Jaxson
Maven and Livia swept Grace away the moment she showed up to the tournament with her parents.
They linked their arms through hers and off they went, Maven pressing a quick kiss to Vince’s cheek as they passed by us. They had their hearts set on margaritas at the club house, and to her credit, Grace didn’t so much as cast me a lingering glance as they toted her off.
I, on the other hand, was so fucking aware of her presence the entire tournament that I was surprised I didn’t have OBSESSED WITH GRACE TANEV written in neon on my forehead.
Even with it feeling a little like a reunion being back with my teammates, and even with my body humming to life at the chance to have a little friendly competition — my mind couldn’t stop replaying what had happened the night before.
I was a dumb motherfucker.
It had sounded so logical at the time, when my cock-driven brain wasn’t firing on all cylinders. I’d thought it would be fine to bend the rules, to play with Grace… as long as I didn’t actually touch her.
I laughed out loud at that, earning me a look from Daddy P as he lined up for his first shot at the third hole. It was a fucking joke, that I’d actually used that mindset as justification. In turn, it had been maybe even hotter than if I had just given in and taken her the way I wanted to.
Keeping my hands to myself and watching her writhe in those sheets as she found her release didn’t put out the fire burning between us. It stoked it, gave it oxygen, sprayed it with a gallon of gasoline.
I only wanted her more.
There was a battle in my head, two sides of me warring with each other while I attempted to remain calm and cool on the surface during the tournament. I laughed and joked with my teammates, took photographs for the press, played one of my best games of golf, and talked about everything and everyone else but me.
All while a highlight reel of the faces Grace made when she came played on repeat in my mind.
It had felt impossible to leave her hotel room for the night, to let her get some sleep and to give us both some much-needed distance. And I knew by how quiet the drive had been today that Grace was in her head just like I was.
We both knew it couldn’t happen again.
And yet, it was all either of us could think about.
By the time we’d made it to the airport, I was sick to my stomach wondering what she was thinking. I was also desperate to ease the worry I saw etched into every single feature on her pretty face. So, I’d comforted her — and not with a lie, but with the truth.
I didn’t want this to end.
But even as I’d said that to her, even as I’d been greedy enough to steal another kiss before her parents got there… I knew that, eventually, it had to.
She was twenty-two years old with an entire life ahead of her — one that looked vastly different from the one I was leading. She wanted to be on the move. I would be in Tampa at least until my contract ended, and then I hoped to get re-signed or find another team to settle down with. Where she wanted adventure, I wanted stability.
More than any of that, she was Vince’s little sister.
Grace and I knew this road we were on led right to a dead end.
But we both wanted to keep driving.
For as long as we had the road, for as long as we had the summer… we had each other.
“Hey, Tanny Boy, can you show up and play today?” Carter asked on the ninth hole. “My back is about to break from the strain of carrying us.”
Carter bent over like an old man, rubbing the middle of his back to illustrate, and Vince narrowed his eyes before kicking him right in the ass. Carter stumbled forward on a laugh, and the whole charade earned us some disapproving looks from the team that was wrapping up ahead of us and moving on to the next hole.
Putting four rowdy hockey players on the fairway alongside some of the classiest, most well-known golfers in the PGA Tour wasn’t boding well.
“The only reason your back hurts is because you have to carry that off-season gut around,” Vince said, poking Carter in the stomach.
Carter swatted his hand away and punched him in the arm. “Please. My abs put yours to shame.”
He untucked his pink polo shirt from the khaki shorts he wore like he was ready to prove that point, but Will glared at him severely enough that Carter second-guessed, looking at our surroundings before he tucked his shirt back in again.
“Aw, come on, Daddy P,” Vince teased, nodding at his caddy to hand him his club. He bent down to place his ball with his eyes on the fairway. “Let Carter show us his little abs if he wants to. God knows he’s not showing them to any women.”
“I never thought I’d say these words, but I’m glad I got sent down to the AHL this spring,” Carter said, leaning on his club. “Better than putting up with you fuckers.”
“Nize it, Fabio,” I piped up. “You’ll be back in Ospreys blue come fall.”
“Yeah, and don’t worry — we’ll save up all our best chirps for the first day you’re back on the ice with us,” Vince said, and then he took his shot.
And it was terrible.
Carter laughed at his expense, and even Will cracked a smile before stepping up for his own shot.
The tournament was a scramble, which meant we’d each hit a tee shot before choosing which ball to play for the next shot. So far today, it had been mine or Carter’s we’d been playing from. Vince was too busy goofing around to make a serious shot, and Will seemed distracted — quieter than he usually was, which was saying something.
