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"I found her stuff," Kris says, shifting his gaze from me to Chad. His lip curls in disgust. "Clean your fucking house and have some self-respect."
Chad's too busy massaging his throat to respond.
He doesn't have anything important to say anyway.
"Let's go," I bark at Kris, shooting Chad a final warning look.
Fear widens his eyes. I'm guessing he's more sober in this moment than he's been in years. It'd almost be sad if it weren'tso infuriating. But I know he's not going to be a problem for Charlotte anymore. He'll crawl back into his hole where he belongs. I don't intend to leave him there for long. He won't have an opportunity to try the same shit with some other woman. I'm taking this complex from him as soon as my lawyers can make it happen.
If he's smart, he'll sell it. If he's not, I'll take it anyway.
I hold the door open for Kris, letting him out ahead of me.
I don't look back before closing the door. There's no point.
This fucker is in the rearview, exactly where he belongs.
Chapter Nine
Charlotte
"Wow," I whisper, staringin awe at the sheet of ice stretched across the stadium. It's a lot bigger in person than it is on TV. The sheer size of it is…wow. The whole arena is fascinating. I can see why Theo spends so much time here. There's so much to see. "This place is huge."
"Right?" Weston's wife, Laney says, laughing quietly. "It's overwhelming at first, but you'll get used to it. You'll probably be spending a lot of time here with Theo now."
"I will?" I blink over at her.
She smiles, pushing blonde tendrils of hair out of her round face. Like me, she's curvy. She's also pregnant. Wes is funny. He keeps skating over to check on her. We're sitting in the box atcenter ice while they practice. Laney said practices are often held at a different arena and are open to the public, but practices here are always closed so they can really focus.
They have a game tomorrow they need to win. I guess they're a little worried about it because Theo hasn't been cleared to play and probably won't be until at least midweek. Kellan is taking his first line spot until he's able to play again.
He went to talk to Kelsey nearly two hours ago but hasn't come back yet. He sent me a text to let me know he was taking care of a few things. Kelsey popped in the locker room about half an hour after he left to tell me that he had to do something important. I like her. She's sassy and seems to know the guys really well. She didn't tell me what Theo was dealing with.
Whatever it is seems major. Kelsey looked worried about it. When she pulled Kris aside to talk to him, he looked worried too. He disappeared a few minutes later. I have a feeling it has something to do with me or my landlord, but I'm not sure exactly what's going on. I know Theo will tell me when he gets a chance, though. So I'm trying not to worry about it. Theo won't let anything bad happen. I know that much. Everything else…well, we'll figure it out.
Laney is doing a good job keeping me occupied.
I was nervous about meeting everyone this morning, but I feel a lot better now that I've met them. I'm having so much fun watching them! His teammates are hilarious. And Laney and Camila, who was here a little while ago, have been nothing but nice to me. Camila left half an hour ago to deal with some emergency involving Gray. There seem to be a lot of those around here.
As bizarre as it is, it makes me feel better to know I'm not the only one constantly courting disaster. From the sounds of it, Camila and Kelsey spend most of their time putting out some publicity fire one of the guys started.
It's…eye-opening. Most of my life, I've felt like the oddball, the mess who just couldn't get her life together. Here, I fit right in. Almost as if this is where I'm supposed to be. It's freeing to realize that even ridiculously wealthy hockey stars can be disasters too.
I've spent so long feeling like I was the only one, I guess I never realized that we all have our crosses to bear. At least I haven't had to hoist mine and carry it in front of the entire world like these guys have for most of their adult lives. They never let it slow them down or stop them though.
If they can do it, so can I. For Theo, I will do it.
"You will," Laney says, still smiling at me. "Theo has been talking about you since I met him. I'm so happy you guys are finally together. We've all been dying to meet you for months, but he doesn't like to share you."
"He talked about me?" I ask, my heart melting.
Laney nods, and then laughs when Jonas goes whizzing past, playing his hockey stick like a guitar while Kellan charges after him, threatening his life. They're all crazy! They're also incredibly talented. They've been running drills and doing a thousand other things that look exhausting all morning. I cannot wait to see Theo out there with them where he belongs.
"I didn't know that," I murmur. I'm not really surprised to learn Theo talked about me. Not anymore, at least. He's as wildly in love with me as I am with him. I just never let myself see it before. I think I was too afraid to let myself see it. But I'm not afraid anymore. He won't let me hang onto the fear. Every time he kisses me, it's like he's kissing it out of me.
I hope he never stops. I don't want to hide from him anymore. He makes me so happy I think it's going to burst out of me. I want to hang onto that feeling forever. Even if it means facing the world. They can laugh if they want. It won't change the way Ifeel about him. It won't change the way he feels about me either. He loves me. I'm starting to realize he's always loved me.
I still haven't told him how I feel. Every time I tried last night, he made me forget words! And then my uncle was at the house this morning. I think he saw the pictures of me and Theo. He asked if Theo was treating me all right. He didn't seem thrilled that we're together now, but he didn't seem mad about it either. I tried to get Theo to tell me what they talked about after Uncle John left, but he just told me not to worry about it.
