Free OneManAdvantage by Kelly Jamieson Page A

there?”
    “I did.”
    “I didn’t realize that.” A degree in economics. Whoa.
Suddenly—weirdly—he was even more attractive.
    “My brothers both got into the NHL through major junior
hockey. Jase wasn’t much into school, so there was no way he was going to
university. My parents practically killed themselves getting him to graduate
from high school.”
    “That’s good they did,” she said.
    “Yeah. And Tag was smart―not that Jase isn’t,” he quickly
added. “But he has ADD, so school was hard for him.”
    She nodded. “Yeah. Good for him for graduating then. Um,
turn right at those lights ahead.”
    “Tag just wanted to play pro hockey as fast as he could,”
Logan continued, doing a shoulder check to change lanes. “And they wanted him
as fast as they could get him, so he was playing for Phoenix when he was
eighteen.”
    “That’s really young.”
    “It is. But he was always mature, and he had the skills. He
was ready. I wasn’t.”
    She shifted in her seat a little to look at him. Câlisse ,
he looked good, his big hands easy on the steering wheel. In profile, the small
bump on his nose was more evident. No doubt broken at some point in his hockey
career. She wanted to know more about him. “No?”
    “I mean, I wanted it. I just wasn’t as mature as Tag was at
that age. I was bigger than him, though.” He grinned. “And I liked the idea of
getting an education too. In case the hockey thing didn’t work out.”
    “Was there ever any doubt about that?” With the talent in
his family, it seemed crazy that he might have thought he might not make it as
a pro hockey player.
    He huffed a laugh. “You never know.”
    “Was there a lot of pressure on you to make it?” she asked
slowly, thinking again about those two older brothers in the NHL.
    His face tightened, barely noticeably, but she caught it.
Her interest was piqued even more. Not that she should be interested in him.
“My parents never pushed it,” he said. “They tried to be encouraging. I mean,
they were encouraging. But even so, yeah, I felt pressure.”
    She nodded. “I guess I can relate to that,” she said slowly.
“Sort of. My brother Julien was definitely a lot to live up to.” As were both
her parents.
    “He’s a good player.”
    “He is.” She couldn’t deny that, and she loved her brother
and was proud of him. “But all their focus was on him and his hockey career.”
    He stopped as the light turned red and glanced at her. Their
eyes met. “Yeah. I know the feeling,” he said quietly and the connection
between them stretched out warm and palpable. She swallowed, unable to break
eye contact with him.

Chapter Six
     
    Logan broke the eye contact, checking to his left for
traffic, then made the right turn.
    “It’s a few blocks down,” she said, a little breathless.
“I’ll watch for the sign.” Merde , it was happening again, that crazy
feeling of being drawn to him. She’d been fighting it all week, but now it had
roared back to life, just talking to him about mundane things like college and
family.
    “Okay. I guess I was lucky that my parents encouraged me,”
he said. “That sucks that your parents wouldn’t encourage you to do what you
wanted.”
    “Yeah. But whatever.” She waved a hand. “I’m happy doing
what I do now. Mostly.” She couldn’t stop from adding that little disclaimer
after what had happened last week.
    “I can tell. You seem very efficient and you know the
business.”
    She grimaced although she was touched. “Thanks.” After a
short pause, she said, “Too bad about the loss last night.”
    He shrugged. “You win some, you lose some.”
    “Very original.”
    He smiled, still looking ahead through the windshield as he
drove. “I can speak in sports clichés with the best of them. We didn’t play a
full sixty minutes. We have to find a way to put the puck in the net. Generate
some offense. Everyone needs to give a hundred and ten percent. At the end of
the day, it is