“Maven is going to disown you after this,” I told Vince when I stepped up to take my shot after Will. “She’s already had one pussy golfer in her life. I doubt she needs another.”
I barely got the shot off before I was thwacked in the back of the head.
“Oh shit, I forgot about that,” Carter said, placing his ball. “Is that duffer here?”
“Fuck no,” Vince said. “Probably because he doesn’t have a death wish.”
We all smirked at that. If there was anything I knew to be true, it was that Vince Tanev would go to jail if it meant he got to get in one good hit on the guy who had hurt his future wife.
Carter had the best shot again, and Vince grumbled about it as we headed down the fairway.
“You good, Daddy P?” I asked as we walked. “You’re even grumpier than usual.”
Will glared at me for a long second, long enough that I felt like a kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Something about the way he looked at me made me want to defend myself before he’d even accused me of anything.
Suddenly, I remembered the text he’d sent.
We need to talk at the tournament.
I swallowed, wondering what the hell that meant, but he cracked his neck and let out a long sigh, finally dropping his death glare.
“If putting up with you twerps doesn’t send me to an early grave, trying to find a nanny for Ava will.”
“What’s wrong with the doe-eyed blonde?” Vince asked, nodding to the crowd gathered around the hole. We were still a ways away, but even so, I could see the girl Vince was referring to. She was maybe twenty-five, with platinum blonde hair and big…
Eyes.
It was almost comical watching Ava tug her around, and I hadn’t missed the way the woman had cringed earlier when Ava had plopped down in the grass to play and insisted that her nanny for the day join her.
“Other than the fact that she couldn’t cook macaroni and cheese from a fucking box?” Will grumbled. “She won’t leave me alone.”
“That’s code for she wants to suck his—”
Will gave Carter a flat tire before he could finish that sentence.
“Honestly, Daddy P, I don’t see the issue. It’s not like she’s unfortunate looking,” Carter pointed out as we made it to the ball. “Let her ride. Maybe if you got laid, you’d be less grumpy.”
“Please don’t tell me the virgin is giving advice on getting laid now,” I teased, and Carter chased me around like he was going to take me out at the knees while Will sighed and looked up at the sky like someone could save him from us.
Vince lined up to take the next shot, and we all clapped him on the back when it landed on the green. We’d have an easy putt to close it out.
“Hey, have you guys heard about Aleksander Suter?” Carter asked as we made our way toward the flag.
“Don’t tell me — he got into another bar fight?” Vince guessed. “Oh! Or they found him with cocaine.”
Will added, “The league fined him for a dirty hit again?”
“Too easy. My guess is they finally discovered he’s the head of an organized crime unit,” I chimed in. “Have you seen his team picture? Looks like a fucking mug shot.”
Carter shook his head. “Apparently, Seattle has had enough of his shit. Rumor is they’re looking to trade him.”
That shocked us all silent. Jokes aside, Aleks Suter was one hell of a winger, with enough goals under his belt that even though the entire league gave him shit for his reputation, we still respected him.
“There’s talk he may be coming to Tampa.”
Carter’s voice was drowned out by the rest of us erupting in a mixture of laughter and no fucking ways.
“Coach McCabe would never,” Vince said. “You saw how quick he was to hand me my ass last season when I practiced at a rink with some kids? That was me being nice. That was good PR.” He shook his head. “Zero chance he’s letting a weapon with a bad attitude join our team.”
“I don’t know,” Will said, like he knew something we didn’t. “Coach may not like it, but he’s not the one who calls all the shots, is he?”
“Dick,” I said with a sigh when it clicked for me, too. Our General Manager was one for the dramatics. He was the only reason Maven King had unprecedented access to Vince and our entire team last season — all in the name of a publicity stunt to fill the stands.
And it had worked.
We had more fans in that arena last season than the past five seasons combined. Part of that was due to us just being better — but we’d be insane to think Maven hadn’t played a huge role.
And that meant Richard Bancroft — or Dick, as we called him — was likely itching for another way to bring in fans this season.
“Christ,” I cursed when I realized this could actually happen. “Just what we need — a fucking liability coming into the team when we’re solid.”
“It won’t happen,” Vince said with absolution I was certain he didn’t actually feel.
Anything could happen in the NHL.
The conversation moved on to something lighter as we approached the green, knowing there were microphones and cameras everywhere. We got a birdie, and when there was a particularly loud chorus of female screams from the crowd, I didn’t need more than one guess as to who it was.
