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I finish loading the dishwasher and then turn off the lights in the kitchen, and head to bed.
The following day I head up to Seven’s to drop off my key and get Slade’s so I can take a shower before work.
I knock on Seven’s door and hear his loud footsteps as he approaches. The door creaks open, and Seven is in full workout gear, probably about to head to the gym. The guy’s work ethic is ridiculous.
“Hey, Slade said you have a backup key to his apartment.”
“Yeah, right… he said you’d be coming by,” Seven says as he pushes the door open a little wider for me to come in and then disappears into his apartment as I wait inside the door, keeping it from closing.
“Here,” he says, handing me Slade’s apartment key, and then I hand him a copy of mine.
“Thanks. Not having a shower sucks,” I tell him.
I turn to head back out the door, not expecting Seven to want to chitchat, when I hear him clear his voice.
“Penelope…uh… you doing ok?” he asks awkwardly.
I turn around, already knowing what he’s hinting at.
“Is this your “Seven” way of asking if Slade and I are dating?” I grin.
Seven would probably rather step on red-hot coals a mile long than discuss my love life with a player… or lack thereof, in this case, so I know this is coming from a place of care and concern. Something I know Seven is capable of but doesn’t like to show much, though I don’t know the backstory on it.
Shockingly, he’s not exactly an open book.
“It’s just that I’ve seen you two interact. It seems that you have history, and none of it is good. But then I’ll walk in and…”
“Find us making out on the floor of the gym?”
I can’t believe I just said that out loud, but it’s not like he didn’t catch us in the act. We might as well put it out in the open between us instead of beating around the bush.
He nods.
"Right."
“Nothing is going on between us. He hurt me years ago, and I’m barely learning to trust him again. He offered to help me train, and that’s all. Things might have gone a little further than they should have that day.”
He puts his hand on the door handle to hold it open so that I no longer have to.
“You sure it’s nothing?” he asks carefully.
I cross my arms over my chest, not loving that it seems Seven is sensing something between Slade and me. Something that I’m trying to avoid.
“I think he has a thing for you, and I don’t want to see him get hurt. I don’t know his whole story, but enough to know that he’s a loner by default, not by choice.”
“You forget that I’m just an ice skater… he’s the player, and we attended the same college. I’ve heard enough rumors to know that Slade wasn’t alone all that much.”
His eyes glance down at the key in my hand.
“I don’t know who he was in college, and the last thing I’m going to do is put my neck out on the line for a guy I’m still getting to know. Plus, I think Sam might kill me for encouraging you towards a player on the team, but I don’t think he’s the same guy he was then. We room together on the road, and besides a drink or two at the hotel bar on occasion after a win, he and I are both in our rooms by curfew. I haven’t seen him show interest to a single woman in the time he’s been playing for us… and trust me, there is no shortage of woman shooting their shot with the new center.”
I stare back at him and purse my lips.
I’m not shocked that Slade has women all over him. I’ve seen his cheering section at the home games and the women who rubber neck whenever we’re in public together. I’ve seen puck bunnies at Oakley’s trying to garner his attention with low tops and short skirts.
But hearing that he’s that way out of town, too, surprises me a little. I still don’t know why Seven thinks this information means anything to me. He also has no idea what happened between Slade and me years ago. And although I wouldn’t be against spilling my guts to Seven since the guy is a damn vault, keeping Ryker and Juliet’s secret, I don’t want him to see Slade any different.
“How do you figure that Slade not sleeping with puck bunnies has anything to do with me?”
