“Aaron is not –“ she began, holding up a hand to explain herself.
“Well, maybe not, but that’s how I know you,” Pat said. His eyes were narrowed as he took in Alec, his lips curling into a frown. “I didn’t realize you moved on so quickly.” He turned his attention back to Noah. “I didn’t realize you even liked hockey let alone knew a player enough to date one. Granted, he’s just AHL, but still.”
Alec cleared his throat. Just AHL? “I’m sorry, who are you again?” he asked. He stepped closer to Noah. He didn’t think she needed protection, but she was practically on top of him and he wanted to let her know that she could back up slightly. He would handle this.
Pat Zummo didn’t look like much. He wasn’t tall and he wasn’t strong. Alec wouldn’t call the guy skinny or fat, but somewhere in between. He had on some skater brand t-shirt and basketball shorts with ankle socks and Nike shoes. Alec was pretty sure he could knock the guy out in three punches or less, though the guy might be able to use his weight to his advantage. What Alec didn’t know was how Noah knew him in the first place. It sounded like she knew him through a boyfriend, but as far as Alec knew, Noah wasn’t dating anyone. Which meant this journalist was a liar.
This shouldn’t surprise Alec in the slightest. The guy could barely string two kernels of truth together in an article. He was like the Star Magazine of sports writers, focusing only on the drama in any capacity he could find it.
“So, is it true, then?” Pat pressed, shifting his weight. “Are the two of you together?”
Alec frowned. What sort of question was that? Even with the Noah’s outburst, he didn’t particularly feel comfortable saying anything of the sort. If it were true – which it definitely was not – why would Pat think he had a right to know that? It boggled his mind.
“I’m sorry,” Alec said, tilting his chin down. “Why do you think that’s any of your business?”
“As a fan of the franchise for practically my whole life and as someone who gets paid to write about its players, I have a vested interest,” Zummo said. “And, considering the rumors floating around about you, I felt it was my duty to ask the direct questions and get some sort of answer.”
“Just because you’re a fan doesn’t give you the right to my personal business,” Alec said, his nostrils flaring. His temper had been simmering, ever since Noah’s ex-boyfriend had been mentioned. Not because he was jealous – there was no reason for him to be – but because he could tell Pat Zummo used that piece of information as a powerplay. Judging by how Noah reacted, she played into it. Something distressed her enough where she said he was her boyfriend. Something was up. And while he wanted to figure out what that was, he wanted to help Noah even if he didn’t understand why he was doing so.
“Well, you sort of make it our business,” Zummo countered. His tone implied that he was regretful to even mention it, but there was delight sparkling in his eyes. This asshole lived off of drama, and if he got to stir the pot, all the better. “Rumor has it, Seraphina Hanson is going to bench you if you don’t get in line.”
“In line?” Alec asked, not bothering to hide the edge in his voice now. What did he mean by that? That Alec was a child throwing a temper tantrum? The fact that Zummo had the courage to even say something like that to Alec’s face was enough to make him want to kick Zummo’s ass. If Jack were still here and not staying after to wait for Lily, he knew Jack would have already slugged Zummo. Sure, Jack’s temper had improved but Jack always had Alec’s back.
Wasn’t that part of the problem? a voice asked in Alec’s head. Didn’t you always feel as though all you had to do was call and he would come fight for you? Maybe it’s time you started to fight your battles, especially so Jack doesn’t continue to get into trouble on your behalf.
Alec sighed. He didn’t want to think about that, even if the voice had a point.
“Look, man,” he said instead. “Whatever you think you’re entitled to, you can shove it up your ass. Rumors are just rumors. I’m not giving you a quote. Whatever you think you heard is moot, you got that? Seraphina Hanson is not going to bench me.”
“Even if you continue to sleep around to the point where it affects your game?” Zummo pressed.
“How does sleeping around affect my game?” Alec asked. He shifted his weight, deciding to drop the hockey bag and the sticks since it looked as though he was going to be here longer than he originally anticipated. “What gave you the impression that my game was not on point thanks to my love life.”
