Page 17 of Ruthless Blade

I rolled my eyes and shrugged him off.

“Sorry to crash the party. Can we join you?” Brodie, one of our forwards, asked. I liked him, he was more subtle than Torin.

“Dude, you don’t ask. You never ask to join a group. You show up with drinks, and that takes care of it. Problem solved.” Torin said, wiggling his eyebrows.

Brodie shook his head and grinned, “Touche.”

Kellan moved his hat so it was backwards over his black hair. “Coach kicked our asses today; I need a drink.” He turned to leave, but Brodie grabbed his shoulder. “That’s why there’s shots on the table...”

“Practice is in the morning.” My voice was calm, and I looked at Kellan. “Dylan said you skipped leg day...again.”

He turned around and smacked Dylan upside the head. “What the hell, dude? I did my fucking reps!”

“Sure you did,” I said, voice flat, eyes turned to slits. “You know what Coach said today.”

He rolled his eyes. Kellan treated hockey more as a hobby than as something that could turn into a career. I needed them to be at their best because if they were, then so was I.

Torin took a shot and slammed it on the tray. “Chill, Kayden. We all know what this means for you. Hell, you’re Benny from “Sandlot” on our team. We all want to make the draft, but we know you will. Take it easy.”

He didn’t understand.

No one did.

Jake was the only one to know why I was this way.

I didn’t touch the glasses on the table, knowing what I was going to be putting myself through in the morning. I did, however, drink some water and took a few more pickles in my mouth before I said something I’d regret.

“Oh, shit.” Dylan said, his gaze glancing behind me and back.

“What?” Brodie asked, as curious as I was.

“Dayum...is it just me or has Lexi gotten hotter lately?” Torin whistled, and I wanted to ring his fucking neck.

My hands curled into fists. What is she doing here? She never comes to this bar. Hell, she never comes to bars in general. She and Hazel go to restaurants, but she mostly avoids house parties and bars.

“Yeah dude, her and Hazel are smoking.” Kellan chimed in.

These fuckers...

Brodie seemed to notice. “You okay there? Your face is turning red and your hands are in fists.”

I cleared my throat and unwound my hands. “I’m fine.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, and I’m the tooth fairy. Want to explain to the class why you’re so pissed? Come to think of it, want to explain why you guys didn’t invite us out for drinks?”

I swallowed, breathing through my nose, trying to avoid saying something that would make things worse. I was their captain, so they all looked up to me. That didn’t mean I was okay with them ogling her.

I met Dylan’s gaze, and there was a weird look in his eyes I couldn’t figure out. Then, a slow, calculating grin spread over his face.

He better not.

“We were talking about practice and how Kayden here has been hiding. He now has what Coach would call a distraction in his life.”

My hands curled into fists again. I changed my mind. I would wring Dylan’s fucking neck.

The guys seemed all too interested in that and lost all interest in the girls. “Don’t tell me. You have a girlfriend? Damn. Those puck bunnies are going to be devastated.” Brodie chirped up.

“Dude, that’s an amazing thing! They all drool over him. I mean, share some for the rest of us.” Kellan said.