Page 7 of Against The Boards

“You heard me.”

“Dude, no.”

He stroked his beard in thought. “Admit it. You’ve been circling each other for years.”

“We hate each other. We circle each other looking to fight about nothing,” I grumbled.

Like what were we just fighting about? Nothing! I asked her where she got a job, and she snapped at me. I was actually trying to be nice for once.

He squinted at me suspiciously. “You realize you blatantly check her out, right?”

I gritted my teeth but didn’t deny it. I totally did that, and she caught me doing it. Again.

If she was any other woman, I would have put the moves on her. If she didn’t constantly pick arguments with me, it might have been a different situation. Not gonna lie, I’ve had my fantasies about getting her underneath me. Or on top of me. But they were just fantasies for when I was bored and horny.

Note to self: never look at a beautiful woman and blurt out the first thing your sex-deprived, horny brain was thinking. I’d learned that lesson the hard way.

Chapter Three

ROXANNE

I wasn’t in the mood for a party, especially if I had to be up early tomorrow for my first day at my new job. But it seemed like it was important to Noah for me to come over, so I sucked it up and drove back to Old City after taking a nap in my hotel.

I hoped the hockey gods were on my side this time and Benny kept his distance. I was already reconsidering sleeping in Tristan’s room while he was in Russia. Maybe Dinah and Noah would take pity on me and let me crash on their couch? A girl could dream.

“Hey, you came!” Dinah greeted me when she opened the door.

She handed me a beer, which I graciously took, and I bent down to hug her. “Congrats on the book!”

“Thanks! Oh, you should meet my friend Fi. Do you like young adult sci-fi?” she asked.

“Sometimes.”

“She’s Riley’s wife.”

I almost spit out my beer, and she laughed at my expression. “Aaron Riley?”

Riley was hot if you were into beefy blonde alpha males, which I wasn’t, but I could appreciate a pretty face. I thought he was a guy who only hit it and quit it, though. He had hit on me a couple of times before I told him I was taken. We became friends when he figured out I could drink him under the table. I guess that meant he respected me. Men.

Her smile crinkled around her emerald eyes. “I know, right? You’ll have to let Fi tell you.”

That must be an interesting story. Aaron Riley with a wife. Wow. He was one of the last guys on the team I expected that from.

“TJ said you’re moving here,” Dinah said.

“I got offered a job with the Bulldogs on the spot.”

“Oh, cool! Doing what?”

“Sales. Same thing I was doing with the OHL. It surprised me when they offered it to me so quickly.”

Dinah looked thoughtful for a second. “Wait, do you have to wait around for a work visa?”

I shook my head. “Nope! Tristan and I were born in New York, so we have dual citizenship.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that.”

I shrugged. “After Dad retired, we moved back to Canada. I think Tristan kinda forgot.”