“Yeah.” I nod and sigh. “I have to get Don to schedule meetings on days off only. I can’t keep doing game-day meetings.”
My phone rings—loudly. I thought I turned the ringer off, but clearly I was wrong. I dig it out of my suit pocket and glance at the screen. Lizzie. Again. That’s the third time this week. Jesus. I am beginning to regret ever meeting this girl.
“Lizzie?” Alex says because the nosey ass read the call display before I swiped the ignore button. “Is that the ex?”
I nod.
“Is she not so ex anymore?” Ty asks casually as he starts putting on his skates.
“No, she’s still very much an ex,” I reply, and stand to hang up my jacket and untuck my shirt before I start unbuttoning it. I have to change fast because I really am on the verge of missing warm-up.
He nods. “Okay. So…what now?”
I turn and look at him. “What now?”
“I think he meanswhonow?” Alex adds because clearly he was eavesdropping. “Or are you going back to being a monk like you were in Seattle?”
“Really?” I stare at him with a cold, hard look that saysfuck off.
He smiles. “No disrespect, buddy. You know I love you, but it’s true. I was shocked to hear there was a girlfriend to begin with, and now that you’ve had that blow up in your face, I figure you’ll revert back to your celibate ways.”
I’m pissed. More so than I should be, because Alex is right. I’d been single the entire time I’d played in Seattle. Not a monk, though, like Alex believes, but single. I wasn’t just a player; I was a brand. I made as much in endorsements as I made in salary, as my father constantly reminded me, and I had watched too many other guys screw all that up by getting caught with their pants down, sometimes literally, by the all-too-observant media. Alex Larue is the polar opposite of me. He has what I liked to call ADD—attention-deficit dating. He dates everything and everyone. Well, actually, he fucks everything and everyone, butattention-deficit fuckingsounds rude.
“I’m not a monk,” I snap abruptly, and pull my Under Armour over my head. “Not anymore.”
Alex nods, and I can see from the softness in his eyes he’s sorry. “Okay. Yeah. Things change.”
“They do,” I agree curtly, and sit down next to him to pull on my pants. “Otherwise, why would I have dated Lizzie at all?”
Alex and Ty both nod, and Ty says, “You’re ready to settle down?”
I catch his eye. “Are you?”
Ty looks caught off guard by that. He shifts a little in his seat and stops tying his skate. His boyish face twitches. “What do you mean?”
“I mean are you settling down? With Maddie? Is this it for you?” When I moved here, Maddie and Ty had just begun dating. It seemed casual, but now it is most definitely exclusive.
He swallows and I watch his Adam’s apple bob. And then he gives me this dorky, shy smile. “I mean I’m not proposing or anything. But have you seen me even look at anyone else?”
“I don’t see everything,” I counter.
He laughs. “Yeah, you fucking do. You’re like something out of an Orwell novel. You notice everything on and off the ice.”
I chuckle. I’ve always been overly observant—and he’s right; it’s on and off the ice. I’m ridiculously good at reading people and situations, and I know he’s been the definition of monogamous. And not in that begrudging way a lot of guys are monogamous.
“She’s the only one,” Parsons tells me honestly as he continues tying his skates. “And I’d be okay if it stayed that way for a very long time.”
I smile at him, but it’s fleeting. “It wasn’t like that with Lizzie. Not ever. It just never felt like I thought it was supposed to feel.”
“Then why get exclusive with her at all?” Ty asks me.
I shrug and give him a nonanswer because I am not willing to admit the truth to anyone. “It’s a long story.”
Alex, who is still listening in on the conversation, stands up and slaps my shoulder. “Well, Westwood, I hope you have changed and you actually keep your skate blade in the dating pool. Do you even know how much premium tail I’d get by being your wingman?”
“I hate to burst your bubble, but I’m not going to run out there and bang every girl who winks at me,” I explain, and bend to lace my skates. “I’ll date again, but it won’t be indiscriminately.”
Alex groans his dismay and goes back to getting ready.
