Playing the Game (The Renegades) (Volume 3) (9 page)

“
I think you just did.” Putting
down her fork, she wiped her mouth and took a long drink of pop. “I
don’t know why I’m telling you any of this, but here goes. I had a
brother, Scott. He was awesome, two years older than me and I
looked up to him. He was good looking and very smart. My best
friend Rylee fell for him and they dated. They planned to get
married, and everything was perfect, except it wasn’t.”

Tyler watched her intensely, still not moving, hoping
she would continue.

“
Scott was sick. Rylee and I were
closest to him, so we saw both sides. My parents saw everything
through rose-colored glasses, and their perfect son couldn’t be a
drug addict. But he was. Long story short, he OD’d on heroin. I
found him.” She sighed hard, blinked and he could only assume she
was holding back tears. “And that is why I am the way I am. I care
too much because outside of my family, no one saw the good kid that
he was, the smart honor student who could go to any college he
wanted. No one saw the polite young man he was turning into, or the
wonderful big brother that he was. Everyone we knew and everyone
who didn’t know us only saw him as a strung-out junkie. They don’t
think you hear them, but you do, the awful comments.
Low-life
druggie. Loser. Druggies deserve to die
… Yeah, someone actually
said that. No one knew him; they only saw his problem, and he was
so much more than that.”

Paige took another long drink of pop and he was
afraid he had asked too much from her.

“
I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset
you.”

A small smile pulled at the side of her mouth. “You
didn’t. I like thinking about him, he was the best big brother, and
I miss him dearly. But he’ll always be in my heart.”

Something shifted inside his chest. “You’re a good
sister.”

Sniffling a bit, she picked at some lettuce with her
fork. “Yeah. Rylee lost him too, but we helped each other heal. In
every way that matters she is my sister. Gram and Pap helped us
stay on the right path, even when it wasn’t so easy, but we made it
together. Now Pap is gone and we girls are there for Gram.”

Wow, that was a lot more than he expected. “So you
still live with Rylee?”

She nodded. “And Gram. I help take care of her. I
mean, she takes care of herself just fine, but she’s getting older,
and we like doing things for her after all the years she spent
taking care of us.”

This girl… He couldn’t find the words to describe
her. He must’ve been staring at her too intently, because her
cheeks reddened.

She blinked and touched her cheek. “What?”

“
Nothing, just admiring your eyes,
that’s all.” To avoid any further questioning he shoved about half
of his sandwich into his mouth.

“
Geez, ever hear of taking a bite?
You don’t have to eat the whole thing in one mouthful.” She
grimaced, but her eyes were bright so he wasn’t worried.

He wanted to laugh, and maybe smile, but he literally
had too much in his mouth to do either. He really did over-do it.
Idiot.

When he finally swallowed all his food, he decided to
keep pushing. She interested him and he needed to know more. “Since
you’re letting me be curious, I’m going to test my luck. Do you
have a boyfriend?”

“
Ha! When would I have the
time?”

“
So there’s no one special in your
life?” He was laying it on thick and he hoped she caught his bit of
humor.

“
No. There hasn’t been anyone in a
long time, and I don’t think there’s ever been anyone special.” As
soon as the words left her mouth, she looked like she wished she
could take them back and she stuffed some remaining lettuce into
her mouth.

“
Okay, how can I not ask about
that?” He chuckled. “No one special? Ever? I mean, hell, my track
record doesn’t leave me much room to talk, but you’re beautiful.
I’m just…”

“
Shut up, you know you’re
handsome.” She bit her lip as though she’d revealed too much, but
he loved it. Suddenly the day seemed brighter.

“
Oh, so you think I’m handsome?” He
winked at her, shamelessly flirting.

“
Shut up.” She laughed.

“
Back to you. I’m sure you’ve heard
about my crashing and burning at love, or what I thought was love.
But I want to know about you. Ever break any hearts? You look like
you could be a heart breaker.”

