* * *
“How you holding up?” Jack asked, picking up the paper again. “Zummo wrote a nice little article about how your head isn’t in the game and how your other head is playing a different game that could get you into trouble with Hanson.”
* * *
Alec made a face after pouring the creamer into his coffee. “Is he talking about my dick?” he asked, shutting the door.
* * *
“He’s talking about your dick,” Jack said with a nod. He brought his cup of coffee to his lips and took a long sip.
* * *
“The guy is obsessed with my dick.” Alec rolled his eyes and grabbed a spoon so he could stir his creamer into his coffee. “I swear. It’s like he looks for any excuse to talk about it.”
* * *
“Who isn’t obsessed with your dick at this point?” Jack grinned to himself, and Alec was well-aware his best friend was giving him shit. Which he probably deserved.
* * *
“Oh, I know the answer to that one,” Lily said, sauntering in with her hair in a fresh ponytail and a hoodie on.
* * *
“Ugh, I don’t need my sister talking about that part of my body,” Alec said, bringing the mug of coffee to his lips.
* * *
“Everyone else does,” she pointed out.
* * *
She dropped into the seat next to Jack and grabbed his coffee without even asking. Jack didn’t seem to mind from the way his eyes softened, the way his lips curved up. Alec was glad Lily found a good guy but it still bothered him that it happened to be his best friend. He didn’t want to see this side of Jack. He’d rather see the other, angry part of him, the one who fought anyone for breathing wrong. But that Jack had gotten into trouble with Seraphina Hanson just like Alec had. Unlike Alec, he had also gotten out of trouble, but that might have been Lily’s influence. Who knew at this point.
* * *
“Anyway,” she said after setting the coffee back down. “The only person I know of who doesn’t give a shit about your dick is taking a shower right now. You might want to hang out with her more often. It’ll keep your ego in check.”
* * *
“My ego doesn’t need me to be kept in check, thank you very much,” he said. “It’s doing just fine on its own.”
* * *
At that moment, Noah herself emerged from the bathroom, hair still damp, dressed in a plain white t-shirt and jeans. Alec glanced over at her, and there was something about her that caused him to stare a little longer than he normally would have. He didn’t know what that was, but he knew he was annoyed with himself. She wasn’t terrible to look at. If she were, this would be a lot easier. But she wasn’t. She had this earthy quality to her, something grounding and eye-catching that made Alec’s stomach tighten whenever he saw her, and not in an unpleasant way.
* * *
“Noah,” Lily said, breaking the awkward silence between him and Noah, even though neither of them had engaged in any sort of conversation in the first place. “I’m glad to see you. I have to go to work and the boys have an early morning skate.”
* * *
“I didn’t realize nine in the morning was early,” Noah said.
* * *
Alec erupted into forced laughter, faking it. He had no idea as to why. Noah just stared at him with a what the fuck are you doing? look, and both Jack and Lily had something similar etched on their faces as well.
* * *
“Anyway,” Lily said, raising her brows. “Are you okay to be here?”
* * *
“She’s not a child,” Alec interjected. “She’s fine. She’ll be fine on her own.”
* * *
“Actually, I was hoping I could tag along with the boys,” she said. There was a tremor in her words that was uncharacteristic about her. Alec narrowed his eyes. “If that’s okay.”
* * *
No, it wasn’t. But before Alec could tell her that, Lily clapped her hands together.
* * *
“I think that’s a great idea!” she said.
6
Noah
The last thing Noah wanted to do was be transfixed by Alec, but some things couldn’t be helped, especially when Alec skated the way he skated. From what she overheard from Lily, he seemed to be having issues with his team and his reputation, which wasn’t a surprise. But Jesus, when he was on the ice, he was something else. He flew.
Noah didn’t know much about hockey, but she saw the way Alec held his stick, how Alec managed to trick his opposition almost every time and get around them before taking a shot. It was hard not to watch him. The guy was… astounding.
Not that she would ever tell him. God. He already had an ego up to his head, she didn’t need to add to it.
She shifted her weight and blew out a breath. Her arms were bunched across her chest, trying to keep herself warm. She probably should have prepared herself for going to an ice rink. Her thoughts were more on the fear that Aaron was going to somehow find her hiding at Lily’s while she was alone, and then… And then, she didn’t know what. She didn’t know what to expect from Aaron, and that was what scared her the most.
“Don’t I know you?”
The voice cut through her thoughts – which was probably a good thing. She didn’t need to look stark white – as pale as the sheet of ice Alec was skating on – with her eyes wide, just highlighting the bags under her eyes. She genuinely didn’t care what she looked like – the baggy t-shirt and leggings should have hinted at that already – but she did care about coming across as obvious. She didn’t want anyone to question her because she was a shit liar.
“Um, no?” Noah wasn’t sure if that was true or not. She avoided looking at him, not wanting him to recognize her on the off-chance that he was right. She wished she had left her hair down so she could cover her face with it, but she hadn’t.
“Yeah, I know you. You’re Aaron’s girlfriend.”
