Page 31 of Home Game

And while I knew damn well I wasn’t in the market for some sort of blind date or hookup with this Jamie guy, I knew I needed to putsomethingin my mind that wasn’t just endless thoughts about Storm Rosling.

“Let’s do it.”

8

STORM

“Hit me with a Shirley Temple,” I told Rush across the bar as I sat down next to Shawn in Jade Brewery.

“Storm! Fancy seeing you here,” Shawn said as I gave him a pat on the back.

“Sawyer said you guys were here for happy hour,” I told him.

I also thought Fancy Pants might be here too, I thought.

Though it didn’t seem like Emmett was anywhere in here, and I was a little surprised at how disappointed I was.

I’d just wanted to mess with him alittlemore, today. Was that so bad? Seeing him go all blushy when I blew him a kiss had been like catnip.

But even if Emmett wasn’t here, I could at least grab a drink with Shawn.

“We have plenty of other virgin cocktails, if you want to take a look,” Rush said. “Not in the mood for liquor today?”

“Got practice early tomorrow morning, and a game the day after that,” I said. “Normally that wouldn’t necessarily stop me, but to be honest, I kind of just fuckingloveShirley Temples, too.”

Shawn laughed. “You hear that, babe?” he said to Rush. “I told you.”

Rush grinned. “Shawn’s been trying to convince me that everyone secretly likes Shirley Temples, but they’re too afraid to order them.”

“Because it sounds like it’s for a kid,” Shawn said. “But the drink is just delicious.”

“I am with you, one hundred percent,” I told him. “I am firmly on Team Shirley Temple. Hell, make it a double.”

“What’s adoublefor a Shirley Temple?” Shawn asked.

“Two Maraschino cherries, of course,” I said.

They laughed at me, but a minute later, Rush passed my drink across the bar, and it had not only two butthreebright red cherries on top.

“Now that’s service,” I said. “That’s why people must keep coming back to Jade Brewery.”

Shawn picked up his beer glass and we clinked our glasses together, taking a sip. The icy-cold, fizzy cherry drink went down easy, refreshing as ever.

“Thanks for stopping by our meeting room this afternoon,” Shawn told me. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Was happy to,” I said. “Emmett is so diligent. He really works closely with you guys.”

“That’s why he’s the best in the game,” Shawn said. “He and his business partner Landry are like a dream team.”

“He has a business partner?”

Shawn looked up, surprised. “He hasn’t talked to you about Landry? He calls him by his nickname Lucky, sometimes. I guess they’re more colleagues than business partners, but they’re definitely best friends. They act like brothers.”

Guess there’s a whole lot I don't know about Fancy Pants.

For some reason, I felt like I was out of the loop. Like Emmett showed a different side of himself to everyone else. Like he had a whole world that he was hell-bent on keeping me out of.

I shrugged. “Guess he hasn’t mentioned his friend to me. Emmett always seemed like more of a lone wolf kind of guy.”

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