Page 89 of Rising Heat

“Funny you should mention that,” he points right back at me. “You two haven’t brought anybody around in weeks.”

“Been busy,” Mack says.

“Oh.”

He points between the two of us.

“So this has everything to do with the girl upstairs.”

“What?” I scoff. “No.”

Coop straightens.

“Holy shit.”

Marco doesn’t even look up from rewrapping his stick.

“I was wondering how long it was gonna take one of you to say it.”

“We’re not sleeping with our tenant,” I say.

Ryan grins.

“Yeah. That’s exactly the problem.”

I blink.

“What problem?”

“You’ve been so busy not sleeping with her you forgot you’re usually sleeping with somebody.”

The room goes quiet for exactly half a second.

Then everyone starts talking at once.

“Jesus.”

“I didn’t even think about that.”

“How long’s it been?”

“That’s actually impressive.”

“That explains the attempted homicide on the ice,” Ryan says, looking toward Mack.

“Just needed to burn something off,” Mack mutters.

“I bet.”

That earns another round of laughs.

I catch Mack’s eye across the room. He just shakes his head once like he’s already tired of this conversation, which is rich, considering I’ve spent the last five days trying not to think about Darcy. Five days telling myself—and him—that getting a little space was the smart move. That we’d gotten caught up in the storm, the alcohol, the cards, and twenty-four straight hours with a girl we both were attracted to but couldn’t have.

Distance was supposed to fix that. Now half the team has noticed.

The whistle blows to start the third and Ryan doesn’t move.

I shove his shoulder.