Page 15 of Puck You Very Much

Groaning, he rubbed his face with both hands. He should have expected that. Obviously, the press would race to get a picture of them together. Naturally, over the next few weeks, every sports show would be asking the same question:Can Devil and Saint work together on the ice?Will the Hawks owner’s controversial purchase hurt or benefit the team?

“But…” Lucy continued hurriedly. “You don’t have to give an individual interview if you don’t want to. And the conference lasts a maximum of ten minutes and…” She sighed heavily. “If you want, I can direct one question to you and dismiss the rest or pass them on to Gray or Jack West.”

That wouldn’t be enough. Just like all the time in the world wasn’t enough to prepare for tomorrow.

However, it wasn’t Lucy’s fault. For once. In fact, her offer was almost…kind. Granted, he was reluctant to use that word and her name in the same sentence.

“Fine,” he conceded begrudgingly. He had to see the guy again at some point. “But after that, nothing more with Jack West in the title.”

Lucy peered curiously into his face for a few seconds. “He’s definitely under your skin, isn’t he?” she mused finally.

“No,” he lied. “He’s simply an asshole, that’s all.”

She didn’t believe him, but she was nice enough to drop the matter. “Deal. No Jack West. But you’ll have to visit one more children’s hospital.”

“Yeah, whatever,” he said impatiently. “So, what’s your final rule?” He looked at her expectantly.

“Oh, right…” She cleared her throat and combed her ponytail with her fingers. “Well, I have to take care of some…private matters during the next few weeks,” she finally said hesitantly. “Attend appointments I cannot cancel or postpone. And…” She paused, a faint blush creeping up her neck. “Well, it’s not really a rule, maybe more of a request…” Visibly uncomfortable, she wrung her hands and took a deep breath. “Please don’t do anything stupid while I’m not there to straighten it out, okay? Because you’re right, my work is my life. But sometimes I can’t…sometimes I have other priorities, and it would be great if you didn’t use that against me.”

Dax opened his mouth, surprised by the uncertainty in her big brown eyes. The sharpness in her tone was gone as was the hardness in her face. There was nothing left but raw emotion. Was that fear? Or hope? He couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

“What exactly do you mean?” he asked tonelessly.

“At times, I have to…” She stopped and shook her head. “It doesn’t matter what I have to do. I’ll let you know if I’m not available and at that time, it would be great if you could just keep a low profile. Or at least message me if you feel like you absolutely have to go out. So I can…make other arrangements.”

He leaned forward curiously. Lucy was a lot of things but never mysterious. “What kind of private matter is it?”

She didn’t look at him. Instead, she looked past him at her car.

He paused. It wasn’t like her to avoid his gaze. It made her seem…vulnerable, a state Lucy was categorically never willing to show him.

“All I can say is it’s private,” she said with emphasis. “But it’s important to me, and…yeah, if I text you that I’m not available, don’t let yourself be photographed with two brunettes on your arms and a Pepsi in your hand.”

He narrowed his eyes. He didn’t like the whole thing, that she disguised it as a request. Plus, she was revealing there was something else more important to her than her job. He realized that he had simply never seen her as a person with…well, a life outside of the organization. Obviously, she had one, he just had absolutely no idea what it looked like. Maybe he’d have to ask Matt about that, in order to…

No. Ridiculous. He wasn’t at all interested.

“Fine,” he said tersely. “I’ll manage.”

“Great.” She looked visibly relieved. “That’s everything, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know…don’t you still need my private phone number to send me those legendary warnings?”

She waved it off. “No, I already have it.”

“Seriously?” Only a handful of people had his private number—not even all of the Hawks players had it.

“Yup. Of course,” she said cheerfully, and Dax was almost relieved that she had returned to her smug, unassailable self. “I know your shoe size, most of the names of the women you’ve slept with, and I even have a key to your loft. So I’m fully equipped.”

He snorted loudly. A key to his loft. Sure.

“Okay, then text me so I have yours to…let you know when I want to go out.” The words tasted so bitter on his tongue that he frowned. Shit, it was ridiculous. He seriously needed permission to go out drinking now?!

As if Lucy had read his thoughts, she said, “It’s best if you don’t drink today. When the season starts, you’ll be mostly abstinent anyway, but it would be nice if tomorrow’s photos with Jack West didn’t look like you spent the night in a beer keg.”

“Of course. No party for me,” he said dryly, raising his hand and turning his back on her.

Great. For the next four weeks, he would have a babysitterandJack on his back. So at least for now, he was going to do the only sensible thing left: He headed to Fox’s for one last blast.

---