Page 18 of Puck You Very Much

The daggered look the Dragon gave him could have punctured metal cans from around a corner. “You will do as I tell you or you will sit out the first game,” she informed him. “It’s as simple as that.”

He snorted and glanced discreetly over her shoulder. Where the hell was Lucy? She had promised he would only have to answer one question. He wanted her to keep that promise. Shit, what had gone wrong in his life that he was actually hoping for Lucy James?

“If you don’t believe me, ask your coach,” the Dragon continued undeterred, nodding to the left, where Gray stood, glancing from his watch to the door and back.

“Gray,” the Dragon barked.

“What?” he snapped, blinking at her.

“Tell Temple he’ll sit out the first game if he doesn’t behave and tell the press that he idolizes Jack West. At a minimum, he’ll have to shake his hand and smile for the cameras.”

A faint blush crept up Gray’s neck. “Um…” he said fruitlessly and stopped.

Oh, he couldn’t be serious! The Hawks coach was afraid of nothing and no one. He stared down Goalie Moreau on a daily basis, who was known to make children cry with one glance. And now he was letting a sixty-year-old woman with toothpick arms bring him to his knees?

“It’s okay. I’ll shake his hand,” Dax muttered, annoyed.

“…And here I was hoping for a hug,” a deep, calm voice came from behind his back.

His shoulders stiffened and he shoved his hands in his pockets. Mindlessly, he touched the dice in his right pocket with his fingertips, but the cool plastic couldn’t stop the blood from whooshing in his ears.

He turned. He didn’t want Jack to think he was afraid of him—afraid of the whole situation. Even if Dax realized that might be exactly what was making his heart beat faster.

Fear. Fear and too many emotions.

“West,” he said coolly, nodding to the new arrival.

“Dax,” the other man replied, lifting one corner of his mouth casually, as if they encountered each other on the regular.

God, when was the last time he’d seen Jack without his helmet and hockey gear? He couldn’t recall. It must have been almost ten years ago, and yet he hadn’t changed much. He still wore his blond hair short and was a few inches taller and broader than him, still a few years older and a few goals ahead.

Still a disloyal bastard.

“Ah, Jack, just in time,” Gray said with relief, joining him. “Nice that you’re here. Happy to be working with you. The conference starts in fifteen minutes, and I bet the Dra…uh, Leslie wants to give you a quick briefing.”

He nodded at the gray-haired woman. “Pleased to meet you, Jack,” she said abrasively, sticking out her hand. “As you may know, politeness has no place in this sport, which is why everyone here calls each other by their first names.”

“Sure. Wouldn’t have it any other way,” he replied lightly, grasping the PR manager’s hand and giving her a broad smile. “Pleased to meet you.”

Leslie’s eyebrows rose in delight. “You see that, Dax? He can smile like there’s no tomorrow,” she remarked, then added to Jack, “That’s exactly what I want to see when you shake Temple’s hand on camera, are we clear?”

“No problem.”

The Dragon sighed. “That’s what I wanted to hear. Rub off on Dax a little and you’re good, in my book.Pleaseandthank youare two expressions it appears he never learned. We…”

“Leslie?” a lanky guy in skinny jeans and a headset interrupted her. “We don’t have enough chairs. More press than expected showed up. I’m supposed to ask you if you know…”

“I always have to take care of everything myself,” she interrupted him hastily. “Gray, come with me, you can carry the chairs. We’ll come get you both soon,” she added with a warning look in their direction. “Please, thank you, we look forward to working together.That’s what I want to hear when I come back!”

A second later, they were alone.

“I thought I taught you to saypleaseandthank you,” Jack said quietly, raising an eyebrow.

“The only thing you taught me was how to recognize a coward,” Dax replied flatly. “But do you know what’s nice about you being here? I’m no longer the biggest asshole in the organization.”

Jack snorted loudly and rocked back on his heels. He had done that as a teenager whenever he was nervous. And it was gratifying to know that he was a little unsettled about facing Dax again.

“Come on, Dax,” he murmured. “I tried to be nice. I’ve been trying to be nice for ten years. At least I warned you about a potential trade to the Hawks, didn’t I? Even though I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone and could have received a hefty fine. Because I knew you’d want to know sooner rather than later.”

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