Page 8 of Game Misconduct

“The other guy, with the holy grail of beards, is brand new. Just arrived this week. His name’s Garrison.” Mikey paused. “I forgot his first name. Porter? Peter?”

“Parker,” Jake said casually as he walked by.

“Yeah! That’s it. Parker Garrison.” Mikey clapped me on the shoulder and followed Jake to the tables that needed to be set up.

Parker Garrison was already at work, setting up chairs with Dory. He was significantly smaller than his teammate, but I was pretty sure everyone looked tiny next to Dory. Parker had short dark hair and deep olive skin with broad shoulders. I stared at his arms, bulging under the strain of carrying several chairs at the same time, then forced myself to look away and get back to work.

I rotated between tables and chairs until everything was set up. Jess dumped an armful of white tablecloths against my chest and moved to the other side of the room.

“Here, I’ll help you.” Dory stood next to me with his arms out expectantly. I handed him one and sat the rest on the closest table.

“Thank you.” I grinned up at him, and we took opposite ends of the linen and draped it over the table before going around and tucking it in front of the chairs.

“I haven’t seen you around before,” he said. “Which one of the blokes do you belong to?”

I paused and stared. There were multiple things wrong with his statement, the first being his wording. “I don’t belong to anyone.”

He threw his hands up. “That’s not what I meant. I just was making a joke.” He rubbed his long beard. “I’m sorry. Bad taste. I’m a feminist, I swear.”

I pursed my lips, not believing a word of it.

“I’m digging myself in deeper, aren’t I?” The apples of his cheeks, the only part of his face besides his nose that wasn’t covered by ginger hair, were red.

I finally let out a laugh. “I was going to go easy on you because of the whole Dory thing, but I can see you’ll need my mercy for your slips up.”

He dropped his head and groaned. “Who told you?”

“Mikey,” I admitted.

He searched the room until he caught sight of him. “I’ll get back at him.” He met my eyes again, and his shoulders slumped. “Fine, you can call me Dory, if you forget about my blunder.”

I pretended to consider it before agreeing.

“And now that you know my name, may I ask yours?”

“Vivian, and I’m not affiliated with any of your teammates. I’m Jess’s roommate, and she called for extra help.”

He paused. “So, you’re single?”

I turned to hide my warming cheeks and picked up another table cloth. I wasn’t positive, but there was a strong probability he was flirting with me. While I wasn’t sure I was into the Scottish lumberjack-type, it was still flattering.

“I am.” I flung the tablecloth out so he could catch the other side, and we brought it down together.

“Interesting.” He kept his eyes down.

“Is it?”

Finally, he looked up. “Yes, I was just telling the new guy that all the pretty girls in the city were taken by our teammates, but here I am, being proven wrong. There’s hope yet.”

“You flatter me, sir.” I raised a brow. “Or are you still trying to make up for your previous comment.”

“Never.” He acted affronted.

“Good because a few pretty words aren’t going to win me over.”

“But it works for them.” He nodded back where the rest of the guys were.

“Well, they have a pretty face to back it up.”