Page 11 of The Game Plan

One side of his lips curves up in an annoyingly handsome, disastrously teasing, fuckwit smirk.

“I’ve signed a contract to become your Vice President of Comms, so if we could keep things professional from here on in, that would be much appreciated.”

Oddly, for Jax, he doesn’t have a smart alec retort. Instead, his smile disappears and he nods once, sternly.

It looks like I get default respect by having a title. I like it. Task: get husband in line – check!

“Speaking of which, you can get on with the annulment now, there’s no excuse for you being incompetent. I’ve signed the new employment papers, even though I currently have two jobs technically, so you’re in the clear. I don’t need a spouse, please and thank you, so if we could move the process along, that would be fantastic.”

“Yeah, I’ll get on it.”

“Try to drop the attitude for a second, Jax, please. I don’t need another difficult situation in my life right now, okay? If you’re not going to deal with this then give me the marriage certificate and I’ll do it. It’s a quickie job to get a quickie annulment as quickly as our ceremony was concluded. Similarly, you won’t even remember we were married in twelve hours’ time.”

His eyes fix on mine, like we’re having a staring competition, until eventually he steps back onto the ice and curves his skates backwards, moving away from me though our gazes are still locked. “You got it, Sienna.”

Now I can’t help the attitude as I drop my hands to my hips. “You got it like you’re going to get the annulment? Or you got it like you’re going to bring me the marriage certificate asap?”

“Yep,” he says, unhelpfully, as he replaces his helmet on his head. “Let me know when you’ve got the okay from the immigration office and I’ll fix it.”

“You are so fucking lazy,” I mutter under my breath. But to him, I twist the cheesiest of grins on my lips and say, “Thank you. I appreciate it.”

As he slides away, another thought occurs to me… “Jax, it’s still only the guys who were in Vegas who know about us, right? I don’t want to mess up this job by making the Dragons think I’m irresponsible or breaching the no fraternization clause before I’m even in post. It wouldn’t look good for me here, especially trying to have authority in my new team, but it would ruin my reputation as a PR if it came out, too.”

He brings his stick across his shoulders, casually looping his arms over it, all too-cool-for-skool vibes, which, oddly, makes me nervous.

“I mean,” I continue, “it’s not like you want those boy aquarium girlies to think hockey’s most eligible bachelor is off the market.” I finish with a short laugh.

Only, he isn’t amused. “Ineligible, you mean?” He gives me another of those grumpy nods. “Sure thing, Sienna. Our secret’s safe outside the Vegas circle of trust. What happened in Vegas stays in Vegas, baby.”

Well, that’s something, at least. The miniscule amount of dignity I have left is preserved.

6

SEPTEMBER

Jax

Failure to Launch

I stay on the ice after morning skate. I’m not hungry for lunch yet. I guess I didn’t work out hard enough today because I’m normally one of the first running for the canteen after training.

I drag a puck toward me with my stick, where I’m set up at the blue line. Folding forward, I move the puck back and forth, twisting my stick, then I draw in a breath and hit a slap shot hard onto the left goal post. I do it again, intentionally striking the right goal post.

Then I hear skates cutting through ice and I know it’s my brother who comes to a stop behind me without looking. Call it sibling telepathy – I always know where TJ is on the ice, it’s why we both play second line; we’re seamless in play together.

Which is also the reason I’m not surprised to hear him say, “Want to play some quick release shots?”

I’m grumpy. When I’m grumpy – usually on account of a loss or something to do with our dad – I stay away from the guys. From everyone actually. No one wants to be around a privileged guy bringing bad vibes.

TJ and I set ourselves up, him skating from the center circle with the puck, then passing it off to me. I nail a quick release shot into the top of the net and skate round the back of the goal, coming to a stop and resting on my stick.

TJ says nothing as he glides my way, silently asking me what’s up, and I bite my glove, staring at him. “She pissed me off, that’s all,” I confess.

I shake my head. “I mean, I obviously don’t want to be married. She’s right, I’m not even marriage material. The game is my other half. But she, like, hates me.”

“She doesn’t hate you.”

“She didn’t when I was her client. Yeah, she usually had her face up her ass around me and refused to laugh even when I was being fucking hilarious, trying to get a smile out of her, but now, she can’t stand to be around me.”