Page 32 of Playing to Win

Ducky must have understood. He lowered his voice further. “Back in New York, before he came here, his wife had an affair with a basketball player, so they split up. She’s still with that guy, but we can’t say anything too bad about her because first, JJ married her, and second, she’s got cancer. So don’t mention anything about wives or cheating or basketball to him. He gets all quiet and broody.”

I nodded, thinking JJ was already pretty quiet. I grabbed a piece of maki, and almost dropped it when I heard Cooper raise his voice.

“We need to learn more about our new guy.”

He was at the other end of the table with Faith and Hunter, which seemed like smart spacing to me. Distance between the siblings. I looked around and everyone was watching me. Jayna reached under the table and rubbed her hand on my leg. It was supposed to be comfort, maybe, or support, but my helpful brain flashed back to her pink cheeks and red scarf, and the feel of her ass under my hand when I slid it into the back pocket of her jeans.

Not a great time for my dick to get interested, but it distracted the butterflies in my stomach awakened by being the center of attention. Attention from this table of men playing hockey at a level I aspired to…and my half-sister, still watching me warily.

“Um, me?”

Cooper smirked. “You’re the rookie here.”

I looked around, as if someone with less experience than me would suddenly pop up out of nowhere. My cheeks heated. “Yeah, but I didn’t think anyone wanted to hear from me.”

Cooper leaned back. “We’re curious about what we’re getting.”

I swallowed. “I’m pretty boring. What do you want to know?”

* * *

Jayna

Braydon was obviouslynervous talking about himself. Was it the Devereaux thing or something else?

“You’re from Montana, right?” Cooper led the questions.

He nodded. “Tiny town no one’s heard of. We moved there when I was about three.”

Ducky leaned forward. “How’d you get into hockey?”

He smiled. “My mom is from Minnesota. I think any kid born there has to love hockey.”

Bongo interrupted. “It’s like Canada Lite.”

Braydon shrugged, maybe not willing to get into it with his teammates yet?

“Canada is Russia Lite. Minnesota is baby Russia.” Was Petrov defending his new backup or dissing North America? Hard to tell.

“Let him talk,” Cooper said. “I’ve heard everything about you slackers already.”

Braydon swallowed. “We didn’t have a rink in our town, so I learned to skate on the pond. I liked it so much I convinced my parents to let me play in the next town over.”

“Was a good team?” Petrov asked.

Braydon shrugged. “Not really. Not a lot of people, so not a big pool of kids to play. But it was fun, and I loved it.”

“Why’d you pick goalie?”

I couldn’t help glancing at Faith. It was kind of freaky that they both became goalies.

Braydon tapped his chopsticks on his plate. He was staring at it, like he didn’t want to look at anyone else. “I didn’t play in net at first. The mayor’s son Bryce was on the team and he wanted to be the goalie, so I played defense. Then Bryce and his family went on vacation for winter break, and I was the closest kid to his size so they gave me his pads to wear and put me in net while he was gone.”

Ducky elbowed Braydon. “And you were so good he never got to play in net again.”

Braydon looked up. “Nah. I was okay, but Bryce’s uncle was the coach, and the position was his. I was his backup, and played when he wasn’t there.”

That wasn’t how I expected the story to go. “But you liked it?”

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