I’m saved from giving an answer by the simultaneous arrival of his brother and our waitress.
“Oh, I’ll give you another moment then.” She tucks a strand of her hair behind her ear and twirls back to the bar.
“Why is he here?” Van der Hoff huffs by way of greeting as he slides into the booth next to Nate. He pointedly doesn’t look my way. I’m glad about it, because it gives me time to level out my voice to an even drawl.
“Because I didn’t get you both banned from the NHL?”
“And I wanted to tell you some good news.” Nate neatly talks over my jab.
“The Pioneers finally reached out to me again, so it all worked out. Milkshakes are on me!” He grins at me first, then his brother. It’s good that they’re busy with each other, because my brows shoot up in disbelief.
I don’t think it’s fair that Nate is continuing his lie of having to impress some scouts that never existed.
But the words are already out.
“That’s good,” Van der Hoff says so quietly that I’m pretty sure he doesn’t want me to hear. I see the waitress coming over so I raise my menu again, schooling my face behind it. If Nate wants his brother to believe that their charade worked, who am I to burst that bubble?
I bite my tongue and manage a smile by the time we’re asked about our orders.
“Also,” Nate starts again after ordering his extravagant milkshake: banana-chocolate with a swirl of caramel—yes, of course topped with whipped cream and sprinkles. “I want to celebrate that my best friend and brother are finally getting along!”
“Getting along?” I snort and shake my head. “Nate, we got thrown off the ice for fighting on Friday.”
“Yeah, but you two lived together for two weeks and both survived. And uh…” Nate wags his brows and I groan, knowing exactly what he’s hinting at.
Van der Hoff makes a disgusted noise, but I don’t think I’m imagining the light pink flush on his cheeks.
“That was before I knew it was him,” I growl, though Van der Hoff does his best to talk over me.
“As if smelling Hart’s dirty socks for two weeks makes me want to kill him less.”
“I mean you did let him kiss you, sooo…?”
“Nate.” I put as much warning into my voice as possible, willing my face to stay neutral and not warm up. There’s nothing to feel embarrassed about. At least nothing that Nate would know. A kiss sounds perfectly innocent compared to licking Van der Hoff’s cum off of my hand.
“I– I was drunk!”
Nate ignores us both. “Maybe I should have a serious talk about what your intentions are with my little brother…”
“I’m only seven minutes younger than you!”
I ignore Van der Hoff’s protest in favor of frowning at my best friend.
“My intentions?”
“Oh, come on,” Nate huffs, but stops when our drinks arrive. We hurry to thank the waitress with polite smiles. In turn she asks sweetly if we need anything else before she disappears again. I turn back toward Nate.
“I have nointentionstoward your brother.”
“Yeah, because you run around kissing just anyone.”
“Clearly it was a mistake.” I should have known that Nate would get the wrong idea, since any girl he has more than a friendly conversation with automatically gets announced as “girlfriend.”
Thankfully, for once, his hard-headed brother is on the same page as me.
“Doesn’t matter what hisintentionsare, I’m not interested. I gotMichael, remember?”
“Right! Did you go on a date? I told you he was funny!”
