Page 8 of Body Check

“Old hockey injury?” Dakota asked with a lift of his eyebrows.

“Ahh, no. Tension headache,” he admitted.

Dakota huffed out a laugh. “Can’t imagine why. It’s not like your job is stressful or anything.”

“Ha!” Gavin said, downing another slug of whiskey. “No, not at all.”

He worked horrific hours, traveled constantly, and had the entire city of Boston, the team’s ownership group, and reporters and fans all over North America breathing down his neck about every move he made.

But no, no pressure.

Damn did he love it though. He couldn’t imagine doing anything else with his life.

Dakota looked him up and down. “So, I can tell from your physique and your social media, you’re heavy into weightlifting, right?”

Hmm. Interesting. Gavin raised an eyebrow. “You follow my social media, huh?”

They hadn’t exactly gotten off on the best foot and Gavin was very surprised to hear that.

“I follow everyone in the organization.”

“Got it. And yes, I do quite a bit of weightlifting. Why? What does that have to do with my tension headaches?”

“Well, if it’s not balanced properly with adequate stretching, it does often lead to decreased flexibility and increased tension along your traps.”

Dakota stepped forward, gently touching the tops of Gavin’s shoulders where they met his neck. His fingers were warm, even through the thin cashmere sweater Gavin wore.

Gavin shrugged reflexively and Dakota’s hand fell away. “I apologize. I shouldn’t have touched you without asking first.”

A frisson of guilt shot through Gavin at the tightening of Dakota’s face. The shutting down. Gavin hadn’t been trying to shrug him off, only to loosen the tight muscles.

God, why did they always manage to piss each other off? Gavin was never trying and yet he always seemed to say the wrong thing.

“No, you’re fine. I don’t mind,” Gavin assured him.

Unfortunately, he could understand why Dakota assumed the worst about him.

It didn’t help that Gavin’s twin brother, Thad, had been making a nuisance of himself around the training facility lately.

He’d come to Gavin recently,beggingfor a job. His time in prison had made employment difficult and while he’d eventually found a position at some start-up tech company doing social media work, that had gone belly-up in record time.

Gavin had hated to see his brother struggle, especially after the way everything had gone down when he was arrested, so he’d given in and found him a position within the team’s social media department.

By all accounts, he was doing well so far. But he was also an unashamed flirt and he’d been sniffing around Dakota’s studio, checking out guys on the team and the staff. Which probably didn’t help the awkwardness with Dakota.

They had settled into a wary working relationship recently though and Gavin really didn’t want to risk upending that.

Gavin reached up to rub his neck again, then shot Dakota a wry smile when it hit him what he was doing. “So you think tight traps are my issue?”

Dakota shrugged. “Well, I think your overall stress levels are a big issue. But tight traps never helped anyone.”

“Yeah, fair. So what do I do about it?”

Dakota gave him a skeptical look. “You want my advice?”

Since Gavin had questioned if Dakota was really qualified for the job, he deserved the suspicion.

“I do,” Gavin said, meeting his gaze and holding it. “If you’re willing to offer it.”

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