Page 2 of The Fake Out

“What? To play in Europe? Your place is in the big league.”

I snorted. “Sure, if my team still wants me.”

His gaze clouded as he stared at me. “Are you getting traded?”

I pointed to the TV where the sports network was still on. “They seem to think so. I don’t want to play for the Miners.”

Ayden chewed on his lip in thought. “At least you’d be closer to home.”

I fixed him with an annoyed glare. “Fuck that! The Miners suck!”

He laughed. “Not if they’re paying you millions of dollars.”

“Maja would disown me if I was wearing the black and yellow sweater.”

Ayden laughed. We all knew our baby sis. Being the only girl in a family of five hockey-playing brothers, she fit right in. She was the most rabid hockey fan of us all, and she lived by the Philly-Pittsburgh rivalry. She could be intense, but she was my favorite sibling, and I loved her despite her chaotic energy.

“You’ll figure it out. Hey, if Philly’s interested, maybe you could move back home,” Ayden suggested.

I grumbled a noncommittal noise.

“Stop scowling and get back to work.”

I wanted to give him the finger, but a few customers were watching us, so I shook my head instead.

After I finished busing tables, I saw my buddy TJ sitting at the bar with his teammate, Benny. They both played for the Bulldogs, but I became friends with TJ last season after his girlfriend Maxine introduced us. We were old classmates from high school. It was funny that not much had changed since then; she was as shy as ever.

“Oh, woof, you look like hell!” TJ said with a laugh.

Last night, I hit up TJ to go out drinking. Probably not the best idea since he and his twin sister Rox drank like fish. TJ kept trying to tell me I needed to bang a couple of bunnies to get Astrid out of my system. While Rox egged me on and kept pointing out the cute guy who had been eyeing me up all night. We had bonded over being bisexual hockey players, and I snorted when she said she thought an out bisexual hockey player in the league didn’t exist.

I got a lot of heat when I came out, and it hadn’t been easy. As much as the league talked a big game about hockey being for everyone, that wasn’t necessarily true. But tough guys shut up real quick when I checked their biphobic asses into the boards.

Despite the twins' encouragement last night, I wasn’t much for one-night stands. I had been with the same person since I was fifteen, and the hook-up scene wasn’t for me. I had to admit, the guy last night was hot, and he slipped me his number, but I wasn’t sure I was ready to date again.

“How do you look like you didn’t even drink a beer last night?” I grumbled at TJ.

He grinned. “It’s a gift!”

Benny shook his head. He hadn’t bothered keeping up with the twins last night. He obviously knew better. “The twins are like that. It’s annoying as hell.”

“What do you two assholes want, anyway?” I asked.

“Don’t be rude to the customers,” Ayden snapped at me as he set a beer down for the pretty blonde sitting a couple seats away.

I waved him off. He could go be a micromanager somewhere else.

“Lagers,” Benny said, cutting off TJ before he tried to order a round of shots.

I went over to the taps and filled beer into glasses, only half-listening to their conversation. I set down their beers and walked away to get another beer for the lone guy at the other end of the bar.

Next to me, Dad poured a beer into a glass and handed it to Ayden. “Go take this to Veronica. On the house.”

Ayden rolled his eyes, but I watched him walk over to a table where a pale woman dressed in all black sat with a pissed-off look on her face. She had black hair that turned into blue at the tips and a sleeve of colorful tattoos down one of her arms.

That piqued my interest. Tattoos were hot.

“Who’s that?” I asked.