Aaron’s name caused her entire to seize up with ice. She froze, tensing every muscle in her body to keep herself from looking at him even after the words that came out of his mouth. Who was this? How the hell could he know who she was? Aaron didn’t have many friends, at least, that she knew. She couldn’t let him know who she was, even if he knew, even if he thought he was right.
Carefully, as naturally as she could, Noah shifted her weight and straightened out her arms so they relaxed over her chest rather than bunch up awkwardly. She tilted her head away from this stranger and found Alec. He wasn’t looking at her – good, she didn’t want him to know she was staring – but she instantly felt safe. She didn’t know why. Alec got on her nerves more than she liked to admit, but there was something about him that made her feel like everything was going to be okay. Which was crazy to her because she hadn’t felt that way in a long time.
She began to fiddle with her hair again. She shouldn’t be thinking about Alec that way. There was no reason for it, and, quite honestly, there was a stigma behind that she didn’t want to read into. The best thing she could do was settle her nerves so this person couldn’t tell how tense she was due to his mere mention of Aaron.
“I’m sorry,” she forced herself to say, “but I think you’re mistaken. I don’t know an –“
“Why are you lying?” he asked. “You have the freckles, the hair wave thing.” He wiggled fingers as though that would help emphasize his point. “Aaron won’t stop talking about you. He never said you broke up.”
“Well, we did, and I’d appreciate not being reminded about it,” she said quickly. This conversation was getting away from her and she needed to figure out a way to get it back before things came out that she desperately needed to stay hidden. Like where she lived. “Why are you even here at an AHL practice?”
“I’m a journalist, or did you forget?” Pat replied. There was a slight annoyance in his tone, like he was upset she didn’t remember him the way he remembered her. “I write for the sport section. Apparently, numbe
r three is in some deep shit with the big boss, Seraphina Hanson. You heard about her, haven’t you?”
“Not really,” she replied, looking down at her shirt and fiddling with some lint. If she was being honest, she’d rather talk about Alec or hockey than Aaron. The last thing she wanted to talk about was Aaron, especially with one of his friends who thought she and Aaron were still together.
“She’s the owner of the Newport Beach Seagulls – the NHL team? She also owns the affiliate team, the Irvine Mayhem. You ever heard of them?”
Actually, she had. She had been following Alec’s career since she had heard he was drafted. Not in a stalker way, but more out of curiosity. To keep tabs on someone. Alec seemed to be a grounding force, even when they weren’t in each other’s lives.
Instead of telling Pat this, though, she gave him a noncommittal shrug. The less he knew about her, the better.
“Well, anyway, Sinclair is in tough shit, or so say the rumors,” Pat continued. “His reputation is in the shitter.”
“Isn’t he a good player?” Noah couldn’t help but asked.
Pat raised his brows like even he was surprised by the fact that she actually spoke to him about this. “Well, sure,” he said. “The problem isn’t his play. The problem is the fact that he’s known for what he does between the sheets rather than on the ice, if you catch my drift.”
She rolled her eyes and bunched her arms closer to her body. Of course, she understood what he meant. She didn’t even bother to respond.
“Anyway,” Pat said, continuing when he didn’t get the reaction he had hoped for, “I’ve heard whispers from my contacts inside the organization that Hanson is at her wits end about it. She’s threatening Sinclair’s position on the team if he doesn’t shape up.”
“Shape up, how?” Noah asked, despite herself. She didn’t want to give him any sort of indicator that she actually cared about what was going on, but at the same time, the words came out of her mouth before she could stop them. If she could bottle them back up, she would. Unfortunately for her, she couldn’t.
“Ah, see?” He wiggled his eyebrows. “I told you I could spin any story to make it interesting.”
“Actually –“
Before she could point out that he actually hadn’t said that at all, he interrupted her.
“I’ll tell you what I know about Alec if you tell me why you’re here and why you’re pretending not to know Aaron,” he said. “What happened between the two of you? When he finds out –“
“What happened between us is none of his business,” Noah snapped. This, again, probably wasn’t the smartest thing she could have done only because Pat was going to run to Aaron and tell him everything. How could he not? He was a journalist, after all, and whether Noah wanted to admit it or not, a decent one. “And it’s none of yours.” She flicked her eyes back to the ice, back to Alec. She felt herself calm down, just taking in Alec, even when he caught her looking at him and shot her a What are you looking at face. She’d take that over a smile from Aaron any day. Not that she was trying to compare the two. “Tell me or don’t tell me. I don’t care.”
There was silence on the other end. Noah wasn’t sure whether she wanted to risk looking over at Pat or not. Part of her didn’t because she didn’t want to show she was interested in his story, especially after her little speech. However, if there was a chance to relax, she would enjoy not being on pins and needles for the duration of her time spent outside Lily’s apartment.
“Well, Hanson wants him to focus on his game,” Pat said, as though it was obvious. “The season is gearing up to start in October, which is in a couple of weeks, and she can’t have one of her best players thinking with his other head.” He chuckled, as though this was some big joke.
Noah shot him a look. He couldn’t possibly think she found his little double engenders amusing, could he?
