Page 30 of Going All In

Jake adjusted the bouncy hearts on his head. They were all given a headband to wear. His agent told him to go to every hospital visit to help boost his image, but to be honest, Jake would never say no to hanging out with these kids. It twisted his gut to see how sick some of them were, and if his presence put a smile on their faces, he’d do it in a heartbeat.

And he knew how important this was to Westie. His teammate had created Westie’s Warriors in honor of his girlfriend’s sister, who had died from a rare form of cancer when she was a child. Jake tried to swing by Westie’s suite at the arena to greet kids when he could.

Today they were celebrating Valentine’s Day with the kids who were stuck in the hospital. The holiday wasn’t until later this week, but they had a free day today. They’d gotten back from their road trip yesterday and they didn’t have another game until tomorrow night. A game that Darcy had promised to show up at.

They’d managed to pull it off last week at C&B. He was waiting for Harty to grill him, but it hadn’t happened yet, which was keeping Jake on his toes. His friend must be plotting something, and Jake was man enough to admit that made him nervous as fuck.

“Hey, guys. Don’t you look festive,” Carol, from patient services, said, opening a side door for them.

Westie never wanted to make a big deal about hospital visits, so they never went in the front doors. This was about the kids, not a media photo op. They’d post pictures on their social media accounts—including the team’s—later today.

“We’re here to make the kids laugh, so we had to dress up,” Baz boasted, and Carol laughed.

“Come on. The kids are excited to see you, but I promised no singing from Baz this time,” she teased.

“Ah, man, I had the perfect song ready to go,” Baz said.

The man had sung every Christmas carol off-key when they’d visited during the holidays. Jake swore it’d been on purpose to get the kids to laugh.

“Timmy has a beautiful voice. He can lead any singing,” Carol said, making the young defenseman blush.

“Aw, Timmy. Your voice is like angels singing,” Baz sung—off-key.

“Shut up, man,” Timmy grumbled.

The rest of the guys laughed as they followed Carol to the pediatric wing.

“So fancy,” Maggie, Westie’s girlfriend, said when they reached their destination. She was a pediatric oncologist at the hospital.

“Hey, Jake,” Avery said when he stopped next to the nurses’ station.

“Hi, Avery. How’s it going?” He’d hooked up with the gorgeous doctor over the holidays after their last hospital visit.

“Great. You still owe me that drink. You free tonight?” she asked.

“Um,” he started.

“Actually, Jake isn’t free anymore. He’s got a girlfriend,” Harty said, coming up and slinging his arm over Jake’s shoulder.

Shit.

“Really?” Avery asked.

“Yep. It’s new, and she’s wonderful,” he said, laying it on thick. He was going to say no to her invitation anyway. As much as he’d enjoyed Avery’s company weeks ago, he’d made a deal with Darcy, and he was going to stick to it.

“That’s great,” Avery said, a bright smile on her face.

“Yeah. She’s my sister’s best friend and we’re hoping she’ll finally tame this animal,” Harty said, his hand squeezing Jake’s shoulder. Hard.

“Well, it’s great to see you guys, but I need to do my rounds,” Avery said, scooting around them and heading down the hall toward the patients’ rooms.

“Really, man?” Harty all but glared at him.

“What?”

“You’re going to flirt with another woman when you’re dating Darcy? We haven’t gotten into it yet, and I’m not going to do it here, but something is going on and if you—”

Jake held up his hands. “Whoa. Chill out, man. I know you’re not cool with me dating someone you think of as a little sister, but it’s happening. And I was not flirting with Avery. She asked if I wanted to get a drink and you steamrolled me before I could tell her no thanks.”

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