He turns, heading back into his office. Opening the shower door, I say, “Princess Baylor, can you hurry up? Coach wants me.”

“No one is telling you to stand there,” she calls back.

She makes it very difficult to be nice.

Swallowing my retort, I say, “Hurry up.” I then slam the door shut to show her I mean business and say to Jace, “Can you watch this door?”

He nods. “Yeah, no problem.”

Looking over at McCarthy, I say, “You step near this door, I’ll murder you with my bare hands.”

He scoffs in his defiant little bitch way and says, “Yeah, sure.”

Glaring, I head back to Coach’s office, and as I enter, I look back to see Baylor coming out of the bathroom. She looks at me and glares, which is nothing new, but at least she is done. I push the door open and meet the same pair of eyes; while the others annoyed me, these kind of set me on edge.

“Have a seat,” Coach says, and I do as he asks. He glances up at me and asks, “Why are you still in your gear?”

“I was too tired to take it off.”

He smiles. “She’ll run you into the ground.”

In more ways than one, I think, but I say, “I’m noticing that.”

He grins. “She’s actually the reason I brought you in here.”

When he says that, my stomach does a weird twisting thing and I’m holding my breath. I fully expect him to tell me that our fighting needs to stop, that I’m being a dick to her or something, but instead he asks, “Are you attracted to my daughter?”

Confused, I sputter, “What?”

His grin grows. “Are you attracted to Baylor?”

Do I lie? Or do I tell the truth?

Swallowing around the lump in my throat, I say, “When she is not screaming at me or trying to take the captain spot I want, yeah. I mean, she isn’t an ugly girl. She’s very pretty.”

He nods, looking down at his desk as he fights back a grin. “You two can’t seem to get along.”

You have no idea.

“Yeah, I agree.”

“I need you to.”

I nod. “I’m trying.”

“Try harder. She’s stubborn as shit, but I know together you guys can be lethal.”

Again, he has no clue how true his words are.

“I will try harder.”

“Good, I’m gonna talk to her too. But I wanted to say I appreciate that you’ve been looking after her, even though she is treating you like dirt, and I wanted to ask that you continue to do that.”

Licking my lips, I nod. “That’s not a problem.”

“Good, as you know, I’m not happy about her having to move in or sharing a locker room with you boys.”

“I don’t blame you.”

He nods. “I know a lot of people in the league, Jayden. You look out for my girl, I can make sure to throw some good words around for you.”

“And Jace?” I ask, because while it’s great he is gonna do that for me, he needs to do it for Jace too. “I mean, she isn’t easy to handle.”

He laughs as he nods. “I like you. I have from the beginning, and that right there tells me you don’t fuck around. You look out for yours.”

“I do.”

A grin crosses his lips as he nods, stroking his chin. “Good, and yeah, I can throw in some good words for Jace. You both don’t need ’em; your playing speaks for itself.”

Wow, that’s awesome to hear from him. I match his grin as I nod. “Thank you.”

Leaning back in his chair, he points at me with his pencil. “I have to admit, Sinclair, I’m surprised you didn’t throw in the captain spot in exchange for keeping an eye out.”

I shake my head. It hadn’t crossed my mind. “I want to earn that.”

If one thing is for sure, I work for what’s mine. In all aspects of my life. And while I want to earn my captain spot, I also want to earn Baylor’s trust and maybe even more.

If she’d let me.

My phone has been ringing off the hook since Monday. I finally couldn’t take it anymore and shut it off yesterday. It isn’t like anyone is calling me but Delanie anyway. Call me a coward, but I can’t bring myself to talk to her. How do I tell her that I’m fine, that I don’t even realize he is on the ice with me, or even that he doesn’t affect me at all? She’d know in two seconds that I am a big fat liar, and I can’t have anyone else point that out.

Because he’s taking over my life. He’s everywhere and I can’t shake him. It’s driving me insane, and I’ve turned into more of a bitch than usual. Yesterday, I snapped at my dad for forgetting to buy mustard. Mustard! I’ve officially lost it.

Over a damn boy!

Man.

Douche.

Yes, we will go with douche.

No! Spawn of Satan.

Ha-ha.

Or, I can call him what he really is. Which is sinfully gorgeous with a side of supercrazy talented, and boy, is he a leader. Those guys look up to him something insane. I mean, I honestly don’t understand how he is not in the NHL, kicking ass and taking names. It’s where he needs to be.

Not that I’d utter that to anyone.

Ever.

Deciding though, that I can’t ignore her any longer, I hit answer.

“You bitch! Why are you ignoring my calls and texts?”

Rolling my eyes, I say, “I’ve been—”

“No, don’t want to hear it. I’ve decided that either, A—you’ve been having wild monkey sex with him and forgot to bring your phone, or B—you’ve completely turned into a hermit and only come out of your shell when it’s time to play because you’re too big of a pansy to tell him you want to play with his hockey stick, and you know which one I mean.”

Yes. I know. And now I’m thinking about it again.

This is why I ignored her calls.

“Neither actually,” I answer. “I’m playing and doing me, with the occasional screaming match with our friend from the beach.”

“Oooh! What happened? Hold on, Mandie wants to hear.”

“Hi, Mandie,” I deadpan and she laughs.

“Hey, Baylor, so tell us everything.”

“Nosy bitches,” I mutter and they laugh, which in return makes me grin. I miss them and maybe talking about everything will help? It isn’t like I have anyone to talk to. I’m alone, and I have a lot to unload on the subject of Jayden Sinclair. Leaning back against my comfy chair, I explain what happened when we first saw each other. The way he looked at me and how I looked at him. As I explain everything, though, I never express how I felt. How my heart did a stupid fluttering thing, or how I couldn’t breathe when he got so close to me. I only give them the basics.