Page 24 of Not A Chance

“Watch me. See ya, fuckers.” He gave us a backward wave as he headed over to the bar.

The captain gave me his full attention, catching me as I took a quick glance over at Indie and Andrews again. Their heads bent toward each other across the table, the conversation looking more intimate by the second.

My neck burned at being caught.

“You got something going on with Indie Layne? Because the way you’re looking at her, you might start beating your chest any minute now.” He eyed me carefully.

“No, man. Nothing going on with her. She’s my baby sister’s best friend. We kinda grew up together. She’s new to the city too, and I’m just looking out for her the way I would for Emery.”

His gaze lingered on the couple across the bar for a moment, as if analyzing the dynamic between them.

“Like a sister, huh? Con, I mean, Andrews is a good guy, dude. You don’t have to worry there. He’s as loyal as they come, with a good heart. She’s in good hands with him.”

He radiated skepticism at my claim of brotherly concern.

“He’s just a kid, though,” I growled. “I can’t imagine what she sees in him.”

That was a lie. Andrews was a good-looking guy, objectively, as well as from the daggers in the gazes of some of the patrons of the bar directed at Indie. He’d shown himself to be a great teammate from our interactions so far. Didn’t mean I had to like him for Indie.

I didn’t allow myself to admit that I would hate anyone looking at Indie that way.

Michaels’s voice was low when he replied, “He’s twenty-one, Yao.Plenty old enough to know what he wants.”

I forced a sip of beer down my throat. Keeping my eyes off her was becoming torture. I had to get out of here before I did something stupid like warn Andrews off her.

I had no right to interfere with her dating life. Indie wouldn’t tolerate it, and Emery would seethe at my nerve. I’d just started repairing things with Emery after the trade shitshow. I couldn’t risk it.

It was physically painful to turn my body in the opposite direction from them and back to the two defensemen. I asked an inane question to start them going again and let their chatter wash over me, though I couldn’t help but notice the extra bit of scrutiny from the captain for the remainder of the night.

I forbade myself from looking at her anymore. Even when I saw them get up from their table in my peripheral, I kept my eyes on my teammates.

This fixation on Indie was getting out of hand.

With my future up in the air after this season, I couldn’t afford to add more complications by adding Indie Layne to the mix.

I needed to keep my head—and dick—between the pipes on the ice and not on a gorgeous distraction from my past.

“One thousand seven hundred and seventy-six stairs Indie!” Connor mimed gasping for breath as he clutched his chest comedically. “What happened to ‘piece of cake’?”

“Hey, was acting your fallback career if hockey didn’t work out? You didn’t actually walk any stairs at all. We both took the elevator, so what are you going on about? I didn’t know you could only climb the stairs twice a year.” I raised an eyebrow in question.

“But the point is you would have held me to that promise if the stairswerean option! I’m damn lucky that’s the truth. That’s the last time I agree to anything with Indie Layne without reading the fine print first.” Connor, a grown man, pouted, and it was freaking adorable. Those auburn curls and blue eyes were deadly.

I held up my cocktail glass for him to “cheers” with his beer bottle. “Always read the Ts and Cs, my friend,” I offered.

We both took a sip, smiling at each other. It had been a great late-afternoon outing. I got to cross something off my experience list, and Connor’s easy demeanor made him good company.

Even if my legs still felt a bit like jelly after standing on the glass floor over eleven hundred feet off the ground. I had learned today that I preferred my adventures without heights. Or at least where the floor beneath me was opaque.

The smile slipped slowly off my face as I let my gaze drift down to my glass on the table. Connor was such a good guy. I felt bad that I was going to have to make it clear that we could only be friends. I wanted to feel something for him, even just for a brief Canadian hockey player fling while I was here.

Unfortunately, I’d handed off my heart to a certain goalie all those years ago and never gotten it back.

My parents having the emotional warmth of their granite countertops, I’d had no resources to repair all the cracks that had formed the moment Theo rejected me.

“Hey, Indie, look at me.” He reached across the table to lightly put his hand on top of mine, respectfully withdrawing it again once I made eye contact with him.

His gorgeous face with his kind eyes looked back at me with concern. I must be tired to let my feelings show on my face. I usually had a better game than this.

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