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“She just needs some practice,” Noah says, half-jokingly.
I’m already thinking about practicing on him. Over and over and over again. Alex chuckles lightly, drawing my focus to his big brown eyes. They’re playful but the way he smiles speaks of danger. The spicy kind of danger I’ve been craving since I realized I’ve been single and untouched for far too long. He wears his blonde hair cut short with a deep fade on the sides, which further brings out his square jaw and that adorable dimple in his chin.
“Aw, look at that, our Maeve is all grown up,” he says.
“Hey, keep your paws off my sister,” Kyle replies, and we all know it’s just banter but I can’t help but appreciate my little brother right now. He’s seven years younger than me, yet here he is, trying to be my protector although I doubt I need protection from these three guys who have been close to us for quite a while.
“Don’t worry, kiddo,” Jack chimes in, laughing. “Every beginning is hard until you get the hang of it.”
“Are you talking to me or Kyle?” I ask.
Jack raises an eyebrow, and it’s the sexiest expression I’ve ever seen on this man. While Noah and Alex are in their early thirties, the Lansing Devils’ coach is what Hayley normally refers to as a silver fox. He’s in his forties, with short, salt and pepper hair and eyes a smoldering black that can see right through me, somehow. I always feel naked under his gaze. “I’m talking to you, young lady. It’s about time you got your head out of that museum and into the dating game,” he says.
“Except she absolutely sucks at it,” Kyle sighs.
“Dude!” I snap, my cheeks burning.
“What? It’s true. Hayley said so,” he shoots back.
“Oh, great, so everybody knows now,” I exhale a sharp breath and go over to the liquor cabinet, determined to pour myself another drink.
I can feel Noah’s eyes following me before he even speaks. “It’s not the worst thing to happen, Maeve. You’re going out to meet guys, yet here we are, three guys willing and more than happy to help you get better at the game. Right, fellas?”
“Absolutely,” Jack adds, a broad smile illuminating his tanned face.
I turn around to stare at them while Kyle laughs it all off and proceeds to play with Nala instead. Anything pertaining to my romantic aspirations usually goes in one ear and out the other with my brother, and I can’t exactly blame him. He’s twenty-two and one of the youngest hockey players ever recruited into the NHL. He takes so much after our dad; he’s literally the spitting image of the legendary Jensen Williams. Therefore, Kyle has no time nor any energy left to pay attention to much of my personal life. It’s okay, though. That’s my business, anyway, especially since I’ve been secretly drooling over his friends for years.
“I think you’re right, coach,” Alex tells Jack, then looks my way. “I think we could help Maeve get any guy she wants.”
While I’m not sure what to make of these statements, I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t intrigued. Just standing here and watching the three of them looking at me in a new sort of way is exhilarating enough already. I guess they’ve seen me as the bookish museum-loving big-sister Maeve for so many years that they practically forgot I’m also a hot-blooded woman.
It’s going to be a weird evening, considering the topic at hand. I’m not used to this kind of attention.
2
We move the conversation into the kitchen as soon as the pizza arrives. Kyle has made Friday night pizza a religion of sorts, and no one really complains—especially me, since I don’t have to cook. I offer the guys some whiskey from Dad’s reserve. Jack and Noah gladly help themselves, while Alex sticks to his ice-cold Coke. He and Kyle don’t usually drink since they need to be in top shape throughout their practice weeks.
Playoffs are right around the corner, and the Lansing Devils have a real shot at qualifying for the first time in four years.
We leave Kyle in the living room with Nala, who rarely leaves his side when he’s around. There’s a baseball game on, so my kid brother is pretty much oblivious to anything else going on in his vicinity, which means I get to spend a bit more time with these three gorgeous gentlemen.
“Alright, so first things first,” Alex says as we each work our way through the pepperoni and extra-cheese pizza that dominates the island counter in my kitchen. “Guys respond best to confidence, Maeve. I mean, you’re a gorgeous woman, you’re the total package, to be honest… but if you don’t radiate that from within, it’s hard to get a man to actually click with you on the same level.”
“Maeve also has a minor handicap here of being super intelligent and highly educated,” Jack adds. “A lot of men tend to be intimidated by this, but it’s actually a good thing. It means you don’t have to waste your time trying to impress some mediocre stooge who’s more inclined to be afraid of not being enough for you than to actually learn from you.”
“And there’s also the question of having a game of your own,” Noah tells me. “Little gestures and lines to pepper in at the right moment. Men are highly responsive to a woman’s micro-expressions and body language. You can say a lot with just your eyes.”
I nod slowly, drinking in every word. “I doubt I said much to this guy today. I’m pretty sure he invented a family emergency just to get away from me.”
They laugh, but Alex is quick to offer more insight. “I think you need more self-confidence at this point,” he says. “For me, I get a lot of my good vibes from my workouts. The gym is like a temple where you go to worship and nurture your body. The strength that comes from training sort of translates into this insane self-confidence I mentioned. With or without a guy, Maeve, you need to treat yourself the very best that you can, and that’s precisely when the good ones are going to start showing up.”
“I see. Well, I’ve only ever gone jogging. I mean, sure, I’ve played enough hockey with Kyle growing up, but only as a hobby, a family pastime,” I reply.
The corner of his mouth ticks subtly as he holds back a smile. “We could train together. You only need a couple of sessions per week to see decent results fairly quickly that will help keep you strong in the long run.”
“Besides, this online dating thing is a hot mess for our era,” Alex says. “You’re better off meeting new people at the gym, Maeve. At least there you know you’ve already got one interest in common, which is this notion of self-care and self-love. It’s why most people go to the gym, anyway.”
“I agree with Alex on this,” Jack says. “People tend to be disingenuous on the internet. They create personas, fictionalized versions of who they’d like to be, and it gets tiring to play that role deeper into a relationship. I honestly don’t think you’re the problem here.”
