Hat Trick (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) by Lynn Tyler Read Free Book Online Page A

asked.
    His boss shook his head but continued. “Did your agent talk to you about the latest interview request?”
    Nathan sifted through the last conversation he’d had with his agent. He vaguely recalled him mentioning that some gossip columnist wanted to interview him. Apparently she had heard that Jeremy had been living with them for the last eight weeks and wanted to quiz him on their living situation. He’d flatly refused the request as soon as his agent had brought it up. He had a nasty feeling his refusal had somehow made the situation worse. At least if he had done the interview, he could have controlled the information. There was no telling what the article might say. “Yeah, some gossip monger. Why?”
    “Our PR department got wind of her latest column due out tomorrow. Apparently it accuses your wife of cheating on you with Reiner. She’s got some pictures of the two of them out and about, and she’s somehow found out he’s been staying with you. She may or may not also allude to you sharing Rachel with him.”
    Nathan’s heart raced at the thought of someone staking out his house. There were a lot of kids in his neighborhood, and most of the parents wouldn’t take kindly to strangers loitering about. He should probably tell the neighborhood association to be on the lookout for strange cars and such.
    He didn’t really care about the content of the article though. The columnist couldn’t be further from the truth. Rachel was no more cheating on him than he was on her. The other accusation hit a little closer to home. He wasn’t sharing his wife, exactly. It wasn’t as if she had no say in the relationship. She wanted the ménage as much as he did. It was more of an equal partnership between all three of them. Each of them wanted what they had. He wasn’t about to worry about it too much. It wasn’t like the columnist could actually prove anything. Jeremy might have a problem with the article, however. He went out of his way not to be alone with Nathan in the locker room and usually scaled way back on his physically affectionate tendencies when he was around other guys. Nathan looked at Terry with a grimace. “Thanks for telling me, boss. I’ll make sure to warn Jeremy.”
    The general manager nodded and paused to watch Jeremy as he stopped to talk to the head coach about something or other. “What is going on with you and the kid, Nathan?”
    He almost choked at Terry’s question. Why the hell did he think something was going on? “I’m just offering him a room to crash in, Terry. What the hell else do you think is going on?”
    Terry shrugged and swiveled his eyes to Nathan’s. “There’s just something about the way you guys look at each other, that’s all. I really don’t care what’s going on, if there’s anything going on, as long as you both perform. We are prepared to stand behind both of you, no matter what this b.s.-spouting lady says. But shit can hit the fan real quick with the media. You understand?”
    Did he really look at Jeremy differently than he looked at his other teammates? More importantly, did Jer look at him differently than anyone else? That thought deserved to be chewed over. He pushed away from the boards when the coach called the team over to the bench. Practice was almost over anyway. “Thanks again for the heads-up, Terry.”
    Nathan couldn’t seem to keep his body still as he listened to the coach debrief them on the practice. He never had been able to keep from fidgeting when he was nervous. Somehow, he thought the shit was about to hit the fan, as his boss had put it. He skated off the ice and clomped his way to the locker room with a feeling of dread welling in his gut.
    He waited, taping one of his sticks, until the other guys had showered, dressed, and said their good-byes before looking up at Jeremy. There he was, in all his shaggy-haired, boy-next-door beauty.
    “You ready to go, old man?” Jeremy asked with a smile.
    God, that smile got to him