He slowly shakes his head. “I can’t let you, Squeak.”
A tear bursts free and runs down my face. I tug at my arm. “You don’t know that!”
“I do.” He looks back toward my apartment, his shoulders tense. “I think you should come home with me for tonight.”
“What? No!”
“Yes. I’m not letting you check on your apartment right now. And Beck and Rosie are asleep. Where else are you going to go?”
“I…” I look toward my apartment. Another fire truck is turning down the street. As much as I don’t want to take his advice, I don’t really have a lot of choices right now. He opens the door to his SUV, waving me inside. Once I shut the door, he hops in. “I could… go to a hotel? Or Indie’s.”
“Why would you do that when I’m already right here?” He puts the SUV in gear. “Text Beck while I drive.”
“And where am I supposed to sleep?”
For the first time since the fire, he looks vaguely amused. “Don’t worry, Squeak. I have a spare bedroom with a door that locks… from either side.”
“Wh— uh–” I start to protest.
“I’m kidding. It’ll be fine.” And with that, he pulls out, heading away from the wailing sirens.
Chapter Four
Thorne
The events of last night swirl around in my mind before my eyes even open. Mollie pushing my buttons and asking me to take her virginity. That threw me for a loop.
As far as Mollie knows, I’m a fuckboy. I guess it makes sense she would ask me because I’m experienced or whatever, but it feels like shit. Especially because I had to turn her down.
I didn’t want to, but she doesn’t want me. She wants Alex Thorne, hockey legend. She wants the guy on billboards, the guy that all the girls go nuts for. The PR golden boy.
And here I thought I’d done a good job of showing her that I’m a real person with a beating heart. I guess not.
Then when I tried to take her home, her apartment was on fire. Watching Mollie realize that most of her possessions were fuel for the flames was almost as painful as when I turned her down. I’m just glad that she agreed to stay at my place for the night.
Not being able to watch out for her would’ve been the killing blow for my ego.
My phone buzzes next to my head. I open my eyes a crack, and see that it's Beck. That explains getting a call before seven.
"Hey," I mumble when I pick up.
"Jesus, Thorne. I've been calling you and Mollie both."
I squint. "Mollie stayed at my house last night."
Beck huffs. "Yeah, I gathered as much from the handful of texts I got from her. She said there was a fire at her apartment?"
I sit up in bed, my brain still groggy. "Fuck. Yes, there was a pretty big fire. I was giving her a ride home from The Secret History and when I tried to turn onto her street, the whole building was on fire."
"Shit. Has she heard from the building management?"
"You know as much as I do. When I saw the fire, I felt like the responsible thing to do was to bring her over here and put her up in my spare bedroom. By that time, it was 11 o'clock, past my bedtime, so..."
"Right." Beck sighs. "Right, sorry. Living with Rosie has made early to bed, early to rise my M.O."
"That was my guess."
Beck pauses. "Rosie is sick. She woke me up at 2:30, crying and scratching that wasp sting on her cheek."
