Page 74 of The Wingman

The look of awe the guys give me makes my stomach dip with excitement and pride. Beside me, Hayden winks down at me, smiling, and my confidence grows.

“I did one for penalty kills, too, since that’s another weak spot.”

Rory gives me a wounded look, but he’s smiling. “Ouch.”

“Sorry.” My face goes hot.

He laughs and waves me off. “Show us.”

My fingers fly over the keyboard as I pull up the penalty kill model with several player configurations.

“What’s this?” Hazel leans on the back of the booth to read over my shoulder.

“Darcy’s showing us math magic,” Rory explains.

I laugh. “It’s not magic, it’s just statistics. I did one for common injuries, too, predicting recovery times.”

Her eyes light up, and I know I’ve hooked the physiotherapist side of her. “Show me.”

I run through the models with them, explaining my reasoning and my data.

“Does Ward know about this?” Jamie asks.

My eyes go wide. “No. Oh my god.” I make a face. “This is just for fun.”

Everyone looks at me like I’m speaking another language.

“Don’t tell Ward about it,” I add. “It’s dumb.”

“It’s not dumb,” Hayden cuts in, frowning. “You do this for a living.”

“My job is different.” My face goes hot. “We work in teams, with thousands of data points, and the models go through intense verification.”

There’s so little responsibility and risk, it’s almost laughable. My clients are corporations—if I screw up, they pay a little more or a little less, but no one gets hurt. No one misses out on insurance or care or support.

“This could really help us,” Alexei adds quietly.

I feel a stab of guilt, but then I remember how devastating it was to be the reason someone else got fired, and my guilt evaporates.

“It’s just me playing around with numbers. You should leave the analytics to the experts.”

“Show me that power play one again.” Rory reaches for my keyboard to go to the next tab but accidentally closes the window and?—

An image of the hot pink toy Hayden bought me fills the screen, and my heart jolts into my throat. Beside me, Hayden stiffens.

“Using your newG-Spot Bangeris easy with these three steps,” a calming woman’s voice says on the video as she holds up the sex toy.

Everyone goes silent, watching.

“Slide the Banger inside?—”

“Oh my god.” I slam the laptop closed, face burning hotter than the surface of the sun while everyone stares at me in shock.

Rory lets out a howl of laughter as Alexei and Jamie stare at my screen in horror. Hazel presses her mouth tight to hide a smile. I can’t look at Hayden.

“I can explain.”

Ican’texplain, and it’s exactly what it looks like. I was nervous about using the toy Hayden got me, so I looked up the company’s website last night. I thought I closed the page.

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