Page 4 of Spite Crush

“That’s sweet of you,” I told her. “But we just snapped a losing streak so I think we’re okay.”

“Your loss,” she answered with a shrug. “Hell, maybe Kellen Fox is your good luck charm.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” It came out a little sharper than I’d intended, but I didn’t appreciate the insinuation.

I’d kept my sexuality a very closely guarded secret from almost everyone and I didn’t need Naomi spreading shit around just because I turned her down for a drink. Again.

Granted, things were looking better every day for gay guys in the sports world, but I wasn’t looking to get outed and find out for myself just yet. It was easier to just keep my sex life, or lack thereof, to myself completely.

“Easy, Zak,” she said softly. “I just meant that he shows up and youguys finally win again. Why…you got something you want to tell me?”

“The list of things I want to tell you is so microscopic that you wouldn’t be able to find it with both hands and a magnifying glass,” I promised her.

“Your hostility is kind of hot,” she said, grinning at me. “Take your shirt off.”

“You spend way too much time around players,” I told her, chuckling softly as I allowed the tension to ease from my shoulders. She was justpoking at me, which was her job and I couldn’t fault her for it.

We weren’t exactly friends, but we’d always been friendly. She’d been with Hockey Tonight since I’d started my pro career with the Inferno, so we’d sort of grown up together in arenas over the years.

She flirted with me, I shot her down, and she believed it was because I valued our working relationship too much to ruin it with dating. Which worked for me.

Also, Josh was head over heels for her. And lately she’d beenshowing interest in him as well. So while she might pretend to come on to me, she’d probably run for the hills if I offered to take her up on it.

Which was something to consider…later.

“That’s what my mom says, too,” she agreed. “See you in Cleveland, Dempsey.”

“Later, Naomi.”

I headed toward the exit feeling much better than I had when my conversation with her had started. The press conference seemed to have gone okay, and I’d left itlighthearted with the biggest reporter in the game, like I always did.

Plus, I’d snapped our losing streak. We were only a few weeks out from playoff season, and while we were still in the running, every loss had felt like a nail in the team’s coffin. So I was still riding pretty high after getting that last goal. Which helped to put the blond, tatted bombshell in the back of my mind again so I could just focus on the fact that all in all, it had been a very successful night.

Chapter Three

~Kellen~

“When asked about his beef with Kellen Fox, Dempsey admitted that he didn’t know who the man was but added -People come to hockey games to watch hockey. Not to celebrity gossip-watch the stands. So if rock stars or whatever want to come to the games, great. But have some [expletive] respect for the game and stop pulling the attention. It’s embarrassing.There’s been no response from Kellen Fox or HSF to Dempsey’s statement, but we’ll bewatching closely to see if this interaction was a one-off, or if there’s more to this story than each camp would like to admit.”

“He has no idea who I am?” I said coldly, turning away from the Hockey Tonight broadcast to glare at Craig. “And what does she mean no response? This is the first I’m even hearing about it.”

“Relax,” Craig insisted, motioning for the rest of the band to stop snickering at me. “You guys just got out a shout out on HT. This is fantastic.”

“This is crap,” I argued. “I didn’t go to the game for attention. I didn’t even want to go at all. You need to release a statement.”

“Come on, Kel,” Ford said. “Let it go. We’ve got a sound check in like ten minutes and I don’t want you distracted by this.”

“Really, Ford?” I turned my glare on the drummer, who just rolled his eyes at me. “He’s calling me out. I can’t just do nothing.”

“Yes,” Tim insisted. “Youcanjust do nothing. Youaregoing to just do nothing. We’re in Michigan for God’ssake. You can’t start a media slap fight with their hockey darling.”

“He started it!” I snapped at the bassist.

“He started it,” Tim mocked me.

“He did,” I insisted. “He flipped me off. He ranted about me on national television.”

“How do you know he didn’t say that offhand to someone else and it’s this Naomi chick trying to make it a spectacle?” Ford asked.

---