“She's also secretly competitive,” Avery says. “She keeps a spreadsheet of Ethan's stats.”
“It's for his recovery tracking,” Natalie says.
“It has color-coded columns, Nat.”
“Organized data leads to better outcomes.”
The guys arrive forty-five minutes later. They come through the door in a wave of expensive cologne and good moods. Cole leads, finding Harper immediately and sliding into the booth beside her.
Liam is behind him, pulling Avery up from her seat to kiss her in front of the entire bar. Jake follows with two rookies I don't recognize. Ethan finds Natalie and sits beside her without saying a word.
Logan comes in with Blake. He's in dark jeans and a black sweater, his hair still damp, the faint bruise on his jaw from the cross-check already darkening. He scans the room and finds me in the booth. Our eyes meet. He gives me the smallest nod.
That's all we can do in public.
He goes to the bar with Blake. I stay in the booth with the girls. This is the agreement. In public, we're friends. The lawyeron the team's sponsorship account and the defenseman who happens to know her from Long Island. Nothing more.
I take a sip of my cocktail and watch him from across the room. He's leaning against the bar with Blake, both of them holding beers, talking to Theo who's joined them. The road win has loosened him. He played well tonight and his body knows it.
The bar fills up. The Friday night Toronto crowd mixes with the Renegades players and the energy is loud and warm. Liam is holding court at a high table, telling a story that has Jake and the rookies in tears.
Cole is in the booth with his arm around Harper, talking quietly into her ear. Ethan and Natalie are in their own world, whispering to each other.
I'm on my second cocktail when she appears.
A woman walks up to Logan at the bar. She's tall with long blonde hair, a tight black dress and heels that put her at his eye level. She says something to him and he turns his head. She smiles. He says something back. She laughs and touches his arm.
Her hand stays on his arm.
I put my glass down. Harper is talking to Cole and doesn't notice. Avery is across the room with Liam. Natalie and Ethan have left the booth to get drinks.
Logan is nodding at whatever she's saying. He hasn't removed her hand. From where I'm sitting, it doesn't look civil. It looks like a man talking to an attractive woman in a bar. It looks like two people who might leave together.
She laughs again. She tilts her head, and her blonde hair falls over one shoulder. She steps closer to him. The space between them shrinks to inches. She pulls out her phone and shows him something on the screen.
He looks at it and says something, and she puts her hand on his forearm again, higher this time, near his bicep.
My throat tightens. I want to walk across this bar and introduce myself. I want to put my hand on his back and look at this woman and let her see, without a word, that the man she's touching belongs to someone.
But I can't. This is what it means to love someone in secret. You sit across a room, watch, and you swallow it.
The woman touches his chest. Her fingers press flat against his sweater, right over his heart, and she says something that makes her smile widen. My stomach is in knots, and my jaw aches from clenching.
“You okay?” Harper is back beside me in the booth.
“Fine.”
“You're gripping that glass like you're trying to shatter it.”
I loosen my fingers. “I'm fine.”
Harper follows my gaze across the room to where Logan is standing with the blonde and then she looks back at me. “What happened?”
“Nothing. I'm tired. I think I'm going to head back to the hotel.”
“Jasmine. What happened?”
“Nothing happened, Harper. I'm just tired. Long day. I'll see you back at the room.”
