Page 47 of Locke

“Same,” I say.

“Okay, bitch,” Molly says, which is her code forWe need to have a serious talk.“You better spill the details on Locke Donovan and spill them fast.We have a twenty-minute Uber ride before I have to get out.”

I knew she could pick up more than just professional reticence with me when Locke came up.I weighed whether to fight her on it but decided to give in for a few reasons.

She’s my lifelong best friend.She’s more like my sister than anything, and she’s closer to me than to her own siblings.I need her perspective and I know she’d never tell another soul, not even Josh.

I don’t bother hiding anything.“It’s pretty complicated.”I break it down for her that he’s supposed to see me for mandated sessions and he’s been bucking against it.I fill her in on our bargain struck in Newberg (for which I got another glare for going to our favorite place without her) and all the way up through Thanksgiving dinner at my parents’ house.

“He’s like a lost puppy,” Molly sympathetically.

“Hardly.He’s a standoffish, arrogant man who… kisses very well.”

Molly’s head whips my way so fast I’m afraid it might fall off her shoulders.“You kissed him?”

I rub my temples and groan.“It’s a mess, Molls.We were arguing and I kissed him to shut him up, and then he kissed me back, and I didn’t know what to do.And this morning, I called him into my office and told him that I can’t do that again, and well… he kissed me again.”

“Oh.My.God,” she wheezes.“Why didn’t you tell me as soon as it happened?And… wait… that’s kind of hot, am I right?”

I do have an inherent weakness when it comes to alpha men and she knows it.“That’s not the point.The point is I’m the team’s director of Human Performance and he’s a player I’m interacting with on a professional level.It’s unprofessional and unethical and I can’t ever do it again.”

I don’t fill her in on the agreement we struck about him giving me a session on his family life.That’s a personal detail I’m not willing to share with her.

“Why not?Juno and Crosby crossed that line and they’re accepted.”

“Apples and oranges,” I say.“I’m working to improve his performance.I’m learning personal stuff about him.I can’t let my feelings cloud my judgment.”

“Okay, put that aside… if you didn’t have that to worry about, would you go for it?”

I don’t have to think long about that.It’s a no-brainer.“Yeah… I mean, it’s like we said tonight.He’s mysterious, and objectively, the hottest guy on the team.It would be fun.”

“And you deserve fun after what you went through with Grant,” she says simply.

“But it’s not that easy and I can’t continue to breach that wall of professionalism.”

“Or,” she drawls, eyes lit up with a clear idea, “you just put it on hold.Do all your performance mojo on him, make him a better player, and once he’s done with that, you can go for it.”

I hadn’t thought about that.I don’t see that happening anytime soon.It’s true I told him he only had to do three sessions and I’m banking on the fact that I’ll be able to use these next two very wisely and make a crack within his wall so I can weasel farther in.

But maybe that is the right option.Even if it took weeks to work with him it doesn’t mean we couldn’t see what was there when we were done, right?

Chapter 16

Locke

TheplaceiscalledEmber & Rye, and it sits on the ground floor of a converted warehouse in the Pearl District.It feels intimate with a dark interior, low ceilings, and exposed brick running the length of one wall.A DJ in the back corner keeps the volume at a level where you have to lean in to talk to those you’re dancing with but closer to the bar area, you don’t quite have to shout to be heard.The dance floor isn’t huge, but it’s packed tonight with Wildfire hockey players getting their grooves on with their girls or with girls whowantto be their girls.

It’s loud and dark and warm from the press of people.I’ve been here forty minutes and I’m already done.

But I’m not done enough to leave.

I told Livia I would show up to things, so I’m here with the team celebrating our win over the Nashville Badgers tonight.I’m a man who honors his arrangements, even if I don’t like it.Tonight it’s costing me the discomfort of standing at a high top with Crosby and Arch, trying to “bond” with them as Livia wants.

“You good?”Arch asks, not looking at me.He’s watching the dance floor.

“Fine.”

He nods like that’s the answer he expected.