Introducing the Girl-Friend

So, this is probably one of the most awkward moments of my life.

“You’re not Tazer’s girl,” Andrew Shaw says, confused. “So that makes you . . .”

“My girl,” an arm drops over my shoulders, keeping me from running as fast as possible past the wall of hockey players blocking my exit. Of course, I’m not going anywhere with my feet glued to the floor from shock.

The guys seemed shocked too. At least, if their synchronized eyebrow raises are any indication.

“No, really, who are you?”

I stiffen, insulted. What, just because I’m not five ten and rail thin I’m not good enough for Kane? Personally, I think five six and curvy is pretty damn good. So what if I’m not a carbon copy of his ex? Does that mean I’m not his type? No. Does that mean he wouldn’t date me? I seriously doubt it.

“Don’t get me wrong, Kaner here is great and all, but how the hell did he get a girl so far out of his league to date him?” Shaw laughs and the guys with him follow suit. Someone shouts from behind them to move their butts inside the house and then they all just pile inside, continuing to make fun of Patrick—who is blushing and holy hell is it attractive—as they walk past.

As soon as the guys are all inside the kitchen I shake myself free of his arm. “Care to explain that? Because I’m pretty sure that’s the second time you’ve called me your girlfriend without consulting me first.”

“Is being my girlfriend that bad?” he’s smiling as he asks but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “I mean maybe you could consider not looking at me like I’ve just insulted you.”

I didn’t mean to seem like I was insulting him. Oops. “That’s not what I meant,” I tell him. “I just mean you keep springing this on me. If I’m going to be playing your girlfriend can you at least give me a little notice?”

He laughs nervously. “Yeah I guess I could do that.”

“Gee how generous of you,” I smile to take the sting out of my words. “Now if you don’t mind I’m going to head out before I have the chance to embarrass myself further.”

“What?” from the expression on his face you’d think I just said I was going to walk down through the airport naked. “You can’t leave.”

“Um, yes I can.” And I am. No way am I sticking around for this.

“I just told the entire team you’re my girlfriend. You can’t leave now.”

His logic doesn’t make sense to me. “You were kidding. I’m sure they know that. And besides I am not about to walk into the middle of that—” I gesture to the now noisy kitchen. “And be the awkward interloper.”

“You wouldn’t be the awkward interloper,” he says like it’s the most ridiculous thing he’s ever heard. “You’d be totally welcome. The guys are super cool, come on. I’m sure they’d be thrilled to meet you.”

“Then they should be feeling pretty great right now since they just met me,” I point out. “So, I’m gonna,” I point to the door before heading towards it.

He grabs my wrist to stop me from moving. “No, come on stay. This is going to be a lot of fun. Not a lot of people get to come to these. It’s really just the wives and girlfriends.”

“Exactly why I shouldn’t be here,” I tell him. “As I’m not a wife or girlfriend.”

“Well,” he smirks. “That’s not exactly true.”

I stare at him, confused and slightly apprehensive. “How?”

The smirk grows. I try not to notice how attractive it is and focus on his words. “Well, you’re my friend. And you’re a girl. So technically, you are a girlfriend. You’re my girlfriend.”

I roll my eyes, a bit relieved. When he got that evil smirk I was worried he’d done something really bad. What it was, I have no idea, but I did not have a good feeling about it. I can deal with this roundabout logic.

“Technically that might be true,” I tell him. “Before you do your victory dance though you should know that technicality doesn’t matter much to me. So, I’m still leaving.”

“Kaner,” someone shouts from the kitchen. “Get your girl in here so we can figure out how the hell you managed to get her to date you.”

I stare at him, defeated. Because in three, two, one . . .

“His what?!”

Yep, Kailey is going to kill me. “Fine!” I sigh. I pretend not to see the quick little victory dance that he does. He does get a look for the giant smile. “I’m only going in there to straighten out this whole ‘girlfriend’ thing.”

“Yep, exactly, sure,” he drops his arm around my shoulders again and walks me into the kitchen. I refrain from kicking him only because I know he has to play a game tomorrow and an injured forward is not what the team needs right now.

