Chapter 1
Alex
As I stand on the busy Brooklyn sidewalk waiting for the light to change, I notice a boy, about eight, looking at me. His mom is saying something about their plans after school but he’s not listening. He keeps glancing over his shoulder at me, sneaking quick glimpses and then looking away. When we make eye contact, I smile.
“Are you Alex Larue?” he asks and I can tell it’s a courageous act for him. He turns instantly red. His mother stops talking and looks back at me, confused.
“I am,” I reply and his whole face lights up brighter than a Christmas tree. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Dylan,” he announces. “And I’m super excited you’re playing for my team now.”
“I’m super excited to be playing here too,” I tell him and his mom looks more confused so I introduce myself to her. “Alex Larue. I play for the Brooklyn Barons hockey team.”
“Oh! Yeah he loves them,” she says as she smiles. “His dad takes him to a few games a year.”
“I didn’t like you when you played for San Diego because you always made our players mad and they end up punching you and getting penalties,” Dylan explains and I can’t help but chuckle. His mom looks worried about his candor. “But then my dad said that now that you play for us you’ll make other teams mad instead so I decided to like you.”
“Thanks, Dylan. I’ll try my best,” I vow and smile. “Hey, do you want your mom to take a picture of us?”
“That would be awesome!” he says as his eyes light up in excitement. After his mother takes a picture and I say good-bye, I make my way toward the Starbucks where I said I would meet one of my new teammates.
It’s great that Dylan is happy to have me in Brooklyn. I’m a little shocked to be here. The season started three weeks ago and I assumed San Diego was going to keep me since they’d made a bunch of trades in the summer and I wasn’t one of them. But here we are—middle of October, only one week into the season—and I’m suddenly a Baron.
Luc Richard is waiting just inside. He smiles at me. “Bonjour!” He gives me a quick man hug. “How was your flight?”
“Good. Came in a little late so I didn’t get to the hotel until three in the morning,” I explain. “You want anything to drink?”
He wrinkles his nose and shakes his head. “I don’t do caffeine during the season. And I never do Starbucks. Overpriced toilet water.”
“Tell me how you really feel.” I laugh. “I actually like their coffee.”
Starbucks is comforting to me. I’ve lived in a bunch of different cities and one thing is a constant—there’s always a Starbucks. I don’t tell him this because it makes me look like a pussy. Luc and I are acquaintances and I like him because all the people I trust in this world like him a lot, but I don’t really know him. That means I go into my usual happy-go-lucky, jokester mode. Honestly, even the few people I trust haven’t seen much else.
“To each his own.” Luc shrugs as I walk over to stand in line.
“So did management pick you to be my buddy because we’re both French?”
“Nah, it’s because no one else wanted to do it,” Luc says with a grin so I know he’s kidding. The team management always assigns a new player a veteran to help them assimilate to the team and the city. “It might be the French thing but I don’t think they put that much thought into it. We have so many new rookies or trades that anyone who has been on the team more than a year has a buddy this season.”
I nod. “Yeah they really cleaned house in the off-season. You and Devin must be psyched you get to play with Jordan.”
Luc’s face lights up. Luc grew up with Jordan and Devin Garrison playing hockey in Maine. Devin is the captain of the Barons and Luc was traded here a couple years ago. This summer so was Jordan, who incidentally I used to play with in Seattle. “Yeah. It’s pretty stellar. I didn’t expect that would happen during our careers. But I think the girls are more excited than we are.”
Right. Devin and Jordan married sisters, Callie and Jessie Caplan, and Luc is engaged to their younger sister, Rose. Luc smiles again as he runs a hand through his long shaggy hair. “How about your family? Are they excited about your trade or do they wish you’d stayed in San Diego?”
I shift from one foot to the other and pretend to examine the menu board. “I get traded every couple of years, so this is no big deal.”
He nods, thankfully accepting my nonanswer. “So I was wondering if you wanted the name of the real estate broker Rose and I used when I was traded here. She’s fantastic.”
“Yeah! Definitely,” I reply as the line inches forward. “The sooner I can get out of the hotel the better.”
“Yeah, we spend enough time in them on the road,” Luc agrees.
I glance down the line to see how much longer it’ll be and that’s when I see her. She’s right there in front of us and honestly, I’m ashamed of myself for not noticing her the second we entered. I must be slipping. Long, shapely legs in a charcoal pencil skirt. She’s wearing dark stockings with the line in the back, which is seriously hot, and a pair of red leather heels. I can’t see her face but between that body and the long, thick, rich brown hair, hell, I’m getting hard.
“Elle est jolie.” I nod toward her. A bonus of having a fellow Frenchman on the team is that we can have candid conversations and no one here will understand us. She’ll never know I was calling her pretty.
Luc looks up and his eyes do a swift up and down but he seems unimpressed. “Oui.”
