Alex

I immediately grab my purse and nod a smile at her. She leads me to the next section, a few rows higher and away from the fans. We sit down side by side and she turns to offer me her hand. “I’m Kelly Malone. My husband Mike is on the second line—left winger.”

After exchanging a firm handshake, I tell her, “I’m Sutton Price.”

“I know,” Kelly says with a grin. “Alex told Mike you’d be here and he told me. I think he was worried Cassie might pull some shit if she showed up, so he asked me to just keep an eye on you.”

My gaze slips out onto the ice and I see Alex running some drills with the team. He and a teammate fly down the ice, passing the puck back and forth, bearing down on the goalie. Alex pulls back on his stick to take a shot, and just as the goalie commits to him, he gives a quick snap of his wrist to pass it to his teammate, who easily puts it in the net.

“So, what was that all about?” I ask Kelly, even though I keep my eyes on the action. Alex said he’d quiz me and I’m not quite sure what that means, but I can’t stand to do poorly on tests.

“Oh, that’s just Cassie. She and Alex had a thing but he broke it off with her, apparently. Her sister, Allie, is married to Kyle Steppernech, one of our defensemen. Allie usually drags her to everything so she always seems to be hanging around. Can’t stand the bitch, actually.”

“I’m not sure she got the message Alex broke it off with her,” I murmur, watching him stand next to a teammate, while they wait for their turn at the next drill.

“She’s not the brightest bulb in the pack,” Kelly says dryly, then lowers her voice and leans her head in toward mine. “But, man that was fun watching Alex go all caveman over you.”

“What?”

“The way he skated up and glared at Cassie, pointing at her to get away from you. Made my heart go pitter-patter.”

I stare at Kelly dumbfounded, because surely she has that wrong. She sees the look on my face and offers a commiserating smile.

“So, here’s the deal about Alex,” she says in a low voice. “No one on the team really knows him that well. He’s a loner, doesn’t really interact personally with the guys. So, Mike was like blown away when Alex asked him to have me keep an eye on you. It’s just not like Alex to ask anyone for help.”

My mind starts racing as I consider what all of this means. Probably nothing. I mean, Alex is just being courteous because he has some loony of an ex-girlfriend who might have shown up and could have caused trouble for anyone. But it could mean something, since apparently Alex stepped outside of his comfort zone and approached another player for something personal.

So maybe Alex is making some changes. He’s reaching out…he’s finding some joy in his sport. This all coincides with me, right? Or is that my ego talking?

And why am I even giving this any thought? I’ll be meeting with Alex in a few hours to discuss our outreach program and I’ve hardly thought at all about it. I’m such a schmuck, I realize with a wave of guilt and shame that I might actually be more interested in my personal feelings for Alex than in helping at-risk kids.

Even though I’m swimming in contrition at the moment because of my inappropriate thoughts, I literally can’t stop myself from asking, “What’s the deal with that woman…Cassie? She seems serious about Alex.”

Kelly snorts so loud, some of the fans down in the bottom row turn to look at us. She slaps her hand over her mouth and looks at me with round, humor-filled eyes.

When she removes her hand, she leans over, chuckling. “Puh-leeze. That woman is out for nothing more than to score a hockey husband. Her sister got one, and she wants one too. I’m sure she’s serious about Alex only to that extent, but I can tell you—Alex was never serious about her.”

“How do you know…I mean…if he’s not all that much of a sharer?”

“Because he always blows her off at the various functions. She tries to latch on to him, but you can tell he wants nothing to do with her.”

Interesting. Here I was assuming that they had been intimate, but seems to me maybe this woman is more like a stalker than anything. This makes me feel immensely better, and I can feel my shoulders relax.

“But I do think they slept together,” Kelly continues in a lower whisper. “At least, that’s what Allie says, and she runs her mouth all the time. I think they’re like ‘friends with benefits,’ except they aren’t friends. They just have ‘benefits.’ ” She punctuates that last statement with another snicker.

My stomach rolls at the thought, because even though it appears that Alex may have broken things off with her, it had to have been fairly recent since Cassie is still feeling clingy toward him.

This, however, is not, nor should it be, my problem. Alex is a business colleague and nothing more.

Yeah, keep telling yourself that, my subconscious pipes up.

“What is the deal with you and Alex?” Kelly asks me. Her voice is a little hesitant, but I can tell she is dying to learn more about him.

I look briefly over my shoulder at Cassie and Allie. They both are looking at me, heads bent together while they talk. Turning back to Kelly, I say, “Nothing to tell. We’re working on an anti-drug campaign together and we’re just friends.”

“Well, friends can turn into something more,” Kelly says with a wink.

“I don’t think so. It’s not a line we should cross considering we’re working together in a professional capacity.”