There was an awkward pause. It was uncomfortable even for me, and I had a lofty threshold for feeling uncomfortable. It happened about as often as I was wrong, which was basically never.

Behind Kristen, Luke stood in front of his table with Paul and the other Bulldogs. His eyes were on us, and he watched for a beat, wearing a chilling expression. Great. That’s what I need—Morrison thinking I’m chatting up other chicks in front of Bailey.

Already in motion, I pivoted around Kristen. “I should get back with these drinks. See you later.” Unfortunately.

Mental note to kill Ty for putting them at our table.

* * *

By the time I finally returned to our table, Dallas and Ty were there too. Ty had his arm slung around Zoe’s chair while she and Siobhan were locked deep in conversation.

I set down our drinks and pulled out my chair, then sank down beside Bailey. Briefly, I wondered if she would ask me about my Morrison or Kristen run-ins.

“Thanks.” Bailey grabbed her vodka seven and took a sip. “I heard about the time you took a guy out without touching him.”

“You mean Paul?” Hopefully, that idiot would give a repeat performance when we played them in a couple of days.

“No,” Shiv said. “When you played the Blizzards last season and that guy trying to fight you slipped and bailed.”

I laughed. “Oh, yeah. That was awesome.” The guy speared me and skated away without being called for it. When I made a hit on him in response—which was a perfectly reasonable thing to do—he got salty and started a fight. But before we could actually throw down, he lost his balance, fell on the ice, and gave himself a concussion. I loved when people did my dirty work for me. Avoiding the fighting penalties was great too.

Bailey gave me a wry smile, shaking her head. “I always said you were devious, even before I met you.”

“I think you mean genius.”

Bailey huffed a soft laugh. From across the table, Dallas snorted and rolled his eyes but said nothing.

“Actually, I need to run to the bathroom.” Bailey stood and pushed her chair away. “Be right back.”

With Morrison here, I was half-tempted to escort her there, but that would probably be overkill. I would watch her from afar like a totally normal, not at all overprotective boyfriend would. As she weaved her way through the room, I scanned the crowd but couldn’t locate Morrison.

While I waited for Bailey to return, I turned away to talk to Ward for a moment. “What time do you want to take off?”

“Up to Shiv.” Dallas shrugged.

Ty nodded behind me. “Uh, pretty sure Greenfield is hitting on your girlfriend.”