Page 56 of Unrivaled

“It is—sometimes. Okay, let’s see. I’ve had three dates since I gave you the rundown. The first one lied about her age and it wassoobvious. Like, child. There’s no universe in which I believe you’re a day older than twenty-three.”

“Jess, you dog.”

“That’s too young. I am literally old enough to be her mother. Gross.”

He smiled and let her voice wash over him. At least for a few minutes, the shitshow with his team took a back seat to someone else’s dating drama.

And then she got to the part where she said, “But, like, I don’t know. Maybe I should cancel the whole trip.”

“No!” Grady blurted. He hadn’t realized she’d been getting so down about it. “Jess, come on. You’ve needed this closure for actual years.” He’d always felt partially responsible for her breakup with Amanda, which had happened a few months after their parents died. Twenty-five-year-old Jess should have been living her own life, not driving Grady to practice, making sure he went to therapy, and helping him with his homework.

She groaned. “I know. I know. But, like, part of me doesn’t want it.”

And here he thought she’d been making progress—she’d at least agreed to date, to make an effort, totry. She wanted something to insulate her from her past with Amanda. “Hey, come on. You’re not going to go back on your promise, are you? I suffered fake ice cream for this.”

“No, you’re right,” she relented. “Personal growth is supposed to suck. I’m just venting.”

It didn’t sound that way to Grady. A suspicion formed in his mind. “Don’t tell me you’re still…?”

Jess blew out a breath. “I don’t know, Grades. I feel pathetic about the whole thing. Like, it was fifteen years ago.”

“Did you ever think about telling her you still, you know…?”

“Of course I thought about it. But every time I started to get up the nerve to say something, she’d have another girlfriend. I’m not gonna be that girl, you know?”

He knew. “The heart wants what it wants, I guess.”

Jess sighed feelingly. “Ugh.”

There wasn’t much left to say after that.

GRADY HADspent his share of games watching from the press box. Usually he was injured, though.

This time he felt the weight of every set of eyes on him as he took his seat next to the glass to watch the game. He couldn’t decide what would hurt worse—watching his team lose and knowing they might’ve had a shot with him on the ice, or watching them win without him despite their piss-poor performance the other night.

Okay, that wasn’t true. He still wanted them to win without him, but he felt dramatic about it.

He didn’t think much about the other occupants of the Nordiques’ press box until someone sat down next to him and he recognized Baller—the Nordiques’ captain.

Grady blinked. “Did you get suspended too?”

“No.” Baller grimaced and looked over his shoulder. Right—they were literally sitting with people who got paid to write stories about them. Grady should remember that too. “Think they wanted to give a couple of the rookies another look before they send one of them back down.”

And Baller was the guy they chose to sit out instead? Grady didn’t buy it. It was only fall, but no team was going to sacrifice points like that by sidelining such an important player. They could’ve picked one of their bottom-six guys.

But if he was actually nursing an injury, he wasn’t going to tell Grady, and if something else had landed him here, it was none of Grady’s business. So he accepted the explanation at face value. “Makes sense.” It didn’t. “Whoever’s team gets scored on first buys the first round?”

Smiling, Baller held out his hand to shake. “Deal.”

Baller lost, but he was cheerful about it. “C’mon, let’s go for a walk. Better drinks in the exec lounge.”

“Oh, we’re fancy?”

“Tonight we are.”

Someone would probably comment that they weren’t at their post watching the game, but Grady decided to care about that later. He’d given his agent the go-ahead to request a trade. People were talking about him anyway.

Grady should’ve remembered Baller’s drink of choice was fancy tequila, though.

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