33. Darcy

CHAPTER 33

DARCY

We walk into the Filthy Flamingo, and Jordan does a double take at my hair before giving me an appreciative nod. "Nice hair. Looks hot."

"Thank you." I try to suppress my smile. I'm acting deeply uncool, blushing over a few small compliments.

We sit at a big booth, and after Jordan swings by with drinks, the conversation turns to the game.

"Not hearing complaints about moving you to offence anymore, are we?" Rory asks Hayden with a proud grin, and they both eye me briefly.

Hayden shrugs and sips his beer.

"Ward wants more power play goals," Alexei adds. "Says we're dragging our feet out there."

My brain prickles, and I think about the hockey models I was playing with on my laptop at lunch today. I told myself I wouldn't keep looking at them, but I can't help myself.

Rory drags a hand through his hair, frowning. "I don't know what to do. We run the drills we practiced."

"Maybe you should switch up the power play teams," I suggest lightly, running my fingernail over a seam on the sleeve of my jersey.

The table goes quiet. Shit. I shouldn't have said that.

"What do you mean?" Rory asks. "We put our best guys on the power plays."

There's a clunk of nerves in my stomach. When I'm wrong, I'm really wrong, and it can have disastrous consequences, but there's a lingering feeling that I'm right about this.

"Swapping out players changes the scoring probability," I blurt out, pulse picking up. I should shut up and stop talking. I swallow hard.

Jamie leans in, watching me with focus. "How do you know this?"

"She has a statistics degree," Hayden says confidently.

I shoot him a hard look. "Um." Under everyone's watchful, curious eyes, I can't get a full breath. I'm not used to being the center of attention like this. "I build statistical hockey models."

Silence.

"For fun," I add. Oh god. They probably think I'm so weird. "Anyway?—"

"Do you have the models with you?" Rory asks.

"They're on my laptop." I brought it with me to the office when I headed in late in the morning, and I came straight to the game from work.

Hayden's eyes spark with interest. "Show us, Darce."

This is getting real, so I scramble for an excuse. "I'm not going to pull my laptop out at the bar like a dork."

Hayden holds my gaze as his hand drifts toward his jacket zip, and I cough out a laugh. He grins, wiggling his eyebrows, making the message clear.

Show us the models or I'll show them the picture of you on my shirt.

"Okay," I say quickly, laughing. "I'll show you, but don't put too much stock into them. I'm just playing around."

Jamie shrugs. "It can't hurt. "

It could, if I'm wrong. No one's checked my work. I'm just plugging numbers in and analyzing patterns, but they're not proven. And if I'm wrong? It could backfire on the team. The other team could score a goal. The Storm could lose the game. In professional sports, every goal counts and every game matters.

The guys huddle around my laptop as I load my power play model.

"Your power play percentage as of tonight is"—I adjust the model for the two they had during the game—"just over 20 percent. It isn't the worst in the league, but it's not great, either."

The guys sit in silence, listening.

"Your first power play line has Alexei on defense, but if you swap him out for another defenseman like Jayden, and swap Rory for one of your second-line forwards, say Dylan Lockwood," I make the changes to the model, and it spits out a new number, "your chance of scoring on the power play goes up to 27 percent. One of the highest in the league," I add, starting to feel self-conscious. "I know that seems unbelievable, and it's probably wrong because no one's verified this?—"

"Are you a wizard?" Rory asks, crooking a surprised smile at me.

"No." I chuckle. "Just a dork, I guess."

"This is incredible." He leans in to read over the results on my screen again.

"Right?" Hayden nods at Rory. "She's always been good at this stuff."

My heart does a silly leap in my chest as warm, happy feelings bubble through me.

Alexei studies me with a serious expression. "Why do you think the scoring percentage goes up when I'm not on the power play team? "

"You're already on the ice so much during games." My forehead wrinkles as I think about the different iterations I did. "Players who have less ice time in that period sometimes perform better during the two minutes of a power play. It could also be that you're more of a defensive defenseman, you know? Whereas if we swap out a defenseman who plays a bit of offense, it increases the chance of getting the puck to the other end of the ice." I shrug. "I'm not sure. There's probably a great explanation, but I haven't found it yet."

The look of awe the guys give me makes my stomach dip with excitement and pride. Beside me, Hayden winks down at me, smiling, and my confidence grows.

"I did one for penalty kills, too, since that's another weak spot."

Rory gives me a wounded look, but he's smiling. "Ouch."

"Sorry." My face goes hot.

He laughs and waves me off. "Show us."

