Page 80 of Arresting the Hockey Player
I still wouldn’t have wanted her to do that, either. Some gropy guy might get the wrong idea after paying a boatload of money for dinner and drinks with her.
My teammates, we can handle ourselves with the ladies. Most of them are older than we are. Some could have been grandmas. Honestly, it's a bit hard to see past Charlotte sitting beside her father.
His terse stare will probably give me a few nightmares, but it’s not as though I’m actually dating his daughter. It’s just for fun. Fake.
I should probably find Charlotte and make sure that I didn’t get her into too much trouble with our little prank. But it did help a good cause. How long can she stay mad at me for helping her out of trouble? She made it clear that she didn’t want to participate in the auction, so I offered up something else in exchange.
Her fiery red hair is the first thing that I notice. It matches her skin tone as she’s high-tailing it toward me.
Oh, crap.
She’s mad.
Furious.
I can see the heat radiating off her tiny little form, and I have half a mind to run in the opposite direction, screaming to my teammates toabortand for all of us to flee the back exit, the same way that I let those guys inside.
“That was something,” Charlotte says, staring right through me.
She’s small but mighty.
I don’t so much as move from the spot where I’m standing. The guys are hanging out behind me. Jasper and Kyler have their suitcoats on, but their shirts have long since been discarded. I’m pretty sure they popped a few buttons when they tore their dress shirts off to entice the ladies to bid.
That had been my suggestion.
All the guys should have done that earlier, but Kyler made a good point. If we go out there to strip, we’d have one shot and be done. We could bring in more money for the charity if we dragged out the auction and offered multiple date nights and prizes.
Really screw with the Bruisers.
It doesn’t hurt that the press was there snapping pictures. I caught a few guests with their phones out. I’m unsure if they were live-streaming or recording, but either way, it’ll be all over the internet by morning.
The only person who still doesn’t know about it is Coach Malone. It’s best he finds out after the fact, so as not to get him into trouble. We’re saving his ass.
“It was pretty great, if I may say so myself.” I’m beaming, thrilled that the auction went according to plan. I was a little concerned if the auctioneer didn’t hand over the microphone, how I’d get control of the stage. Bribing him in front of thousands wouldn’t go over well if it was caught on camera.
“My father is pissed, and I’d guess so are the Island Bruisers,” Charlotte says.
The guys from the other team are sulking, standing at the opposite end of the room. A few are scrolling through their phones, biding time until the night ends, and they are contractually allowed to leave.
Charlotte doesn’t look happy to see me. I knew what I was doing was running a risk of pissing her off. It’s not like I hadn’t contemplated that, and a small part wanted payback for what she did to me, but not at the expense of hurting anyone else.
As far as I’m concerned, tonight was a success. We helped the charity. The guests were thrilled about our surprise appearance. Maybe we pissed off one old man and his daughter; that’s life.
“That’s too bad,” I say, my tone even. “We managed to get a lot of generous donations, thanks to the boys.”
Charlotte rolls her lips together. “You should go, all of you,” she says forcefully, her cheeks reddening as she fails to meet my stare.
“Does that include me as well?” I ask, bringing my hand to her chin to lift her gaze.
“Yes.” Her tongue pokes at the corner of her lips. She’s holding something back.
“Are we fake breaking up?” I ask.
“I don’t see another choice. After what you did with the guys.” She steps back from my reach and folds her arms across her chest. “I can’t be seen dating someone who crashes parties.”
My jaw tenses. “That isn’t what happened.” She knows we didn’t crash the charity event. We made it better.
“You need to go before the media gets inside, and knowing my father, he’ll do everything in his power to destroy your reputation and the team's as well.”
