Page 24 of Home of the Brave

Not officially, but I was fairly certain they’d earned that title.

I couldn’t bring around a casual friend with them keeping guard of the guys on the team. It wasn’t what I wanted, either.

But with how fast my life sped by, there was little time to jump onto dating apps, let alone meeting someone out in the wild.

That left blind dates, and while I entertained that option for a few months when I was a naïve rookie, I no longer fell for that trap. Most felt like humiliation rituals, and no, I will not even think about them again.

Unless the perfect woman fell from the sky, I was fairly certain I’d remain single until retirement. Not that I minded that too much.

Less distraction. Less heartache. Less responsibility.

Which would be fun if I were the type of guy to take advantage of all of that.

Unlike Schultz in his bachelor days, I never felt the call of the wild. I didn’t like going out and partying. I wasn’t capable of stringing along a woman, let alone more than one.

Huh, now that I thought about it, I was kind of a loner.

I lived alone.

My only friends were my teammates.

My family lived in New England, so I rarely saw them outside of the games they attended.

In my limited free time, I either worked out or played video games with the other single guys.

I needed hobbies. Ones outside of hockey and my apartment.

“Josh?” Amelia elbowed me, and I glanced at her. “Water, okay?”

“Yes, please,” I gave the waitress an apologetic smile. I hadn’t realized she’d spoken to me.

“You okay?” Amelia asked quietly as the rest of the group discussed their plans for showing their partners around the DC area once they arrived.

“Yeah,” it came out automatically.

She snorted. “Try again.”

See, the Pride women went above and beyond their roles. Even as a team trainer, she didn’t need to engage. But that was how they trained them. The Pride were experts in dragging out information and confusions. They were magicians at forcing revelations and had an impeccable track record of seeing signs before any of the men.

If only they were as great at matchmaking as they thought. Almost all my blind dates came from them, and each was a disaster.

One included ice cream vomited on my limited edition Jordans.

Nope. Not thinking about the dark times.

“Feeling extra single at the moment.”

She nodded slowly. “I could see if anyone knows any single women in the area.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You wouldn’t dare.”

The corners of her lips quivered before she broke out into a grin. “I wouldn’t. The second they knew there was a chance of setting you up, there would be carnage.”

“Blood in the water,” I agreed.

“It’s only because we love you,” she teased.

“Addi set me up with a ventriloquist,” I reminded her.