“
No, no, never broke any hearts.”
She shook her head. “You don’t give up do you?” Her eyes lost some
of their sparkle. “Honestly, after Scott died I was too busy trying
to keep myself together. I went through hell and wasn’t sure I was
going to make it out. I put a lot of focus on me to get through
that. Then when I was in college I dated a little, but nothing
serious.” She shrugged.

“
Well, I’m sure you know all about
my ‘serious’ relationship. Guess if you’re gonna go down, it’s
better to go down in flames? Eh?”

“
No, not really.” Paige laughed,
almost choking on her pop. “Self-destruction never fixes anything,
trust me.”

“
Trust you? Don’t tell me you’ve
been there too?” He finished off the last bit of
sandwich.

“
All you need to know is I had
trouble finding my way after Scott died. I almost ended up like
him, but Gram and Pap pulled me back. I owe them so much. You have
no idea.”

He really didn’t have any idea, and even though he
wanted to know every detail, he wasn’t going to push her any
further. She’d told him more than he ever imagined she would.
Whether she meant to, or it just sort of happened, he was grateful.
He’d learned a lot about her with what she said.
I didn’t know
they made girls like this anymore
.

Paige wiped her mouth with her napkin before putting
it on her dish. “Well, since you so conveniently avoided talking
about the interview that you agreed to, I will work something up
and email you all the info. I really do think it would help you
with how things have been going, but I’ll talk to Melanie and see
what she thinks.”

“
Paige, go out with me.” The sudden
words surprised him as much as they must’ve surprised
her.

CHAPTER 9

Tyler looked down the ice. Vancouver’s goalie was a
beast, tall and wide, and he filled the net completely. There had
to be somewhere he was vulnerable, maybe the five-hole? He seemed
to glove every shot that went up by his shoulders.

Tyler took shot after shot, but the goalie stopped
every single one. He had to give the guy credit; he had talent.
Rushing the net, Tyler was pulled backwards and he lost control of
the puck just as he closed in on the goal area. His feet went out
from under him and he crashed to the ice, landing partially on
Vancouver’s goalie, and ending up sandwiched between two blue
jerseys.

The whistle blew. Good, that is definitely an
interference call.

“
Get the fuck off of me, dude,”
Tyler called to the Vancouver player who was lying on top of
him.

“
Gladly.” He grinned a toothless
grin. “Have fun in the penalty box.”

“
Goaltender interference. Two
minutes, Tyler Kidd,” the ref announced.

“
What the fuck?” Tyler yelled as he
got to his feet. “Ref! Didn’t you see he hauled me down? He forced
me into their goalie. I had no way to avoid it with him pushing
me.”

“
Don’t want to hear it.” The ref
skated away, but Tyler followed.

“
There was no way you didn’t see
him push me into his own goalie! I was on a breakaway, and
he—”

“
Shut it, Kidd. Another word and
you’re gone. I’m sick of listening to you.”

Tyler sighed. It was a bad call, but the team didn’t
need him to get thrown out again. Looking up at the fans, his
attention went to one person in particular: Ben. He was standing in
the owner’s suite with his arms crossed. He shut his mouth and
skated to the penalty box.

Coach Walker waved his hand, calling the referee to
the Renegades bench. “Rob, you know damn well Kidd was pulled down
and forced into their goalie. Why the hell didn’t we get the call
on that?”

“
Brian, I don’t need shit from you,
too. Kidd fell into the goalie,” the ref retorted.

“
You can’t tell me that you didn’t
see that? Rob, I know you’re not blind!”

“
My call stands, Brian. End of
story.” The ref abruptly skated away.

It was nice to see Coach go to bat for him; at least
he knew he wasn’t wrong. But it didn’t change the outcome of his
penalty, and it didn’t help the Renegades game any. They still lost
in overtime 2–1.

****

“Bartender! Corona, and keep them coming,” Tyler
called to the barkeep.
What a night
. He couldn’t buy himself
a penalty tonight, yet he got called for every little thing he did
or didn’t do. Grabbing the cold bottle, he poured the refreshing
liquid down his throat. The alcohol began to run through his veins.
Craving to feel numb, he wanted to replace the pain with
nothingness.

