Page 38 of Play Your Part

“What are you doing?” I asked, narrowing my eyes. Did he think he could torch Alexei’s place, then move his destruction someplace new?

“I… can I stay here for a few minutes?” Zach asked. His expression screamed lost puppy, and dammit if it didn’t pull at my heartstrings. “Please.”

I blew out a breath. “Fine.”

Zach quickly moved inside once the door opened, as if he didn’t want to risk getting shut out. Almost immediately, I wished I’d shut the door in his deceptively innocent face.

“What were you looking at?” he asked.

He snatched the laptop off the counter where I left it before my shower. Deandra had emailed a link to a tweet gaining considerable attention, thanking Alexei and me for keeping up the good work. It looked to contain a postgame interview Alexei gave while on the road. My curiosity had niggled at me since I saw the email, but I didn’t care so much I couldn’t shower the sweat off first.

I’d planned to watch it as I air-dried and snacked as a means of emotional support for whatever awaited me in that interview. So much for that.

“Zach, no, give it back.”

Zach held the computer away from me as I tried to seize it from him. “Ooh, watching Volk’s interview, I see.”

I rolled my eyes at his childish tone. “I’m dating Alexei,” I said, surprised at how easily the words rolled off my tongue. “It’s hardly breaking news I would watch his interviews.”

He placed the laptop back where he found it, the joke losing its luster when the object of it didn’t react. “Soo… you’re really the owner’s daughter?”

I leaned against the counter. “Yes.”

“Cool, cool,” Zach said with two quick bobs of his head. “Can you put in a good word for me?” His question surprised me so much I could only stare. Zach Briggs, a first-round draft pick and predicted future savior of this franchise, wanted me to… what? Tell my father he was a nice guy who absolutely did not almost burn his teammate’s house to the ground? After I took too long to answer, Zach hurriedly added, “That’d be, like, obvious, wouldn’t it? Forget it.”

“It’s cool if I stay?” he asked almost immediately, before turning from me and rummaging through the cabinets. “Oh shit, there’s cookies!”

“If you eat all my cookies, I will kick you out.”

He took a bite of one, then pouted with the half-eaten cookie hanging from his mouth. After he finished it, he said, “Fine. Let’s order pizza. You like pizza?”

Zach’s ping-ponging thoughts brought a smile to my lips. I knew he probably drove Alexei up a wall. “Yes, of course I like pizza.”

I didn’t love the idea of eating pizza after I suffered through a grueling workout, but Zach seemed to need the win after his disastrous afternoon. He held steadfast to his preference for an everything pizza, which I could not handle, so we ordered two pies. The good thing about living with and in the vicinity of hockey players was that we were never at risk of wasting food.

“You going to play the interview?” Zach asked once we stopped quibbling over our pizza order and had thirty minutes to burn before it arrived. “The suspense is killing me.”

“You haven’t watched it?”

“None of the guys watch that stuff. Why are you watching?”

“A friend sent it to me. I assume I’m mentioned.”

Before I could stop him, Zach pressed play. “Then we have to watch.”

On screen, Alexei sat in front of a black background covered in Wolves logos and team sponsors. Strands of sweat-soaked hair matted to the top of his forehead. His dark eyes looked the size of saucers, but after a win, that kind of adrenaline and euphoria was expected. That smile of his—the one I couldn’t take—slipped off his face as soon as he heard the question.

“Volk, since Justin Ward’s trade, he’s been taking shots at you online. Yesterday he posted about being focused on winning hockey games and not nailing someone’s leftovers.”

Alexei ground his jaw, his mouth forming one thin unhappy line. I wanted to know what thoughts were flashing through his mind at that precise moment. Was it his hatred of Justin, frustration at the media for asking the question, or anger at me for causing this entire situation?

“What would you say to him?”

Alexei leaned forward to the mic. “Some of us can win the hockey games while also keeping our women satisfied. Might be how his girlfriend ended up with me.”

My mouth fell open. What. The. Fuck?

Zach laughed, one hand smacking the counter in his merriment. “Sick burn, dude.”

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