Page 5 of Doc Defence

A frown pulled at his brows. He shouldn’t be watching her, he should be watching his teammate. But he wasn’t. He was staring at her face, which looked up at him gratefully.

“Thanks.” Her eyes met his for the briefest of moments before they dropped back to Aiden. “I didn’t want to eat shit again.”

Frost sputtered with an involuntary burst of laughter at her blunt statement. “Eat shit?”

“Yeah, fall down and smash my head on the ice again. I didn’t enjoy that and don’t want to do it again.”

“You’re safe, I’ve got you,” Frost said.

He held onto her arm until they reached the boards, then reluctantly let go and watched her leave down the tunnel with Aiden.

CHAPTER 3

FROST

Frostwantedtogostraight home after the game, which had been abandoned once they got Aiden off the ice. But all the other players wanted to go to the Railway Tavern, decompress together and celebrate Aiden being alive. As the oldest member of the team, they had nagged him and called him an old man until he agreed.

He nursed his pint of beer, taking a sip every few minutes as he listened to Star’s incessant chatter. She had been at the game. She saw everything happening with Aiden, but it didn’t seem to have affected her and she was acting like it was a normal evening.

Star nuzzled into his side, kissing his cheek constantly and running her hand through his hair. What the hell was she doing? She was usually affectionate with him, but not to this extent.

Peering around the table at his teammates, he realised why she was doing it: every single one of them had a woman sitting with them, showing them ‘affection’—also known as making out at the table.

Glancing down at his beer, he frowned. Had he ever been like that? He knew some of them were girlfriends, but the rest of the women had wandered over at various points in the last hour to chat with the players and were now draped all over them.

He grimaced. Yeah, he had definitely been like that, with a different girl after every game. He’d had a few longer-term relationships, but they never lasted beyond the end of the hockey season, and the cycle would begin again.

When he met Star, he thought maybe there was something long-term there, but now he knew there wasn’t.

She kissed him again, and he nearly flinched.

“Hold on, babe. I need to take a few shots for my reel.” Star pulled out her phone, her eyes darting around, looking for the best ‘content’ as she insisted on calling it.

“Not of the guys tonight,” he growled.

“Why not?” She pouted.

“Really?”

“Oh. The medical thing. You said he was fine.” Star waved her hand airily.

“Star, he was literally dead for a few minutes. I’m telling you, do not put any of the team on social media tonight. Do not put me on social media tonight.” Frost’s hand tightened around his pint glass.

“But babe, that’s what my audience wants. Real life. Real reactions.” She opened her camera app and lifted her phone to start taking photos.

Frost put his hand out and over the lens, gently pushing her hands down.

“What?” she demanded.

“Star. Please don’t take anyone’s photos,” he said more firmly, and this time it got through to her.

She pouted more but put her phone down. “Sure, babe. Anything for you.” Glancing around, she saw a waitress and began snapping her fingers at them. “Service. Service. Over here, service.” Her shrill voice rang through the room.

Frost cringed and tried to sit lower in the seat so no one would notice he was with Star while she was being so rude. But it was hard to be unnoticeable when you were six feet three inches and looked like you could run through a brick wall if you needed to, or more realistically, skate through other ice hockey players.

“Babe, she’s ignoring me. Get her for me.” Star squeezed his arm, her beautiful blue eyes looking up into his. It was once a look he wouldn’t have been able to resist, but now it did nothing for him.

Sighing in exasperation, he clambered to his feet.

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