Page 19 of Broken As Puck

“I’d be happy to help.” He grinned broadly, clearly pleased as punch. “I could meet you after training tomorrow. I’m sure Coach would come too. Right, Coach?”

Coach Dunn nodded. “I won’t have all day, but an hour or so should be fine.”

“But—” I protested.

“I’ll see you then,” Matt said, skating away before anyone could contradict him.

I narrowed my eyes and curled my fingernails into my palms. That interfering, high-handed jerk. Was he going out of his way to annoy me? I couldn’t think why else he’d make such an offer.

Max looked pleased too. “I think this is going to go well.”

I forced myself to smile and not grumble like I wanted to. “Mmhmm.”

“We’d best go,” Kim said, looking at her delicate silver watch. “We have another appointment in half an hour.”

I escorted them to the door before returning upstairs to the office. I put in a full day of work in front of the computer and headed home, my stomach churning with apprehension about the meeting between the doc team and Matt tomorrow.

Layla arrived home shortly after I did and we ate frozen pizza for dinner because neither of us had the energy to do more.

“He’s so confusing,” I complained, referring to Matt. “First, he gave me that signed puck and now it’s like he’s everywhere I look.”

“Is he stopping you from doing your job?” she asked, scowling as she picked up a slice of pepperoni.

I grimaced, embarrassed to admit the truth. “I think he’s trying to make things easier, but it’s weird. Why can’t he just leave me alone?”

“Persistent asshole,” Layla said, but there wasn’t any heat in it the way there would have been if I’d told her he was messing with me in other ways. She tore into the pizza, chewed furiously, and swallowed. “Do you think he wants you back and this is his way of trying to get your attention?”

I laughed and raised an incredulous eyebrow. “He could have pretty much any woman he wanted. I’m sure he’s slept around plenty since we broke up. I doubt he’s hung up on me.”

I’d been the one to emerge wounded from our relationship, not him.

I chomped into a mouthful of pizza, snapping my teeth together more viciously than necessary. The cheesy taste was almost enough to distract me from my complicated mess of emotions but not quite.

“You never know.” Layla wiped her mouth on a napkin and drank from her glass of water. “If he did want you back, would you give him a chance?”

“No.” The word emerged without even a moment’s thought. “He didn’t stand by me when I needed him, and I’ve had enough of that. I deserve better. There’s no going back.”

Chapter Seven

MATT

“So. Chelsey.”

I paused while drying myself, my pulse shooting from sixty to a hundred, and made eye contact with Jesse, who’d appeared beside me with a towel wrapped around his hips and a shit-eating grin on his face.

I grunted. “What about her?”

With an effort, I resumed drying myself and pulled on a pair of underwear. I really didn’t want to have any conversation about Chelsey while naked. My dick had a mind of its own where she was concerned.

Jesse laughed in a way that sounded both delighted and slightly unhinged. “You’ve never been so invested in the team’s PR before. Is it because of a certain pretty blonde?”

I schooled my features as I reached for a T-shirt and tugged it on over my head. How did anyone think Jesse wasn’t smart? He had his ridiculous flirt persona down pat, but he was far more perceptive than people gave him credit for.

“Maybe I want to be proud of my team and stop us from ending up in the ass end of nowhere.” I glanced around, my heart hammering with worry that we might have been overheard. Jesse wasn’t exactly subtle. Fortunately, no one seemed to be listening to us.

Jesse hummed. “It could be that, but I don’t think so. I think it’s Chelsey and Matt sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.”

I glared at him and hissed, “Shut up. Maybe you should be more worried about your own PR and not what I’m up to.”