On the Fly by Catherine Gayle Page A

Russian accent.”
    Dana leaned her chin on her
hand, one elbow propped on the table. “If Jensen’s too young, then
Burkov is way too
young. What is he—twenty-one?”
    “ It doesn’t matter how old
they are,” Sara said. “Daddy would kill me if I even thought about
dating one of his players.”
    Her father was the team’s coach,
Scotty Thomas. I’d met him briefly today. He had been in a hurry to
talk to Jim, right in the midst of everything going on with the
trade. All that had registered with me was that Scotty Thomas
didn’t look like the sort of man whose bad side I’d want to be on
for any reason. If he wouldn’t like his daughter dating one of his
players, it was probably best if she steered clear—both for her own
sake and that of whatever player she might choose. I gave a little
sound of agreement, but I still didn’t feel like I had any business
saying anything.
    “ See?” Sara said as she
nodded in my direction. “Rachel agrees with me.”
    “ What your father doesn’t
know won’t hurt you,” Laura said.
    Dana nearly snorted in laughter. “Is
that what you tell Katie?”
    Katie was Laura’s oldest daughter. Or
maybe the youngest. I couldn’t keep it all straight after the day
I’d had.
    Laura sipped from her glass again. “I
haven’t yet, but that’s a good idea. It might save her a lot of
frustration. Dave’s determined to keep her under lock and key until
she’s forty or so.”
    The other two raised their brows,
almost simultaneously.
    “ What?” Laura said.
“Fathers are entirely too overprotective of their daughters.” She
met my eyes, raised her chin a bit. “Am I right, Rachel, or am I
right?”
    She couldn’t be more wrong. I gave a
little smile, but I knew it wasn’t at all convincing.
    A victorious expression took over her
features, making her even more beautiful than she already was.
“Clearly, she agrees with me.”
    “ Clearly,” Sara put in,
“you’ve had too much wine.”
    “ There’s no such thing as
too much wine.”
    “ You know I’ll never be
able to agree with you on that one,” Dana said on a laugh. “But…”
Her voice turned mischievous, and she sent a wicked grin in Sara’s
direction. “What about Nicky Ericsson?”
    “ No goaltender quirks for
me, thanks,” Sara quipped.
    All of this combined to make me very,
very thankful that they thought I was involved with Brenden. The
last thing I wanted was a group of women trying to set me up with
some hockey player. Good thing she’d cut me off before I could
really deny what she’d assumed.
    The kids were getting a little too
loud in the living room, so I turned to shush the two that belonged
to me. I barely turned around in time.
    One of Laura’s kids—the boy—was
tickling Tuck. Tuck’s giggles were uncontrollable; he was having
the time of his life.
    But that wasn’t what made my heart
stop, what had me getting up from the table and rushing into the
living room where the kids were.
    Tuck was fine.
    It was Maddie that had me panicked
because Jamie was reaching for her like he was going to do the
exact same thing to my little girl.
    Maddie wouldn’t giggle. She wouldn’t
enjoy it. She would just retreat further into her shell, and I’d
lose her more completely and more permanently than I already
had.
    I snatched her up off the floor before
Jamie could touch her. “All right,” I said, trying to sound a lot
calmer and more collected than I really was. “How about y’all play
something a little less rambunctious?”
    Maddie’s eyes caught onto mine.
Scared? Or maybe just sad. It was hard to be sure anymore. She
nodded her head like a wise, little old lady. “Yes, Mommy.” I
barely heard her voice over the furious pumping of my
heartbeat.
    “ Yeah, good idea,” Jamie
said. He smiled at me like he didn’t realize he’d done anything
wrong. And really, how should he know he’d done something wrong? Or
at least was about to. He couldn’t have. “Zee’s got some board
games