Power Play (BTU Alumni #1)

by Alley Ciz

  “You think I spy on you for your brothers?” Jake said, offended.

  “Sean told us,” Ryan answered.

  “And Mom elaborated,” Jase added.

  She looked between the three guys, all of them radiating some form of ire. She could understand why her brothers were upset, their baby sister has a bad breakup with their friend and is now dating a guy they don’t know about, but Jake’s didn’t fit.

  She took a deep breath and rolled her shoulders back to ease some of the tension. She still wasn’t clear on what was going on but it would get sorted out soon enough.

  “Okay, okay, hold on a second.” She waved her hands in front of her for emphasis. “Back up here let’s start from the beginning. How did you find out I went out with Tyler?” She sent a pointed look at Jake.

  Jase caught the look she sent Jake. “Wait, why do you keep looking at Jake in all this?”

  “Isn’t he how you found out I went out with Tyler?”

  “And why would I do that?”

  “Why would you think that?”

  Jake and Jase asked simultaneously.

  The whole situation was getting ridiculous and she still didn’t have the answers she wanted. “Because Jake and Tucker saw me as I was leaving the house, that’s why,” she added on for good measure.

  Ryan realized they were getting nowhere with this line of questioning. “We found out about this Tyler guy from Sean.”

  “Sean?” Now she was totally lost.

  “Yeah when we showed up at the house and you weren’t there we asked where you were and Sean said, ‘She’s out with a boy.’”

  It was finally clear to her why Sean had been in a bad mood recently, he was so much like his older brothers it was scary. “Okay, that explains how you know I went out with Tyler but it doesn’t explain why you think I went out on a date with him.”

  “After we recovered from Sean’s revelation, Mom told us how you were out on a date with this guy you met at NYU.”

  As Ryan’s explanation sunk in she burst into laughter. Now everything made sense. Her parents knew exactly who Tyler was and them going out together was completely platonic. Good ol’ Mom must have decided to give her sons a taste of their own medicine. She had to remember to thank her when she saw her.

  “Do you want to clue the rest of us in on the joke?” Jase asked.

  Once she composed herself, she decided to put her brothers out of their misery, besides she had to keep seeing Tyler under wraps.

  “Okay… well first off Tyler and I were not on a date, Mom was just having a little fun at your expense. Second off, Tyler is Maddey’s brother and we have to keep me going out with him a secret.”

  “Why? Maddey can date your brother but you can’t date hers?” Jake asked.

  “It wasn’t a date, Mom was just trying to goad you guys, now get serious for a minute.” She looked at her brothers. “We have to keep me seeing Tyler a secret because he’s supposed to be in some corner of the world no one knows about, not here in the state of New Jersey.”

  “So if he’s supposed to be out fighting some war somewhere what was he doing going out with you?” Ryan asked clearly trying to understand what was really going on.

  “He was unexpectedly stateside so he wanted my help in planning some sort of surprise for Maddey’s birthday. He and his brothers are all arranging to take leave for her birthday and plan on surprising her, hence the need for secrecy.”

  The guys all looked at each other while they took in her explanation. She knew for the most part it made sense.

  “Okay you got a deal, but we are so getting Mom back for this,” Ryan said as he left to head over to where Maddey was sitting.

  As Jase also made his way to the other side of the VIP section she released a sigh of relief. She ran a hand over her ponytail and took another long swallow from her beer.

  “You and I have to talk.” Jake moved closer to where she sat on the bar.

  She saw the fire in his eyes as he approached her. She quickly hopped off the bar and moved toward the railing that overlooked the dance floor below. Grabbing the railing, she tried to control the urge to throw her arms around his neck to pull him close for another one of those mind blowing kisses. As she sat there arguing with her brothers, she couldn’t help but notice how nice he looked in dark jeans and a light gray t-shirt. Or the way his muscles bunched under said t-shirt when he crossed his arms when he got mad.

  “What, Jake?”

