich Stanley Cup winning hockey player. If you didn’t care about that – he was very handsome. This guy was unmoved by all of that.

“I’m on vacation,” Liam said.

“Vacation?” Nick spat, like Liam said he was moving in. “You have got to be kidding me.”

“I’m thinking maybe I should have given you a heads up,” Liam said. “I realize now that might have been a mistake.”

“Hey?” Another man stepped up to us wiping his hands on a cloth, and it took me a second to recognize the man from the cookbook I just bought. Antony Renard. In the flesh. In the gorgeous silver fox flesh. Goodness, he was handsome.

“Holy shit,” I said and everyone turned to stare at me. “You’re…ah…Antony Renard.”

Liam gave me a look that said now was not the time to fangirl.

“Sorry,” I said. I couldn’t help it. “But I’m a big fan. I just bought your book.”

“It’s always great to meet another food lover,” Antony said, with the smile I remembered from when we’d met before, charming and confident. “And of course I recognize my favorite Bruiser. Why don’t you introduce us, Nick?”

The older man clapped a hand on Nick’s shoulder. It looked like a dad move that communicated a hundred different things. Calm down, keep your cool, be polite.

Don’t take a swing at the guy.

While there were days when all I wanted to do was take a swing at Liam Locke, I couldn’t fathom where the insta-hate energy came from with this man.

“This is Liam Locke,” Nick said to Antony. “My…” he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Half-brother. This is Antony, my dad.”

Liam lifted his arms like he’d just won something, and I felt my jaw drop. Half-brother? Was he for real?

“Yes!” Liam said and reached out to shake Antony’s hand. “Yes. Nice to meet you. This is Tess,” Liam said, stepping aside to reveal Tess standing behind him, watching the tense meeting under the oak tree with the end of her ponytail in her mouth. “And this is Kit,” Liam said.

We all exchanged awkward and brief hellos and head nods while Liam, charging right ahead with his celebration, didn’t notice the undercurrents between Nick and Antony. The tight-lipped expressions. The deep breaths and slow exhales.

“This is my home, man,” Nick said. “My work is here. My family. You can’t just show up here and force the situation.”

“I’m not here for that. Really. This wasn’t some plan to ambush you. I promise,” Liam said. “I was invited here by a hockey friend. Yes, I knew you were here but I was so eager to get out of Portland, I didn’t think too much about it.”

Liam turned to me, like he needed an assist, but I didn’t know how to make this better. I didn’t understand what was going on. At all.

Half-brother? Since when? Why wouldn’t Liam tell this guy he was coming? Also, which hockey friend invited him? And why didn’t he tell me any of this?

“I’ll stay out of your way, if that’s what you want,” Liam told Nick.

“You do that,” Nick said tightly. “Professional hockey player or not, I fight dirty.” Nick walked away without a goodbye. Antony shot an expression of pained awkwardness in our direction, as if apologizing for his son’s rudeness, but also acknowledging there was a reason for it. Then he followed Nick.

I turned to Liam, but before I could even ask what the hell was going on, Liam was being hoisted off his feet.

“Liam Locke,” the guy who was bouncing Liam like a baby yelled.

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