Page 51 of Taking Sides

“I just told him I’m talking to Whitney,” I say.

“Wait . . . the hockey coach?” Trav asks, then he gets the same confused expression on his face. “I thought you blew your chance with her.”

“Blew his chance with who?” D-Low pops up from behind Nick. “The coach?”

“That sounds harsh,” Nick says as he sends a side-eye to both Trav and D-Low. “And he just said they were talking.”

“You are?” This time it’s D-Low who shoots me a puzzled look. There’s a hint of hurt there too. I had a lot of chances to tell him and didn’t.

“I didn’t want to say anything until I knew it was a thing,” I say.

“And?”

“We’re . . . talking.” I step past them without any further explanation.

“Wait, wait, wait.” Trav hurries to keep up with me. “That’s it?”

The other guys huddle around as I take a seat in front of my locker.

“What do you want me to say?” I ask.

“How?” D-Low asks at the same time Travis asks, “Does this mean you don’t want to meet the chick I texted you about this morning?”

“Do you even know her?” I ask Travis. He sent me a blurry picture of a woman standing in line at the grocery store.

“I struck up a conversation with her.” He nodded. “She’s single, twenty-three, and works at an accounting firm. She gave me her card.” He proceeds to dig around in his pockets until he pulls out a business card and holds it out to me.

“You realize she probably thought you were asking for yourself, right?” I take the card anyway, but have no intention of doing anything with it—except throwing it away.

“Me? But I’m married,” he says quickly.

“Did you tell her that?” Nick asks him.

Travis’s face goes slack. “Oh shit.”

I chuckle and push the card back toward him. “Here you go, man. Good luck.”

He takes a step back. “I need to call Hannah and tell her I inadvertently hit on someone. I’m the worst husband ever.”

“Relax.” Nick squeezes his shoulder. “She’ll think it’s funny.”

D-Low chuckles softly and nods his agreement. “Everyone knows how gone you are for Hannah. Especially Hannah.”

Trav relaxes a little.

“But can I be there when you tell her the story?” D-Low asks.

“Hold up.” Penn’s voice has everyone quietening down. “Can we go back to Shep and Whitney?”

The guys murmur and nod, then all eyes are on me again.

“The night we went to her game, I apologized for being the world’s worst date and told her I liked her, then asked if I could take her out again.” An image of Whitney standing in the high school parking lot flashes in my mind. She really thought I wasn’t interested in her. I guess I can’t blame her based on our first date, but the idea that anyone wouldn’t be jumping at a chance to be with her blows my mind. “She said yes, and we went back to her place.”

The four men in front of me all go quiet. Travis is the first to speak after several seconds of silence.

“You went home with her?”

“Mm-hmm.” I nod, then proceed to pull out my pads and practice jersey. “It was late. There weren’t a lot of other options.”