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I’m saved from my dark thoughts when a big man fills the doorway. His eyes go from Parker to me, and he grins. He’s got a dark beard, darker eyes, and a shaved head. Probably one of my teammates.
I realize now I should have looked at the roster before arriving. But I was too stuck in my head to even think about it. Now I’ll just look like some egomaniac who thinks he’s a big shot.
“Van,” Parker says, leaning back in her chair, which makes a loud pop. I wait for it to break, but it holds. For now. “Aren’t you supposed to be with the trainer right now?”
“Just stopped by to say hi,” he says, and I don’t like the way he’s smiling at Parker.
More like—he just stopped by to flirt.
Parker wiggles her fingers in a cutesy wave. “Well, then,hi. While you’re here, this is your newest teammate, Logan Barnes.”
I stand, shaking his hand as we size each other up. He seems like a friendly guy, and I’d appreciate it more if he didn’t keep smiling at Parker like that.
Since when am I the possessive type? Especially with someone I’m not even dating?
But the tension in my shoulders doesn’t ease until Van is gone after “welcoming” me. Okay, what he actually said is that he’s looking forward to tearing me up on the ice, but it’s the same thing.
Parker leans forward again, looking like she’s about to launch into whatever she planned to tell me when she lured me in here, but another guy shows up.
“Boss,” he says, knocking on the door frame.
He doesn’t smile—doesn’t look capable, actually. I find myself shaking his hand too hard as Parker introduces him as Nathan. He’s giving me the same kind of once-over I’m giving him. One full of assessment and maybe suspicion.
“Knock it off, you two,” Parker says, and Nathan steps back, giving me another look before turning to Parker.
“Lunch later?” Nathan asks, retying his long brown locks into a ponytail.
“Can’t today,” she says, frowning at the computer.
Does Parker routinely have lunch with the guys on the team? Or just this one? I find both ideas bother me. Almost as much as Van smiling at her did.
Nathan grumbles out some kind of response and disappears, only to be replaced by another one of my soon-to-be teammates. This one is all smiles, his lanky body full of too much energy.
Is there, like, a line of guys in the hall outside Parker’s door?
“I’m Eli,” the guy says, smiling so big it looks like it hurts. “So good to meet you, man. I can’t believe you’re here.”
That makes two of us.
“See you later, Boss?” he asks Parker.
She glances at her phone. “At four.”
“Cool.” Eli looks at me again, still smiling. “Cool. Cool. Cool.”
As soon as he’s gone, I fix my eyes on Parker. “Did you have something you wanted to meet about? Because—”
I don’t get to finish because one after another, what must be the whole team—or practically the whole team—pops in, one by one. Alec—the captain who somehow looks like a Disney prince come to life. Based on the way he struts, he might actually think heisa Disney prince. It makes me unreasonably happy when Parker rolls her eyes at him the second his back is turned.
Then it’s Tucker and Dumbo—two defenders who come in together, making Parker’s small office feel even more cramped. I don’t bother to ask their real names. And a bunch more whose names I’ve forgotten.
Every guy calls ParkerBoss. All of them look at her in a way I don’t like. Not that they looked at her disrespectfully. The opposite actually—it’s clear they hold Parker in high regard.
Which should ease my tension. Instead, it bugs me that these guys I don’t know and don’t trust have a familiarity with Parker that used to be mine.
Totally unfair. But feelings aren’t always fair.
After what must be twenty minutes of this, I’m ready to slam the door in the face of the next guy who tries to set foot inside. Thankfully, I don’t try it, because the last guy practically has to stand at an angle to fit in the doorway.
