Page 91 of The Blame Game

“I’m serious!” Dom protested.

“Well, pretty sure that won’t help with our little gossip blog situation,” Shea countered because what the fuck else was he supposed to say to an offer like that.

“True. Well, maybe I’m not that helpful then.” Dom sounded a little deflated.

“No, honestly, having someone to talk to about it helps a lot. You know, you get what overbearing hockey dads are like—”

“When have I talked about my dad with you?” Dom sounded confused.

Shit, Dom didn’t remember telling him any of that.

“I meant in general,” Shea said vaguely, scrambling to cover his mistake. “You’re familiar with the way they get. I know you had teammates in Juniors whose dads were convinced their kid was going to be the next superstar and got totally obnoxious.”

“Oh, yeah. True.”

“Anyway, you get what they’re like. Nothing you ever do is good enough. And like I said the other night, it all went to hell after I decided to go to college. We’ve been trying to work on our relationship for a while now but it’s still weird and awkward sometimes. We talked a little after my birthday and managed to avoid any blowups but I—I don’t know. We react badly to each other, you know? Like there are those people who push your buttons without even trying.”

“Hockey dads,” Dom said flatly.

“Exactly.” Shea felt a surge of relief at the way Dom got him.

“Well, if you won’t accept an offer of a private jet in case of an emergency, how about another cake? Would bribery with baked goods work?”

Shea laughed. “No, thanks. I’m set. I already ordered my mom something from that bakery actually.” It had been expensive as hell too.

“Yeah? I take it you liked it? You never said one way or the other.”

Guiltily, Shea realized he hadn’t. “Sorry! It was fantastic. Audra and I enjoyed every bite. Which means she ate about three quarters of it, then batted her lashes and said it counted as emergency chocolate during her period. Which, hey, I usually make sure I throw some extra bars into the grocery order but you know what women are like when they’re craving chocolate. There’s never enough!”

“Uhh, no. I can’t say I know much about women and their chocolate cravings,” Dom said.

Huh. True. Dom didn’t date women. And as far as Shea knew, Dom was an only child and he’d been away from home playing hockey since he was about fifteen.

He probably spent almost no time with women at all, except for the ones working for the franchise and maybe the wives and female partners of his teammates.

Weird.

Shea cleared his throat. “Right. Anyway. The cake was phenomenal. The next time Audra goes out of town I’m ordering one for myself and refusing to share it with anyone.”

“Even me?” Dom teased.

“I might make an exception for you,” Shea admitted with a smile.

He’d made a lot of exceptions for Dom over the years. But now was not the time to get into his questionable life choices.

“So how about you?” Shea asked, spinning in his chair again, but this time to get up and walk.

“What about me?”

“How’s your week going so far?” It had only been a few days since they spent the night together but it felt like it had been much longer than that.

Dom groaned. “Ugh. Don’t ask.”

“Okay …” Shea said. Well, maybe Dom didn’t want to talk about it. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”

“No, I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just been weird. Everyone’s tiptoeing around me and I’ve gotten a lot of concerned questions from people and they’re making me see Ronnie.”

“Ronnie?”

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