her shoulder into mine as she strolled past. I lunged for her, determined she wouldn’t get the last jab in.
My captain held me back. “Easy,” Jax said in my ear. “Let her go.”
“But—”
“We’ll talk later.”
I left the ice to chants of “fight, fight, fight, fight.”
Margene met me in the doorway to the locker room with a wet towel. “Gabi, what am I gonna do with you?
“Point me toward the shower and get me an ice pack.”
Despite the adrenaline rushing through me, I slumped back against the wall and attempted to calm down. Time passed in a pulsing blur as my injuries began to throb. I’d just yanked my jersey over my head when I heard a familiar voice yell, “Margene! Where is she?”
Fuck. I did not need this right now.
Nolan stormed around the corner and stopped.
“Jesus Christ, Gabriella, what the hell were you thinking?” As soon as he loomed over me, he seemed to take a moment to compose himself. He gently curled his hand below my jaw, tilting my head to inspect the damage. “Does it hurt?”
I snorted. “Ya think?” Then my gaze narrowed on his mouth. “What the hell happened to your lip?”
“Bar fight.” He snagged the towel from me and started blotting my face.
“What? Since when do you—”
“You’re not the only one who can take a punch when you’re pissed off, Welk,” he said with annoyance. “Hold still.”
I jerked away from him. “Stop poking me.”
He didn’t. He kept wiping the spots of blood on my neck.
“What are you doing here?”
Nolan grabbed my hand and cleaned the blood off of there too. “Jax gave me a ticket to the game, only telling me he was part of some NHL Hockey Legends pregame exhibition. When I got here, I saw you were on the player roster.” He paused in his fussing over me. “Why?”
“Why what?” I sidestepped him and sat on the bench. Bending over to undo my skates hurt my damn ribs and I sucked in a loud breath.
Nolan tossed the towel aside and crouched down, batting my hands away to loosen my laces himself. “Why would you agree to play in an exhibition hockey game tonight, of all nights, when you have”—he briefly glanced over his shoulder, looking for Margene—“the interview tomorrow?”
I lowered my voice. “What was I supposed to say to my boss when he gave me this opportunity? Sorry. No can do. It conflicts with my new job interview?”
“Fine. I’ll give you that. But how long had you known about this exhibition?”
“Jax told me last night. I didn’t even consider saying no. It’s a huge deal for me, Nolan.”
“You think I don’t know that?”
“Then why are you so furious?”
“Because you’re bleeding.”
“You didn’t fuss this much over Mimi when she lost a tooth and was bleeding,” I pointed out.
Those fiery blue eyes connected with mine. “This. With you and me? Not even fucking close to the same situation. Tell me you understand that.”
Yikes.
I nodded.
Muttering, he pulled my skates off and set them aside.
I stood on the mat. When he pushed to his feet, the top of my head barely grazed his chin.
“And the fight?” He ran the backs of his fingers across my swollen cheek and jaw, studying me with such intensity that I shivered. “Did you consider saying no to getting involved with that?”
His touch was so soft it took all of my willpower not to lean into it and purr.
Okay, so maybe I did angle in a little.
“Gabriella?”
“No regrets about the fight. That’s been a long time coming between her and me.” I started to peel off my padding when Margene returned.
“Uh, Gabi, maybe Nolan oughta go while you get undressed.”
“It’s nothing he hasn’t seen before.” I made a rowr sound. “Right, tiger?”
He rolled his eyes. “Deflect. Distract. I’m telling you those won’t work. We will finish this discussion.” He spun on his heel and disappeared.
“Shower is warmed up for you. It’s the only private one in this locker room so maybe you wanna get a move on before the team gets off the ice and tries to commandeer it.”
I stripped and wrapped a towel around myself.
Margene walked with me to the shower. She held up a baggie of ice. “Nolan got this for you and said to use it.”
Bossy man.
“I’m supposed to tell you from Jax to skip the jersey for the photo op. Wear street clothes instead. The fans will have some kind of sign to hold up that gives the event info, since none of your names are visible on the