  “Now I know you said that you going out with Tyler was purely platonic, which for that I’m glad, but did you honestly think I would rat you out to your brothers if I saw you with some guy?”

  She could feel the heat from his touch burn through the fabric of her jeans at her hip and liked it. She turned to face him and instinctively looked into his eyes, getting lost in the bright green depths like always. “Honestly, I have no idea.”

  “I wouldn’t betray your trust like that.” Jake reached up to stroke a hand across her cheek, resting it along the side of her throat. “But I will tell you this, I’m really glad you weren’t out on a date with him.”

  She couldn’t stop from leaning into his touch. “And why’s that?”

  Jake’s mouth hitched up in a sexy smirk. “Because now I know that there’s no competition and all I have to worry about is getting around this stupid promise you made your brothers. Piece of cake.”

  Her breath hitched at his comment. “Why aren’t you mad at me?”

  “Why would I be mad?”

  “I pretty much just accused you of ratting me out to my brothers.”

  “It was an obvious conclusion. Besides how can I be mad when I know it’s me you really want?”

  She rolled her eyes but before she could comment her phone vibrated in her pocket. When she saw it was another unknown number she sent the call to voicemail.

  Jake moved to join their group while she was distracted by her phone.

  JAKE SAW THE guys from the team walking into Rookies as he parked his Jeep. It had been two days since he saw Jordan go off with another guy. He was determined to talk to her about it because the facts he had didn’t add up.

  Tucker was already giving Maddey the grand tour by the time he made it up to the VIP section. He knew his best friend would never come between Ryan and his relationship with Maddey. However that didn’t stop Tucker from flirting with Maddey, especially when he knew how much it got under the captain’s skin.

  He made his way over to Skye for a beer. They spent some time chatting when he heard someone say his name. If it were anyone else calling his name he would have ignored them, but the voice he heard was Jordan’s, he would know it anywhere. He excused himself from Skye and headed over to where Jordan and her brothers were and stood next to Ryan.

  Based on the look on her face this wasn’t going to be a friendly conversation.

  As Jordan explained the whole story about Tyler he had to force himself not to laugh. He was mildly annoyed she would assume he would run to her brother’s with information about her but she was so cute when she was all worked up amusement overrode his annoyance.

  After Ryan and Jase went off to join the rest of the team, he knew it was time to have his own talk with Jordan.

  Jake watched her regain her composure. She was safe from her brother’s interrogation but things between them weren’t even close to being settled. “You and I have to talk.” He moved in closer to where she sat on the bar.

  “What Jake?” She said moving over the railing.

  With Jordan facing away from him, he took a moment to take her in without interruption. Her white tube top revealed her tan shoulders and hugged the curves down to the top of her stone washed, low-ride jeans. The gentle swell of her hips was accented by a wide silver sparkle belt and her long legs were encased in her tight ripped jeans all the way down to her purple Chucks.

  Glancing back, he checked to make sure her brothers were occupied before he moved in closer. Seeing the coast was clear he made his move. He
placed a hand on her hip to get her attention before he spoke.

  “Now, I know you said that you going out with Tyler was purely platonic, which for that I’m glad, but did you honestly think that I would rat you out to your brothers if I saw you with some guy?”

  He couldn’t help but smirk when she revealed she was more concerned with upsetting him than anything else. He could tell she tried to keep things purely in the friend zone with them but every so often, like now, she showed how much she really cared.

  When her phone rang he left to join their friends to give her some privacy.

  He sat on the couch next to Ryan and propped his feet up on the table in the middle. “So Maddey, what do you think of Rookies?”

  Jordan sat next to Tucker on the couch and smiled at how much he had grown on her since the first night they met.

  “Beer Blondie.” Tucker held out a beer from the bucket.

  “Thanks BB3.” She accepted the beer to take a long drag.

  Her eyes once again found their way back to Jake’s sitting across from them. When he caught sight of her looking, he winked. Always the charmer. She responded with an eye roll.

