Page 47 of Conner

He gave a little chuckle. “To be fair, that is a special stick. That’s the one I won the championship game with my senior year at Notre Dame. Someday I'll have a cup stick to add to it. Are you sure you're okay?” She nodded, her heart rate still coming back down. He bent down and kissed her head. “I’ll be back in just a minute.”

“Take your time,” she said, smiling up at him.

Conner disappeared down the stairs and Sasha went to get her phone and laptop from the guest room. She didn't know how long Conner would be, and she wanted to touch base with Hillary to see if they could meet first thing tomorrow. The more time she spent with Conner the more she wanted to stay. As scary as it was going to be to face this, it was time.

After she emailed Hillary, she got on to check the socials. She had turned the gala post comments off, but all the other ones had nothing out of the ordinary happening.

She had gotten an email that said they were making the announcement about Wes being out for the season tomorrow. They had known for a while, but it wasn’t yet public knowledge. If that was being announced tomorrow, she would need to make a post for that.

This did have her rethinking talking to Hillary tomorrow. Having the team’s leading goal scorer out for the season with playoffs right around the corner was going to be a big day. Regardless, while Conner was dealing with his brother, she would get some posts to have for the meeting tomorrow morning.

She opened her laptop and got to work. Something about working in Conner's bed felt good, something about staying here is his house felt like home. As infuriating as he was, he was equally wonderful. Sasha was picky, she knew that. Oftentimes she was told she was too picky, mostly by men she wasn’t interested in that felt like she should be because of her body, but that wasn’t how Sasha played. She had high standards for herself and for those in her life, but so did Conner. She wasn't sure what was going on here, but she had a feeling it might be something special, she just needed to get this whole mess behind her.

But that was a problem for tomorrow, tonight she would get these posts ready to go.

27

Conner

Conner headed back downstairs to deal with Dylan. Dylan showing up drunk to his house was a common occurrence once upon a time, but it hadn't been in years. He was not feeling very sympathetic to him for multiple reasons. In the morning they were starting their playoff push. Considering Dylan was his agent, he knew how important playoffs were in all aspects of his career. But mostly he was ready to let his brother have it because the terror that fell over Sasha's face was enough to have him seeing red.

He had always been the kind of guy to stand up for people. His father had instilled that in him. Some truly amazing hockey coaches had shown him how to lead, but he also just had that in him, that ability to lead. But that ability also meant calling out bullshit, and after he told Sasha there was nothing to be afraid of, he was ready to call out his brother's bullshit.

Dylan was already sitting at his kitchen table, head on his hands with an open bottle of Gatorade in front of him.

“What the fuck, Dylan,” he said as he banged on the table. His head popped up, and when Conner saw the look on his face some of the anger he felt evaporated. Dylan was crying. “What's up?”

“I think I fucked things up,” he said putting his head back in his hands.

“What things?” he asked, sitting down at the table with him.

“Things with Dan. We were at the bar tonight and we ran into Joey…”

“Joey’s a tool.”

“I know,” he said with a deep sigh and a shake of his head. “But he started going on about how I was in college. Dan never really went through that phase, and I think it was kind of freaking him out.”

“Oh, but Dylan, you're not a man whore anymore,” Conner said, trying to make light of the situation.

“I know, but I think Dan was kind of freaking out…and Joey. Joey fucking kissed me in the bathroom. Dan walked in and then he walked out of the bar and just left me there. I had to Uber here. I can't get him to answer any calls or texts. Conner, I think he might be the one, but fucking Joey,” he said as he dropped his head back in his hands and sniffled.

“Damn, I'm sorry Dylan, that's messed up. Just give Dan some time, that sounds like it was a lot to digest for him.”

“Can I just crash in your guest bed tonight?”

“Umm…” Conner was trying to think of what to say, technically Sasha was in his bed, but all of her stuff was in the guest room. “The guest room is kind of a mess, but you can stay on the couch.”

Dylan looked up at him with curious eyes. Then he looked around the room and there on the kitchen counter was Sasha's purse.

“Oh my god, do you have company?”

“I do.”

“Conner. You have an overnight guest during playoffs?”

“Playoffs haven't started yet.”

“Yeah, but you start the playoff push at practice tomorrow.”

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