Page 6 of The Puck Stops Here

Sienna wrinkled up her nose. ‘Yeah, but he wasn’t when we were together. He was just Aiden, my guy. Mom had died, Dad was a mess and heading for prison?—’

‘Prison?’

‘He was in a car accident. It wasn’t his fault but the authorities…’ She took an unsteady breath. ‘Anyway, Aiden was my everything, the one person I could depend on, and he promised me the world, said he’d take me with him. Buthello, here I still am and he’s…’ She waved a hand skyward. ‘I was just the lowly fool who believed him.’

‘You’re no fool.’

‘And you’re too kind.’

‘Na-ah. He let you go; that makeshimthe fool in my book.’

She gave a lopsided smile. ‘A fool you could break a little for me?’

Big blue eyes blinked up at her and Astrid stared back at the woman.

Sweet Jesus! Dealing with an unknown entity was one thing. But dealing with someone whose face she’d seen plastered on billboards and commercials – a sports hero adored by the masses! – was something else entirely.

Hell, he was righttherehanging behind the counter of Just Desserts, his great big permatanned head and freaking white grin chowing down on a strawberrysundae. And no, she wasn’t paying attention to the tightly clad abs sitting just behind said sundae… like what idiot believed you could get a bod like that with a dish like?—

‘Astrid?’

Blue eyes were still blinking, and she was still gawping!

She snapped her gob shut. Shock. That was all it was. Shock and the hit of reality now that she had a face to put to the man.

And of course, she could do this for Sienna. Sienna and her newfound friends. Because they’d made a pact that was bigger than one person, bigger than the four of them; it was about dishing out a little karma for all the wronged women of this world.

‘Yes!’ She hugged Sienna to her chest. ‘Yes, I can do this.’

She bloody wellwoulddo this.

If she could bedazzle Mr Crisp amidst a frenzied airport, she could sure as shit bedazzle an ice hockey all-star chillaxed in his own environment.

‘I take it by all the promotional stuff’ – she hooked her arm in Sienna’s and strode forth once more – ‘he isn’t media shy?’

Sienna gave a bark of a laugh. ‘What do you think?’

‘Perfect.’ She grinned. ‘Just perfect!’

Her job would give her a way in, all she had to do was come up with an angle.

‘Now tell me all you can and don’t skimp on the detail…’

1

‘Do you think he’s a boob man?’

Bella sprayed wine into her hand, narrowly missing Astrid’s laptop propped open on the bed and the clothing strewn all around. ‘Do I what?’

‘You know, boobs!’

Astrid grabbed her own, thrusting them up in her cropped Metallica tee as she scrutinised her refection in the floor-to-ceiling mirrors lining one wall of the bedroom in her temporary abode, aka her uncle’s New York City bolthole.

‘You’re asking the wrong woman.’

‘Sienna didn’t say. And I’m serious; in my experience, a man is normally one or the other.’

Bella frowned. ‘One or the other?’

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