SIXTEEN
TY HAD HIS FEET UP ON THE SOFA, THE GAME CONtroller resting on his stomach as he stalked the enemy.
“Yeah, you bastard. You can run, but you can’t hide, because I know exactly where you are.”
He was as quiet as a rolling storm cloud as he snuck up behind his target, not even hesitating as he drew his knife and slit the enemy’s throat. Blood spurted from his victim’s neck and he fell to the ground.
He laughed as kill points rolled up against his online opponent.
“Kicked your ass, Warlord.” Whoever Warlord was. Probably some twelve year old who had no business playing a game this violent, but hey, he wasn’t the kid’s parent. He tossed the game controller on the sofa and stood, raking his fingers through his hair.
That game was so disgusting. Yet strangely addicting. If he ever had kids he wasn’t going to let them anywhere near video games. He was going to drag their butts out of the house as soon as they could walk and make them play sports.
Yeah, right. He’d probably sit side by side with them on the sofa and play those same violent war games with them.
Or, God forbid, he’d have girls and he’d end up playing some games that had to do with rainbow ponies. Or Barbie. Or something Disney related.
Yikes. Though the thought of a little girl with a long ponytail kicking around a soccer ball or becoming a skater like him—figure skater, though—didn’t horrify him as much as it would have a few years ago.
What the hell was wrong with him? He wasn’t going to get married, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to have kids.
Not anytime soon. No, not ever. The thought of screwing up some kid’s life the way his parents had done to him? No. He wouldn’t be responsible for that.
His cell phone rang and he frowned. He had no idea what time it was, but he knew it was late. He grabbed the phone, surprised to see Jenna’s number come up.
“Hey,” he said after punching the button.
“Hey yourself. I know, it’s really late. Were you asleep?”
He laughed. “Uh, no.”
“Are you on a date?”
Leave it to Jenna to be direct. “No. Are you?”
“Of course not. I had to work tonight.”
He looked at his phone. It was only midnight. “Shouldn’t you still be at work?”
“Yes. But I want to see you. Are you at home?”
He smiled. “Sure. Come on over.”
“Be right there.”
Interesting. And crap, his place was a cyclone. Gear in his living room, cans everywhere, and he was pretty sure the place smelled like gym socks. He did a quick pick up and vacuum, then sprayed with that stuff that took the odor out of the house. Hopefully it removed natural guy-stink.
By the time Jenna rang his doorbell, he had jumped in the shower and managed to pull on a pair of sweats and a clean T-shirt.
She looked great and he couldn’t help but feel a punch to the gut seeing her at his front door.
“Hi. Come in.”
She stepped inside. She smelled good, like she’d just sprayed on something that smelled wild and musky. He wanted to get closer and bury his nose in her neck to investigate that scent a little more, but he resisted the urge since he had no idea what she was doing here.
He took her coat. “Want something to drink?”
“No, I’m good, thanks.”
“Okay. Have a seat. I picked up the apocalypse of a mess, but it’s not pretty around here.”
She laughed. “And you’ve seen my place, so I never would have noticed.”
“Yeah, but a guy lives here. Trust me, you’d have noticed. Especially the dirty socks smell.”
“Doubtful. I have two brothers, remember?”
“Oh, yeah. You win that round.” He sat on the sofa next to her.
She picked up the controller. “Playing video games?”
“Yeah.”
“I would have thought you’d have been watching game films to figure out why you all played so shitty on the road.”
“I watch plenty of game films with the team. And we played like shit because we were trying too hard. Hockey is a mental game as well as physical. You start getting in your own head too much, it screws with your game play.”
“Do you really think that’s the problem?”
“I know it’s the problem. We have the best team in the league. We can win the division and go to the playoffs with the talent we have. For some reason we hit a slump because everyone started worrying about this road trip and freaking out about the caliber of teams we were going to play. At least we salvaged the last game of the road trip.”
“So you did.”
As much fun as it was to debrief his games, it was time to put an end to this and get to the real reason Jenna was here. “Is that why you came tonight? To analyze my game play?”
She took a deep breath. “Wow. We’re getting into that already, huh?”
“You called this meeting. Might as well.”