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I narrowed my eyes, watching Nicholl pause to talk with some of his o-line players. “Does he seem unusually cheerful to you today?”
Cannon shrugged. “Don’t know. Don’t care. Why?”
I shrugged too, my gaze stuck suspiciously on our enemy. “Just seems as if he’s always in his best mood after he’s done something terrible to someone else.”
“Just be glad it wasn’t against either of us then,” Cannon shot back, popping to his feet before he reached out to offer me a fist bump.
I shook my head and stood as well because I wasn’t quite as certain as my friend was that Nicholl hadn’t done some grievous offense against either of us. Sometimes it took a bit to realize when he’d struck.
Throughout practice, I kept watching him, waiting for his newest undertaking to come to light. But he ignored me as if I didn’t exist.
Hmm, maybe he was just looking forward to his stupid party. That would be a first. My own Halloween plans involved going home and logging online to play Fortnite with Cannon and some of the guys because I guess they had some interesting Halloween challenges happening in the game tonight.
I had no idea my plans would change the moment I stepped foot inside my apartment. But hearing Haven yelp, “Son of a bitch,” from the kitchen right before a pan clanged loudly piqued my curiosity and sealed my fate.
I wandered that way to see what she was cooking—or trying to cook—only to curse in surprise and duck as a banana flew past my head when I reached the entrance.
“Dammit,” Haven growled from the table where she’d heaved the banana in frustration without even knowing I was there. Mopping up some liquid with a dish towel that had spilled from a bowl, she added, “Why isn’t anything working?”
Blinking out my dismay, I peered around the room, needing more than a moment to process what I saw.
Numerous bowls of pale, creamy substances, an open carton of milk, a bottle of glue, laundry detergent, and bottled water cluttered the tabletop in front of her, along with a box of condoms with half of them open and littering the wooden surface like little wilted flags of defeat.
On the floor beside her, Bingley ignored her cat toy and was merrily batting around another unrolled condom.
“Uh…” Taking a step back, I glanced around to see if anyone else was present, but Haven seemed to be all alone with her condoms. “I’m not even going to ask.”
Haven looked up and blew a wild piece of hair that had fluttered into her face out of her eyes. “I can’t make authentic-looking jizz,” she grumbled.
O…kay.
What was a guy supposed to say to that?
“Right,” I said slowly. “Well… That sounds like a personal problem, so I’m just… I’m going to leave.”
“Topher’s throwing a party tonight,” she cut in, stopping me as soon as I turned and tried to escape.
I glanced back, took in the devastation on her face, and stopped dead in my tracks, wondering why her ex’s social life should bother her so much. Unless she wasn’t over him yet.
Ah, hell.
After blowing out a breath, I nodded. “Yeah. I heard about it.”
Her eyes glittered with rage as she glared. “Well, did you hear about what he did to me today?”
Fuck. I’d known he’d been too smugly pleased at practice not to have done something terrible. Watching Haven practically vibrate with fury, I slowly answered, “No. I didn’t. What did he do?”
“I almost got fired from my position at the preschool,” she started.
My eyes grew wide. “What?”
She nodded, her lips trembling as she tried to control her temper. “Apparently the rumor he’s spreading about me being a nasty, cheating ho with an STD is really getting around, and people are actually believing it. Cason wasn’t in class today, and afterward, Jaymi, my supervisor, pulled me into her office to tell me a parent had become so worried about the reputation of the student staff there because of that very rumor that she pulled her kid from the entire preschool.”
“What the hell?” I said, widening my eyes and unable to believe what I was hearing. “That’s crazy. And Cason’s the boy who proposed to you, isn’t he?”
Tears filled her eyes. “Yes,” she wailed. “I had to go to the health department, get a printout of my test results from Darcy, and return them to Jaymi to prove that I was clean and therefore safe to be around the children. Oh my God, Wick, it was so humiliating.”
“Yeah,” I said, stepping further into the kitchen. “I can imagine. Are you oka—”
