Page 2 of The Chase

I rolled my eyes. “We know!”

I scanned the bar, looking for my twin sister. We usually hashed out the games together. As much as Noah was my best bud on the ice, Roxie was my literal best friend. Her opinion about my game always meant a lot to me. Like Dinah, she didn’t mince words. My sister was kind of an asshole, but that’s what I loved about her.

I spied her at the end of the bar, where Benny had his arms wrapped around her. I couldn’t say I was happy about Roxie getting with my teammate, the big guy broke the code, but I’ve never seen her happier. I watched them fight for three years straight over some bullshit thing he said when he first met her, so it wasn’t a surprise when they finally got together. I only wished I didn’t find out by coming home and hearing them have sex. The thought of it still made me want to puke.

I watched Roxie sip on her beer while she talked animatedly to a petite blonde. A blonde with a nice ass. The mystery blonde turned for a second, giving me a glimpse of her profile, and my breath caught in my throat when I realized who it was.

Noah nudged me. “Dude, is that Maxine?”

“Who’s Maxine?” Dinah asked.

“Nobody,” I muttered.

Noah raised an eyebrow at me with a knowing look.

Last summer, I asked Maxine for her number, and then like the chicken I was, never asked her out.

“Max works in sales for the team,” Noah said.

“What did you do?” Dinah asked and pinned me with a death glare. Dinah might have been a tiny little thing, but she could be intense.

“Nothing,” I said with a shrug and sipped on my beer, hoping they would drop the conversation already.

“The same thing he always does,” Noah said.

I cut a glare at him.

“Oh, T, what did you do?” Dinah asked.

“Nothing.”

“He asked for her number and then never called her,” Noah said.

Dinah moved out of Noah’s arms and punched me in the arm. The petite woman could hit pretty hard. “Ow! You hit like a hockey player. You’re worse than Roxie.”

She grinned. “I have three meathead older brothers. Who do you think taught me?”

“But what was that for?” I whined and rubbed my arm.

She put her hands on her hips and arched an eyebrow at me. “Why are you the way you are?”

I gave her my lopsided grin. “I don’t want to be tied down!”

Lie.

Huge lie.

Despite being known as the guy on the team who only hit it and quit it, lately it hadn’t appealed to me. I was getting older; that might explain why sowing my wild oats was getting stale.

I glanced around the bar and noticed three different women eyeing me up. I could walk up to all three of them and ask them if they wanted to suck my dick in the bathroom, and they would do it, no questions asked. Not that I would. I wasn’t that big of an asshole. But it felt like they never saw me for me. I didn’t realize that bothered me until I messed up things with Taylor.

Last year, I found an awesome girl, and I let her slip through my fingers. It had been nice having someone care about me. Someone who saw me as TJ and not just TJ Desjardins, star hockey player for the Philadelphia Bulldogs. I fucked up with Taylor, big time. Instead of dealing with it then, I went to Russia for the World Hockey Championships. When I got back and finally called her, she had already moved on.

I was good for a quick lay, but women didn’t see me as long-term. I used to be okay with that; I used to want that. But now I wasn’t so sure.

“You’re the literal worst!” Dinah sighed.

Noah wrapped his arms around her and whispered something in her ear that I couldn’t hear. She nodded and pursed her lips.