Maven, Livia, and Grace were buzzed, plastic cups in their hands as they threw them into the air and did their little celly dances. The crowd around them was suffering from second-hand embarrassment — except for Vince’s parents, who joined in the ruckus.
My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I knew without a second guess that it was a text from my father. He was watching the tournament — that I knew for sure. And it didn’t matter that it was for charity. It didn’t matter that it should have been more fun than competitive.
To my father, everything was a competition.
And I was expected to win.
Before we moved on to the next hole, Vince ran over to the tape, leaning Maven back in a kiss that had cameras flashing and the crowd roaring to life.
Carter put a hand on my shoulder, biting his knuckles. “Damn, you see Doc today?” He shook his head, looking like Squints ogling Wendy Peffercorn as he checked out Livia — Maven’s best friend, and also, our team dentist. “That woman is too fine.”
I chuckled, following his gaze just in time to see Livia pull down her sunglasses and arch a brow at him. But my attention was quickly pulled to the woman beside her.
I knew for a fucking fact that Grace hadn’t got much sleep last night, and yet she still glowed like the sun. Her smile was bright as she looked up at her brother, no doubt razzing him about something because he took her under his arm and knuckled her head. I watched her laugh with a pinch in my chest, and even with her sunglasses on, I felt the exact moment her eyes trailed to me.
The corner of her mouth ticked up, just a bit, just enough for me to know she was looking at me. The way her cheeks flushed in the next breath confirmed my suspicion, and I felt that sensation in my chest grow even stronger.
My little Nova.
I couldn’t wait to have her alone again.
I felt the eyes of someone else on me, too, and when I looked over my shoulder, Will Perry was glaring at me like I was the poor winger trying to score on him. He whistled through his teeth, calling Vince’s attention, and signaled with his finger in the air that it was time to wrap it up.
His glare never left me, not until he turned and started slowly walking to the next tee.
• • •
We were actually doing pretty decent by the time we made it to the seventeenth hole. We weren’t going to win it all, but we had a shot at second or third place, and that would still send a good chunk of change home to Tampa. We were playing for the Tampa Bay Babes Compassion Project, an organization Maven had started that benefited various areas of the community.
We were in the golf cart on our way to battle it out at the last two holes when Vince let out a breathy sigh. “I’m worried about my sister.”
The words were like ice shoved straight into my boxers.
I stilled, not daring to be the first to comment, because I knew there’d be enough shake in my voice to give me away. I calmly took a drink from my water bottle, instead.
“I was meaning to ask about her,” Carter called from where he and Daddy P were sitting on the back of the cart. “When she showed up at your house crying last week… that didn’t look good.”
“She left the next day,” Vince said. “Which, honestly, wasn’t surprising. She doesn’t stay in one place for long. But fuck, I’m just worried she’s going to go back to that loser she was messing around with.”
“She won’t.”
Fuck.
Every head spun in my direction when I said the words, and I shrugged, hoping none of them noticed how fast my heart was beating.
“I hung out with her that whole night in Austin, remember?” I said. “She knew then that he was a lost cause. My bet is she just needed one night to cry and then she was moving on.”
Carter made a face like he was considering that option while Will stared lasers into the back of my head.
“That’s pretty on par for her,” Vince grumbled. “I love her so much. You guys know that. We’ve been close our whole lives. But the older we get, the less I feel like I know how to help her.” He shook his head. “I swear to God, I’m going to have to start vetting the guys she dates. She’s careless when it comes to that — always has been. This isn’t the first time she’s showed up at my door heartbroken.”
My skin prickled, hands rolling into fists, but I clamped my mouth shut harder.
“Maybe she’s a hopeless romantic,” Carter offered.
Vince snorted, parking the cart when we made it to the hole. “More like just hopeless. She’s always been a little lost. I think she just tries to find herself in any guy who gives her attention.”
I gritted my teeth, hopping off the cart and rounding it to where Vince was slowly climbing out from behind the steering wheel. I’d had enough of him talking shit about her, especially since he was clearly fucking blind to how she’d lived in his shadow their whole goddamn lives.
She wasn’t lost — she just wasn’t like him.
Somewhere inside me, my common sense screamed for me to calm the fuck down. But I was already seeing red, and I opened my mouth to give him a piece of my mind when a hand slammed against my chest so hard it knocked the wind out of me.
Vince and Carter both turned with the sound of my breath leaving me in an oof, their eyebrows inching into their hairlines.