Slamming the empty bottle on the bar, he was greeted
with a fresh one. “Thanks.” He nodded.

A few beers later, his vision was finally starting to
blur. The problem was, once he started to forget what happened in
the game, his mind starting throwing images of Paige at him.
Mentally he kicked himself for having put himself out there. Had he
really mistaken her signals? He’d taken her comment that he was
handsome to mean she was attracted to him, too. Then like an idiot
he’d asked her out.

Of course she’d looked shocked. Then she’d stuttered
about professionalism, Melanie’s rules about players not dating
other employees, and she’d made it abundantly clear she wasn’t
interested. He’d accepted her polite refusal with good grace, and
that should’ve been the end of it. So why was he suddenly obsessing
over her? Was it simply because he knew she was out of his league?
Or because he didn’t buy the ‘not interested’ story?

Looking down the bar, he could see several women
who’d probably be interested. Ones that he actually had a chance
with. Mmm, plenty of blondes. And lately he seemed to have a thing
for blondes. Or at least, one particular blonde. There he went
again, thinking about Paige. It had to stop. “Hey bartender, the
next round for all these beauties is on me.”

“
Ladies,” he called, way too loud.
“Beer’s on me. Any of you need some company tonight?”

Three of the blondes swarmed to his side, attaching
their bodies to his. “Hello, Tyler Kidd,” they said in unison.

“
Triplets, my favorite,” he
mumbled.

“
Heather!” The one called to a
brunette. “Come join us!”

The brunette approached Tyler in a tight mini skirt
and crop top, her hair flowing around her shoulders. His muscles
froze as she took the bottle out of his hand and took a long,
leisurely drink, then unhurriedly ran her tongue over her lips. It
might’ve been sexy if he’d been into her, but she kind of reminded
him of Gia. Before he could say anything, she had her arm around
his shoulder and her tits pressed against his arm.

“
What the fuck is going on?” A male
voice interrupted.

The voice belonged to a very large, growling, tanned
guy. If he were a cartoon, there would be foam forming at the sides
of his mouth. He didn’t look like he was waiting for an autograph
either. His mind filled with thoughts of what Paige said, well,
what she wrote for Coach to say, that he needed to start taking
responsibility for his actions. Getting into a fight with this guy
would be doing the opposite of that.

“
Can I help you?” Tyler lazily took
a pull of his beer and looked away, doing his best to seem
uninterested. If he ignored the meathead’s pathetic attempts to
frighten him, maybe he’d go away. It took more than all that
synthetic muscle to scare Ty.

“
You can take your hands off of my
girl.” The large man pulled the brunette to his side.

What? Had he not seen her come on to him?

The triplets giggled and continued to pet Tyler’s
hair and run their hands up and down his arms and chest. The
brunette still stood in front of him, smiling.
Was this a game
to her? Maybe it was amusing for her to lead some innocent guy on
just to see the hulk beat up on them.

Refusing to back down, Tyler rolled his eyes and put
his hand out to the brunette. “What’s your game, sweetheart? You
get off on guys fighting over you?”

“
What did you say to my girl,
little boy?” Muscle-man pushed up his sleeves and puffed out his
chest, moving closer to Tyler until they were almost nose to
nose.

“
He said nothing.”

Paige. What was she doing here?

She moved in front of the big guy, interrupting the
guy’s attempt to scare him. “Now please back off before we call
security and have you removed.” She nodded to Marco at the
‘security’ comment. Even though she looked pissed, he’d never seen
a mad girl look so sexy.

The triplet’s eyes looked Paige up and down. The
brunette huffed; maybe he was right and she did want to see them
fight? What a bitch.

“
I said back off. I’m with the
Renegades, and I’ll have you thrown out of here for disorderly
conduct. Now kindly leave or security will remove you.” She flashed
Tyler an annoyed look before continuing. “You three, take a hike.
Tyler is leaving. I’m sure he’ll catch you some other
night.”

“
You heard the lady, tough guy. You
going to make this easy, or do I need to call security?” Marco said
from behind the bar.