Page 29 of Risky Play

I had texted her earlier about it, but I wanted to make sure she knew she did a good job.

Her blue eyes brightened. “Really?”

“Thanks to you.”

She beamed, and it was cute watching her chest puff out in pride. She should be proud of her hard work. I glanced across the bar and noticed Dinah had led Noah over toward Rox and Benny, distracting him.

Was Dinah trying to set up Maddie and me?

Maddie took a pull off her beer and scanned the bar. “When will you uphold your end of the bargain?”

“Not with any of these assholes.”

She frowned. “Why not?”

“Too old for you.”

“Come on! The guy at the other end of the bar’s cute.”

I glanced over and saw a guy with greying hair nursing a beer. “He looks like he’s forty.”

“Ageist!” she teased.

I shrugged and took another sip of my beer.

“What if I like an older man?” she asked with a cheeky grin across her face.

“Okay…but not your dad’s age.”

“Why not? Maybe I have a daddy kink.”

I groaned. This girl was gonna be the death of me. My dick wanted to yell, ‘pick me,’ but yeah, no, I wasn’t going there.

I scanned the bar. There were a lot of attractive women hanging off the words of my teammates and South Philly bros trying to get lucky with them when my teammates weren’t interested. None of those guys were good enough for Maddie.

“Tell you what,” I began and pulled out my phone to check my schedule. “We find you a guy closer to your age. How about some night I have off, okay?”

Her face lit up. “Really?”

“Sure,” I lied.

Did I want another guy to be with her? To feel her soft lips on theirs? Absolutely not. But I owed her for helping me out earlier, and there was no way I could be that guy. Not if I valued my friendship with her brother.

She grabbed my arm. “Matt, that would be amazing. I’ve got zero game. I need a wingman.”

I cocked my head at her, processing what she said. How could this gorgeous girl have zero game? All she had to do to get a man to fall in love with her was to flash those pearly whites. Maddie was a smokeshow, and she didn’t need my help. I was pretty sure that old guy at the bar was ready to propose. But fuck him. He wasn’t worthy of her greatness.

“I travel tomorrow, but what about next Wednesday?” I suggested.

She opened her phone and checked something, her cute nose wrinkling as she thought. “Okay. I’m free, and it’s university. There’s usually a party going on.”

Ah, college parties. That wasn’t something I had experienced. After getting drafted at eighteen, I never did the college route. Some guys played college hockey until they got sent to the minors, but I went straight to our minor team in Reading. Played there a few years until last year when I got called up. My life had been nothing but hockey since I could skate. College had never been something I considered, but…a college party could be fun at least.

“Okay, it’s a date,” I relented.

“YAY! Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she gushed.

I knew it was good I was helping her, but it didn’t help the rock that lodged itself in my gut.