Page 9 of Blindsided

“Thanks for not puking.”

I waved an acknowledgment but my focus was already on Brax and Gretzky. Brax was down the steps and Gretzky was already standing by the car before I’d made it to the hatch. I had to step over the dog three different times on my way to the back to grab my bag. “Hey, Gretz! Give me a second. Seriously. It’s okay.” I stepped over him again so I didn’t fall as I shut the hatch.

“Thanks again!” I called to the driver before turning my attention fully to Brax and his dog. Thankfully, Brax grabbed my backpack so I could give all my attention to Gretzky. “Whiskey’s already poured. Trev’s still sleeping, so get your greetings over before we go in. Wake him up and this Lincoln thing will be the least of your issues.”

Ruffling Gretzky’s fur, I looked up at my best friend. “Keep your boy up too late last night?” I waggled my eyebrows in an attempt to be funny but all it earned me was a backhanded slap to my shoulder and an eye roll.

“No, smartass. We were up at the ass crack of dawn for a charity event at the zoo. We had only been home for about forty-five minutes when you called.”

I wasn’t sure if I’d worn Gretzky out or if he’d worn me out by the time he lay down on the grass at my feet. Brax shook his head at both of us. “Come on, let’s get inside before someone shows up and I’m roped into helping build a basketball hoop or rebuild a fence.” I suspected there was a story there, but with most of his teammates living in the same neighborhood, the odds were he had plenty of interesting requests and stories too crazy to be believed. Of course, I knew hockey players and we managed to get ourselves into situations that defied physics and logic on a regular basis.

“Summer treating you well?” I asked as we headed toward the house. The Grizzlies had only been eliminated a week or so earlier, so it wasn’t like he’d had a lot of time to do more than recover.

Brax nodded his head. “Quiet for the most part. Except Igor and Yuri managed to break their fence last weekend. Don’t know how. They didn’t say and I didn’t ask. But it took half the team the entire day Sunday to rebuild it before the HOA fined them.” He spoke quietly as he led us through the garage and into the kitchen where he deposited my bag. We didn’t stop there and continued our quiet trek past the living room where Trevor was still sleeping soundly on the floor. Our walk ended at the seating area near the back porch where a glass of whiskey was waiting for me as promised.

With a few rooms and a door separating us and the sleeping man, Brax finally spoke again. “Okay, enough small talk. Why are you here?”

“Here?” I raised an eyebrow. “I’m here because you effectively kidnapped me.”

A stuffed animal that had been beside Brax got chucked at my head and I’d been too focused on grabbing my drink to avoid it. “Omph.” The small, roundish toy fell beside me and I glowered at it, trying to figure out what it was. “What was that for? And what is it?”

“For being a smartass, again. And it’s an octopus.”

I stared at the vaguely orangish stuffed animal. “It only has four tentacles. Doesn’t that make it a quadropus?”

When Brax growled, I knew I’d pushed him too far and finally relented, took a sip of my drink, and started on the story. “Your dad called me last night and asked if I could come here today to discuss being assistant coach to the Parliament.”

Brax’s mouth fell open and he poured a heavy shot of whiskey into the clean glass still on the table. “I’m sorry, what?”

I nodded. “About the same reaction I had, honestly. Actually, I dropped my phone, was convinced he was joking with me, and made him repeat himself a number of times before I believed him. Very long story, but it ends with us meeting with the owner early today, then the GM later this evening. Or we were supposed to.”

Brax sipped his whiskey while he motioned with his other hand for me to continue.

“There was a major wreck on the highway and I was the only one there when the meeting time rolled around.”

“Oh yeah, I heard about that. Sounded like a fucking nightmare.”

I nodded confirmation but continued with my story. “So I’m sitting in the office, waiting for the owner—Aston Barrington—to show up.”

“Right, Aston Barrington bought the team. He’s from some old money real estate empire. Guy sounds like a pretentious asshole, but it’s not like I know him.”

“So I’ve gathered from the reading I’ve done on him. Sounds like he’s more interested in partying than working. Truthfully, a spoiled rich kid I think I could handle. We’re hockey players. We both know a thing or two about spoiled rich kids. Your dad said the position was mine for the taking. I guess he told Aston and the GM that he wanted full discretion on who to hire and I was on the short list.”

“Who else was on the list?” Brax had leaned forward and looked genuinely curious. Tom must have been keeping his plans very quiet if Brax hadn’t heard.

“No one.”

Brax’s mouth fell open in shock. I was guessing I’d looked much the same when his dad had said it to me the night before.

“That isn’t the half of it. This all happened last night and I was in the owner’s suite downtown before eleven this morning, sitting in a big plush office, waiting for Aston Barrington and your dad. The door opens, and Lincoln walks in.”

Brax nearly dropped his whiskey glass. “Whoa. Wait, Lincoln? As in the Lincoln? The college boyfriend who walked out of your life without a word, Lincoln?”

I nodded. “And he introduced himself as Francis.”

I couldn’t help but be thankful that I wasn’t the only one shocked to the core at the appearance of my ex. Brax looked like he could be knocked over with a feather, and he’d never met Lincoln. Hell, I’d only mentioned him while drunk off my ass one night after the Bulldogs had lost the wild card spot for the playoffs while Brax and I were living together. Brax had quizzed me after I’d sobered up, but we hadn’t talked about Lincoln after that, and he was still shocked speechless.

“What did you do to my Daddy?” Trevor walked into the room, an old blanket and stuffed animal in one hand, a straw cup in the other, and headed straight for his boyfriend. He might have sounded sleepy and looked sleep-mussed and rumpled, but amusement danced in his eyes as he wiggled into Brax’s lap. “I thought I was the only one who could say or do things crazy enough to shock him speechless.”

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