My fingers fly over the keyboard as I pull up the penalty kill model with several player configurations.

"What's this?" Hazel leans on the back of the booth to read over my shoulder.

"Darcy's showing us math magic," Rory explains.

I laugh. "It's not magic, it's just statistics. I did one for common injuries, too, predicting recovery times."

Her eyes light up, and I know I've hooked the physiotherapist side of her. "Show me."

I run through the models with them, explaining my reasoning and my data.

"Does Ward know about this?" Jamie asks.

My eyes go wide. "No. Oh my god." I make a face. "This is just for fun."

Everyone looks at me like I'm speaking another language.

"Don't tell Ward about it," I add. "It's dumb. "

"It's not dumb," Hayden cuts in, frowning. "You do this for a living."

"My job is different." My face goes hot. "We work in teams, with thousands of data points, and the models go through intense verification."

There's so little responsibility and risk, it's almost laughable. My clients are corporations—if I screw up, they pay a little more or a little less, but no one gets hurt. No one misses out on insurance or care or support.

"This could really help us," Alexei adds quietly.

I feel a stab of guilt, but then I remember how devastating it was to be the reason someone else got fired, and my guilt evaporates.

"It's just me playing around with numbers. You should leave the analytics to the experts."

"Show me that power play one again." Rory reaches for my keyboard to go to the next tab but accidentally closes the window and?—

An image of the hot pink toy Hayden bought me fills the screen, and my heart jolts into my throat. Beside me, Hayden stiffens.

" Using your new G-Spot Banger is easy with these three steps, " a calming woman's voice says on the video as she holds up the sex toy.

Everyone goes silent, watching.

" Slide the Banger inside ? — "

"Oh my god." I slam the laptop closed, face burning hotter than the surface of the sun while everyone stares at me in shock.

Rory lets out a howl of laughter as Alexei and Jamie stare at my screen in horror. Hazel presses her mouth tight to hide a smile. I can't look at Hayden.

"I can explain. "

I can't explain, and it's exactly what it looks like. I was nervous about using the toy Hayden got me, so I looked up the company's website last night. I thought I closed the page.

Oh god. I was on my laptop at work . Even coworkers seeing that would be better than this, though.

Rory nudges me with his elbow. "Hazel has that one, too." He looks back at her with a question on his face. "Right?"

She nods, chuckling. "Yep. That's the one I told Hayden to buy."

They know that Hayden bought this for me? A horrified noise scrapes out of my throat. I want to disappear into thin air.

"No one saw anything." Hayden's voice is loud and firm, and he gives everyone a stern look. "Right, guys?"

Alexei stares straight ahead. "I didn't see anything. My contacts fell out." Our eyes meet before he looks away. "And I didn't hear anything, either." He almost looks more uncomfortable than I feel.

"Me neither." Rory wears the biggest grin while his eyes glitter. "I just saw your math magic."

Closing my eyes, I silently plead for the floor to open up and swallow me. I can never face these guys again.

"How about another round of drinks?" Rory asks, and everyone starts getting up and moving back to their seats at once.

Hayden looks down at me, eyes bright and mouth pressed into a tight line like he's trying not to laugh. "Are you okay?"

"No." I can still feel how pink my face is. "I want to die."

He snorts, eyes closing. "It's fine, Darce. That kind of thing happens to everyone."

My expression turns incredulous, but I'm starting to laugh. "Really? That happens to everyone?"

"Yep. All the time." He rubs his strong jaw, thinking. "But if you want me to distract them, I can." His fingers hover over his jacket zip, and I lunge forward to catch his wrist, laughing.

"Don't you dare." His skin is warm as I tug his hand away from the zipper. "I've already shown too much weirdness. I don't want to get uninvited from the next bar night."

He lets his hand drop and gives me a knowing smile. "Over my dead body. You know you're one of us, right?"

My gaze moves around the bar, to Rory and Hazel talking with Pippa and Jamie at the next booth, to Alexei and some of the other guys chatting—I catch the words power play percentage in their conversation—and to Jordan mixing drinks behind the bar. She gives me a quick, quiet smile.

Back in Calgary, I didn't have a group of friends like this. Kit didn't like going out after games. Even when we were in Vancouver, Hayden and I would have to drag him out. The Calgary team wasn't close like the guys are on the Vancouver Storm.

I look around at the new life I'm creating for myself, and my heart squeezes.

Yes, I'm weird and awkward, but I get the feeling they don't care. I like it here, and I feel like I'm finally starting to find myself.