AllFreeNovel
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It clicks. And fuuuuck.
“Yeah, I remember because it was one of the only nights you actually hung out with the team. And I can see from your face, asshole, you remember too.”
Yeah, I remember sitting in that damn bar, watching the bunnies circle their prey. Thinking living like a monk wasn’t part of the bargain.
That I was being stupid. Our marriage wasn’t real. Legal, yeah, but— Hell, we hadn’t even consummated it.
This one girl looked up. She saw me watching from the booth I was sharing with a couple of the guys, and she was on the move. And I thought…fuck it.
Coach blows his whistle, and Nichols skates away, making sure to knock my shoulder as he goes.
Now I get it.
Practice lasts forever, and the few breaks we take, Nichols spends with as much ice between us as he can manage.
After, we meet with coaches and trainers, and have lunch as a team. There are too many people around to pull him aside, especially since Rux and Vassar seem to have recruited every guy in the building to keep us apart.
So instead of calling another car when we wrap up for the afternoon, I wait outside the back exit. I’m not generally attached to my teammates. They’re teammates. Guys I work with and might be traded at any time. Or might watch me get traded.
But Nichols… Shit. I don’t like this.
When he comes out, I push off the wall and walk over. My hands are in my pockets, and I’m hunched against the cold…Not a threat.
His eyes narrow on me as I approach. “Jesus, what are you, a fucking bunny here to hit me up for a quickie in my car?”
“Nah, married. Remember?” The joke falls flat, and I clear my throat. “Look, it’s not what you think.”
“I think you had some brunette sitting on your lap for half the night. And when you left, it was with her.”
“Stormy is probably explaining the whole thing to Misty right now, but there’s something you’ve got to understand.” And then I explain what happened, what our plan was, and why I fucking hijacked his car when I saw her coming out of O’Hare— Jesus, was it just a couple weeks ago?
He’s stopped walking, and his mouth has been gaping open long enough I’m surprised there isn’t a snowdrift on his tongue.
When he finally closes it, he looks a little less like he wants to take my head off. But the violence isn’t completely gone from his eyes.
“You were still married.”
“Yeah, and my dick agrees with you.” I can’t believe I’m going to tell him this. “I left with that woman. I took her up to my room, but… I didn’t let her in. I didn’t even kiss her. There hasn’t been anyone else.”
He stands there a minute, and I think he’s going to call bullshit, but instead, he just nods. “No wonder you were losing your shit in such a non-Diesel way when you saw her.”
I guess I did, not that it was about getting laid.
Suddenly, the guy I know is back, hauling me in for a full-on rocking side-to-side hug. Jesus. “Dude, we’re going to be brothers!”
16
Stormy
Iknew she was pissed, but a chain lock?
“Misty,” I growl into the two-inch gap between the front door of the apartment we were sharing until yesterday. “I can hear you.”
After some fumbling, the door closes in my face. I hear the slide of metal, and then I’m granted entry.
I take off my jacket and slip off my shoes. “I’m sorry. I should have told you.”
“Umm, yeah, you should have.” Misty walks over to the couch and drops into her corner. There’s an open pizza box on the coffee table along with a bridal magazine and the skinny notepad that came in one of those March of Dimes mail campaigns we donated to last year.
