Dylan looks barely comforted. He’s still got that dazed look in his brown eyes. He ruffles his dark hair with a hand.
“The upside is that they’re really cute,” Isaac says. “It’s kinda cool to see smaller, more adorable versions of yourself running around too. My twins are like my mini-mes. They’ve got my hair.”
He laughs as he runs his hand over his short-buzzed blond hair. Dylan finally cracks a smile.
“You wish, baldy,” he says.
Xander scrubs a hand over his beard. “Okay, all this talk about kids is freaking me out.”
“That’s because you’re a twenty-two-year-old manchild who can’t remember to put on his skates properly most days.”
Xander socks Isaac in the shoulder for his insult. Isaac laughs as he shoves him back.
“Someday you’ll grow up and be like us,” Isaac says to him.
Xander frowns while furiously shaking his head. “No way in hell.”
Isaac and Dylan tell Xander all about the joys of sleepless nights, daycare drop-offs, tantrums, and poopy diapers.
Xander cups his hands over his ears. “Christ, that’s enough.”
I laugh. Xander shakes his head at me. “Why don’t you throw some of this Theo’s way? He’s the one who wants to look mature and grown-up. Kids are the fastest way to do that.”
Once again the entire table is roaring and I’m sitting there, shocked at their reaction. Is the thought of me as a parent really that laughable?
“Aww come on, dude. We’re just fucking with you.” Isaac shoves my shoulder.
I chuckle like I get it, but it takes a second for the sting to fade. Okay yeah, I’m nowhere near ready to have kids right now…but I always thought that maybe someday I might. But given the way my teammates cackled at the thought of me with kids, maybe I shouldn’t even think about it.
Xander leaves to get another round. When he returns, he’s back with three college-age women.
I turn away to chat with Dylan and Isaac, but then I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn and see one of the women aiming a coy smile at me.
“Hey. You play hockey too, right?” The pretty blonde runs her fingers along my arm, clearly interested. Before my career was in freefall, I would have flirted back. But right now all it does is make me want to pull away.
But it’s more than just wanting my career back. The thought of hooking up with someone I barely know doesn’t even sound like fun anymore.
Maya’s beautiful face flashes in my mind. Yeah, sometimes she can barely stand me, but we’re starting to get along. And we managed to navigate the awkwardness of me admitting that I overheard her touching herself without her murdering me.
Even though I know I shouldn’t, I think back to that moment, how hot it was…
I can’t deny the effect that being around Maya is having on me. For starters, she’s smoking hot…and she can kiss like a demon. And yeah, we bicker, but I honestly like that. I fucking love it when a woman gives me shit. It’s a weird turn-on, but whatever. I like what I like.
Just then my mind flashes a filthy image: Maya in my face, yelling at me, right before grabbing me hard by the jaw and kissing me.
Without a doubt, I’d rather jerk off to that fantasy or the memory of Maya’s sexy moans than hook up with a stranger.
I clear my throat and slowly slide my arm out from under this blonde’s candy apple-red nails. I look her in the eye and offer a polite smile. “I don’t play hockey anymore.”
Before she answers I stand up and drop some cash on the table. I tell my teammates I’m calling it a night. Isaac and Dylan get up to join me, leaving Xander alone with the trio of ladies. Through a smug smile, he tells us all goodnight.
“Never thought I’d see the day you walked away from free alcoholanda table of beautiful women,” Isaac says as we climb the stairs to the exit.
“You just did. Get used to it,” I say.
We enter the street and round the corner. We’re not even to the end of the block when some dude aims a camera at us.
“Yo, Theo Thompson! Is that you leaving a bar without a lady friend? Holy shit, has hell frozen over?”
