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I grimaced. “I guess it would, wouldn’t it?”
He nodded. “We get close, you know? We all know trades and free agency are a thing, but… it sucks, losing guys you’re friends with and moving to new teams on a moment’s notice.”
“I can’t even imagine.”
“Hockey,” he said with another shrug. “Between you and me, there was some talk about me getting traded last season.”
My stomach somersaulted. “Yeah?”
“Mmhmm. My agent and the GM both told me so I wouldn’t be blindsided. They needed to free up some cap space if they were going to woo Boris Egorov to sign with us during free agency.” He exhaled. “Fortunately, they figured it out another way, and I stayed here. Obviously.”
“I’m glad!” And probably sounded way too eager. Jesus. I cleared my throat. “So you like it here, then? I mean, you obviously like the team, but… Pittsburgh?”
“I do. The team and the town.” He grinned as much as he could with those stitches. “And the friendly locals are definitely growing on me.”
Some heat rose in my face, and I laughed, not sure what to say. I was never hard up for anything to talk about with Nick, but I couldn’t lie—I was seriously starstruck by Tanner.
By Tanner Jeffries. Who was the real person behind my closest online friend.
The real person, who was even sexier like this than he was on the ice or on camera, and that said a lot.
Holy.
Shit.
My ex’s voice tried to crowd my thoughts, but I shoved it away. It really didn’t matter if Tanner found me attractive, because this absolutely wasn’t a date. No way in hell was I in this man’s league.
And that thought wasn’t as depressing as it probably should’ve been. Maybe because it took the pressure off. Maybe because I was just so blown away after finding out my friend was one of my favorite hockey players, I didn’t have the headspace to worry about what thiscouldn’tbe.
Tanner shifted a little and cleared his throat. “So, um. Do you want to go grab a beer or something?”
I smiled. “Hell yeah. Let’s go.”
Chapter 6
Tanner
“So after hisparents spent an hour telling me I was just making bullshit accusations against their perfect angel,” Isaiah was saying, “I showed them the paper he’d turned in… with the Wikipedia parentheticals highlighted.”
“No kidding?” I watched him across the table for two. “He didn’t even bother to delete those?”
Isaiah lit up the whole restaurant with that gorgeous laugh. “He even had the footnotes at the bottom, plus the part that literally says,‘From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia’at the top of the article.” He rolled his eyes. “Like, if you’re going to plagiarize, at least put some effort into it, you know? Take somepridein your fuckery!”
I chuckled, reaching for my beer. “Did his parents at least back down after that?”
“Oh, they still tried to blame me for it, but I think they knew their kid had fucked up.”
“How did they try to blame you?” I gestured with my glass. “You didn’t tell him to plagiarize.”
“Nah, but…” He waved his hand, rolling his eyes again. “Something, something, if I’d taught the subject better, he’d have been able to competently write about it or whatever.”
I snorted. “Of course. Obviously.” I nudged his foot under the table. “Damn, Isaiah. Why didn’t you teach him better?”
That got the effect I wanted—another laugh.
Jesus. I was so stupid for this man already, and every time he smiled—especially when he laughed—I thought I was going to lose my balance. I’d wondered millions of times what the man behind the avatar looked like, and when I’d seen him at the fountain, my first thought had been,No way. That can’t be him. It can’t.
I’d even walked around for a few minutes, searching for anyone else who matched the description he’d given me. But, no, there’d only been one white guy with light brown hair wearing a blue jacket. That couldn’t really be him, though. Could it? He’d said he was about six-one, which also checked out. He’d also made some self-deprecating comments about keeping my expectations low.