But Daddy P stood directly in front of me, his hand still on my chest, eyes murderous as he nodded his head toward the hole.
“You guys get started. I need to talk to Brittzy,” he said.
Vince and Carter both made sounds like I’d been called to the principal’s office, each of them flicking my ear or clapping my shoulder as they passed. When they were out of range, Will dropped his hand, but his scowl was just as present.
“Do you want to die, or are you really this fucking stupid?”
I swallowed, folding my arms over my chest. “I don’t know what—”
“Don’t,” he warned. “You’ve been with Grace this whole time, haven’t you?”
All the blood draining from my face must have been all the answer he needed, because he laughed through his nose, looking over to where Carter and Vince were at the tee before he brought that menacing gaze back to me.
“Look, I’m not your father. Do whatever the fuck you want to do. But, if you’re going to be with one of our teammate’s sisters, then you damn sure better be the one to tell him. If he finds out another way, we’re all fucked — not just you.”
I frowned. “Grace and I aren’t…”
My words faded, because I didn’t know what the fuck to say. Or maybe I just couldn’t find it in me to lie to Will Perry. We’d been teammates for years.
“Vince is tied up in Maven right now,” Will continued. “They just moved into a new house. It’s off-season. They have a wedding to plan. So, yeah, he’s preoccupied. And you’re fucking lucky he is, because otherwise, he would have seen the video of you on social media that I saw — one where you were carrying his drunk little sister into an elevator at a hotel.”
My stomach dropped.
“Yeah,” he clipped at my expression. “Don’t worry — I had PR handle it. They gave the guy some cash to take it down, and it hadn’t gained much traction. Besides, after Vince was the center of the media circus all season, he hasn’t been online at all this summer. But,” he added, pointing a finger to my chest. “That doesn’t change the fact that you were being a fucking dumbass.”
I winced, pinching the bridge of my nose. “You’re right.”
“I know I am. I don’t care if you just want to get your dick wet and leave it at that, or if you end up marrying the girl. All I care about is that you don’t fuck up our season by being stupid.” He waited until I looked at him again. “Vince will not be okay with this. You already know that. And I swear to God, if you fuck with our season when we finally have a chance at the Cup, he won’t be the only one beating your ass.”
Ouch.
Will leveled his gaze with mine. “Figure it out, Brittzy.”
I nodded, cursing under my breath when he stormed past me and toward where our teammates stood.
Fuck.
I hadn’t even thought about that possibility, that someone from that night at the bar in Atlanta would post a video of her. I knew they’d taken pictures with me — that had been the whole point of the quarters game. But I’d been so focused on getting her upstairs and to her room that I hadn’t noticed any phones out when I was taking her to the elevator.
It was careless. It was dangerous — not just for me, but for Grace, too. I didn’t want her name dragged through the mud, and it would be if something like that got out. I could see the headlines now.
Tampa Winger’s Sister Seen Leaving Hotel with Teammate.
Does Vince Tanev Know Where His Teammate Was Last Night?
Tampa Ospreys Having a Family Affair.
I groaned, because something else I hadn’t thought of until Will pointed it out was that this wasn’t just about me and Grace.
If Vince found out, if he blew a gasket… that would impact the team’s chemistry.
It could crash our season before it even started.
My head spun as I made my way over to the guys, and I numbly played through the last two holes in a daze.
We took second place.
But when the guys went over to the sidelines where family and friends waited to celebrate with us, I stood frozen in place.
I realized in that moment that while everyone else had someone to celebrate with, I had no one. And the one person who I did want to run to was out of bounds.
I watched as Grace hugged her brother, and then when her parents jumped in, her gaze slid to me.
She smiled, warm and unknowing, her eyes dancing with anticipation. I’d felt that same impatience less than a half hour ago.
Now, another less pleasant sensation was sinking into my bones.
She frowned a bit when I didn’t come join them, and thankfully, my phone rang, giving me an excuse to tear my gaze from hers. When I saw my father’s name on the screen, my heart lurched, but I turned my back on the crowd and started walking toward a pond, answering the call even when I knew what waited for me on the other end of it.
I barely said hello before Dad was drilling me, telling me where I went wrong at every hole, berating me with questions about the mistakes I made that he felt lost us the tournament. It didn’t take long for him to transition from the tournament to how this related to my hockey game, too. He’d been sitting on this, I knew. He couldn’t wait to tell me all his thoughts now that he had my attention.
And for the first time, I was thankful for his call.
Taking a lashing from my father was better than facing the sickening truth Will had just made so clear.
