Page 41 of Playmaker

“Easy on theold, baby Duck.”

“Is matter of chemistry. Eat well, sleep well, exercise well, and body will perform.”

A moment of silence followed Petrov’s announcement. He wasn’t wrong, but it was just…not very encouraging.

Ducky shook his head. “Well, all work and no play makes everyone kind of boring. Who’s in for poker Wednesday night?”

“I’m in,” Royston said.

“I can do that,” Crash agreed.

I pulled off my T-shirt. “Sorry, I can’t.”

“Hot date?” Ducky asked.

I grinned. “Not quite what you’re thinking of, Duckster. I’m going to the driving range.”

Ducky looked at the partially dressed men around him. “We could do that instead.”

I held up my hands. “Sorry, it’s a private thing.”

“But you said it’s not a date.”

“It’s not. It’s a lesson.”

JJ, normally so quiet you could forget him, spoke up. “But it’s with a woman, right?”

My cheeks heated and what the fuck was up with that? “Yes, I’m helping her get ready for a golf tournament in September. She’s never golfed before.”

“She must be hot.”

Was she? Not conventionally. She was also blunt, a little prickly, and honest. It somehow made her relaxing to be with. “It’s not like that. We’re…friends.”

Ducky cocked his head. “That’s cool, I guess.”

JJ frowned at me. “I don’t remember you talking about a woman friend.”

“I have women friends. Faith Devereaux. Her teammates, like Tempo and her roommate Megan Thomson.”

“Faith is different. She’s your best friend’s wife. And Thomson has a crush on you. Had. I hear she’s with someone now.”

I shrugged. A lot of people had a crush on Cooper, the face of the Toronto Blaze. “Well, now I have Callie.”

“Have you known her long?”

“Not sure why this seems worth discussing, but I am spending Wednesday and Friday teaching a friend, who happens to be a woman, to golf. As a favor. So, I won’t be playing poker with Ducky. She’s someone I met recently, and she doesn’t want half the hockey team watching her learn.”

“How about Thursday, then?”

I agreed to Thursday, and conversation moved on to whether Royston was allowed to join.

I was dressing back in the street clothes I’d worn today—dress pants and a short-sleeved shirt—when JJ came out of the showers. The others had gone, and I’d leave once JJ was ready.

“They don’t mean anything by it, you know.”

I gave him a sharp glance. “No?”

JJ pulled on his briefs. “They know you as Captain Cooper.”

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