  “Hey all you party people out there, here is a dance mix for my special ladies, so I want to see your sexy asses on that dance floor now!” Sammy’s voice came over the speakers.

  Jordan and Maddey simultaneously looked up at Sammy in the DJ booth and saw him looking down in their direction and burst out laughing.

  “Well as much as he wants every girl in this place to think they are his special ladies, if we don’t get down there to dance, he’ll kill us,” Maddey announced as she got to her feet.

  Jordan looked back up at Sammy. “Yeah I think you’re right, come on let’s go.”

  The girls got up and walked down the stairs holding hands and laughing the whole way. They found a prime spot in the middle of all the action but also in perfect position to still see the Yankee game playing on the TVs above the main bar.

  The place was in full swing with bodies moving to and fro. Jordan had forgotten how much fun Rookies could be when she had a dancing partner. Skye was always bartending when they came, so it was nice to be able to go down to the main level, away from her brothers’ constant presence.

  They danced with abandon and sang along to the Britney Spears song playing. Sammy was playing a mix full of their favorites. Maddey was always Jordan’s dance partner when they would go out in college and it was nice to have her back. Another bonus from Maddey dating her brother.

  By dancing together, it kept strange people from coming in between them.

  “So, I see you’re not wasting any time with showing Ryan your love for heels,” she said.

  Maddey was the biggest shoe whore she knew, she was a virtual Carrie Bradshaw, almost always wearing heels.

  “Yeah, well, you know I love my shoes, plus the heels give me a little more height when I stand next to him.”

  “Yeah he does have a way of making a person feel like a midget… So how was your date last night?”

  Maddey let out a happy sigh. “It was amazing.”

  “Details please.”

  “When I met him at the hockey house I wasn’t sure what our plans were. I didn’t know where we were going until he was parking in the lot of the hockey arena.”

  “The place is impressive, isn’t it?”

  “Oh yeah. Huge… Anyway he showed me where they displayed all the team’s past awards and stuff and I got to see the Championship Trophy from this past year.”

  “Did they have his Hobey Baker award there, too?”

  Maddey looked confused by the question. “What’s that?”

  “It’s an award the NCAA gives out to the top player each year.”

  “He’s that good?” Maddey said impressed.

  “Oh yeah. It’s not talked about a lot but I’ve heard some people compare him to Gretzky, which is like top praise. But that’s not what’s important here. Keep telling me about the date.”

  “So he gave me a tour of the arena, even the locker room, which stunk by the way. Then he had me put on a pair of skates. Not sure where he found them in my size.”

  “They were mine. I put together a whole bag full of stuff for you.” Her comment made Maddey smile, she knew it helped ease any residual doubts Maddey had about how’d she feel about her friend dating her brother. “But the locker room, really Ryan?”

  “No it was super sweet. He said he wanted to make sure I was familiar with the whole arena because he was hoping I’d be spending a lot of time there. And when I asked him what he meant by that he asked me to be his girlfriend.”

  “Oh my god, really? That’s amazing.” She reached out and pulled Maddey in for a hug.

  “Then if that wasn’t awesome enough, he took me out to the ice where he had a picnic set up.”

  “So romantic.”

  “I know and if I wasn’t already a pile of goo, I was after I asked him why he did it. His answer was that the rink was a special place for him and he wanted it to be special for me too.”

  “Wow… I didn’t know Ryan had it in him.”

  The girls danced a little longer before Maddey leaned in closer to her. “Hottie behind you is checking you out,” she said with a smirk.

  She raised an eyebrow. “Really? Which one?”

  “Blondie in the bright blue shirt.”

  The girls rotated while dancing, trying not to be obvious. Sure enough when she looked over Maddey’s shoulder the cutie in the blue shirt was looking right at her. She quickly averted her gaze to the TV above the bar. She smiled, flattered by being checked out by someone that attractive. But he’s no Jake. She groaned at the thought.

