Page 9 of Going All In

“Yeah, we’re keeping it low-key right now.”

“What’s his name? How did you meet him? When can I meet him?”

“Um, it’s,” she paused, looking around her apartment, ignoring Ally’s raised brow.

“You are making this up, aren’t you? Seriously, Darcy. I’m just trying to help. I only want you to be happy and settled.”

Her mother was laying it on thick, but Darcy had already started this mess.

“His name. Um, his name is Jake.”

She looked over her shoulder and glared at Ally when the chuckles started up again. Her roommate shook her head. Now you’ve done it, Ally mouthed.

“Jake. How did you meet Jake? Is he tall? Nice? Send me a picture.”

“Um, Mom. I have to go. We’re ordering dinner and Ally is starving.”

“But what about Jake?”

“I’ll send you a picture later, okay? Yeah, love you. Bye, Mom,” she said, ending the call while her mother sputtered.

“What just happened?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing,” Ally said, laughing. “Jake, huh? You better hope they never meet.”

“They won’t. I can hold her off.”

“Hate to break it to you, Darc, but you’ve never been able to hold your mother off. Case in point,” Ally said, gesturing toward the phone still in my hand.

“Don’t say a word to anyone,” she said.

“Oh man, you’ve done it now,” Ally said. “So, extra bread?”

Darcy shook her head. “Definitely.”

“Number thirty-five. Twominutes for hooking,” the ref called out with two minutes left in the first period.

“That was not hooking,” Jake argued with the man as Cheesy skated up. “I barely touched the guy. You gonna get him for embellishment? I haven’t seen such theatrics since I was stuck watching soaps with my grandma when I was a kid. Oh, my leg. Please. That was a Days of Our Lives dive.”

“Get in the box, Northman. That was a clear hook,” the ref argued back.

“We’ll kill it,” Cheesy said, not even getting in on the argument.

Shit. They were down zero to two. Yeah, it was the first period, but now they would be a man down for a bogus call. Jake didn’t miss Smithy batting his eyes toward him as he pretended to limp toward the bench. Goddamn prick.

Jake glanced toward his own bench and could only imagine the fury rolling through Bugsy right now. The Strikers’ coach could be a hothead, at least where Jake was concerned. Maybe Jake took too many penalties, something his agent was up his ass about, but that was a fucking bullshit call.

Not that it mattered if Carolina scored while he was sitting in the sin bin.

He did his time, and thank fuck, Carolina didn’t score. As the end of the period buzzer sounded, he did his skate of shame to the bench and followed the rest of the team down the tunnel to their locker room.

“Northman, what the hell was that?” Bugsy yelled as soon as Jake ambled into the locker room on his skates.

“A bullshit call, Bugs. Smithy took a dive.”

“Yeah, because he knew he could with you. Your penalty minutes are higher than most of the guys in this room. Figure your shit out and don’t be a damn target. We’re down two. If they’d scored, you can bet your ass I would’ve seriously considered keeping you on the bench, and that’s not fair to the rest of the guys who have to pick up your slack.”

“Got it,” Jake said, feeling thoroughly chastised. Bugsy had no problem calling guys out, and Jake was a popular target since most of the time it was deserved. Damn diving bastard.

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