Page 91 of Second Round

“You’d make a horrible spy,” Itoldhim.

“Luckily I’m an accountant, so that’s never been a problemforme.”

“Really? You look like anaccountant.”

He sighed. “Story of my life. I wish I looked like a spy. I wonder what a spy evenlookslike.”

“James Bond, of course.” I took a surreptitious peep over my shoulder and found that Goldie was now talking to Gina. Whew. “Okay, thank you. I think I’m safe now. You can go back to whatever you weredoing.”

“What exactly isgoingon?”

“Ugh. It’s a long story. You know Sharon,right?”

“Sure. Marco’s sister and the terror of the Zennarofamily.”

I laughed. “You do know her. Anyway, she forced me to come to this bbq because there’s some creep who wants to be fixed up with me.” I shuddered. “I hate that stuff, and I’m trying toavoidhim.”

When I looked back at my new friend, he was blushingfuriously.

“What’s wrong?” Iasked.

His mouth twitched and there was a short silence. “Gotta be straight with you here. It’s me. I’m the creep that wanted to be fixed upwithyou.”

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. I thought it was that man over there, the one with the goldchains.”

He chuckled. “Lou? Sorry, Jackie, but he’s not that into you.” He lowered his voice. “Lou has a little crushonGina.”

My eyes widened. “What? Marco’sgirlfriend?”

He nodded. “He thinks Marco doesn’t appreciate her enough. I don’t think it’s anything real. If she were suddenly available, he’d probably run a mile in the oppositedirection.”

That made sense too. There were a lot of men who liked things that were unattainable. But this crush flipped my view of Gina. She had options. I sighed. “Life iscomplicated.”

“Yeah.”

There was an awkward silence. I had to readjust my thinking about him too. This guy wasn’t unattractive and he seemed nice. And I felt bad aboutinsultinghim.

“Can we start again?” Iasked.

“Sure,” he replied. “But once again, I’m not quite sure how wedothat.”

I held out my hand. “Hi. I’m JackieWagner.”

He reached out with a warm, firm grip. “The name’s Bramley. SidBramley.”

I laughed loudly. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Sharon watching us with a smug expression onherface.

34

Viceland

Leo

“Holyshit.”

Dave Dominick stopped short in the doorway of the new gym. Because of his size, nobody else could see inside, and jostling beganbehindhim.

“Gentlemen, let’s keep it moving,” I said. But it was exciting to see how the guys were reacting to all our hard work in the offseason. Lucky had identified poor fitness as a problem for the team, so we made the training facilities better. Hopefully, this would mean fewer third periodbreakdowns.

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