“I have eyes. I see. She has you tied in knots.” Steele cocked his head at me.

“Yeah, what’s up with that?” Kaden leveled me with a glare that said, You aren’t getting out of this one.

“He’s got a crush on Geneva. We’ve all noticed the way he looks at her when he doesn’t think we’re watching.” Easton, who was crazy in love, wanted everyone else to be in love. He saw stuff where there wasn’t anything.

I signaled the waitress for another round and grabbed a hunk of nachos from the plate on the table. I was stalling, and the bastards grinned at me, perfectly content with waiting me out.

“Her brother hates me. It’d never work out even if we did have a mad attraction to each other.”

“Which you do.” Big E pointed a nacho at me, using it to punctuate each word, just to make his point.

“She is hot,” Kaden said, and Steele nodded his agreement.

“Why don’t you ask her out?” Steele said.

“Why don’t you?” I shot back.

The asshole grinned one of his rare grins, as if he knew something I didn’t. “She’s interested in you, not me, brother. Ask her out.”

“Yeah, ask her out.” Easton had to jump in with his two cents. “What’s the worst that can happen?”

I shrugged. “I could get another black eye.”

“From her or her brother?” Steele asked.

“Either. I bet Geneva has a wicked right hook, and I don’t want to find out.” I stuffed more nachos in my mouth and chewed.

“Ask. Her. Out.” Easton was a pushy bastard. I flipped him off and guzzled down my beer. All three of the bastards chuckled, enjoying my annoyance. My fault. I’d given them the ammunition to get under my skin, and I knew better.

I’d ask her out if I chose to, and I had to admit I might be warming up to the idea. Jock’s hatred of me was beginning to thaw. Easton might be right. Maybe I didn’t have anything to lose and a lot more to gain if she said yes.

I was going to ask her out, damn it.

~~Geneva~~

The Sockeyes lost a heartbreaker on Thursday night, and we flew straight to New Jersey that same evening. It was a short flight, thank God, because everyone was down about the loss. They’d led the entire game until the last three minutes, then all hell broke loose, and Florida nailed us with two unanswered points. Jock blamed himself, but so did every other member of the team who skated onto that ice tonight. The defensemen were pissed at themselves for not supporting Jock more. The forwards were irritated by their sloppy play. The coaches blamed themselves because they’d changed up the lines and messed with the chemistry each line had built over the course of the season.

I avoided everyone on the flight and buried my head in a feel-good romance.

The coaches had planned a morning skate on Friday but, after last night’s performance, had a full-blown practice and team meeting, which involved a good amount of work for the equipment staff, but I hoped to finish the laundry early enough to have a few hours to myself. Road trips were hard, with a huge amount of packing and unpacking, as opposed to being at home.