“Just worried about you,” I added gingerly. “You’ve been off all day.”

“Look,” he said. “I take it that you finally got laid, and I’m happy for you, man. I really am. Shiv and I are not in a good place. We got into it at O’Connor’s.” Dallas yanked on his compression pants and stood, grabbing his base shirt. His jaw ticked. “Some dumb shit was hitting on her.”

Dallas had, shall we say, a mild jealous streak. Shiv did attract a lot of attention. Combine that with her refusal to fully commit, and he got a little touchy at times.

Tyler made a show of turning away, silently exiting the conversation. They’d probably already been through this, and Tyler’s usual blunt “just fucking deal with it” advice likely went over like a lead puck.

“Was she flirting back?” I asked.

“No. But she wouldn’t even say she had a boyfriend. Just told the dude that she was there with ‘someone.’ Like, what the fuck? I’m ‘someone’? So I told her, in or out. Decide.”

“Holy shit.” I pulled on my shorts, turning to face him. “Isn’t that kind of awkward if she’s staying with us?”

“Guess I’ll crash on the couch.”

“Are you serious?”

“I’m not sure.” Dallas hung his head. He raked a hand through his hair and looked at me, expression tense. Then he ducked in closer, lowering his voice. “I’m just fed up. I mean, come on. I have chicks all up on my jock left and right. But the only one I want can’t stomach calling me her boyfriend?”

It was ironic. Being hard to get was part of Shiv’s appeal early on. While so many other girls tried to land Ward by any means possible, like nudity or offering up blowjobs, Shiv wasn’t one of those chicks who liked the idea of landing a hockey player.

I understood the intrigue. I liked that about Bailey too. Being wanted for what I was rather than who I was had gotten old fast. But months later, Dallas only sort of had Shiv, and it wasn’t enough. I could see both sides. On the one hand, it was just a label. On the other, the label was kinda nice.

“Has she said what her issue with that is?”

“Something about her ex,” Dallas muttered. “Turned psycho and got possessive. She won’t give me any details.”

Bailey had sort of alluded to that too but hadn’t gotten into it. All I’d gathered was the dude was worse than Morrison, which meant he must be pretty fucking terrible.

“That’s rough.”

“Sure,” he agreed, stepping into his skates and lacing them up. “But obviously she knows I’m not a psycho by now.”

“Except when it comes to video games.”

Dallas made a face. “Ha ha. Fuck off.”