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“I don’t know.” He ran a hand down his face, exhaling a long sigh. “She seems different.”
“What’s the deal with the two of you, anyway?” I asked.
“It’s a long story, but we went through some shit as kids with our parents, and as soon as graduation rolled around, I got the hell out of there. I guess Rory thought I’d abandoned her or something.”
“She a hockey fan?” Connor asked, and Austin nodded.
“At least, she used to be. Dated the captain of our high school hockey team for two years.”
“Dated, past tense?”
“Yeah, decided to go their separate ways during their senior year because he got a full ride to Fitton U.”
“No shit,” I said. “He’s going to be a Falcon?”
“Yeah.” Austin sucked in a harsh breath, pinning me with a hard look. “I know you weren’t too happy about her moving in, but you’d be doing me a big favor if you could make her feel welcomed. Maybe show her around a bit and keep her company when I’m in class. My schedule is slammed this semester. Between practice and my course load, it’s not going to leave much time for me to look out for her.”
“You’re not seriously asking me to babysit her?”
“I’m just saying can you keep an eye out? She’s my little sister, Holden.”
“Ella will take her under her wing,” Connor offered; thank fuck. Because I, sure as shit, wasn’t the right guy for the job.
I’d probably do something stupid like get drunk and try to bang her.
Not that she was my type.
I preferred blondes—girls who made an effort. The oversized weird assed t-shirt and pair of leggings weren’t exactly doing it for me, even if her shapely ass had my full attention.
Fuck don’t think about her like that. She’s Austin’s sister. His little SISTER, asshole.
The Lakers had a handful of rules when it came to girls, but at the top of said list was the one all teammates silently promised to abide by.
Don’t fuck your teammate’s sister.
It was right up there with don’t fuck around with any female relation of one of your teammates or opponents. Although, I’d heard that Lincoln Parsons had scored big hooking up with one of the Broncos’ player’s moms a couple of years back. He was known as the MILF Fucker after that, but he’d graduated last year, and Aiden, our captain this season, had already warned us to keep our eye on the prize. And not on the petty rivalry we had with a couple of teams in our conference.
Not that I wanted to fuck Aurora. I didn’t. Like I’d said before, she wasn’t my type.
And even if she was, in Connor’s words of wisdom—you never shit where you ate.
It was damn good being back together with the team. In between training camps, most of the guys had gone home during summer break except for Aiden, who had been exiled to Dupont Beach to stay with Assistant Coach Walsh. He’d gotten into some trouble back home and needed to lay low. No one had expected him—our fucking captain of all people—to go and meet some girl and fall ass-over-elbow in love with her. I only hoped it wasn’t catching because we couldn’t afford to lose more of the guys to new relationships. We had an important season ahead.
After crashing out of the Frozen Four last season, everyone was ready to sharpen our skates and get back on the ice to show everyone why we were still the team to beat.
I’d stayed behind in Lakeshore, keeping myself busy, helping out at Coach Tucker’s summer camp for local kids.
It beat going home to Buffalo. Seeing him. Spending the summer listening to what an utter failure I was.
“Yo, Holden,” Connor boomed across the bar. “You’re up.” He waved a pool cue in the air, and I got up to join him. Right as Aurora appeared.
“Crap, I’m sorry.” She darted out of my way.
“You’re good. Maybe watch where you’re going next time.”
Her eyes flashed to mine, full of sass and fire. “Excuse me? You almost mowed me down.”
“Whatever, shortstack,” I murmured before moving around her.
