His eyes dropped to the wide silver rings lining his fingers.

“It almost seems as though this might all be too good for you, Chadwick. Like you feel it’s more than you deserve.”

“Sorry. Did I step into the team shrink’s office?” He leaned back, squinting at the sign on her open office door.

“You know, some of the guys on the team care. A lot. They want more and you’re holding them back by acting like a spoiled teenager.” She pushed back from the desk, stepped toward the door and pulled it wide. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a call with my publisher.”

He slid his frame from her desk. “Publisher?”

“Oh, right. You probably thought that cookbook I gave you at the beginning of the season was a gag gift. It’s actually a bestseller, and surprise, surprise, they have me writing another one.” She patted his arm as he blinked at her from the doorway. “I’m sure your agent deleted your invitation to join the project, since we’re all well aware that the link between dietary choices and performance isn’t something you subscribe to.”

She smiled and shut the door, feeling only slightly bad about his wounded expression.

Just slightly.

Her publisher.

Second cookbook.

Mullens stared at the Christmas wreath on Athena’s closed door and rubbed his jaw. He’d forgotten to shave in his rush to get to the rink before she was done for the day. She worked odd hours and was off-site frequently enough that he never knew where she’d be or when.

She thought he didn’t want more from his career and that he was sabotaging himself.

He muttered a curse, thinking of the corner he’d painted himself into. It had started on his first day during the dietary orientation for new players. He’d been eager to strut his stuff, and show everyone he didn’t belong on the low-ranked team and that he wouldn’t be there for long. He’d work hard, be a star and get traded somewhere good by the end of season.

But then practically the first words out of Athena Gavras’s mouth had hit him right in the core. Inadvertently allowing his tamped down memories of pain and loneliness to resurface.

Those damn pancakes. The last family meal before it all fell apart.

He was not going to think about it.

She had looked straight at him with those kind eyes and her sweetness had shot straight into his hurting soul. Then she’d put him on the spot and he’d reacted. Without thinking, he’d made a choice. Reveal this vulnerability in front of his new teammates, or crack a joke—at her expense?

Because he was a hockey player, in a room filled with other jocks, he’d chosen the latter. He’d chosen survival.

He’d made her rules and recipes the butt of a joke that had immediately solidified his image with this team as a devil-may-care rule-breaker.

He wanted a do-over.

There was something about Athena Gavras that ripped him open. It was as though all the stuff he’d jammed inside, hidden behind concrete walls and forgotten about, tumbled out whenever she was around. He hated that sensation of the earth sliding out from underfoot. The balancing he had to do around her. One step too far and he’d be at her feet, raw and vulnerable. One step in the other direction and she’d never speak to him again.

He sucked in a slow breath and forced himself to walk away from her office. He needed to find Coach Louis and explain the whole off-the-dietician’s-roster situation.

Hey, Louis, man. Yeah, this hiccup with Athena? It’s just a personality conflict. But I’m following the plan, so no big deal if I skip the appointments, right?

The problem was that once he’d made a show of giving her attitude, it had become a thing—his thing. Nobody would believe he secretly followed her nutrition guidance to a T. Not even Coach.

Athena should have cut him from her appointment book months ago.

Mullens mulled over his problem as he headed deeper into the arena, toward Louis’s office.

He pulled out his phone and dialed his agent.

“What’s Athena Gavras working on with her publisher? And how do I get in on it?”

“Pretty sure that window’s closed,” Rafard replied, unfazed by Mullens’ abruptness.

“She said I was invited.”