Wheeler (Seattle Sharks 8)

“Faith—”

“Just hear me out,” I said, needing to help him. Needing to show my friend some options he had never considered.

He tilted his head, he was a foot taller than me and could easily make me move, but he was content to put up with my antics. That, and I knew he’d never lay a hand on a woman without her consent—yet another reason why Harper and I had begged him to be our third roommate.

“You could always get a coach, work your ass off before open tryouts, and it’s only for the Sharks, so it’s not like you’d get sent somewhere else—”

“I have a coach at U-Dub,” he said, cutting me off.

“Not a goalie coach with professional experience.”

He dropped his bag, sighing as he realized I was in this conversation for the long haul. I would go to any lengths to help my friends, but I’d be lying if I said the conversation was effectively distracting me from the agonizing and unstoppable memories of that fake kiss with Lukas.

The totally not real, unbelievably hot, torturous, delicious, fake kiss.

It’s you or it’s no one.

The words Lukas had said…the claiming order in them…they’d echoed through my head about a dozen times in the last week.

Work had been impossibly difficult—not because of the tasks he required—but because I couldn’t stop thinking about him. Wanting him, despite all my efforts not to. And it wasn’t just the kiss or the things he did to my body or the way he looked in a suit.

It was him—the pieces he offered only to me. Small glimpses of the man behind the persona, and I was slowly starting to realize those brief instances were the ones that tortured me most. Made me want him beyond a night.

“I hate to break this to you,” Sawyer said, drawing me back to the present. “But there aren’t a ton of coaches just hanging around waiting to train a rookie who can’t even leave the state.” He shrugged. “Also, do you know how hard it would be to turn down an offer? Let alone land an offer to be a Shark? I know you work for one, but we don’t all have the luxury of connection.”

My cheeks heated a bit, a light roll of shame snaking through my stomach. I hadn’t told him my affiliation with the Sharks. Not beyond who I worked for.

“What if you had a coach? Someone willing to train you. Now.” I eyed him. “Would you do it?”

He raised his arms before letting them drop. “Vestergaard isn’t a goalie, Faith.”

I laughed, shaking my head. “Look,” I said. “Don’t be mad, okay?”

He eyed me. “What did you do?”

“I may not have told you my entire family history.” It had been a caution at first, simply because he was a hockey player and I didn’t want to tell him that my big brother was a Shark. Because I wanted him to be friends with me first, because of me, not because of who I was related to. And now, knowing who he was, the notion was ridiculous and totally unmerited. “Eric?” I called over my shoulder and moved out of Sawyer’s way.

His eyes bulged as he took in my massive brother, limping slightly with the brace on his knee as he came from where he’d been hiding in my room and down the hallway.

“Gentry,” Sawyer said. “Faith freaking Gentry.” He blinked a few times, his eyes darting from me to Eric and back again. “I’m an idiot. I didn’t for one-second think…”

“Eric,” my brother said, holding out his hand.

Sawyer shook it. “An honor to meet you, sir.”

I snorted at that, and Sawyer gave me a shocked look. “He’s just my brother,” I said. “And I’m your friend. So that makes you two friends.” I glanced up at Eric. “Right?”

Eric nodded. When I’d posed the idea to him, he’d jumped at the chance to do anything other than recover during his offseason. Pepper was more than on board too, knowing it would help Eric to do something productive with his time. Add to it that I’d told him Sawyer was a genuinely good guy—and great hockey player—and it was an even easier sell.

“I’d like to coach you,” Eric said. “If you want. I can make sure you have a shot at open-tryouts, too. If you prove yourself.”

Sawyer looked a little star struck. “I…I have obligations—”

“Faith explained. I understand it and respect it, kid.”

I cringed at his use of the word kid. He hadn’t meant it as an insult, more of an endearing rib to get Sawyer to loosen up but…

Eric and Lukas were the same age.

They were best friends.

If Eric viewed Sawyer as a kid, and me as a kid, then what if Lukas did?

He didn’t kiss me like he thought that.

True.

Ugh, now even helping my friend had turned into something to do with Lukas.

“Take the offer,” I finally said, snapping Sawyer out of his internal debate. “If nothing else, you’ll become a better goalie.”

“It’d be an honor,” Sawyer said, nodding as he shook Eric’s hand one more time.

“Awesome.” Eric dropped his hand. “Cool if you give me a ride?” He eyed Sawyer’s gear bag on the floor.

“You want to watch our pickup game?”

Eric clapped Sawyer on the shoulder. “What better way to figure out where you need help?”

“Okay.” Sawyer grabbed his bag, watching as Eric started the long walk down the hall, toward the stairs that would lead down to the entryway. I’d tried to convince him not to come up to the second level, but he’d insisted he needed the workout. “Faith,” Sawyer said, turning to me. “I can’t…I don’t know how—”

“Stop,” I cut him off. “Seriously. It’s not a big deal.”

“It is a big deal.” He headed past me, stopping to look back. “Thank you,” he said before bounding down the stairs.

For a few brief moments, I basked in the happiness of helping both my friend and giving my brother a productive task so he didn’t lose his mind during recovery.

Then my cell buzzed.

LV: You around?

LV: At the arena gym. Boys and I are dying for some fuel.

Me: Do I look like your errand girl?

I bit down on my lip, hoping the tease in my text would ring clear. Of course, I was his errand girl. As his PA, I did anything and everything to make him happy.

LV: Pretend like you don’t want to see me during a workout. I see how you look at me shirtless.

Heat flooded my entire body.

LV: Please? I’m dying of thirst.

I laughed.

Me: Can I bring a friend?

LV: Depends.

Me: On?

LV: Girl or guy?

I rolled my eyes.

Me: Girl

.

LV: In that case, I’m always open to company.

It’s you or it’s no one.

His words clanged through me once again, and I bit down on the smirk that shaped my lips.

Me: Not sure you could handle us both.

LV: Is that a challenge?

My toes curled in my shoes, and I sucked in a sharp breath.

Me: Don’t get too excited.

Me: Be there in ten. Wouldn’t want my boss to faint from dehydration. What would the media say?

I didn’t wait for him to respond as I pocketed my cell and headed down the stairs.

Harper glanced up from the Advanced Organic Chemistry book she’d been reading on the couch—books like that she chose to read for fun. “So, Sawyer just skipped out of here like a kid on Christmas with your brother.”

I grinned. “I hope it works out for him.”

“Me too,” she said, eyeing me. “You headed to work?”

“Yeah,” I said, motioning toward the door. “Want to come?”

She furrowed her brow. “You’re not washing his car or something, are you?”

“No.” I snorted. “They’re all at the arena gym. Gatorade run.”

She bolted off the couch. “I’ve always wanted to see inside their facilities. Athletic equipment and the current standard issue protection developments within that field are kind of a side-obsession of mine.”

I nodded, as I often did when Harper explained her reasons for agreeing to any given situation. The woman was a freaking genius, an amazing friend, and I knew that insane brain of hers would change the world someday—but for now, I just wanted her there to ensure I didn’t drop to my knees in front of Lukas the second I saw him.

One grocery store stop and two six-packs of chilled blue Gatorade—Lukas’s preferred flavor—later, Harper helped me lug the drinks into the Sharks’ gym.

“This facility is twice as large as I expected,” Harper whispered as we stopped just inside the massive gym. I almost made a joke about the men being just as huge, but innuendos were often lost on my uber-smart, awkward friend. I knew she appreciated an attractive man as much as the next red-blooded woman, but she was focused on her studies, on landing another doctorate and gaining a lab of her own someday. She didn’t have time to be distracted by all the...Sharks.