Page 14 of Not the Puck Bunny

Cam

“Okay, spill.”Nate stopped in front of the treadmill and draped himself over the display. He looked up at and watched me run, his head cocked, one eyebrow raised.

“Spill is not a good word to use for a guy that's on a treadmill,” Blake remarked. He was running on the one beside me, face glistening with sweat.

If I pretended I couldn't hear either of them because of the earbuds in my ears, how long would it take for Nate to go away? With frustration, I realized it was too long. I pulled out my right earbud and held it in my fist.

“What?” I snapped. It was only a matter of time before he approached me, wanting the gossip. I was surprised it took until now.

“You and Andi,” he said, smirking at my obvious discomfort.

“What about us?” I asked. There was no ‘us,’ I knew that much.

“When she turned up at the meeting yesterday, you and her seemed to know each other. Judging by the way you bristled after I suggested giving her a tour, you know each other pretty well.” He straightened his head, but the expectant expression on his face remained.

“I did not bristle,” I said. “I don't give a crap what you and her do. It's nothing to do with me.” I started to put my earbud back in.

“Sorry, Cam, but you definitely bristled,” Blake said. “Was it just because she knew who I was and not you?”

I glanced over at him without breaking stride. “I don't give a shit about that. Since when do I care about being recognized?”

“Never before now,” Blake agreed. “There's a first time for everything.”

I smirked and turned away. “We might have met when we were at Shells the other night.”

Nate grinned. “Did you hook up with the boss? Way to go, Cam.” He offered me a fist bump,which I ignored.

“I did not hook up with her,” I said. I pressed a couple of buttons on the display to slow the treadmill to a walk. “We literally bumped into each other. She offered me a drink. I said no.”

“You turned her down?” Nate frowned. “No offense, bro, but you need your eyes checked. She's adorable.” He was clearly trying to provoke a response from me.

I wasn't going to give him one. Not in the way he wanted.

“Yes, I turned her down,” I said, my voice tight. “I told her I don't fuck puck bunnies.”

I remembered the look in her eyes when I said that, right before I pushed off the wall and stomped away like a dickhead. She had no idea what provoked me to respond that way, and now I knew why. Until yesterday, she didn't have a clue who I was. If I had to guess, I'd suggest she knew very little about hockey. She probably cared even less.

Nate stared at me for a moment, then grinned. “You thought Andi Welling was a puck bunny? That's absolute gold.”

I shook my head. “Who is she anyway?”

“You didn't look her up?” Blake also slowed to a walk. Now, he reached into the pocket of his shortsto pull out his phone and point the screen towards me.

I peered at it for a moment before grabbing the phone and holding it up. “Andrea Welling, daughter of billionaire property developer Harrison Welling. Executive at Welling Developments. Approximate net worth…" My eyes almost bugged out of my head. The article was accompanied by a photo of her in business wear, standing beside an older man in a suit. Her father, I presumed.

I handed the phone back to Blake and continued walking. “So what? She's some spoiled little rich girl who somehow now owns our team.”

“I think it's safe to say she's not a puck bunny,” Nate said. “It wouldn't surprise me if she knew exactly who all of us were. She might have turned up that night to feel us out. And you had the chance to feel her out, literally, but you turned her down.” He clicked his tongue.

“If that's the kind of person she is, I dodged a bullet,” I said.

If she'd sneak around, pretending to be someone she wasn't, then she wasn't the sort of woman I was interested in. Instinct told me she wasn't like that, but it might have been my balls, which were bluer by the day.

“I would have gone there,” Zack called out from one of the stationary bikes. “The chick has money and a pussy, what more does anyone need?”

Without thinking, I threw my earbud at him, hitting him in the side of the face.

“What the hell?" he protested.

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