Page 11 of Faking the Shot

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Logan moved close,and Zac swerved out of the way, so Logan thumped the plexiglass instead of him.

“Dude, what is wrong with you?” Drew called.

Logan muttered something and skated off, leaving Zac to exchange glances with Drew and the coach.

“Is there something I need to know about?” Coach asked.

“Nope.”

“Logan got a little ticked at Zac last night when he caught Ainsley Beckett.”

“Caught Ainsley—wait. Are you going out with Ainsley Beckett?”

“No.”

“My wife loves that show she’s on. If ever you see her again, let us know, okay?”

“Sure.” Like that would ever happen.

Drew grinned as they skated to the opposite end, near where Chris was saving shots. “Can you imagine how crazy that would make Logan if you did go out with her?”

His lips twitched. “That’d almost be worth it.”

“Come on. You saw the woman.Shewould be worth it. She’s hot.”

“And she has a boyfriend, so no can do. Remember?”

Drew dropped a word Zac no longer said, even though he wholeheartedly agreed with the sentiment. It’d be nice to live in a parallel universe where he could date whomever he wanted without worrying about their motives, unlike every other woman he had dated, ever. But he didn’t, so he couldn’t, so he’d remain dateless while trying to figure out how following Jesus was supposed to affect how he conducted relationships. Which he suspected probably meant no sleeping with them on the first date. Or maybe even waiting until they were engaged.

“Parotti!”

He blinked, refocused on the training session. Thank goodness today wasn’t a game day. Last night had messed with his head far more than he realized. Which meant proving to the others here—and himself—that he was just fine, thank you. That no woman was going to steal his laser focus on the prize: scoring as many goals as he could so they could win Lord Stanley’s Cup two years in a row.

By the timehe returned to the dressing room, most of the others had changed and were laughing, talking, checking out their phones.

“Hey, look, he’s back.” Nikolaj Zamberg, their backup goalie, gestured him closer. “We saw the clip.”

“What clip?”

Nik showed Zac his phone: Ainsley’s near fall, and Zac’s near-instant save. “Smooth moves, man.”

“Parotti for the win!” Someone else jeered.

“She’s got a boyfriend, and I don’t trespass.”

“Good man,” Chris said.

“Hey, I’d be okay to trespass when she looks like that.” Nik held out his phone again.

This time the clip showed Ainsley in full glam diva mode, the camera swooping in fast then slow, highlighting every perfect feature that had etched into his brain, and chased him through his dreams. He didn’t want her filling his mind like this, so he’d tried to pray it away, but here she was. Again. Looking deep into the camera—into his soul—and looking sultry, before smiling and looking like the girl next door.

“Look, she’s pretty, but she’s not my type, okay?”

“Yeah, cos we’ve all seen over the years that you prefer going out with the ugly ones,” Logan jeered.

There was no way to answer that without Zac coming across as arrogant or cruel, except, “I thought we heard last night how it’s up to all of us to respect women. And that includes how we talk about them in situations like this.”

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