Page 41 of Not the Puck Bunny

“I know. I'm still in therapy for it,” she teased.

At least, I thought she was teasing.

“Then there's the fact the Internet hated us a couple of days ago,” I said. “They might hate us tomorrow.” Softly I added, “They might hate her tomorrow.”

“So you want to protect her from trolls?” Alice concluded. “That's really sweet. Who knew you had that in you?” She grinned before biting into a green bean, which was covered in grains of white rice and sauce.

I raised my middle finger from my fork and flipped her off. “I can be sweet. Just don't go telling anyone. If people think I'm a grumpy asshole, they tend to stay away from me.”

“It would be very good for your image if people knew you were sweet,” she said. When I glared at her, she raised her hand in front of her, palm out. “Okay, okay. I'll do my best to make sure they don't know the extent of how sweet you are. But seriously, have you spoken to her about this?”

“Of course I have,” I said. “We agreed to be friends. That's all we're going to be, all right?” I looked at her sideways, sternly, waiting until she nodded her agreement.

“Fine,” she said reluctantly. “But now people have grabbed hold of this scenario, they may not want to let go. They're going to keep shipping you as a couple until they latch on to someone else.”

“They can latch onto Nate,” I said.

There must be hundreds of guys more interesting than me. Thousands. I played hockey, and I was good at it. Apart from that, why would anyone bother gossiping about me? I was just a regular guy who was lucky enough to be living his dream, doing his dream job. That didn't seem newsworthy to me. Not unless you're a hockey mad kid, like I was, who wanted to know his dreams could come true too. Then, I supposed I had something to offer.

“The Internet prefers couples who last longer than an hour,” Alice said dryly. “Besides, they already adore him for who he is. The team's resident playboy. They'd be surprised if he was seen kissing the same woman twice.”

“Why does that not surprise me?” I asked.

If I acted the way he did, I'd be universally loathed by the monetized gossip machine. Nate always came off smelling like roses. Maybe because he was nice to reporters when they wanted to interview the members of the team. Whereas I preferred to glare and respond with one-word answers. Anything to keep them from coming back for more.

“The public loves to think they know famous people personally,” Alice said. “And they love nothing more than to ascribe personalities to their favorite players. The grump.” She gestured at me. “The Playboy. The serious, fatherly type.”

“The asshole,” I said thinking about Zack.

“The jokester?” she added. "Who might be misunderstood."

I made a face. “Or not so misunderstood, in some cases.” Obviously, she was talking about someone else. There was no way in hell my sister would be interested in Blake Eastwood. If he so much as looked at her the wrong way, I'd rearrange his face.

“Either way, the Internet will have an opinion until the end of time,” she said. “Just be aware they aren't done with you yet. While you're both involved with the Sea Dragons, they'll persist with rumors andspeculation. You'll be under the proverbial microscope for a while.”

“It might be time to consider retirement,” I grumbled.

Alice stared at me. “You have it bad, don't you? You must have, or you wouldn't even suggest retiring from hockey. You'd really do that to save her from scrutiny?”

“Don't read too much into it,” I said. “I was throwing out a thought, that's all.”

“Oh, I'm reading all right,” she said. “My big brother is in looove.” She drew out the last word until she ran out of breath and had to stop. She sucked in another and grinned.

Love? It was too early to talk about love, but Alice wasn't too far off the mark.

Retiring never seemed plausible before, but now it wasn't completely off the table. If it helped Andi, how could I not at least consider it?

Chapter Seventeen

Andi

“We can see everything from here.”I gestured for my mother to sit in an armchair near the plexiglass window. The team box was comfortable enough to accommodate even her particular needs.

Okay, that depended how particular she was on any given night. Tonight, she was quiet, clicking her tongue and looking displeased in general.

In other words, it was going to be a long night.

“So I see,” she said, looking unimpressed. She perched on the edge of the chair and looked down at the crowds and ice.

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