Page 102 of The Fake Out

I stared blankly at him.

“Oh my God, V, could you be more dense? Call Rox or Dinah, and figure it out! Just get your man and stop being such a shit to work with.”

Before I could insult him back, he rolled his eyes and stormed out of the office. But he wasn’t wrong. I had been extra bitchy lately. Because I missed Blaise. I missed the way he called me ‘sweets’ and the way he listened when I talked about a difficult client. Most of all, I missed waking up beside him.

So I pulled out my phone and called Roxanne Desjardins, hoping she could help me win back my man.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

BLAISE

I taped up my stick and tried to focus on what I needed to do in tonight’s game. It was the last game before the All-Star Break, which I wasn’t in, so it would be nice to get a little vacation time. I should be a shit for saying that, but I planned on spending it trying to figure out how to get Veronica back. Michael and I had been brainstorming, but every time I thought of going to the tattoo shop to talk to her, I froze up.

“You ready for tonight?” TJ asked me while he laced up his skates.

I nodded. “Yeah. I am.”

He grinned at me, but it was that devilish grin he got when he knew something you didn’t. I wasn’t sure what that meant. Noah elbowed him and gave him a stern look. What was that about? I tried to ignore them and went about my pre-game rituals.

We were playing the Montreal Saints again, which meant my brother Eli was in town. Since the All-Star Break was about to happen, my entire family was in town. That didn’t happen a lot with us all in different parts of the country or in Canada.

I checked my phone and laughed at a text from my sister.

MAJA: You need to stay on your skates if you wanna beat Eli tonight.

ME: Thanks, coach!

MAJA: You know it!

I put my phone back into my cubby and walked with the rest of the team down the tunnel. TJ and Noah were doing their normal pre-game handshake, and TJ was trying to pump up the rest of the team.

I skated onto the ice and did a lap around the zone. I wristed a few pucks into the net for practice and was about to stretch on the ice when TJ nudged me.

“Dude, what?” I asked, annoyed.

He pointed to the glass where the WAGs usually sat. I glanced over and came face-to-face with my ex-girlfriend. No, my fake ex-girlfriend. She’d cut her hair, and colored it a muted brown. It looked different on her, not as wild and colorful as her normal hair. A wave of sadness washed over me because I wondered why she did that. The other thing I noticed made my brow furrow in confusion.

She was wearing my jersey.

We locked eyes, and she smiled at me and tapped two fingers against her heart, and then pointed at me.

I broke out into a big smile and skated over to the glass. I tapped two fingers against my heart and pointed back at her. She nodded and raised her beer in salute.

I felt a gloved hand clamp around my shoulder. “Oh, good, Roxie got her a ticket,” TJ said to me.

“What?” I asked.

TJ grinned. “Come on, get ready for this game, okay? You can make up with your girl after we beat your brother.”

The man in question skated over to me and gave me a big grin. “Did you and your girl make up?” Eli waved to Veronica, and she gave him one in return.

“I’m not sure…” I trailed off.

“Hey, she changed her hair,” Eli commented.

“I liked it better before,” I grumbled.

Eli shrugged and skated off to his end of the zone to talk to his teammates. I wasn’t sure why Veronica was here, but my heart felt like it grew three sizes too big tonight. When I got back into the locker room before puck drop, I checked my phone. I smiled at a text from Veronica.