Page 6 of Need You to Choose Me

As if I’d tell him. The only person in the last two years that I was on-again off-again with is the last choice on earth my brother would approve of for me. Not that Sebastian would approve of anybody. In his eyes, I’m still the four-year-old that followed him everywhere and demanded to hang out with him and his friends. I’d beg him to take me to the park and explain sports to me so I could follow along while he played whatever he was into at the time. Baseball. Basketball. And, of course, hockey. He excelled at whatever he set his mind to, but his passion was always displayed best on the ice.

Instead of indulging him in the details of my personal life, I decide to turn the conversation around until I know he’ll drop it. “Areyouseeing anyone? Considering I was able to raid your condom stash before heading to Lindon, I’m assuming you weren’t using them for anything special.”

Some of his team howls in laughter at my diss. But all Sebastian does is snicker. Despite him being overprotective, he never shies away from the safe sex talk with me. He knows he’s hardly one to talk when it comes to having an active sex life. I may tease, but we both know he has no problems getting female attention. He’s always told me to be safe and protect myself and left it at that.

“Whatever,” he muses, nudging me toward the counter where one of the coaches has started helping an employee line up different trays of pizza. “Have you eaten yet?”

It doesn’t matter whether he’s a professional hockey player or that he makes a shit ton more money than anyone else I know. He’s my brother first. My super annoying brother that I’ve always known and loved.

Which makes me feel a little bad that Alex O’Conner pops into my head despite my best efforts to push him far, far away.

My deep-rooted love for my family has always cemented Sebastian as my number one favorite athlete. But Alex…

Alex is a very close number two.

Still.

With a small frown at the thought of him, I murmur, “I could eat.”

I don’t tell Sebastian I’m sorry about the game because I know it won’t do any good. I’m sure he’s already going over everything he wished he’d done differently in his head right now as it is. Now is about salvaging the night in the company of good people, win or lose.

As we walk over to the pizza, he nudges my arm lightly with his elbow. “Hoff is a good guy, Liv. He’d give the shirt off the back to anybody who needed it, no questions asked. But he used to be a bit of a player and he’s in a weird spot right now. I don’t want to see anybody get hurt.”

Seriously? “I already told you that I’m not inter—”

“I know, I know.” He gives me a look, one of curiosity and calculation. “But I can’t say the same thing about him. Just…be careful. Yeah?”

I wet my lips, surprised by his gentle tone as he glances over his shoulder at the right wing who’s roughhousing with a few of their other teammates.

It’s obviously not the first time he’s told me to stay away from one of his teammates. The difference is, he’s actually friends with this one.

“Do me a favor,” Sebastian says to me after showing Mom and I where we’ll be watching his game. “Think about Eli Manning.”

I blink at the name of my potential future husband. Sorry, Abby McGrew, but your man was always meant to be mine. “Why?”

My big brother looks over to the ice where his teammates are warming up for the game against Johnson City. Some of their moves are downright pornographic, which I can totally get behind.

He steps in front of me to block my view. “If you’re thinking what I think you are, thenthat’swhy. My teammates aren’t dating material.”

“Says who?”

“Says me.” He shoots me a warning glare that tells me he’s not playing around. “So think about Eli Manning. Okay?”

I nod to appease him, but I’m so not thinking about my long-time crush when I lock eyes with the boy who has O’Conner written on the back of his jersey.

“Olive?” Sebastian repeats when I don’t answer right away.

It’s hard to brush off the memory of the first time I saw Alex in action. But, eventually, I murmur, “Yeah, okay.”

He nudges my arm with his elbow trying to lighten the mood. “Did you finally hear back from that paper you applied to intern for?”

Internally groaning because I know where this is going, I grab a slice of pepperoni pizza and slap it onto a plate. “They turned me down. There was someone more qualified.”

Sebastian’s face twists. “Qualified? It’s an internship, and not even a paid one. What do they want? Five years’ experience?Forget about them. Let me know where you want to go, and I can make it happen.”

That’s exactly why I didn’t want to bring it up to him to start with. I applied as Olive Rose Henderson, a regular everyday girl. Not Olive Rose Henderson, little sister to the Rangers’ hockey defenseman Sebastian Henderson.

So, I tell him the same thing I did the first time he offered to name drop for me. “Thank you, but I want to do this on my own.”

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