Page 23 of Chips & Checks
Ash snorts. “And if you get desperate, you know where to find that good D.”
“Absolutely not,” I say, but I’m already smiling.
This is why I called her. Not for a fix. For the reminder that I can fix it. That I still have control.
Boundaries. I can do boundaries.
I can keep it professional.
Bowen Murphy is not that hot.
…Okay, maybe he is. But if I just lay down the rules, if I make it clear we’re not doing this again, we can pretend last night never happened. We can be normal coworkers. Nothing to worry about.
Except… I can’t block his number.
And I don’t stop myself from reading that last message one more time.
Chapter Four
Bowen
After morning skate, I corner Camden while the other guys head to the locker room. “Hey,” I grumble. “Can we talk?”
Cam considers me for a moment before nodding. “Sure. What’s up, new guy?”
“I can’t believe you cockblocked me last night. So much for getting to know my new PT. Dante specifically told me that I was supposed to get to know her since she’s the team head injury specialist.”
Cam’s easygoing expression doesn’t change. “And Violet specifically toldmethat she didn’t want to talk to you, Murphy.”
Ouch. I rock back from him as if he slapped me. “She said that?”
“She did.”
“But…” I shake my head. Violet’s myPT.I have a meeting with her in fifteen minutes. How am I supposed to work with someone who’s going out of her way to avoid me? She didn’t respond to my texts from last night, either. I don’t want to admit that, though. Instead, I aim for his honor. “What happened to bro code?”
Cam shifts his posture. His eyes never leave mine. “You need to understand that to us, Violetisa bro. We all grew up together. We’re practically family. So… yeah. I had Vi’s back last night. And I always will. Because I love her. And so do Viktor, Knight, and Adler. And Lenyx is her actualbrother.”
I don’t understand why he’s being so chill about this. My irritation, on the other hand, is mounting by the second. “I justwanted totalkto her. If she didn’t want to deal with me, she could have told me to my face.”
Cam leans against the railing and sucks his teeth. His eyes roam across the ice, like he’s hoping it will give him some advice for how to speak to me. “You were with her for one night, Bowen. I’m pretty sure you were just an item on her bucket list. Violet doesn’t date hockey players, so I’mpositiveshe wouldn’t have picked you if she knew who you were.”
The words hit like a puck to the sternum. A cold, sharp crack that echoes through my chest.
That’s a hell of a thing to say. But Cam isn’t being cruel—he’s being honest. And I hate it. I hate the way it lands. Like I’m just a name she wanted to check off. Like I didn’t mean anything. Like I didn’t make her moan, and whisper my name, and cling to me like she didn’t want the night to end.
Frustration coils tight in my chest. I ball my fists on the railing, trying to shrug it off. Trying to pretend it doesn’t matter.
So what if I was a one-night stand? So what if she walked away without looking back?
I don’t do relationships. I have rules. I’ve spent years perfecting the boundaries, the rhythm, the freedom of keeping things simple.
So why the hell does this feel anything but simple? Why do I keep replaying the way she whispered filth in my ear like she meant it? And why—why—does the idea that I didn’t matter at all feel like someone just knocked the wind out of me?
Shifting my jaw, I force the tightness in my chest back down where it belongs.
It was one night. No strings. No regrets.
Just a bucket list item.
