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“So fuck face is a term of endearment, then.”
She didn’t state it as a question.
“Something like that.” I wasn’t entirely sure Koz held anyone or anything in that kind of esteem.
“I’m Cadence,” she said.
“I know.” God, I felt like a fucking teenager around her. “I’m Levi. Levi Babcock.”
“I know, too. Cam said the guys all call you 501. Like the jeans.” She blushed and crossed over to me, holding out her hand. I took it, but I held on to her palm rather than giving a proper shake, letting the warmth of her skin travel up my arm and wrap around my heart. She tugged her hand away. “I shouldn’t have come. It should’ve only been the team. I told Cam maybe it would be best if I stayed with the kids tonight instead of—”
“It wouldn’t have been best for me,” I interrupted.
She blinked at me in surprise.
She couldn’t be any more surprised than I was. The crazy thing was, I meant it, even though I didn’t understand a lick of all the shit going through my head.
For one thing, I was thinking a hell of a lot more about myself than I was about her—wondering if she’d mind helping me forget all about my woe-is-me attitude of late, among other things. For another, Cadence was Jonny’s sister—not someone I needed to involve myself with by any stretch of the imagination if I valued my life and keeping my balls in their present location. And finally, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to get involved with anyone, let alone her. I’d only been on my own for a few months, and I kind of liked it. Yeah, I was lonely sometimes, but I also had more freedom than I’d ever known in my life. Growing up with six brothers, not to mention twenty-some-odd teammates every year who might as well be my brothers, left me with very little time by myself.
But there was something niggling at the back of my mind. Something that felt a lot like guilt, and I didn’t have a clue what I had to feel guilty about, beyond finding Jonny’s sister hot as hell.
Except…
Cadence Johnson wasn’t just Jonny’s sister. She was the belle of the ball as far as Canada was concerned. Hell, most of America and the rest of the world had fallen for her in the Winter Games, too, and they hadn’t let her go. Her smile was infectious, and she seemed as sweet on the inside as she appeared on the outside. At the moment, she was a bigger deal than Katie had been at the height of her popularity, and Katie’s shine kept fading as she spent more and more time in Portland writing songs instead of in Hollywood being a starlet.
And there was a part of me—an ugly, petty part of me, which might be better kept under tight wraps—that thought maybe I could finally be the better Babcock brother, at least in one way, if I managed to snag Cadence Johnson as my girlfriend.
I usually managed to keep that part quiet. I used the less generous side of me as fuel to work harder, to improve myself in whatever ways I could. Right now, he was screaming to be set free.
I crossed over and grabbed a beer from the fridge, my eyes settling on her again when I leaned against the counter and popped the bottle top. For the briefest moment, I thought there was something wary flashing through her eyes, but that something was gone as soon as it had appeared.
She should be wary of me. Lord knew I was.
Because I couldn’t seem to stop myself from acting out of jealousy, even though it was the last thing I should do.
I took a swig of my beer. “I don’t know how long you’ll be in town, but is there any chance you’d let me take you out one night?”
Before she could answer, Jonny came into the kitchen and headed for the fridge, glaring at me. He very well should glare at me, especially if he had any idea at all of what was going through my head. Which he almost definitely did. He was a guy. He had to know how hot Cadence was, even if he didn’t think of her in those terms.
I didn’t think he’d hit me. Not yet, at least. But I wasn’t about to take my eyes off him just in case.
He held out a hand for the bottle opener. I gave it to him, and he opened the two beers he’d retrieved.
“I like you, 501,” he said slowly. “Don’t do anything to make me change my mind.”
There wasn’t anything I could say, so I shook my head.
He grunted again and headed out with the beers. By the time he was gone, his sister was, too.
For a moment, I thought about finding out where she’d gone. Then I thought better of it. Jonny had warned me off, and even though she hadn’t said a word after I’d asked her out, her answer had been clear enough.
Cadence Johnson wasn’t interested in me. Smart girl.
Instead, I headed down the stairs with my beer to join Koz and the other single guys. There were a lot of ways I could spend my night that would be a hell of a lot worse than hanging out with them. They were my brothers, after all, almost as much as Jamie and the rest of my biological brothers.
Koz shot his head up from the pool table when I came around the corner. “You could’ve brought us some fucking beers, too.”
“I could have,” I said, smirking in an effort to forget the huge mistake I’d almost made. “I just thought you were already wasted, after the shit way you skated tonight.”
Then I ducked to avoid the cue chalk he tossed at my head.
