Offside (The Barker Triplets 1)

Again Mr. Talbot nodded, though his eyes narrowed slightly. “It’s competitive, but no contact.”

A tingle of excitement rifled through her as she fingered the orange flyer. “Who’s looking after sign up?”

“Why?” Seth butted in. “It’s not like you can play.”

She ignored Longwood. “Is there an age restriction?”

Mr. Talbot glanced behind her and cleared his throat. He pushed his glasses up his nose once more and nodded. “Twenty-five to forty-five, I believe.”

Seth moved closer to her again and she was beginning to think she’d need to have a conversation with him about personal space and parameters. The guy was as dense as a two-by-four.

“You can’t play Barker.” His tone changed and his eyes hardened. “That concussion make you stupid?”

Billie turned around. “And you think this because…”

“It’s [i]men’s[i] hockey, little girl. And unless you’ve grown a set of balls I’d say that pretty much settles things.” His grin widened and he glanced toward the still silent Logan. “That is unless something else happened to you over there in Switzerland. Sex change maybe?”

“Sweden.” She said carefully, mind whirling at the possibility.

“What?” Seth growled.

“She played for the Northern Hammers in Sweden,” Logan interjected.

“Whatever.” Seth grabbed the flyer from her fingers and eyed her up with a glare that was meant to intimidate. He puffed up his chest for good measure, which only emphasized the fact that he’d gained a little around the waist, and shoved the flyer in front of her face. “This here is men’s hockey.”

“It doesn’t specify.”

His eyes widened. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Billie leaned back against the counter, enjoying herself. “The flyer and the rules don’t specify gender.”

Seth glanced toward Logan and frowned. “What the hell’s she talking about?”

Logan grabbed a flyer off the counter and took a look. He shrugged. “She’s right.”

Seth glared at her. ?

??Doesn’t matter. You can’t seriously expect to play in our league.” He shook his head. “No way.”

Mr. Talbot cleared his throat and leaned forward. “Now Seth, there’s no reason to get all bothered under the collar. Billie-Jo’s just pulling your leg.”

Billie glanced from Talbot, to Seth and then her gaze settled on Logan. His expression was unreadable and for whatever reason, suddenly it mattered to her what he thought. Without thinking she opened her mouth, anger pushing aside the nervousness from earlier.

“What do you think, Forest?”

Logan took a moment, as if deciding on the right words and she found her gaze focusing on his mouth. His delectable, full mouth.

For a moment things went wonky inside her head, and sure it might have been a side-effect from her concussion, but all sound disappeared like water seeping down the drain. Her skin was still hot, but it burned hotter and sweat broke out on her forehead.

His mouth was moving. Words fell from between his lips, except she had no clue what he was saying. An image of his mouth gliding across her neck, heading south…maybe heading way south filled her vision and she swallowed thickly, shaking her head slightly in an effort to clear what was one hell of a picture.

And then everything snapped back into focus and she realized all three men were staring at her.

“Uh,” she glanced away from Logan. “I didn’t quite catch that.”

What the hell did he have in his eyes? Superpowers or something? Clark Kent shenanigans that made her nothing but a stupid mess of quivering girlie parts?

“Are you all right?” Logan took a step toward her but she held up her hand.