“Holy shit,” he muttered. “You already slept with her.”
“Yeah, I did,” I ground out. And if I had my way, it was not going to be a one-time thing.
Jay watched me for a long moment, his eyes appraising. Finally, he gave me a single nod. “Just be careful, man.”
I blew out a breath. “Of course I will. The last thing I want to do is screw anything up for her by making her life more complicated.”
“And you’re equally concerned about keeping your own life uncomplicated, right?”
I knew what he was getting at. He thought my career should take precedence over whatever happened with Grace.
Across the patio, the woman in question had wrapped up her conversation with the bow-tie asshole and was heading for the house. And that’s where I should be. “Will you keep an eye on Josie or not?”
Seeming to sense that he wasn’t talking me out of anything today, Jay sighed and nodded. “Sure. We’ll go grab some lunch.”
I clapped him on the shoulder, grinning. “Good man.”
“And I give good advice!” he called after me as I started off across the patio. “You should listen to it sometime.”
I laughed, continuing on my way towards Gracie.
This time, I was the one who was waylaid on my way to the house. By just about the last person I wanted to talk to today.
“O’Conner,” Andy said, his expression pretty much the same as it always was when we talked—disdainful. To be honest, that was kind of his default expression, but it seemed just a tad sharper when I was around.
“Hey, Andy,” I said, trying to keep my eyes from flitting to where his sister was slipping into the house through a set of French doors. “Pretty nice pile of bricks you have here.”
He made a noncommittal noise, running a hand through the copper waves on his head. “I don’t get to stay here as often as I’d like. Usually have to crash in my condo downtown. But it comes in handy when I need to entertain business associates.”
“Or hockey teams,” I pointed out, and Andy’s face relaxed into what could almost be described as a smile.
“I’d imagine you were pretty shocked when you heard I bought the team.”
“Not half as shocked as I was when I found out you’d traded for me.”
He studied my face for a long moment. “Here’s the thing, Liam. I got to where I am today because I’m single-minded whenit comes to my business. My only focus is success, whether I’m trying to buy a new company or introduce a new product to the market or develop a better method of manufacturing. I want this team to do well. And I’m mature enough these days to be able to look at a former teenage rival and acknowledge that he might be the best shot at making my team successful, regardless of how we might have felt about each other when we were dumbass kids.”
I don’t quite know what to say to that. It’s the closest thing to a compliment that Andrew Knight has ever given me.
“The team’s success is important to me, too.” And it was. Jay might think I was too distracted over Grace, but I was more than able to multi-task. I had worked my ass off most of my life to get to where I was in the NHL. Being named Captain of a brand-new team was an amazing opportunity to really build something great. And I wasn’t taking that for granted.
“You ever talk to Coach Newton?” he asked.
“Sure. We catch up every few months or so. You?”
He nodded, eyes scanning the group of hockey players. “Yeah. He checks in on me pretty regularly.” That didn’t really surprise me. It used to make me jealous, actually, how close Andy was with our high school coach. Sure, Newton liked me and gave me great advice, even after my high school career, but it was obvious he always had a soft spot for Andy.
“When I told him I was buying a hockey team, he said he was glad to see I was finally doing something worthwhile with my life.”
That made me chuckle. “Sounds like him.” Our high school coach had lived and breathed hockey. “Pretty sure that man would have slept at the rink if the Athletic Director let him.”
“Anyhow,” Andy said, shoving his hands into the pockets of what I was sure must have been three-hundred-dollar jeans. “I just want to make sure you know I’m glad to have you on board.I know the pre-season was rough, but I’ve seen worse situations than this turn around.” His sharp green eyes, so similar to his sister’s, met mine. “If there’s anything you think the boys need, or if you have any insight at all for management, I don’t want you to be shy about coming to talk to me, or Olsen.” Olsen was the interim GM. I couldn’t help but notice he didn’t include our head coach in that invitation.
“Okay,” I said, nodding slowly and not at all convinced. In my experience, management didn’t really put a lot of weight behind the observations of mere players.
“Good,” Andy said, his face again arranged in a near smile. “I think we can do great things here.”
“I like your optimism.”
