Shut Out (Bayard Hockey #1)(25)

“No shit. Could’ve been way worse.”

“I wish there weren’t so many people here.”

“Yeah.” He pauses. “You want more Kool-Aid?”

“Sure.”

With my glass full, he leads me to a chair in the dining room. “Sit here for a minute. I’ll be right back.”

I sip my drink and watch him wind through the bodies. His size means people move out of his way. He pauses near his friends who I met at the diner the other night and says something to them, then gives one guy a clap on the back. They all nod.

I watch him do the same thing with a different guy, who Natalie introduced me to earlier, another Bears player. Then Jacob returns to me.

“What are you doing?” I tip my head way back to squint at him.

“Just mentioned to the guys to keep any eye on things. Anything starts getting out of hand, we’ll take care of it.”

I give him a slow blink. “You guys are our party cops?”

He grins and tweaks my chin. “Yeah. That’s it.”

“Is that what hockey players do?”

He shrugs. “Nah. It just helps when you’re bigger than most people.”

Something in my chest goes soft and warm. “Thank you.”

“See? Told you I’m a good guy.”

I’m not completely convinced yet, but I have to admit Jacob is winning me over.

He drops to a crouch next to me. “So hey, I wanted to tell you…you were amazing in that training.”

My mouth falls open. “What do you mean?”

“You’re really good at it. You got everyone involved, even when nobody was saying much at the start. Kept the energy up. It seemed like you were really reading everyone.”

I don’t even know what to say. My mouth closes. Then opens again. Finally I come up with “Thank you.”

“Plus, you’re knowledgeable and you obviously care a lot about what you’re teaching.”

I nod. “Yeah.” I take a quick sip of my drink. “It’s important. SAPAP helped me last year through a tough time and I like the feeling of helping others.”

He frowns. “You…?”

My insides tighten up. “My friend Brendan committed suicide. I went for some counseling there.”

“Oh.” His frown changes. “I’m sorry.”

I drop my gaze. “Yeah. It was tough. It still is.”

“That’s what happened? You said last year something happened and you were messed up.”

“Yes.”

He curls his fingers around one of my hands. I can tell my hand is icy, mostly from holding the cold glass of Kool-Aid, because his is so warm. And strong. His thumb rubs over the back of my hand. “That really sucks.”

I nod. “But I’m okay.” I lift my head to give him a smile. “It sucked gorilla butt, but we’re getting through it.”

He chokes on a laugh, but his eyes are warm on me. “I have no doubt.”

There’s a minor skirmish in the living room and I hear a guy saying loudly, “Yeah, yeah, chill, man. Sorry.”

Jacob and I turn that way, then look back at each other. My lips quirk. “Your boys are stepping up.”

He grins. “Damn straight. Come on. Let’s go join the party.”

He pulls me out of the chair and we walk hand in hand into the living room.

Weird.

It’s not long before Ella corners me alone. “What’s up with you and the hockey player?”

“You mean Jacob?”

“No, I mean Wayne Gretzky.” She scrunches her face.

I laugh. “We’re, um, kind of seeing each other.”

“Since when?”

I tell her about meeting him that night at the party at Sigma house, and then him being in the training sessions, not really lying but omitting some details so it sounds plausible.

“He’s hot, Skylar.”

“I know.” Truth.

She squeezes my arm. “Wow. Good for you.”

Excitement wriggles inside me, which is stupid because Jacob and I are only pretending. But the reality is, it is kind of exciting being around him.

Since it’s my job, I keep an eye on other girls to make sure nobody’s bugging him, and for the most part, this does seem to be working. When we meet up again, we stand close together and I can feel the looks from other females at the party.

“You should come to our game Friday night,” Jacob says.

I purse my lips. “Hmmm. I don’t really care for hockey that much.”

“What?” Eyes wide, he slaps a hand to his chest as if he’s been stabbed. “You did not just say that.”

I grin. “Sorry, I did.”

“I can’t even…” He shakes his head, but his lips are quirked. “But still, as my girlfriend you should be there to support me.”

“Yeah, I don’t know. I’m down with playing the girlfriend role when we’re out together, but at a game?” I shake my head. “Besides, I could get a lot of studying done Friday night.”

His shoulders slump.

“You really want me to come?”

“Well, sure. I saw you in action, doing that training. You should see me in my element.”