Page 30 of Playing to Win

“Dude, I’ve told you to stop with the Corwin shit. Just Crash. Hey, Mitch. Nice to have you with us. Ignore Petrov—he always looks like he hates everything.”

I hadn’t had much interaction with these men at practice. Salo, the goalie coach, had spent the whole time with me, since it was his first chance to coach me. With the upcoming press conference, I hadn’t been thinking much about the rest of my team.

“I do not hate good things,” the tall, dark and broody-looking Russian objected.

“You hate video games. And most movies.”

“They are not good.”

It sounded like a familiar argument. But I wasn’t just here to meet some of my new teammates. Cooper had given me a chance to recover from my misstep. I gripped Jayna’s hand and stepped down to meet Faith. I held out the second bag, the one with the champagne, toward her. She flicked a glance at the bag but didn’t reach for it.

“Congratulations, Ms. Devereaux.” Jayna told me that Faith had kept her name when she married, since it was the name she played under.

Seb Hunter stepped closer to his wife. He was about six feet tall, with brown hair and eyes. Faith stood only a bit shorter. “Sure you mean that?”

“Yes, I do. I apologize for the ass I made of myself on video that night. It was uncalled for. I had some personal issues going on, but that’s no excuse for what I said.”

“Personal issues, eh?” Faith looked from me to Jayna. “I hope your personal issues gave you shit for that.”

“You know it,” Jayna answered.

This was the first time I’d seen Faith in person since I learned she was my sister and I couldn’t help staring, looking for similarities between us. We were both tall and blond with blue eyes. My nose had a bend from a puck I’d taken to the face, but Faith’s looked like mine used to. Now that I knew, it seemed glaringly obvious that we were related. Could anyone else see it?

“So, you and this guy.” Faith finally took the bag I was holding out but didn’t smile.

I was still persona non grata, which was fair. A private apology and a bottle of champagne didn’t cost much. She was examining me, much like I was her, while she spoke to Jayna.

“Surprised?” Jayna asked.

“Of course I am. You swore you’d never go out with a hockey player.”

My head swiveled toward Jayna. She hadn’t mentioned that.

She shrugged. “Then obviously you understand why I kept it a secret.”

I made a note to askmy girlfriendfor the reason dating a hockey player was going to shock her teammates. Seemed like something I should know. We needed an explanation of why she broke her rule for me.

Faith cocked her head. “You kept it very secret. How long has this been going on?”

Cooper moved over and took the bag from Faith. “I’ll put this in the fridge. But hold that thought—I want to hear the story as well.”

I shot a glance at Jayna. Cooper didn’t know, did he? We were trying to keep the circle of people aware of the fake dating small enough that the news wouldn’t spill. I’d told my parents, because they knew the real reason for my meltdown. The Blaze PR people, Luke and Megan. That was already a lot of people.

Jayna shrugged. “Not that exciting a story. We met when I had to do some promo work at the Inferno arena. We talked, and things just grew from there.”

We’d agreed on that story, but that was before I knew she didn’t date hockey players. Seemed like we should have more to it if that was the case. And that summary had been…flat. Maybe I wasn’t the one with an acting problem.

Faith wagged a finger. “Oh no, there’s got to be more. This isn’t the first guy who’s shown interest, but you’ve never had the time of day for a hockey player.”

“She didn’t know I was a hockey player when we met.” I was winging this, but hell, was this issue going to mess us up? “And when she found out, maybe I was just more persistent.” I squeezed Jayna’s hand, a little tightly, but she’d been holding out on me. As a fake boyfriend, I wasn’t entitled to know all her secrets, but anything that could blow up this scam we were pulling should have been shared with the class.

Jayna squeezed back, and then dropped her hand to move closer, wrapping her arm around my waist. I slid my own arm around her, sliding my hand into her back pocket. She tensed. I’d done that without thinking, and now my hand was on her ass and that wasn’t something we’d agreed to. Moving it would look suspicious, so I kept the hand flat, even though it was tempting to squeeze. She couldn’t object in front of everyone, but I didn’t want her to think I was getting handsy and taking advantage.

“Persistent?” Faith’s tone was skeptical.

I shrugged with my free shoulder. “When you know it’s right, you go after it.”

Faith didn’t look like she thought I was worth going after, then turned back to Jayna. “And you didn’t tell anyone?”

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