I’ve barely walked into the room before I’m surrounded by people. I put a fake smile on my face and wait for an opening in conversation to say what I need to. Before I can manage that I’m attacked by what I think is a hungover brunette tornado.

“Since when are you a couple! Just last night you told me there was nothing going on between you two! What did you do to my best friend?” the last question is shouted at the man who still has his arm around me. All of the guys around us are suddenly very interested in the food, which oh look at that is on the opposite side of the room.

“Kay, calm down, we aren’t a couple,” I tell her. Calm doesn’t seem to be in the cards for her at the moment though.

“Then why the fuck—“  a hand over her mouth cuts off the rest of what she was going to say.

“What Kailey means to say,” Toews says with a pointed look at his girlfriend. “Is that you should really have told us before springing this on us. We would like to know if our best friends have decided to start dating.”

“Mmmmm mmm mmm mmm mm, mmmmmmmmm,” Kailey says unintelligibly.

“Yes, and also if you aren’t dating then why say that you are,” Toews translates.

“How the hell did you understand that?” I ask. “I didn’t even understand that.”

He shrugs. “Relationship thing.”

The guys who are married or in relationships all nod vigorously, to my amazement. “That’s weird.”

They all nod again. Kailey joins them this time.

“So, wait,” Brandon Saad says from his spot against the counter. “You’re single then?”

I assume he means me, so I nod. The smile I get in return is disarmingly sweet.

“Well maybe you and I should hang out sometime, see if I can convince you to change that.”

“Hey now,” Patrick says, his arm tightening around my shoulder. “You don’t get to hit on my girl.”

“Yeah but she’s not your girl,” Shaw points out. “So that means as long as she’s ok with the guys hitting on her, they can hit on her,” he looks at me. “Are you okay with the guys hitting on you?”

Kailey makes negative noises while shaking her head expressively. I laugh. “Well Kailey obviously wants me to say no, I am not,” she points like that was my answer. “But I really don’t mind.”

“Hey! I don’t want the guys hitting on you. That’s my job,” I laugh at the pout in Patrick’s voice, then again when I look to see that he’s actually pouting at me.

“You’re ridiculous,” I tell him.

“Yeah,” he laughs. “But that’s what’s going to win you over, just you wait.”

I laugh again, even though I’m pretty sure he’s not kidding.

“Come on,” I tell him. “Let’s eat.”

“Promise you aren’t going to run out again?” he jokes. I stick my tongue out at him in response.

“Yeah I would run from your ugly mug too Kaner,” Bickell jokes. I laugh with everyone else, while the man next to me just pouts again.

“You pout too much,” I tell him. “Smile. People love when you smile.”

“I’ll tell you what,” he whispers while we fill our plates with the food Kailey ‘cooked’ (ordered from the restaurant down the street). “I’ll smile more if you promise to stay and hang out with the team.”

“What do you think I’m doing?” I whisper back.

“No, not just today. Hang out with us when we get back for the next game. We’re fun guys, I swear.”

I contemplate it for a second. “Tell you what,” I answer. “If you score a hat trick in the game tomorrow, I’ll go to the team party with Kailey.”

His face splits into a giant grin. “That sounds—“

“But,” I continue, talking over him. “No pulling the boyfriend stuff. If I’m going to hang out with you guys as your friend, you’re going to act like my friend. Got it?”

His grin has dimmed a little bit, but it’s still plastered across his face. “I think I can handle that.”

“You sure?” I ask as we make our way to an open space by his teammates. “Because that means you can’t be all pouty when one of your teammates hits on me.”

Bye bye grin. He’s back to pouting for a moment, before the smile comes back. I don’t trust this one though. It’s too much like my I-know-something-you-don’t-know smile.

“I can handle it,” he tells me. I’m not sure I trust him, since he’s still got that look on his face, but I take his words at face value.

“You know,” I say as we sit down. “It’s only going to happen if you score a hat trick tomorrow.”

The smile just grows. “Challenge accepted.”

A/N: OMG I JUST POSTED EARLIER TODAY HOW THIS WAS ALMOST AT 500 READS AND THEN IT GOT THERE I'M SO HAPPY. Seriously thank you so much for reading I really hope you enjoy this story and thank you so much for over 500 reads this update is in celebration of that. I really hope you enjoy it :)