Page 72 of Playoff
He lifted an eyebrow. “It’s not?”
“Not exactly.” I shoved my hand through my hair, only I didn’t have long hair anymore, so I was mostly rubbing my head. Which reminded me of Weasel and his sister. “When I was traded—I got here the evening it was announced.”
“It’s three hours earlier in California, and the flight is five hours. How did that work?”
“Coach in LA had a family thing so they held off announcing it until he was back, but they flew me east as soon as the deal was done.”
“Okay. Then…”
I sat on a stool at the breakfast bar. “I didn’t want to sit in the hotel room. With the time change, it was still early for me. And I didn’t dare go into a sports bar with hockey news on, since no one was supposed to know I was here. I walked down the street, found one place without any TVs showing and went inside. With my hair shaved off, no one recognized me. Including a woman at the bar who was staring at a glass of bourbon like it held the answers to the mystery of the universe.”
“Jess?”
“We didn’t exchange names. I invited her back to my room, and she left after.”
Fitch frowned. “That doesn’t sound like Jessica.”
“Maybe you don’t know her as well as you think you do.” There was a part of her that wasn’t the good girl she appeared to be.
He folded his arms. “When did you find out she was JJ’s sister?”
“After the first game when we went out to the Top Shelf. It was a shock. I thought she was JJ’s girlfriend at first.”
Fitch nodded slowly. “Okay, that was an accident. But you kept hooking up?”
I rocked my head back and forth. “The night you came back and she ran into my room?”
He winced. “Oh hell, I can still hear the bed rocking.”
“We weren’t having sex. Just pretending in order to fool you.”
He shook his head. “What was she doing here anyway?”
“I freaked out when I found out who she was and told her we needed to talk. It had to be somewhere no one would see us, and here was better than at the place she shares with JJ. You returned unexpectedly, she hid in my room, so we pretended she was a hookup.” I held back a grin, remembering that night. In spite of everything, it had been fun.
Fitch uncrossed his arms and relaxed against the counter. “And that was it?”
“Not exactly.”
He sighed.
“I know. It’s stupid, but there’s something there, between us. And a couple of times we’ve slipped.”
“Slipped. Like, she slipped onto your dick?”
“Sort of.”
“Do you understand what kind of shit you’re in if JJ finds out? Hell, if Cooper and some of the others find out? Jessica is JJ’s sister. If the team falls apart, they’re going to start trading.”
“I am aware.” I would be the first to go.
Fitch paced to the living room. “The team is starting to gel again. You can’t fuck it up.”
“I know. If I’d known who she was that first night, I’d never have started it.” And nothing else would have happened. I reminded myself that would have been a good thing. “I never intended for anything to happen after that first night, not once I knew who she was.”
“But you did.”
I was tired of being cast as the bad guy. “We did. This isn’t the eighteenth century. I haven’t forced her. She’s been as into it as I have.”
