Gametime: A Moo U Hockey Romance by Jami Davenport (classic novels to read .txt) 📕

Patrick, like Patrick doesn’t have a say in it. He’s already got me married with kids while he sits in the stands and tells everyone Patrick is his son-in-law.”

Kaitlyn was taking a drink of water and almost spit it out. She swiped her face and gaped at me. “You’re kidding? And I thought my dad was bad.”

“Mine got me this job.”

“They’re so much alike.”

“Tell me about it.” Most people didn’t like Kaitlyn, but we’d bonded last spring over our mutual experiences having fathers who were hockey legends. I wished my dad had a business like Kaitlyn’s dad, though, because lately he’d spent too much time focusing on me and my personal business.

“What is your job exactly?”

“I’m interning with the statistician. I’ll be doing some advanced stats and stuff like that.”

Kaitlyn screwed up her face. “Sounds interesting.” Sarcasm dripped from her voice.

“It actually does to me. That’s my area of interest. There are so many stats that aren’t tracked by most teams and tell a more complete story about a player.”

She waved me off with a hand. “Now you sound like my dad.”

“Sorry. Not sorry.”

I liked it better when my own dad was neglecting me and letting a series of girlfriends and nannies take care of me. Not that I didn’t have a good time, especially with some of his twentysomething girlfriends. One of them had taken me to get breast implants at seventeen. He still didn’t know about that.

Speaking of breasts, Paxton had loved my tits. He’d been completely mesmerized by them and had worshipped them with his clever mouth and sensuous tongue.

Oh, God, I was getting wet thinking about sex with Paxton while surrounded by a team of hockey players, coaches, staff, and Kaitlyn.

She raised a perfectly sculpted brow. “I know what you’re thinking.”

She couldn’t possibly know, but my face flamed from embarrassment.

“It’s okay, I think about it all the time. Frankly, there’ve been a few times when I’ve made myself feel better late at night when the bus is heading home, and it’s dark inside.”

“You didn’t?”

Her smile was sly and wicked. “Maybe, maybe not.”

I wouldn’t put it past her, nor would I put it past her to go into the bathroom and have a quickie with Lex. None of my business, and I banished those thoughts from my head. I had enough sexy thoughts of my own without allowing others to enter into the weird-enough metrics flying around in my jumbled brain.

“Back to your twin dilemma,” she said.

“I don’t have a twin dilemma.”

“Bullshit. You have a big twin dilemma. So, how was he? Paxton’s the quiet type, and I’ve found more often than not they’re the best lovers. In fact, hotter than fuck in most cases. All that quiet intensity focused on you and you alone.”

“That about sums it up,” I admitted, dropping all pretense of how much we had or hadn’t done.

“I knew it.”

“Then you understand my dilemma.”

She nodded with a superior smirk. “Pax is a great guy. He’s done so much for Lex’s confidence and his game. He should do as much for his own game.”

“You think?” I knew hockey, but Kaitlyn really knew hockey. She’d actually played some hockey, while I had an ice-skating phobia. And I do mean full-blown, panic-attack-generating phobia from a childhood trauma on the ice.

I’d long thought that Paxton had the stuff to be an even more exceptional player than he was. He was a hard, powerful skater, but he needed to show the same aggression when it came to taking more chances at the net.

“Don’t get me wrong. Patrick is going to take the NHL by storm, but Paxton might do the same thing only in a quieter, less flashy manner.”

“I hope so,” I whispered, because I cared about Paxton, and I wanted the best for him.

“The best thing that could ever happen for Pax’s career is to get out from under his brother’s shadow.”

“Really? But they’re so close.” I didn’t disagree with her necessarily. I’d thought so myself a time or two, but I wanted to hear her reasoning.

“They lean on each other, and taking away that crutch will make them better players.”

I nodded. I’d watched them play for two years, and I knew exactly what she was saying.

“So when are you guys hooking up again?”

“We aren’t. It was just a drunk fuck.”

“Maybe it didn’t mean anything to you, but I’m positive it does to Paxton.”

“Why would you say that?”

“Because he’s had a crush on you for a long time, and you’ve been oblivious.”

“You noticed that?” I felt like an idiot for being in the dark about Pax for so long. How had I not seen it until last weekend? Maybe I hadn’t wanted to see it?

“I notice everything when it comes to this team.”

“I didn’t realize he was”—I paused to find the right words that wouldn’t reveal Pax’s drunken declarations of love—“uh…interested, until we slept together. I guess there were signs, but I didn’t want to see them. I’ve always been more attracted to Patrick.”

“Really? Why?” Kaitlyn cocked her head and regarded me as if I were a foreign species she wanted to study.

“I guess because everyone thinks he’s the better player, and I’d score more points with my dad.”

“That’s as good a reason as any.”

I narrowed my gaze and studied her, trying to discern if she was being sarcastic or not. She was unreadable at times, and this was one of those times. She merely smirked at me.

“If I were you, I’d be taking Pax up on what he has to offer. At least you’ll know he won’t be sharing that same offer with half the female student body, because he’s a one-woman man. At least when he’s dating someone.”

“He doesn’t really date much.” I craned my neck to look to the back of the bus. Paxton was staring at me, and our eyes met. He ducked his head and concentrated on the cards in his hand, refusing to look my way again.

I was so confused.

10

Good Game

Paxton

I played a good game Friday night, inspired