Page 24 of Puck Prince

“There she is!” Uncle Randy booms with a wide grin as soon as I walk through his office door.

I smile back—a real smile, my first in a few days—and make my way over to him. He rounds the desk, enveloping me in one of his signature bear hugs.

I pull away, my cheeks a little warm. “Sorry, I’m not sure if hugging is job-appropriate now that I officially work here.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Alley Cat. Professionalism can suck a big one if it means hugging my second daughter.”

I smile at that and hug him again. My uncle has always treated me as though I am his own. After my parents’ nasty divorce, he basically raised me. If anyone has rights to my childhood, it would be him.

He goes back around to his side of the massive, mahogany desk and gestures to the chair next to me. “Sit, please.Mi casa es tu casa.”

I take a seat across from him. “Sorry I’m late. I had to take care of some… business downstairs.”

“I heard.”

Whatever good mood I mustered on the elevator drops off my face. Surely, he doesn’t mean?—

“Sounds like that Vince Fontaine wannabe tried to interrogate you at the gates.” He nods grimly, taking a sip of black coffee from a stainless steel thermos with the Scythes logo engraved on the side.

I swallow back a nervous laugh. “Right. Reporters can be real jerks sometimes.”

“Bane of my existence. You won’t have to worry about that one again, though. I told security to eighty-six his ass.”

“Oh?” I reach for a bottle of water from the mini-fridge.

“You want something stronger?” he asks. “I can have cocktails in here at the snap of my fingers. A little first day celebration, if you’d like.”

I shake my head. “I’m good.”

“You sure? I have Angel’s Envy.”

He knows I am a sucker for good whiskey. “Uncle Randy, it’s not even lunch time.”

“Mimosas, then?”

“I’m fine with water.” I cheers his coffee thermos and take a sip, only now realizing how parched I am. Crossing metaphorical horns with Owen—not a sex reference,just to be clear—is super draining.(Also not a sex reference.)

“Like I was saying, that jokester won’t be bothering you or any of my boys again. Those cameras were live, and the way he was talking to you? He’s lucky I didn’t escort him off the property myself. I would have done it with my foot up his ass.”

“It was already on the news?” I feel sick.

“Meh, yeah. But that’s the nature of the beast that is pro hockey, Alley Cat. I am just glad Sharpe shuffled you out of there. He’s a loaded gun, that’s for sure. But all that huff and puff has its uses. One, he got you away from the hungry cameras. Two, he’s a viper on the ice.”

I can hear the little Kennedy on my shoulder cackling at that one.That’s not the only place he’s a viper.

“That said,” Uncle Randy continues, “I wouldn’t get too close to any of these guys.”

My eyes snap up to meet his as my thoughts bounce around my skull like an overturned bucket of ping pong balls.

“Hockey players are charming, Cal. But the problem is that they know it.”

He’s being protective, which is nothing new. In high school, he scared away my prom date by asking him if he knew that the blade on a pair of hockey skates is strong enough to crack a human skull. The poor guy ducked out before even opening the corsage box.

“I am painfully aware of just how charming pro athletes think they are, Uncle Randy. I’ve worked with them for years. You don’t have to worry about me. I’m no rookie.”

He rests his chin on his fist and gives me that paternal look he does so well. “I know you’re not, sweetheart. I also know you’regreat at what you do. A real go-getter. You always have been. You know, you got that from your?—”

He stops, but he doesn’t need to keep going for me to get the point. We both know where I got it: my mom.

---