“I get it,” she said, not bothering to hide her tone. “But this is professional sports, isn’t it? It’s not uncommon for players – especially the single ones – to sleep around. Does it really affect his game?”
“It’s not that it doesn’t happen, but Hanson tends to run a tight ship,” Pat said. “Especially since the Gulls won the Stanley Cup last year. She doesn’t really get into their business unless it starts to affect their play. With Jack Ruby, it definitely did. His anger was getting in the way of his play. He’d be in the sin bin for five-minutes, sometimes he’d get a game misconduct and get kicked out completely. We can’t win games if one of our best scorers is in the penalty box. We can’t win if said scorer damages his hands in a fight. But over the summer, Ruby got his head out of his ass and figured it out. Now, it seems Sinclair decided he would be the troubled step child, but instead of fighting, the kid is partying, staying up late, drinking, missing practice, fucking anyone with legs. He’s one of the best faceoff centermen in the league, and he’s barely at a thirty percent at the end of last season.” Pat crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. “Pathetic.”
Noah tried to keep up with everything Zummo was telling her. She didn’t particularly enjoy having these sorts of conversations, especially with him, but it was better than talking about Aaron. Anything was.
“Alec never misses practice, and you know this,” Noah said. She didn’t know much about Alec, but that was something she remembered.
A whistle sounded and Noah glanced up. The coach gathered them on the bench to chat. Zummo shifted his weight next to her.
“Looks like Grady is wrapping it up,” he said, shaking his head.
“Well, Sinclair looked good today, didn’t he?” Noah asked. She probably shouldn’t. She didn’t care what Pat thought about Alec, but there was something inside of her that wanted to defend him, though she wasn’t sure why.
“The fact that he was even here today is lightyears better than what it’s been,” Zummo said, dismissing her claim. “How he practiced?” He lifted a shoulder. “He could have been better. I’ve seen him better. But that’s beside the point. We talked about hockey. I want to put that aside now. Tell me about you and Aaron.”
Noah blinked. Shit. How was he able to catch her in a trap? She should have made an excuse about her period, then hid out in the women’s restroom for the duration of practice. She doubted Pat would follow her into the bathroom. He couldn’t be that desperate for information.
“Fuck, Noah, you actually waited for me?”
Noah heard Alec’s voice down the hall, and even though she couldn’t see him from where she stood, clearly, he could see her.
“You know Alec Sinclair?” Pat asked from beside me. “How the hell do you know Alec Sinclair? Does Aaron know you know Alec Sinclair?”
Noah clenched her teeth together. She was sick of Pat Zummo and his know-it-all attitude and she was sick of having to feel scared any time Aaron was brought up. Alec came into view, getting closer to her and Pat. Maybe that was what gave her more confidence than she typically had.
“Alec Sinclair is my boyfriend.”
7
Alec
“Um, what?”
Noah suddenly erupted in fake giggles – Alec knew they were fake because when Noah actually laughed, her entire face lit up and it was difficult not to stare at her. Instead, she sounded like a banshee that just got hit by a car and was breathing its last few breaths. He wrinkled his nose, trying to figure out what the hell was going on with her. Who was this asshole and why was she acting so completely not like herself? Noah was a lot of things, but fake wasn’t one of them. She was obnoxiously open, though not because she meant to be. It was just easy to read her.
“He’s such a kidder.” Noah patted Alec on the chest, and it was stiff and awkward, like she had no idea what she was doing.
Alec had no idea what the hell was going on, but something was clearly wrong. Even if it was just Noah losing her mind. He shifted his shoulders – the weight of his hockey bag was getting him out of alignment. Typically, he was tossing it in the back of his car by now.
>
“Alec, this is, uh, this is one of my friends from a few years ago,” Noah said, dropping her hand from Alec’s chest. For some strange reason, she angled her body towards his, like she was trying to use him as some kind of shield. “Pat, Pat Zummo.”
“Oh… kay.” What was he supposed to say to that? Was this some sort of game? If Noah expected him to read through the lines, he couldn’t. He didn’t understand what she needed from him. What bothered him was that part of him, a small part of him that was growing bigger with each passing second, wanted to understand.
He was also the journalist that couldn’t stop writing about Alec’s dick. Alec knew that once he heard the name. He could also guess that Zummo was here to try and get more dirt on Alec and possibly more clicks to his shitty articles. But what Alec didn’t know was how Noah knew him. He didn’t want to admit it, but he happened to be watching the two of them talk every now and then from where he was on the ice. Usually, he was able to shift his focus and put it all on his game and perfecting his abilities. However, Noah’s presence had thrown him off more than he wanted to admit. As such, he kept looking over.
“I’m her boyfriend’s friend,” Pat said. “And I’m a sports journalist you may have –“
“Boyfriend?” Alec didn’t even care that he cut Pat off. How did Alec not know she had a boyfriend. And, if that was true, why was Noah here, living with Lily, rather than being with her boyfriend?
Rookies Say It Better: Book 2 in The Minor League Mayhem Series Page 4
