Page 105 of The Hat Trick

Chandler: It’s a school night, no one is coming over.

Matt: Good thing neither of us are in school. And you don’t have a job.

Chandler: I work for myself now. Which means I’m the boss and the boss says no hockey players over tonight.

I smirk and while I go to respond I see another message pop up from my dad. I scowl at the message but choose to ignore it for now.

Matt: Does the boss say no to a phone call?

Chandler: I’ll try to ask her, but I’m warning you she’s pretty hard to convince.

Matt: Good thing I’m great at convincing. I’ll call you when I’m home, Bunny.

Ignoring the other message on my phone I peel out of the garage to head home. I’m happy to see there aren’t any fans waiting to have things signed. Normally I thrive off that, but tonight I just want to get home as soon as possible.

I’m not even in my front door when I’m calling her. She lets the phone ring for so long I think she’s actually going to let it go to voicemail, but finally I hear her, and my shoulders actually deflate.

“Hey,” she greets.

“Hey, I’m glad your boss is letting you take a break to have a late-night phone call,” I tease. It’s notthatlate, only a little past eleven PM.

“Yeah, she took pity on you since you spent so much time in the penalty box tonight.”

“At least my team won.”

“No thanks to you.”

“Hey, that fight was the reason for our first goal.”

She chuckles, “That so?”

“Yeah, of course. It riles everyone up.”

“Well,” she pauses, “it was kind of hot.”

I stop my steps headed toward my bedroom, unsure if I heard her right. “What did you say?”

She hesitates before answering again. “It was kind of hot, McQuaid.”

I bite back a groan, there’s something about her calling me by my last name. I continue heading up to my bedroom and stripping down to just my boxer briefs while laying on my bed.

“You guys are off for a week now, right?” she asks.

“Yup, and I know we are all hoping our Little Bunny will make some time for us in her busy schedule with a hard ass boss.”

She sighs. “I think that might be able to be arranged.”

“Yeah?” I go to say more, but my phone vibrates against my ear, and I pull back to see more messages from my dad. I groan in annoyance when I see what he’s saying.

Dad: I saw the game. Saw that fight. Seemed unnecessary. Along with the other penalty.

Dad: Seems like your team scores just fine without you. What are you even there for?

Dad: Step it up, kid.

“Fucking asshole,” I mumble.

“What?” Chandler’s voice comes through the phone, and I almost forgot she was still there.

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