Page 34 of Falling Back to You

Talk about out of my depth. I hadn’t been on a first date in over five years. Had the protocols changed? Time to call in the master: my love-cynic little sister.

For someone so anti-romance (until she fell in love with her husband), it was unfair how uncanny her matchmaking skills were.

Maybe she’d work some magic on me.

“Cap, you’re killing us out there,” Max, one of our centers, complained when we retreated to the locker room. “Is this about Noelle Shepherd?”

“Oh, yeah, I heard she was back in town.” Van, a left winger, shucked off his shirt and grabbed a towel. “If you’re hitting me, dude, she must have really gotten to you.”

“Nah,” Jamie piped in. “We don’t need an excuse to hit you. It just comes naturally.”

Van whipped his discarded shirt at the rookie, but Jamie dodged it with a laugh.

I was severely regretting my lapse in judgment a few years ago when I told a few of the guys about Noelle. But they’d gotten out of hand with plans to set me up, so I caved and spilled my guts. Now it was coming back to bite me.

“How do you even know about her being in town?” I demanded. “She got here Saturday night. It’s Monday.”

“Jamie,” Brooks, our other rookie, said without hesitation.

Of course. I frowned at the tawny-headed rookie.

Jamie lifted his hands. “Hey, it was all over The Vine by Monday morning. Just because I don’t live there doesn’t mean I don’t get the news. Myles got me hooked on it, and it’s the highlight of my morning.”

Brooks snorted. “He reads it every morning while eating his cereal.” He and Jamie were roommates, so he would know.

I resented the day Brett decided to code a neighbour community app in high school for the fun of it and let the town use it. The Vine, as he so cleverly named it—grapevine, get it?—had been nothing but a thorn in my side.

“This is a big deal,” Max piped up.

“You’re one to talk,” I snapped. “Stop dancing around Bells and maybe we’ll have this conversation.”

Max reddened. He was absolutely crushing on Arabella Hadley, our PR and social media manager, affectionately known as Bells. They’d grown up together, but he hadn’t asked her out yet.

“Not sure she likes me like that.”

“Welcome to the club,” I deadpanned. “Man up and tell her.” Wow, I was starting to sound a whole lot like Myles, the king of pep talks. Not sure how I felt about that.

“Maybe,” he muttered, heading for the door.

“Uh, Magic? Maybe put some pants on first.”

He glanced down at the towel around his waist. “Right.”

“I’m going to go on a date,” I announced to Myles and Juliet later as we stepped into the elevator heading down to the Palace Arena lobby after a meeting.

Juliet’s eyebrows flew northward, her mouth agape. I’d never rendered her speechless before. This was kinda fun.

She elbowed Myles.

“Geez, woman,” Myles grunted, but wrapped an arm around her shoulders, tugging her into his side. It looked romantic, but I’d bet it was a protective measure to keep her from repeating the gesture.

“Did you hear what I heard?” she demanded.

“I did, and you didn’t need to puncture my spleen to ask me that.” Myles’s lips twitched under his beard.

“With who?” Juliet asked.

I swallowed hard. I did have someone in mind, but I wasn’t sure telling her that would land me on the other side of this conversation with all of my organs intact. My gut reaction said Noelle. Always Noelle. But that was a terrible idea. Logically. Too bad logic had never been my strong point.