Page 31 of Slap Shot at a Second Chance

“I’m sorry, I’ll stay up late to make up for the hours I missed,” I apologized and he tilted his head to the side.

“Where were you?” he asked and it felt like my heart was lodged in my throat as I looked at his dark eyes, what a huge contrast between the siblings.

“Nana needed help with something at home, but I was able to call one of my cousins to stay with her while I’m gone,” I lied effortlessly and watched as his hard expression softened at the mention of my nana.

“Is she okay?” he asked and my heart panged as I felt his hand softly touch my shoulder.

FUUUCK!

“Yeah, luckily it wasn’t anything huge, so she’ll be okay. Thanks for asking man.” I gave him a tight smile. He nodded, gently slapping my back before skating onto the ice.

I really am not a fucking great friend!

Chapter 13

Avery

I sighed as I pushed my thick green-framed glasses up the bridge of my nose, irritated that they kept on slipping every ten minutes while all I was trying to do was finish my work so that I could go home.

“I should go get new frames,” I whispered to myself as I looked at the time on the bottom right corner of my laptop, noting how late it was.Niel must be sleeping right now,I thought as I softly traced the picture frame with his picture in it, smiling widely as he held the fish his grandfather caught for him.

I was lucky to still have my parents around who didn’t mind babysitting for me whenever I had late nights at work, which were becoming quite a lot lately because of the upcoming matches.

Perhaps I should get an assistant who would actually be here with me every day, and not Nate who dropped inonce in a whileand didn’t really help me with my work.

A small smile grew on my face as I thought of Nate and how frequently we had been talking lately. I really liked ourconversations and how we were getting to know each other all over again.

But sometimes I wondered if he really didn’t remember that night at the former captain’s house and I wondered if I should tell him about it, or perhaps it would be better to leave things in the past as they were.

When I realized I was zoning out, I sat up on my chair and took a sip of my water hoping it would jolt me awake. But I was extremely tired and I just wanted to get home already and lay down on my soft bed that my brother bought for me.

I know I said he could really be stingy with his money and the only way I would be able to get new things was by using Niel. But using puppy dog eyes on Brian worked wonders and it only worked wonders because I was his little sister, the only sibling he had in his life.

And he was my annoying older brother that I wanted to kick in the face sometimes.

It also felt like ever since I started working as the sports executive, we hadn’t really hung out in a long time. I would see him from time to time at work, but luckily he didn’t behave the way he did when we were younger and threatened me to pretend as if I didn’t know him.

This time he seemed to be really proud that I was working in the same company as he was and whenever he would see me he would actually greet me and introduce me to some of the people he knew in the staff, which was surprisingly very little. That shocked me because he had been playing for the Lumberjacks since he graduated college.

As much of an annoying prick and seducer he was on social media, he was actually quite introverted and liked his personal space very much, and hated things being moved around without order.Smart people.

I stretched my arms over my head as I yawned, contemplating whether or not I should go home and finish work tomorrow. But I had a presentation coming up soon and I couldn’t afford to lose time just because I was tired.

After the much-needed stretch, I went back to work and was soon engrossed in it, moving much quicker than I did before. The music played softly through the speakers, filling my office and I didn’t have to worry about disturbing my colleagues because they were already gone.

“Hey.” Nate’s silk voice brought me out of my focus, and I was surprised to see him.Oh my gosh, what is he doing here!I fucking missed him!

A small smile grew on my face as he walked over to me. I pushed my glasses up my nose and I was reminded of what I was wearing. I was dressed in a black hoodie and baggy pants that were a size bigger than me, and I looked fucking terrible.

He leaned in close to kiss my forehead and I moved away as I pulled my hoodie over my head, feeling conscious of what I was wearing. Compared to him right now, it seemed like I was the one who had just come from a training facility dressed in huge clothes while he looked charmingly handsome in his slacks and long-sleeved shirt.

He really is gorgeous.

He looked at me, confused from my reaction and I smiled slightly as I made sure the hoodie was secured around my head, hiding my looks.

“Sorry, reflexes,” I lied and he nodded understandingly as he sat down in front of me, pushing his sleeves up, exposing his veins and I swallowed as I watched him spread his legs out in front of me.

Damn.

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