The Devil May Care (Devington Devils Hockey Romance Book 3) by Daphne Slade

Author:Daphne Slade [Slade, Daphne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-08-29T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

NADINE

I spin around to face Colin.

The words, while shocking, weren’t uttered with contempt or anger, just surprise. Thus, I don’t initially think he’s pissed off at me.

The look on his face changes that assumption.

Colin stares at me as though I’ve just pulled the plug on a beloved grandmother. It’s a mix of disbelief, outrage, and, if I’m not mistaken, a distinct inclination to throttle me.

“I…” I quash my first instinct to tell him that I wanted to surprise him. It’s replaced by an ever-growing amount of indignation. “I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. So I bought a ticket. Seeing as how you didn’t bother inviting me.” I make sure to add a good dose of accusation in that last sentence.

“Yeah, there’s a very good reason for that, Nadine.” He practically spits my name out.

“What reason?”

“Shit,” he says, reaching a hand up to cup the back of his neck. It’s a move I recognize instantly. He always pulled it whenever he was in over his head about something, usually work. Frankly, I never thought he was all that cut out for finance considering how much I had to help him figure things out with the “hypothetical” questions he posed to me.

“What reason, Colin?” I ask again, feeling my irritation grow.

“This is my job, Nadine. These are people I work with,” he hisses. “You can’t just show up like this.”

“It isn’t like I was going to get on stage and announce our relationship. I hadn’t even planned on approaching you, not really.”

“So what was the plan, huh? You thought you’d show up and I’d waltz you around introducing you to everyone I know?”

I personally don’t see what’s wrong with that, now that he’s said it. What exactly would be the problem? A tiny whisper at the back of my mind hints at the answer, but I ignore it.

“You need to leave, Nadine.”

I’m just about to protest when I see two guys around Colin’s age come up to join him with shit-eating grins on their faces. One looks like Clark Kent, good-looking with glasses, but tilts his chin up in a way that makes it seem like he’s always looking down his nose at you. The other has the kind of smile that seems to only affect one side of his mouth, turning it into a smirk you’d like to slap right off his face.

“Who’s this, Colin?” Clark Kent asks.

“Yeah, you going to introduce us to your, uh, friend?” Mr. Smirk asks.

The way the two of them catch each other’s eyes and grin tells me there’s some joke here that I’m missing. Suddenly, I feel like a fraud again, some stupid girl playing dress-up among adults, even though these two seem about as mature as teenagers.

No, that’s not it. It’s much worse than that. I feel like I’m back in Buck Run, experiencing that mess all over again.

“Just someone I met at a networking event. She’s hoping to get into finance so I gave her some advice.”

I scowl at Colin, then mask it.

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