“You mean, your lack of a love life,” Zummo said. “Until now, that is.” He turned to Noah. “Noah, here, claims not only to have a personal connection to you but that you guys are together. Romantically. Is that true? And before you tell me it’s not my business, well, I already laid out why I think it is. Plus, she told me so, in a way, she involved me in it.”
“How do you know her, anyway?” Alec asked. He crossed his arms over his chest and cocked his head to the side. He knew he was avoiding the question, and there was a good chance Zummo knew it too. He just hoped that Zummo would take the bait and talk more about himself than focus on the nature of Alec’s relationship with Noah because, quite frankly, he sure as shit didn’t know the status of that.
“She never told you?” He grinned, though there was a darkness to it. Alec didn’t like it. He wanted to pull Noah away from Zummo and shield her from him, which was strange because he had never felt any desire to be protective over anyone save for Lily before, especially Noah. Noah could handle herself; she didn’t need him protecting her, and probably didn’t want it. “She dated one of my friends for a few years. I thought they were still together but she’s claiming they aren’t.”
“Claiming?” Alec furrowed her brow. “What do you mean, she’s claiming? If they aren’t together, they aren’t together. Simple as that.”
At least, to Alec it was that simple. Pat Zummo seemed to be stuck in this la-la land where things were done a different way. What Alec wanted to know was why. Why was Alec antagonizing Noah? Was it because she said she and Alec were dating, or was it because of something else? Clearly, the two had a history. Maybe he was being protective of his friend. Alec could understand that, but Noah didn’t seem like she was acting like a heartbreaker who had stomped all over Zummo’s friend’s heart. If anything, she was acting scared, and that was something Noah didn’t do – at least from what Alec remembered.
“I guess I’ll have to talk to him for confirmation,” Zummo said with a shrug.
Noah dipped her head, her eyes going to the floor. That didn’t seem to sound like something she wanted to happen.
“No, you won’t,” Alec said before he even realized what he was talking about. From his peripheral, he saw Noah’s head snap up, confusion in her eyes.
“Oh, no?” Zummo seemed amused, his lips tugged into a smarmy smile. There was a challenge making his eyes sparkle. It was something he wanted to punch out of Zummo, but he needed to contain his frustration. “And why is that?”
“Because…” Alec swallowed. He had no idea what he was going to say. He shifted his weight and happened to glance over at Noah. It wasn’t like he needed her to feed him answers, but looking at her helped him focus. It was difficult to explain. “Because she’s right.”
“What?” Noah asked, her voice flat.
“Right about what?” Zummo asked at the same time.
“Me and Noah.” He flashed her a grin, hoping it didn’t look as fake as it felt. He threw his arm around her, bringing her in close to his chest. He knew he probably smelled after that practice and he still needed to shower, but this was part of her punishment for throwing him under the bus. “We are together.”
“You smell,” she mumbled somewhere by his arm pit.
“You are?” Zummo asked, his voice flat.
“We have been for the past few weeks,” Alec continued. “Whoever this asshole is that thinks he’s still with Noah can go fuck himself.”
Zummo’s eyebrows raised, w
rinkling his brow. Noah stilled underneath him. Something he said surprised both of them, but he wasn’t sure why. In all honesty, Alec didn’t care. He just wanted to get rid of Zummo and go home. Noah could come with him or do something else, he didn’t particularly care.
“Well, I guess that answers my question,” Zummo said after a moment.
“That’s it?” Alec asked, surprised.
“Yeah.” Zummo nodded. He rested his eyes back on Noah. “I guess I’ll let Aaron know.”
Before Noah or Alec could say anything in return, Zummo headed out of the rink, leaving Alec more perplexed than he thought he could be. Something was going and, as crazy as it made him feel, he was curious as to what that was.
8
Noah
“Wanna tell me what that was about?”
