Page 16 of Puck Me Twice Over

CHAPTER SIX

FELICITY

In the end the drama I feared at home—my previous home—didn’t happen. Because when one Chimera went on a road trip, apparently half the team came along for the ride, too.

The convoy of sleek black vehicles, plus one pick up, traveled the familiar path to the house I knew well. Knox pulled up out front of where I’d lived in for the past six years, but when he looked over at me, as though expecting me to move or head for the door, my feet refused to shift from their place on the freshly cleaned cement.

Everything about this house was perfect, from the cleaned stoop to the white washed walls.

And everything about it locked me out.

I never fitted in here, not with Garrett or his family. Not in the perfect house with its perfect walls and perfect pictures.

Not with his ideals of the woman I should be for him or the wife I was supposed to become. One day. If he asked.

And no job that I ever held was the ‘right sort’. No matter what I did, I never really fit. But because I didn’t want to be alone, I kept trying. And because I was the girlfriend of the man who Garrett idolized above all others, he kept me.

The whole situation that I’d been so blind to slammed into me as I stood on the other side of a locked door that my key no longer fit. Who locks his girlfriend out of their own life? But it never was mine. It was his. Suddenly my inaccessible life opened up in ways that was never visible to me when I lived there in the pristine house with all its locks and rules.

“Come on.” Knox held out a hand. “You don’t have to do this alone. None of us are going anywhere.”

The drive beyond the manicured lawn was crowded with his truck and flanked by three black sports cars. Shannon, Huxley and Valentine all stood with their arms folded across their chests. Visible, and unmoving. Not engaging or crossing any lines, but they were present and intimidating as hell.

I knew every face from the media, and from pictures hung all over the inside of the house. It was like a Chimeras’ shrine. I had to avoid Knox’s face from the moment I woke up to the time I closed my eyes each night.

But not anymore.

“All right,” I whispered. “Let’s poke the bear.”

Knox flashed teeth at me. “Oh, pretty girl.” He hummed my name under his breath. “You have no idea what sort of bear lives in this cave.”

I took the hand he offered me, unsure if he meant him or the one I used to date. But I used to date both of them. Though not at the same time. Mind spinner, because I wasn’t quite sure who would have been more obsessed with Knox. Garrett might have bitched about me wanting to attend a Chimeras game but there was no denying he sat firmly in the Knox Vandevere fanboy section twice over.

“Come on.” Knox’s soft voice cut through my brain fog. His hand folded around my colder one.

I hung back, the air’s chill wrapping around me. “I don’t want to go in.”

His eyes darkened. “Stay here, then. I’ll be back soon.”

Somehow that was so much worse. I could visualize the mess of the next minutes unfold in my mind’s eye: Knox fighting with Garrett, storming in to collect my things, ending up punching the man I used to date.

But never loved.

A yawning pit opened in my stomach, ready for me to spiral endlessly right on into.

“Felicity. Flick.” Warm hands released mine, cupping my cheeks. “Damnit. This is why I wanted to do this without you.”

“And why I should go in, too.” I tapped his fingers lightly. “You’re going to fight. He’s a narcissist and you’re arrogant enough to think that you can just walk all over him.”

The Chimera regarded me with something like humor in his eyes. “Who said anything about walking?”

Another car pulled up and when Knox glided his hands along my arms to squeeze my waist, I took the opportunity to check out the newcomer. A man with gray hair climbed out of his car and stood with the door open, regarding the team. His face was hard, almost expressionless, but if I found the Chimera muscle wall intimidating, the ice hockey players had nothing on this man.

“Is that⁠—”

“Coach,” Knox said ruefully, pressing a kiss to my cheek. That one word said so much. “You gonna stay here, outside, or help me pick your up things? I don’t think we will be allowed back in after this.” His head tipped to one side. “Legally, at least.”

I blinked at him. “I thought you were a good boy, Vandevere.”