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“Your words,” he says easily. “Not mine.”
I shake my head and look back at the trees. “She’s not going to want to stick around here, anyway.”
“You sure? Frosty Harbor can be pretty charming around the holidays. Girl just bailed on her wedding. I doubt she’s excited about the idea of going back to her life and dealing with the fallout. A little while hiding out here probably sounds like exactly what the doctor ordered.”
“Maybe,” I say.
Liam gets up and gives my shoulder a squeeze. “Look, man. Telling you shit you don’t want to hear is my job as your teammate and your friend. So here it comes. Sarah broke your heart. But broken hearts are the price we pay on the road to finding love. And if you ask me, I think that’s what we’re all here to do.”
I give him a sidelong look. “I can think of a few other choices. Passion. Hobbies. Travel.” I gesture vaguely around us. “Just enjoying nature, or some shit.”
He chuckles and shakes his head. “All great stuff, yeah. But all better with somebody to share it with. Soulmates, Jesse. We’re all just feeling around in the dark while we wait for the right one to come along and click with us. Sometimes we’re not ready to admit it. Sometimes we never succeed. But shit, man. Life is short. I don’t want to see you waste a chance to find the right girl for you.”
“That’s your worldview. I’m pretty sure I can live a happy and full life by myself. I’ve got you guys. I’ve got the game. What else do I need?”
“Carter won’t rub your feet when they’re sore or give you bathtime rubdowns after a long week.”
“Actually,” I say. “I’m pretty sure he would if I asked nicely.”
Liam laughs. “Okay. Bad example. I’m just saying to keep an open mind. And an open heart.” Liam thuds my chest with his fist. “I want to see you happy again.”
“I’ll get there.”
He leaves me on the patio and I find myself looking back inside. I don’t see Andi at the table anymore. I’m about to go in and check on her when she bursts out the doors to the deck, smiling with her hands behind her back. She tilts her chin, looking up at me with her big princess eyes.
“You’re going to freeze out here,” I say, pulling off my jacket and extending it toward her. “At least put this on.”
She hesitates. “Won’t you be cold?”
“I’m fine.”
She takes the jacket, slips it on, and then gives herself a hug and closes her eyes. “Smells good.”
“What?” I ask.
“Nothing.” She smiles quickly. “I was actually hoping to ask you a huge favor, though.”
“Anything,” I breathe before I realize how fucking pathetic I am.
“Jake’s going to be here tomorrow, and I feel like I’d rather not still be in my wedding dress by then. I’m also not sure I can sleep in this, and I don’t know if you want me getting naked in your bed. Do you think you could take me into town for a little shopping?”
I raise an eyebrow. Something else thinks about rising, too, because the image of Andi Summers naked and slipping beneath her sheets is waking parts of me that I’d rather keep slumbering. “I wouldn’t mind. But places close early here. By the time we got you to town, nothing would be open. You can borrow some of my clothes for tonight. I’m sure they’ll be big, but it should do.”
“Okay,” she says slowly. “I can do that. And you really don’t mind taking me in the morning to get clothes?” She clutches her hands together, smiling. “I may just need to borrow a little money. And then I can have Jake pay you back tomorrow. And then I’ll figure out how to pay him back,” she says forehead scrunching more and more as she speaks, as if it’s some complicated puzzle.
“Alright, then. That settles that.”
“Thank you!” She rushes forward and hugs me. “For everything,” she says, voice muffled by my chest. “For saving me, not looking up my dress, taking me to the doctor, letting me stay in your cabin, introducing me to your teammates and letting me taste Nolan’s mother, giving me your jacket, and now this.”
I smile, noticing that she still manages to smell like all things feminine, even in her current state. I also thought I was letting her borrow my jacket, but it sounds like she’s keeping it. Maybe that should annoy me, but I just find it endearing. “Sure. You’d do the same for me.”
“Oh, no,” she laughs. “I would’ve definitely looked up your dress. Not that I’ve been picturing you in a dress. I just mean if I was you and you were me–” She blushes bright red and then smiles as Carter steps out to the deck.
“Are we talking about Jesse in a dress? Because I’ve always thought he has the legs for it.”
5
ANDI
