Page 24 of Knocked Sideways

And then it hit Jed.

Remy calling Mike by his first name. Mike texting Jed more in the last few weeks than he had in the last few months. Mike wanting Remy looked after. Remy saying he’d left someone behind in Montreal after turning down that girl at the club.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Mike couldn’t have been so fucking irresponsible as to sleep with one of his players, could he? Because that was a bad look if it ever got out, even if it hadn’t started until after Remy graduated. And it wouldn’t be an easy relationship for Remy to walk away from.

“Shit,” Jed said, a little sick to his stomach. “You and Mike⁠—”

Instead of responding, Remy pushed himself out of his seat too quickly, stumbling as he headed down the aisle toward the back of the plane.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, Jed thought again, as Hal pulled his earbuds out and leaned over across the aisle.

“What the hell was that?” Hal hissed. “You’re not supposed to make things worse.”

“I know.” Jed closed his eyes and thunked his head back against the seat. “That was not my fault, I swear.”

“I don’t care. You better fix it immediately.” Hal glanced back toward the rear of the plane, where Remy had disappeared into a bathroom. “Or maybe I need to step in at this point.”

“Don’t.” Jed’s voice came out sharp and loud, and a few heads turned in his direction. Not good. He took a deep breath and managed to bring it down a notch. “I think this is personal, okay? I need to handle it.”

“Personal? Like, he has a problem with you?” Hal was looking thoughtfully at Jed now. “In what way? I thought he was also, you know⁠—”

“It’s not a problem the way you’re thinking,” Jed muttered. “But yeah, he has a problem with me.”

Hal’s sudden bark of laughter made the card players behind them glance up again before returning to their game. “I should’ve known you’d overachieve when I told you to make sure he didn’t see you as some kind of hockey god.”

“Smart-ass,” Jed replied. But it was better for Hal to think that than guess the truth, which was apparently that Mike was using Jed to spy on his ex-boyfriend, or whatever the hell Mike was to Remy that left him looking like that.

Jed picked his phone back up and considered the “fuckbuddies” text. If Jed talking to Mike about Remy was a problem, he could at least take care of that.

Grant

I’m done talking to you about Lads

Also wtf

Did you sleep with your player?

He saw your fuckbuddies text

And he wasnt happy about it

Ridder

Wtf yourself

Obvs wasnt my player when we slept together

Not jealous r u ;)

Grant

Fuck off

It’s messed up

And I’m not going to let it mess with my team