Noah sighed, trying to avoid Alec’s beseeching look. She knew he deserved some sort of explanation, but she didn’t want to give him one. He helped her – she was surprised he did, actually, but that was neither here nor there – and he wanted to know why he needed to help her in the first place.
But she didn’t want to tell him. She didn’t need to hear a lecture about getting involved with the wrong man, staying with him even after Aaron showed his true colors, and basically asking for what had happened to her and her family. She couldn’t stomach that from anyone, let alone Alec.
“Not really,” she replied, clearing her throat and sweeping falling hair across her face as they began to head out of the rink. It wasn’t nearly enough to mask her face the way she wanted to, but it was enough where she could do something with her fingers. She hoped they would stop shaking, especially in front of Alec.
“You know I’m going to find out,” he said, bumping shoulders with her. Noah couldn’t tell if he did it on purpose or if it just happened because they happened to be walking close together, but she got a whiff of his musky scent and she wrinkled her nose. Not because she was disgusted by it but because she actually liked it and she didn’t want to.
“Sure, Jan,” she said, falling into the easy way of replacing real emotions with well-known memes. “Whatever you say.”
Noah pushed the door to the rink open and held it for Alec. She made sure to keep out of his way, considering he had a hefty bag and two hockey sticks with him. Why he needed two, she had no idea. She wasn’t interested enough to ask, though she might if it meant changing the subject. And she desperately wanted that.
“Come on.” Alec grabbed her wrist and she flinched. She didn’t mean to, but she did, and she hoped – prayed, which wasn’t something she tended to do nowadays – that Alec didn’t notice.
Except, he did notice. Of course, he did, because even though it was easy to think that Alec was an idiot, there was more to him than just his pretty, chiseled face.
“What - I wasn’t –“ He immediately dropped her wrist like it scalded him and reached into his pocket to pull out his keys, shaking his head to himself.
Noah blew out a breath through her nose, trying not to feel guilty because she knew she hadn’t done anything wrong. It was just her body’s natural way of responding to being grabbed. She hoped he didn’t notice, but she assumed he had, based on his response to her response. Things were getting more complicated than they needed to, and it was her fault. He had helped her and she was being a bitch.
After they were tucked into the car, Alec turned the radio to some rock station. The fact that he listened to the radio over some streaming service on his phone amazed Noah to the point where she was about to tease him for it when she remembered the awkwardness between them and stopped. Instead, she rubbed her palms on her lap and sucked in a breath. She needed to figure something out, especially if they were going to be living with each other for the foreseeable future.
Noah cleared her throat as Bon Jovi blared from the speakers. The familiarity of the song helped her relax and she began to nod her head to the song.
“Do you remember,” Alec said, his pale green eyes in front of him as he looked ahead at the streets, “when you and Lily had that sleepover karaoke thing, and you guys would not shut up? You would take these songs and make them songs about people you knew or hockey players you guys had crushes on?”
Noah started to smile. “Yeah,” she said. She hadn’t thought about those times in a long time. Before Aaron ever entered the picture.
“Which one was this one?” he asked. “It was something ridiculous, I just can’t remember what.”
Living on a Prayer was one of her favorite songs, but it was especially one of her favorites when it came to changing the lyrics around.
“It was about Mr. McNulty,” she said. “He was bald, remember? So, instead of living on a prayer, it was living without hair.”
Alec chuckled, the noise a pleasant surprise. “I can’t believe that,” he said, shaking his head. “You guys were more creative than I remembered. How long ago was that?”
Noah pressed her lips together, resting her elbow on the window pane. “A few years ago, I think?” she guessed. “Eighth grade?”
He nodded. “That’s right,” he said. “Yeah, I remember. High school came and the two of you grew apart. Weird. I thought you guys would be best friends for the rest of your lives.”
Noah looked down at her lap. In all honesty, she did too. And the fact that they had grown apart because of Aaron…
No, she couldn’t blame Aaron for that. She met Aaron as a sophomore. He went to a neighboring high school and was a senior at the time. Noah thought she was so cool, dating someone older. No, the reason she and Lily fizzled out was because their different interests kept them consumed and it only worsened when Aaron came into the picture. Losing Lily’s friendship was on Noah, nobody else.