  Maddey watch her closely. “What’s wrong? He’s a total babe.”

  Instinctively she tightened her ponytail, at the rate she was going she felt like she was going to end up ripping her hair out. “It’s not that… it’s just… I can’t get Jake out of my head.”

  “Aww, babe.” Maddey slung her arm around her shoulders. “Come on, let’s get away from here then.” She pointed toward the TV above the bar. “Come on, let’s go watch the game, the Yankees have two men on with Matthews up. If he gets on and Johnson does good, we have a chance to win our game this week.”

  “Okay.”

  They made their way over to the bar and watched as Matthews worked his bat to a full count and in the end walked to load the bases. Maddey checked how far behind they were in their fantasy baseball game for the week. “Okay, we are down by nine points, if Johnson steps it up we have a shot at winning.”

  Jordan rubbed her hands together. “Okay come on Johnson, bring it home.”

  Maddey laughed beside her. The hairs on the back of Jordan’s neck stood up, a sense of unease trickled down her spine. She turned around to look at those around her and saw nothing out of the ordinary, but the discomfort she felt didn’t dissolve.

  She jerked when her phone vibrated in her pocket again with an unknown number.

  “What’s wrong?” Maddey asked.

  Jordan worried her bottom lip between her teeth, a clear sign something was bothering her. “I don’t know, I just feel like somebody is watching me.”

  Maddey’s protective instincts took over. She scanned the crowd for anyone paying special attention to them but nothing seemed amiss. As her gaze scanned over the crowd one more time, she saw Ryan and the guys looking down at them from up in the VIP section.

  “Well there’s the cause for you feeling watched.” She pointed up to where the guys were standing.

  She followed Maddey’s hand and saw her brothers, Jake, and Tucker standing by the railing watching them. When they noticed the girls saw them the jerks waved.

  She turned her attention back to the Yankee game and away from her annoyingly overprotective brothers. However, even knowing they were looking down on them, the prickles at the back of her neck did not ease.

  The atmosphere in the bar changed completely when the Yankees loaded the bases. Th
e energy was almost palpable, it seemed like everyone in the bar now had their attention on the TVs to see what would happen, Sammy even lowered the music. When Johnson hit a long foul ball deep into left field the whole place groaned in unison. Four pitches later, Johnson was pitched a high fast ball over the middle of the plate and hit a rocket straight out to center field for a deep grand slam. The bar cheered, thanks to Johnson’s home run the Yankees now had the lead.

  “Oh my god, wait, did we just win our game?” Jordan asked.

  Maddey pulled her phone back out to see if the scores updated. “Let’s see we get a point for the hit.”

  “Three points for the homerun.”

  “A point for each RBI so that’s four points there.”

  “And a point for the run scored.”

  They went back and forth ticking off ways to earn points on their fingers.

  “So what we’re tied?” Maddey asked.

  “Wait… no we won because in our league you get a bonus point for the grand slam.”

  “Nice!” They bumped fists and headed up to gloat.

  THE GUYS STOOD sentry over the dance floor.

  “They are quite the showstoppers aren’t they?” Tucker said from his perch next to Ryan.

  Ryan looked over at his friend. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean,” he pointed out to the dance floor below, “look at how every guy around them is angling themselves towards them and watching them like the bright blonde beacons that they are.”

  Jake scrutinized the people around where the girls were dancing, and sure enough they had the attention of every guy within a ten foot radius.

  He observed Ryan’s tense shoulders and white knuckled grip on the railing. “Do you want to go down there?” He asked Ryan.

  Ryan seemed to mull over his question and shook his head. “No they seem to be okay, if there’s any trouble we’re close enough.”

  Jake watched as the guys down below drooled over the girl he was starting to think of as his own and wished he could make it known to the world.

  “We could go down there if you want. It wouldn’t be suspicious if we both danced with her,” Tucker offered.