He shoots me a grin. “You said hockey and they are good. Of course, I’m gonna ask.”

I roll my eyes as I lean into him. I really don’t want to talk about my brothers, but I should have known he’d ask. My heart speeds up in my chest and I’m unsure if it’s because we are talking about my family, or if it’s because I’m about to go on another date with this guy.

“Avery?”

“Oh, sorry. Yeah, they are good. We were all in skates the moment we could walk.”

“So you play?”

“God, no. I suck and can’t skate very well.”

He smiles. “I’ll teach you.”

“I’m good.”

When we turn the corner, I should have known his special place was the ice rink.

It is a short walk to the rink, and as soon as we walk in, I look over at him. “I should have known.”

“Yeah,” he agrees, taking my hand and leading me through the lobby.

“We aren’t skating, are we?”

He shakes his head as he goes through the doors that lead into the actual rink. “No.”

Thank God.

I may come from a very hockey-driven family, but this girl does not skate. I like my feet on the ground, thank you very much. Following behind him around the rink, I notice someone is on the ice, shooting a bucket of pucks, but I’m too taken with all the banners hanging from the rafters. Bellevue is new in the hockey world, but it’s hard not to know they are a force to be reckoned with. The guys who come out of this school go into the NHL. I had even told Matty that, but he was hell-bent on going to Boston.

As I look around at each banner, I see one with his name in the middle of it. Above it, it reads Leading Scorer along with the number of goals he scored and last year’s date.

“So you’re badass?” I say, cocking my head to the banner.

He grins back at me at me proudly. “Um, yeah. The best. Didn’t I tell you that?”

“A few times.”

He laughs. “I got hurt last year and still had the most goals of the team. I’m a sniper.”

I raise a brow, hiding how impressed I am by the fact he scored sixty-two goals, as it says on the banner. I may not like the sport, but I know it inside and out. I’ve never met anyone who has scored that many goals in a season. “Is that right?”

“You know it, baby.”

“Dork,” I say, leaning into him. “Is that why you didn’t go into the draft?”

He nods. “Yeah, broke my clavicle from a hit I took trying to protect that woman right there,” he says, pointing before pulling open the rink door. “Hey, Moore! You playing by yourself ’cause that’s the only way you can score?”

I’m completely confused until the person on the ice pulls off their helmet and a bunch of blondish brown hair falls to her shoulders. Shocked, I watch as the gorgeous girl with bright red lips glares over at Jace.

“Dude, please. I can skate circles around you, and I have.”

He holds a finger up, pointing to his banner. “Um, see my banner? It’s new,” he adds with a boyish grin.

“Did your mommy sew it for you?”

He glares. “Don’t talk about my momma.”

“What, you gonna tell her? Be a crybaby?” she calls at him as she skates over.

“Shut it,” he yells at her as they hug. “What are you doing?”

“Baking a cake, dumbass,” she yells and I giggle as he waves her off.

“No, jerk. I mean, like, why are you here? Where’s your husband?”

“I’m mad at him, and I am mad at my dad. So I came to blow off steam. What are you doing?” she asks and then her gaze falls on me. Her brow rises. “Don’t deface our rink, Jace. It’s tacky.”

When he punches her shoulder and she smacks him back, I have no clue what’s going on. Are they friends? Enemies? Looking back at me, Jace says, “This hostile brat is my sister-in-law, Baylor. She’s married to my brother Jayden. Hostile brat, this is my friend, Avery.”

She smiles. “Hey, don’t take offense to my comment. I just like messing with him.”

“It’s fine,” I say, waving her off. “But I’m confused. I thought you called her Moore?”

“Yeah, she’s dumb and didn’t take our name,” he accuses and she laughs.

“Um, no, it’s Moore-Sinclair, hyphenated, and we did that so there is no confusion on the ice.”

Then it clicks. “Baylor Moore, first woman in the NHL.”

She grins. “In the flesh. So you know hockey?”

“Just a bit,” I say with a grin and I kind of feel honored to meet her. It was a huge deal when she was drafted last year. My whole family was there since Laurence was in the draft. Come to think of it, I remember seeing Jayden go first.

Small world.

“Cool. About time you got with someone who isn’t a ho.”

“Are you talking about your best friend?”

Baylor laughs as she nods. “Ha! I’m so telling her you said that.”

“You’re the one who said it,” he challenges as he laughs. “But whatever. Okay, I’ll let you get back to being a hostile brat.” Jace laces his fingers with mine. “We have a special place to go.”

Her lips quirk at the side. “The special place?”

“Well, yeah. It’s a Sinclair honey hole.”

She rolls her eyes. “You guys are losers. It was nice meeting you, Avery. Love you, Jace.”

“You too,” I say as he starts to pull me away.

“Love you,” he calls as he slams the door shut and then waves. Taking my hand, he heads toward some stairs and then we are climbing. He’s taking them two at a time, and I struggle to keep up. “She’s a pain in my ass.”

“She’s nice.”

“Ha. Nice is not in Baylor’s vocab, but she’s mine, so we deal.”

He’s full of it and I know it, but I don’t comment as we climb. Finally, he pauses in front of a door and turns to me. “Hold on.”

“What?” I ask, shivering from the bitterness of the air.

He grins. “Give me two seconds.”

Before I can protest, he turns and heads inside the room, shutting the door behind him. Turning, I look out at the rink as Baylor skates around and plays with the puck. I can still remember how my brothers threw a fit she was drafted before Laurence. While she went straight into the NHL, Laurence didn’t get drafted and decided to finish school because of it. The guys in my family don’t do rejection well, but Laurence was never as good as Seth or Matty. But he plans to finish college and then go back to the farm team. If they’ll take him. But knowing my dad, they will.