AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But she moved forward to whisper in my ear anyway. “That’s the look of a taken man.” Her hot breath sent an involuntary shiver up my spine. “But aren’t you single, Duke Callahan?” She trailed her long, fake nail up my neck, making me let out a strangled noise.
I pulled back a bit and looked in her dark brown eyes. “You’ve still got a way with those.” I nodded toward her nails. She had a way with them as a freshman in high school, and she’d only improved her moves since then.
She threw her head back laughing before looking at me again. “Don’t take things so seriously, Dukiepoo. Let’s have some fun tonight, yeah?” She grinned at me daringly.
While I absolutely hated it when she called me ‘Dukiepoo’ and I should’ve just politely declined, out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of hazel eyes staring at me…
So, I didn’t push her away. I mean, Icouldn’tpush Daniella away, because I needed to push a certain 5’1, competitive, small girl away instead.
Daniella: good.
Claire: not so good.
I wouldn’t get attached to Daniella. Daniella didn’t expect anything from me. She wasn’t dangerous.
Jeez. I felt like I was back in the ninth grade again– only spending time with Daniella to try and get Claire out of my mind…
“I saw the hit,” she pouted. I forced myself not to roll my eyes. That was a given, it seemed like everyone in the world had seen it. Mentally, I wondered if she’d seen any of my highlights… Probably not. I knew she didn't watch hockey. Nah, Daniella sat in the stands googling the roster and then trying to figure out which players were single. She used to do it “for her friends” way back when we were together, so she probably did it more intensely for herself now. There was no shame in that game, I just hated when she’d pretend that she watched the game when it was very clear she didn’t give two shits about it.
“Yeah, it sucks,” I answered kind of lamely for what felt like the hundredth time.
I tried to focus on what she said back, I really did… but my eyes kept wandering over to where Claire was now holding court with about three of the hockey guys, one of which was Tyler fricken Jettersen– the one and only who scribbled Claire’s face out in my eighth grade yearbook. He had newly bleached hair thanks to his AHL team’s playoff tradition. It apparently had brought them luck, because they won, and he scored the winning goal in the championship game. There was no doubt in my mind that he’d be called up or traded into the big league this coming fall. All three guys towered over her, and she kept them all looking down at her, laughing. They were probably trying to look at her boobs. Fuck. Boobs. I looked back down at Daniella in front of me.
“So, what do you say?” she asked with happy puppy dog eyes.
“Um, to what? Sorry, I’m currently concussed.” I motioned toward my head and gave an apologetic smile.
“Oh, poor baby!” she whined. I internally cringed at the high-pitched sound of her voice. “We were saying we should go play bags out on the lawn. Wanna?”
I knew she was asking because I used to love playing bags, but in my current state there was no way that would be a good idea. Hell, even crutching on the uneven grass after one beer sounded like a shit idea.
“Um… Not sure that would work out great, Dee,” I told her.
“Oh my gosh,” she giggled. “You remembered my nickname!”
“Yeah,” I smiled wryly and brought my beer to my lips again as an excuse not to say anything else. Claire was currently dragging Tyler by the hand over to the beer pong tables.
And I will never know what compelled me to ask, but ask away I did anyway: “Hey, Dee, wanna play some beer pong?”
It looked like I made her whole night with the question, and she made way for me to crutch over there first.
14.Claire
“How about we play you guys?”
I looked up to see an expectant looking Duke with a backwards hat over his flowy hair, wearing a CCM dry-fit hockey shirt, and sweatpants that covered most of his cast except his foot popping out. The temperature definitely dipped around here at night, so I was pretty jealous of his sweatpants. It really wasn’t fair that guys got to wear comfy clothes to the bar when girls were expected to wear something short, tight, and cute. Then again, I definitely purposely picked out this outfit… forhim.
Yet here he was… withher.
I internally scowled over the fact that I was still so attracted to him, yet he could still make me sosoangry.
Because I honestly thought that when I walked in here tonight, I’d end up leaving with him… Why the hell was he being so nice to me all week if that wasn’t his intention?
He and I agreed on friendship when we sat in that back booth at Benny’s, but I guess I automatically expected it to go back to how it was right before he ditched out of here: AKA back when we were growing beyond friendship. So, I truly thought he’d try to… I don't know…get with me, I guess?
But now he was with Daniella.
And it burned me from the inside out.
