“I was going to go with ‘New Horizons in Fuck-uppery,’ but yours is more professional.” Nate grinned at him and then looked back at Jess with a bland smile.
“On the other hand, Dallas—”
“Totally fleeced them by making an overaged Russian with a bad hip look like—”
“Pavel Datsyuk?”
Unbelievable.
Despite their trading barbs on-air, a lot—most, maybe—of their opinions actually aligned. Nate could admit that he’d been playing it up a bit, at first because Aubrey irritated him, then because the audience loved it. But more recently Nate had to admit it was justfun.
Aubrey knew his shit, and he was clever, willing to make a hit, but he seemed to delight in taking them almost as much. Nate hadn’t had this much fun at work since he was playing professional hockey. If he had to pretend not to enjoy getting into it with Aubrey for an audience that was eating up their fake dichotomy, so be it.
After the game, when they’d wrapped the postgame comments, Nate took off his headset and checked his phone. As promised, Bonesy had texted him—twice. The first was what he was expecting:
Meet us at O’Malleys?
But the next one definitely wasn’t:
Big G says bring Aubrey. Thinks he’s hilarious.
Fuck. It wasn’t like Nate could say no to one of his favorite former teammates. Or, well, he could, but he didn’t want to lie. Bones had a very sensitive bullshit detector.
I’ll tell him. Meet you there. Looking fwd to seeing everyone.
Nate hoped they’d have a good crowd so on the off chance Aubrey wanted to come along, he and Nate could each do their own thing.
Aubrey did come, but their large group spilled almost the length of the bar. Nate sat beside Bonesy at one end, while Aubrey took the far corner between a recently acquired winger Nate didn’t know well and Kaden, a young D-man who was living up to the promise he’d shown when Nate was with the team. Kaden and Aubrey were talking, so Nate should have been able to forget Aubrey was there, but he couldn’t resist checking to make sure Aubrey wasn’t being obnoxious or inappropriate. Only the next time he looked down the bar, it was Kaden talking animatedly, gesturing with his hands, and Aubrey listening attentively, head tilted toward him. Apparently Aubrey could be an engaged listener when he was motivated. Nate frowned and tried to focus on his own conversation.
“Anyway, so Amy said a two-seater wasn’t practical,” Bonesy said. Nate nodded in apparent agreement about a car (probably) while he wondered what a young defenseman from North Dakota could possibly have to say that engaged Aubrey so much.
While Bonesy went on, Nate couldn’t help trying to keep up with Kaden and Aubrey. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Kaden’s body language shift. He was leaning in toward Aubrey like a sunflower trying to find the light, as if Aubrey were something radiant.
Aubrey wasn’t bad-looking. At all. And he was certainly turning on the charm—head tilted, fingers tapping on Kaden’s forearm as he made a point about something. He had Kaden enraptured. When Nate caught him flashing a smile, he was reminded of a big bad wolf. It was a little sexy. Nate didn’t like it.
“Earth to Nate? Nate, this is Houston, come in.” Bonesy waved his hand in front of Nate’s face.
“Uh, sorry. Anyway, you were going to buy the Mercedes—”
Bonesy huffed. “Oh no, we’re done talking about car shopping, and we’ve moved on to you and your new coworker.”
“What about him?” Nate turned his head as if looking at the conversation down the bar for the first time. He didn’t think Bonesy was fooled.
“Well, I don’t think Kaden’s your type—”
Nate snorted.
“So I gotta go with you’re a little preoccupied with slim, dark, and handsome down there.”
Nate shook his head. “He’s not so handsome,” he lied.
“Dude,Ican tell he’s handsome. I’m straight, but I haven’t been concussedthatmany times.”
“He has a big enough head already.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve met your ex. I know that’s not exactly a turn-off for you.”
Nate’s ears went hot, and he reached for his beer to give himself time to think of a comeback.
