“God, Stone is a lucky bastard. I love a girl with a feisty side,” Jett winks at me, causing me to laugh.
“You love all girls, period,” Thane says, rolling his eyes.
“True,” Jett laughs.
“Can we get back on topic here, so Savi can get back to work?” Cayden says, reining in the boys before turning back to me. “He likes you more than he wants to admit, and it’s fucking with his head. He’s got it in his mind now that you’re a distraction, andhe’ll win this game if he just puts you out of sight, out of mind type thing, but he’s got it all wrong.”
“He’s falling apart, Sav. The whole team sees it. Even Coach reamed his ass the other day. You’re not his distraction—you’re what he needs to get his head back in the game,” Jett says, his blue eyes piercing me with their determination.
“I don’t see how my sitting in the stands is going to change anything. He’s still not ready to talk.”
“It’s a known fact that every athlete plays better when a girl they like is in the stands. We get big-dick energy. It’s like a primal part of us takes over. We play harder to show off and win the fucking game for her. It’s in our DNA,” Thane shrugs.
“This is crazy,” I chuckle. They all look so hopeful, and I’m finding it hard to say no to them. “I can’t believe I’m even entertaining this idea.”
“I knew you would do it for us,” Jett says excitedly, clearly making my mind up for me. He takes the gift bag from the floor and hands it to me. “We bought you a little something for you to wear to the game.”
I look inside and pull out a Bolts jersey. When I see Hayes’s name on the back, I start laughing.
“So, you want me to wearyourjersey to the game on Saturday?” I ask, looking at him with a ‘are you fucking kidding me’ look on my face.
“For the record, we all put our names in the hat. I just happened to be the lucky one who got pulled,” Jett grins.
“I’m pretty sure you are the unlucky one. He’s not going to like this,” I say, shaking my head and remembering how jealous he got when all I did was sit at their table.
“It’s just the rude awakening he needs, trust me. He’s good at channeling his anger into a game, so we aren’t worried about that. He just needs a reason to be the alpha male, and nothing gets a man going like a little competition and fear that he mightlose if he doesn’t step up,” Jett says, clarifying his reasoning, which is scarily starting to make sense.
“You’ll only be wearing it for the first period anyway,” Colton laughs.
“How do you know that?” I ask, holding the jersey up to my pink scrubs and seeing how it fits.
“If we are right about how he feels about you, you’ll find out,” Jett grins as the guys break out into laughter. I’m clearly missing the inside joke as they get up to leave.
“There are two tickets in there, too. Bring a friend if you want.” Cayden says, tilting his head at the bag.
“We got you good seats,” Jett adds with a mischievous smile that makes me wonder how much he isn’t telling me.
I pull out the envelope and set it on my desk.
“Thanks.” I know my brothers are taking their kids, so I’m sure there won’t be an extra ticket among them for this game. Maybe I’ll invite Wren. I don’t know if she likes hockey or not, but at least I won’t be alone, plus I could use the extra support with this crazy idea of theirs.
“Just don’t bring Tristan,” Jett mutters. “Anger when directed at the opposing team, we can work with, but actually trying to stop him from murdering a fan in the stands is a whole other problem we don’t need.”
Tristan?
“Wait,” I say, furrowing my brows. “How do you know about Tristan?”
“That asshole reporter who loves to push Knox’s buttons mentioned the date you went on to try to get a reaction out of him for views on his stupid social media page. I thought he was going to break the mic in half when he heard the name, Tristan.”
Shit.
No wonder he’s so worked up.
“It wasn’t a date,” I sigh. “Tristan is my old high school boyfriend, and I ran into him at Montgomery’s. He sat down for a drink, and we reminisced for a bit before I left early. Alone,” I add for extra clarity. “There’s absolutely nothing there for me anymore with him.”
“You don’t have to explain it to us,” Cayden says, shaking his head. “Knox, on the other hand, might feel better knowing that,” he chuckles.
“You know most of that shit in here isn’t allowed in games, right?” I turn to Hunter, who has the romance book open now and is skimming the pages. I laugh when I see it’s one of the dark hockey romances that I couldn’t resist reading after I saw all the book girls go mad over it.
