Page 35 of Off The Ice

“No? What’s it like?” Ryan asked.

“None of your business.”

“So, what I’m hearing is, if it’s not likethat,then that means she’s single?”

“Hey, leave him alone.” Brody laughed. “He obviously plans to marry her, so she’s off limits.”

“What?” My head snapped to Brody so fast I almost pulled the muscle in my neck.

“Well.” Brody shrugged. “You gave her your hoodie. That’s practically a proposal in girl code.”

The resulting laughter from the team pissed me off. Not so much the teasing, but the fact that they’d been watching us at all.

“Don’t you guys have anything better to do than spy on me?” I growled.

“Didn’t you know?” Hudson grinned. “There’s nothing more interesting thanLiam Brynn.”

“So, who’s the girl?” Ryan asked, his persistence pissing me off.

It was a normal question. A valid one to ask even, but I stiffened at his words. I didn’t want to explain. I didn’t want them to even think about her.

“No one,” I said with the tone of closing the conversation down.

But our players apparently had a death wish. Theywerehockey players, after all.

“Well, if she’s not yours, then you won’t mind passing along her contact info to me,” one of the guys quipped.

Yes, I fucking minded,I thought, surprising myself by the way my entire body thrummed with tension.

“She’s not interested,” I bit out tightly.

Hudson grinned, skating closer. “Come on, Liam. You can’t just bring a girl to practice and expect us not to ask questions.”

“She was here for five minutes,” I muttered, dragging a hand down my face. “And she’s not my girlfriend. She’s—”

“What? Tell us what she is.” Ryan looked at me with a shit-eating grin.

I glared at him. “She’s my sister’s friend. That’s it. Drop it.”

“That’sMaggie’s friend?” Brody’s shock was evident. “Yeah, good luck with that.” He snorted.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“It means you have an incredibly attractive girl living with you, and for years, you’ve been determined to keep the opposite sex at a thirty-foot radius.”

Brody’s words caused an outburst throughout the team as they all descended like wolves with their questions.

“What the fuck?”

“She’s what?”

“Living with you?”

They all exploded with similar sentiments at once.

“Thanks, Brody,” I deadpanned. “That was helpful.”

Brody held his hands up in surrender. “We’re a team. It’s not like they wouldn’t have found out eventually.”

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