Page 12 of Pucker Up
“It’s okay.” Dad finished his glass of wine and topped up our glasses. “What player has caught your eye?” He winked.
Mel’s cheeks went as red as the wine in her glass. “What’s the deal with those Bailey brothers?”
This time my father rolled his eyes. “You mean the worst trade that’s happened since I started coaching the Tigers?”
“Yeah. Do they hate each other or something?”
As much as I didn’t like the direction the conversation was going, I was curious about their animosity.
“Hate is a strong word. They’re competitive, and it’s normal to see brothers where one shines a little brighter than the other, but those two—there’s another layer there. I don’t know what happened, and it’s really none of my business, but they don’t speak to each other off the ice. On the ice, they fight. If they weren’t such talented players, I would’ve gotten rid of them ages ago.”
Mel nodded. “The only thing that could come between two guys like that is…a girl.”
Dad shrugged. “Like I said, none of my business.”
My best friend cast a glance at me before asking the question I hoped she’d avoid. “Do either of them have girlfriends right now?”
Almost as a reflex, my foot kicked and made contact with Mel’s shin. She jumped, but didn’t let out a peep. She wasn’t fast enough to catch her fork before it clattered to the floor.
Dad got up and retrieved Mel’s fork. He tossed it into the sink and handed her a fresh one from the drawer. “What the players do off the ice is none of my business. But, Mel, if I were you, I would stay far away from any of my players.” He’d clearly had enough of the interrogation.
Later that evening,Mel and I curled up on the sofa in the carriage house. Each of us had our own blanket, and the gas fireplace flickered next to the TV, which was on its third or fourth episode ofSeinfeld. “Another bottle?” Mel filled my glass and topped hers up.
“No, I have to figure out some stuff tomorrow, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to wake up with a medium-sized hangover.”
“You’re probably right.” Mel’s teeth were stained a deep purple. “I have a bunch of showings to book for Aubrey.”
Sometimes, I wished I had Mel’s job. We both worked hard, but she made more as an assistant for a top agent in the city than I ever would as a researcher. I was okay with that—I wasn’t doing the research for the money—but some days it would’ve been nice to sleep in, drive around to beautiful homes, and be a part of people’s dreams.
“I would love to sleep in.” I stretched my arms above my head. “I’m waiting to hear back from the soccer team to see if they will approve some players to be a part of my study. I’ve got a call with someone from their management at eight o’clock.”
“In the morning?” Mel gave me a playful shove. “You’ll get it. I’m sure of it.”
I wasn’t so sure. “The funding depends on it.”
“Now that we’re out of earshot of your super hot dad, can we please talk about your date with Ace?” Mel clicked off the TV.
“It wasn’t a date.” I clicked it back on. “And there’s nothing to talk about. He seems like an okay guy, for a hockey player. He saved Morton, and I bought him a pizza. Or, I mean, he bought me a pizza. That’s it. Full stop. The end.”
“Did he try to kiss you?”
I tossed the throw pillow at her. “What part of ‘it wasn’t a date’ didn’t you get? We did not kiss. I did shake his hand though.” I opened and closed my hand. The tingling had subsided, but at the mention of his name, the sensation returned.
“I bet his hands are huge, but probably not as big as his brother’s. That guy is a monster.” Gideon was definitely the larger of the two brothers, but it was hard to imagine his hand being much bigger than Ace’s. My hand had completely disappeared into his. The tingling intensified and I shook my hand from the wrist. It was the same kind of pain that you get when your hand falls asleep and you have to shake it awake.
“Are you all right?” Mel’s wine sloshed in her glass as she pointed to my hand.
“My hand just fell asleep, that’s all.” There wasn’t any other explanation. I’m a scientist. Extremities fall asleep all the time. It didn’t have anything to do with Ace. “Gideon’s a dick to fans, but Ace… Ace was so sweet to this young kid that came up to us after lunch. We actually made a bet about when he’d get approached and I lost, so he bought lunch.”
“He what?” Mel’s eyebrows rose so high I thought they might slip under her dark curtain bangs. “You were thanking him for saving Morton, and he ended up paying?”
I shrugged. “It’s not a big deal.”
“Itisa big deal, Goldie Girl. That means you can ask him out again, you know, because you still have to thank him for pulling a Mitch Buchannon on Lake Ontario.”
I stood and poured the remainder of my wine into the sink and rinsed out the glass. “You’re forgetting something pretty major.” I stretched my arms above my head as I yawned. “Even if we wanted to go on another date, there’s that whole thing about being the coach’s daughter.”
“Is that like an official rule?” She air-quotedrule.
