Page 67 of The Fake Out

“Dude, what?” I asked.

He ran a hand down his face and then looked at Riley. “This sounds an awful lot like the plot to Fi’s romance book.”

Riley’s eyes hardened at me. “Wait…Holmsy, are you not actually dating?”

FUCK.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Of course we’re dating,” I lied.

Benny still gave me the stink eye.

“The traveling’s getting to her,” I tried to backpedal. “Her mom abandoned her as a baby, and then her fiancé did the same thing.”

“Oh, shit, dude, I’m sorry,” Noah said with a frown.

One of the things I liked about the Bulldogs over the Wolves was that it felt like a family. I could lean on my teammates both on and off the ice, but I hoped they hadn’t figured out what Veronica and I were playing at. I needed to distract them from finding out by diverting the conversation elsewhere.

“Can we talk about something less depressing now?” I asked.

Benny crossed his arms over his chest, still studying me with a suspicious look, but Riley came to my rescue by spinning it back to strategy for tomorrow’s game. He took a look around the table, giving us all his serious game-day face. “Let’s talk about tomorrow. I know all you fuckers aren’t watching game tape as much as you should be.”

TJ groaned. “Come on, man. Why you always got a hard-on for video?”

“Because we need to be better,” Riley argued.

Noah rubbed a hand across his beard. “Not wrong.”

TJ shoved Noah’s shoulder. “Like you need to say that. You’ve got a fire under you lately.”

Noah’s cheeks got pink. For a guy who earned his paycheck by how many points he put up, Noah was humble about it. On the ice, he was a beast that dominated in front of the net, but off the ice, he got embarrassed by the compliments.

“Need you two protecting the net,” Benny chimed in, giving me and Riley a hard look.

“We got it!” I razzed him back.

“That’s why I’m saying we gotta make sure we know our opponent for tomorrow,” Riley chimed in again.

TJ dramatically groaned. “BRO! Come on, we do! We got this.”

My lips curled up into a smile at how TJ fucked with Riley. Riley was always on our ass about being better; it was one of the things I loved about being paired with him.

I got distracted by my phone buzzing in my pocket. I was disappointed when I saw it was from my ex-girlfriend and not Veronica.

ASTRID: I miss you.

I clenched my jaw and ignored the current dinner conversation while I typed back.

ME: K.

ASTRID: B, don’t be like that.

ME: You broke up with me.

ASTRID: You don’t miss me?

ME: Not anymore.

ASTRID: Baby, come on.