“I’m sorry,” she blurted out. She rubbed her hands on her thighs, trying to remove the perspiration that had built up there, that was seeping through her palms, but it didn’t seem to be doing much good. “For what I said back there. With Pat.”
Alec was silent for a moment, and Noah held her breath. This could go one of two ways; he could lecture her or demand to know what was going on, or he could crack one of his Sinclair jokes and pretend it never happened. She was hoping for the latter. She didn’t think Alec cared enough to want to know what happened, and she didn’t think he would waste his breath on a lecture that wasn’t going to make a difference. As such, she pressed her back into the leather of the car and waited.
“You know,” he said, “you don’t have to pretend to be my girlfriend if you wanted to go out with me.”
Relief flooded through Noah’s body and she melted into the seat. A smiled eased onto her face. Perfect. It was a joke. Of course, it was a joke. Which meant she would respond in turn and then everything would be dropped. She could go about her business and Alec would probably never bring it up again.
“Having said that,” he continued, just as she opened her mouth to reply, “I can see that something is troubling you. As much as I want to think that I’m the man and even someone who hates me would want to go out with me, I know that that isn’t the case. Wanna talk about it?”
Noah loosed a breath. The crazy part was, she did want to talk about it. She wanted to tell someone what she was going through, everything that had happened between her and Aaron and how she had no idea what to do at this point, but she bit her bottom lip to keep everything inside. She didn’t want to tell Alec. He would probably just tell her that this was her fault. She got into this mess. Now, she had to figure out how to get out of it, and it wasn’t his responsibility to do just that. And he’d be right.
She sighed again, closing her eyes. Her shoulders dropped. She wasn’t even sure how to answer that question. To be honest, she was surprised that Alec hadn’t pestered her for an answer. She was grateful, to be honest. She would have snapped again and again until she was alone and could bask in shame at her actions. She needed to do something, but she wasn’t sure what that was.
“You don’t have to,” he finally said. He pull
ed into the left lane and turned on his blinker, waiting for the light to turn green. “But considering Zummo doesn’t seem like the sort of guy who lets things go, you might want to consider it.”
Noah blew out a breath, trying not to squirm in her seat. She didn’t want to appear ungrateful. Truly, she didn’t. At the same time, she didn’t want to go and unleash everything onto Alec’s lap, and she didn’t know how to separate things. If she talked about Pat, that would inevitably lead to talking about Aaron, and she definitely did not want to talk about Aaron.
“Do you know him?” she asked instead as Alec began to drive again. The trees on the street were perfectly placed. Irvine was all man-made. Even the lakes weren’t natural, but created. Regardless, it was a picturesque city and it was one of the safest in the nation. Being here made Noah feel safe – until she ran into Pat Zummo. “Zummo, I mean. He talked a lot about you.”
Alec snorted. He rested his wrist on the wheel, like one of those too-cool drivers who didn’t need to grip anything in order to control it. Noah didn’t want to admit it was sexy just because of how arrogant it was, but there was something about Alec doing it that made her reassess her initial assumption.
“Pat Zummo is the kind of guy who thinks he knows everything about everything when, really, he doesn’t know jack shit,” he said. “I mean, he thought you were still with your boyfriend and you’re not, right?”
Noah nearly choked on her own spit. Why would he care about that? Actually, she didn’t want to think about it. Instead, she cleared her throat and tapped her fingers on the passenger door handle, trying to think of something to say that would get her out of talking about Aaron. She didn’t think Alec had any way to bring him up, but Alec was much more clever than Noah remembered.
Damn him.
“What’s going on, Noah?” Alec asked. He pulled into the apartment complex and shut off the car. “Look, I know I’m not your friend. I know I’m probably the last person you would ever want to talk to about this kind of thing.”
Rookies Say It Better: Book 2 in The Minor League Mayhem Series Page 5
