Page 16 of Not the Puck Bunny

“Guilty.” Nate grinned.

“You won't piss her off the way Zack will,” Blake said, getting in on the pile-on.

“And it would give you the opportunity to make up for making assumptions about her on the night you met,” Flynn concluded.

“What if I talk to her and find out my assumptions are right?” I asked.

“You're the best man to do that,” Blake said. “People like to tell you the truth. They know you're a straight shooter. If she was pretending, you're our best chance of finding out.”

“Blake is right,” Flynn said. “People open up to you.”

“People fill the awkward silence,” I muttered. I doubted it was because they thought I was a good listener. I made them so uncomfortable they felt the need to say something.

I glanced around, but it didn't look like any of them was going to back down. “Fine, I'll apologize to her for being an asshat. But that's all. There's no reason for me to spend time with her after that. I'll apologize because it's the respectful thing to do. But for the record, she'll probably tell me to get lost.”

I hoped she would. That would give me even more reason to stay the hell away from her.

It was going to be a long season.

Chapter Seven

Andi

“Oh em gee.”Rafe looked around himself as he stepped into the office.

At some point, I might start to think of it as mine, but I hadn't yet. Especially not with the space decorated the way it currently was.

The desk was huge, made of heavy, dark wood. It reminded me of the one in my father's office. The chairs and leather couch were a match, screaming masculinity and power. There was nothing wrong with furniture saying either of those things, but they weren't to my taste.

I preferred not to be in people's faces like this. Or worse, make people uncomfortable the moment they stepped through the door.

My father would have sat behind the desk andlooked down his nose at anyone on the other side, reminding them who was in charge here. I couldn't even bring myself to sit in the chair behind it. The couch was more comfortable. It was located in front of a window with a gorgeous view of Lowball Bay.

To be fair, so was the desk, but I preferred a more casual approach.

If my father could see me now, he'd lose his mind. That was fine. He did things his way and I did them mine. As far as I was concerned, life was too short to let everyone assume your head was buried up your ass.

“This is ah-mazing,” Rafe said. He placed his backpack down beside the couch and flopped down hard enough to bounce a couple of times. “It's about time we had a corner office.”

“We?” I opened my water bottle and took a sip.

“Of course, we,” he said with no hint of apology. “We're a team. Otherwise, I'd be back at Welling, trying to figure out what coffee your replacement prefers.” He wrinkled his nose. “Instead, we're here, home of the hottest hockey players in the hemisphere.” In a loud whisper, he said, “Are any of them gay?”

I clicked my tongue at him. “You're married.”

He sniffed and crossed his legsat his knees. “Of course I am, but I'm not dead. Jacoby doesn't mind me looking.”

“If you're only looking, then what does it matter if they're gay?” I snatched up a handful of notes from the table in front of us and started to skim them. I'd asked Coach Lampton to give me his thoughts on the best places to spend money to improve the team.

Evidently, he had lots of thoughts. Most pertaining to the replacement of equipment that should have been retired a year or two ago. I couldn't argue with any of those suggestions. After all, he was the expert here.

Rafe shrugged and peered over my shoulder. “If you told me a couple of weeks ago Andi Welling was taking on a hockey team, I would have laughed my ass off.”

“Me too,” I said. “I admit I'm scared I might be over my head.”

I wouldn't have said that to another person, but I trusted my assistant more than I trusted anyone else.

In the three years we'd been working together, he always had my back. And he wasn't afraid to call me out if I needed it. If he agreed with something I said, I knew he meant it.

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