Free The Girl With Hearts (Midtown Brotherhood #1) by Savannah Blevins Page A

much I despise the prick who screwed her over, I’m not trying to get back at him by getting in her pants. So please believe me when I say I’m not trying to sleep with her.”
    “Then what are you doing?”
    That brought him up short. He stared, dumbfounded, at his little brother like he’d just asked him an unsolvable equation. “I don’t know,” he admitted honestly. “But whatever it is, I’m doing it with good intentions.”
    That was the truth, and it was as far as he had allowed himself to think it through. He just wanted to give her the puck in the hope it would make her smile.
    Drew’s mouth opened to respond when footsteps echoed behind him, and Austin yelled down the corridor at them. “Hey, there’s the man of the hour!”
    Henrik turned to see Austin and Leila walking back toward them down the hall. “Thanks,” he replied, effectively ignoring Drew, who muttered warnings at him under his breath. “I thought we were meeting you at O’Rileys.”
    “I forgot my keys,” Austin announced, setting his bag down. “You guys can go ahead if you want. Leila and I will catch up.”
    “Okay,” Drew agreed eagerly, but Henrik rolled his eyes at him.
    “No, that’s all right. We’ll wait.”
    Drew was only trying to keep him as far away from Leila as possible. He’d already lost that battle. However, Drew had effectively ruined his good mood, so now he would make him regret allowing his faith in him to slide so easily.
    “All right, I’ll be right back,” Austin said before running back into the locker room, leaving him alone with Drew and Leila.
    “I’m glad to see you made it tonight,” he told her, pretending Drew wasn’t shooting daggers at him as he stepped closer to her.
    Damn, she smelled good. Familiar. Lilacs.
    “Well, it’s not like Drew gave me much of a choice.” She smiled, eyeing her friend with annoyed appreciation. She leaned toward him and whispered as if it were a secret. “He bribed me with junk food.”
    He smiled, and it wasn’t the fake kind he normally used when talking to girls. No, this smile was completely genuine. He couldn’t contain it, not when she made so much effort to look exceptionally ordinary. She’d left her long sheath of red hair down and sported one of Austin’s oversized jerseys in an attempt to blend in with the regular crowd.
    Blending in wasn’t possible for someone like her. Even without trying, she’d been the first person he spotted when he stepped on the ice. It had always been that way.
    “What’s that?” Leila inquired, noticing the puck on the ground to her right. She bent down to pick it up, reading the writing along the tape. “This is from tonight.”
    “Yeah,” he explained, his smile widening. “I was going to give it to you as a memento, but the fun patrol over here thought your panties would immediately fall off if I did, so he forbid it.”
    Drew shot him a deadly look right before Leila scoffed. “Drew? Seriously?”
    “I didn’t say it like that,” he retorted, his face desperately trying to hide the contempt he felt.
    “Well, I guess it’s nice to know I’m not the only one receiving one of Drew’s infamous lectures.” She sighed, still shaking her head at her best friend.
    “You too?” Henrik asked, surprised.
    Again Leila leaned in as if speaking only to him. “Apparently, you’re irresistible,” she whispered with a smile. “And I’m too innocent to know better.”
    He smirked back at her, his body reflexively closing the gap between them. “Well, according to my brother, I don’t possess a single moral attribute, so I would inevitably coerce you into my bed at some point.”
    “You know—” Drew droned, crossing his arms “—it’s not nice to mock someone while they’re standing right here.”
    Leila didn’t acknowledge him. Instead, she kept her eyes trained directly on Henrik. “I don’t exactly feel like going out to eat.”
    Normally, he would have taken that comment out of context,