Page 107 of Pucking Your Best Friend

“Okay, can we finally talk about why we’re all here?” Leon asked, staring seriously at Lucy. “Just tell us, James.”

Oh, here we go again. Her sister truly didn’t have an easy job.

“No,” she replied simply.

“Luuucy,” Matt said slowly and took a sip of his beer. “We’ll find out in a few weeks anyway! Tell us.”

“No,” she countered, shrugging apologetically and then she whispered to Maddie, “These hockey players are truly worse than any gossip columnist. What were we thinking getting involved with them?”

“They’re hot,” Maddie reminded her dutifully.

“Oh, yeah. Right. I forgot.”

“You owe it to me to tell me!” Leon said warningly, as someone putHeard it through the Grapevineby Marvin Gaye on the jukebox. How fitting.

“Why, exactly?” Lucy asked with a snort.

“Because you never gave me a chance back then, you jumped straight into bed with Dax,” the young player complained, aggressively stirring his drink with a straw.

Maddie laughed. “Does every woman owe it to you to give you a chance?”

“Yes,” he said harshly. “I’m also angry with you.”

Her laughter grew louder.

“It’s not true,” Dax said. “It took some convincing to get her into bed, Leon. She didn’t jumpstraightinto bed with me.”

“Dax!” Lucy replied, shocked.

“What? It’s true.”

“Oh God,” she groaned. “Just leave me alone, okay? I can’t and won’t say anything about who Clark is leaving the team to! There’s definitely going to be a press conference in a few weeks.”

“Oh, it’s his son,” Matt stated firmly, waving his hand. He had been saying that every night these days. “Obviously, it’s his son. He’s in the building all the time.”

“I don’t know,” Fox chimed in. “I heard his daughter is a real genius. Has a lot of degrees.”

“Well, I’ve heard his daughter is crazy,” Leon said.

Jack snorted. “Where did you hear that?”

“From a serious company called the internet,” he said lightly. “I googled her and she was arrested a few times for rescuinganimals from labs. And right now, she’s in Brazil or somewhere down there. Doing something in the jungle. I don’t think she could lead a hockey team. It’d be crazy to give her the team. And old Clark isn’t crazy.”

Maddie lowered her gaze. Yes, he was; Lucy had let her in on it. She knew what his plan was and…the next few days would be stressful for Matt. For Lucy. For all the players. But especially for Clark’s children.

“Oh man,” Jack muttered, rubbing his eyebrows. “Then I hope it’s the son.”

Dax snorted in amusement. “Of course, Mr. Control is afraid of crazy.”

Everyone laughed and gave him amused looks. Everyone except Matt, who, to Maddie’s chagrin, examined her expression with his eyes narrowed.

“Maddie, why do you look so funny?”

“I look normal,” she replied hastily and turned her face away.

“Shit! You know something.”

She widened her eyes innocently. “Me? No! How?”

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