Overtime Read online

  Where was she anyway?

  “Good, come on then, boys,” Shea said, smacking his hands together. “Let’s get in there. Oh, but first! Let’s welcome the rookies,” he added, and everyone turned to see where nine guys and a girl stood.

  Whoa, wait, a girl?

  Shea rambled off names, not that Jordie was listening until he got to her. Baylor Moore. The girl Elli drafted this past summer. Usually, they sent the newbies down to the farm team, so that said something about Baylor. That Elli believed she could hang with the big boys. Jordie was actually excited to see this go down. A lot of the guys looked at her sideways, but that didn’t keep Baylor from standing proudly under all the scrutinizing gazes. At that moment, Jordie decided he liked her.

  “Everyone ready?” he heard Kacey call, but he couldn’t see her through the sea of big hockey players. Even the chick was tall and strong.

  “Okay, let’s get in the training room. Kacey has some torture to inflict,” Shea called, and everyone nervously chuckled as they started for the training room while Kacey laughed.

  “Only enough to make you puke,” she said as everyone gathered around her, and she was all smiles. Well, that was, until she looked at him. Her eyes held something between disgust and hatred and maybe a little desire, but he didn’t care. He drank her in with no reservations at all. Karson was used to him checking out his sister; he may not like it, but Jordie did it anyway. She was wearing those naughty shorts and, man, they did something to Jordie’s equilibrium.

  When she bent over to demonstrate a station of dead lifts, he took notice that she was lifting over a hundred pounds…and then the fact that she really did have a great ass. Watching her, he let out a long breath, trying to rein back in his desire, but then noticed that a lot of the guys were staring at her the way he did. Soon his chest was puffed out and his scowl was deep as he glared at each of the single guys. A few of them noticed and quickly looked away, but one, Liam Kelly, who Jordie was sure was gay, was staring extra hard.

  What the fuck?

  He decided he needed to have a talk with Kelly, put him in his place, but soon Kacey was releasing them, breaking them up in pairs for each workout. He was put on the dead-lift station with Shea, and like the boss that Shea was, he added some weight to the bar and dead-lifted with ease. When it was Jordie’s turn, he went to the bar, scooped it up and then shrugged.

  He could do this.

  But when he went to lift it, it wasn’t budging.

  Or maybe not.

  He blamed this on the fact that he’d just started lifting again two weeks ago. Before that, he was doing laundry and cooking and trying to stay sober. He ran a lot, but there had been no lifting going on.

  “It’s fine, Thomas, take some off,” Shea said, helping him remove the weights, but then Kacey stopped by the two of them.

  “What are you doing? That’s only two hundred and five. You can lift that with one hand,” she snapped and Jordie looked up at her.

  “Not anymore, took some time off,” he said offhandedly, dropping it down to the weight she lifted.

  “Are you kidding me? That’s pathetic,” she sneered and Shea glared over at her.

  “Hey now, no need for that,” he said, but Jordie stopped him.

  “Maybe so,” he agreed, because it was pathetic. It should have never happened, but he hadn’t been strong enough to say no to the bottle. Not that he was going share that with Kacey in a room full of his team.

  She took a step toward him, her brown eyes burning into his as her mouth dripped with venom. “No ‘maybe so’ about it. Maybe if you weren’t fucking everything with tits and drinking yourself stupid, you’d be ready for this season. I hope you’re ready to work, because my job is to get you ready, and I don’t fail at anything I put my mind to. Oh, well, except you. I failed at you, huh?” she said in a low whisper and Jordie just held her gaze. He could feel Shea bursting at the seams, but there was no way he was breaking their intense stare-down.

  “I am ready,” he said calmly, even though his heart was jackhammering against his chest. “And you didn’t fail me, Kacey. It’s the other way around.”

  Her eyes narrowed and she shook her head. “Whatever.”

  She walked away but then paused, looking back at him. “I know you can do one-fifty. Do that at least.”

  He nodded. “10-4, boss.”

  She gave him a snide look and walked away, shaking her head, and he was pretty sure she was two seconds from blowing her top. Shea stole his attention though when he asked, “What the hell is her problem?”

  Jordie looked over and scoffed. “I fucked that girl over. I deserve everything she throws at me.”

  “Are you sure? I can get her fired. I’m sleeping with the boss, and she loves you probably as much as she loves the kids,” he reminded him and Jordie smiled.

  “I know, and yeah, I’m sure,” he decided, bending down to get the bar. He didn’t think he could do it at first. But to his surprise, he was able to pull it up and hold it before lowering it down and then back up for the recommended ten reps. As the weights hit the ground, he looked over at Shea. “I’m gonna win her back, and if I get her fired, that might throw a wrench in my plans,” he said with a wink, but Shea didn’t smile. He made a face, crossing his arms. “What? What’s that face?”

  He looked around and then glanced back at Jordie. “You know she’s dating Kelly, right?”

  Jordie moved closer because surely he had heard his captain wrong. “Excuse me?”

  “Yeah, they’ve been dating for a while now,” he added and the world closed in.

  No. Fucking. Way.

  Jordie’s heart jumped in his throat as he gasped, “Gay Liam Kelly?”

  Shea scoffed. “Obviously he isn’t gay since he’s screwing her.”

  Jordie felt as if he had been hit as he whipped his head to where she was standing with Kelly. He watched as Kelly reached out, smacking her butt playfully, and everything went red. Pulling in a deep breath through his nose, Jordie’s shoulders went back and his chest puffed out as he turned to find Karson. Surely, Karson wouldn’t allow this to happen!

  When he found Karson, he walked toward him, but Jordie’s eyes never left them as they flirted back and forth. It was way more one-sided on Kelly’s part, but Kacey was flirting too. He also didn’t miss the way she kept looking back, probably hoping that he was watching. It was such a chick move, but he couldn’t blame her. If she had done to whim what he had to her, then he would be pulling all the moves to show her he had moved on. But he knew damn well it wasn’t going to work.

  Kelly was a damn pussy.

  Kacey needed a man who had some rough edges. Someone who could make her laugh and feel beautiful. And also fuck her like a dream. That dude. No. Seeing them together actually made Jordie want to puke. They just didn’t go. He was too light, she was too dark, plus she could probably lift him over her head while eating a can of spinach. Liam Kelly was not the man for his girl.

  For the simple reason she was his girl.

  Obviously.

  Karson glanced up at him from where he was bench-pressing and gave him a look. “What?”

  “You’re allowing your sister to date Kelly?” he snapped, and really, it was surprising. Karson didn’t let anyone date his sister without throwing a fit, and since Jordie hadn’t heard anything until now about Kacey being with that pussy, he knew that Karson was cool with it.

  Karson scoffed. “She’s a grown-ass woman—”

  “Nope, try again,” he said, knowing good and well that that was a lie. Karson was the extremely scary, overprotective big brother. God help Mena Jane when she wanted to start dating. Jordie and Karson would constantly be cleaning guns.

  Laughing, Karson shrugged. “He’s a good guy. He would be good for her.”

  “Um, no. He’s a fucking pussy,” he snapped, and Karson laughed along with Lucas.

  “Yeah, he is,” Lucas agreed and Jordie pointed at him.

  “See!”

  “