Liam
Eventually, everyone starts gathering their things and making for the door. Slowly. Like they aren’t quite sure about leaving their daughter with me. I wrap an arm around Stormy’s shoulders. The signal clear. I’m keeping her.
Even if it’s just for now.
A round of awkward hugs and weakly reiterated congrats are issued. I lift my hand to bust knuckles with Nichols, but all I get back is a pissy stare. Fair enough. I’ll make it right with him at the arena tomorrow.
Stormy and I give a final wave, I close the door, and we slide free of each other’s holds, slumping against opposite walls.
When Stormy’s weary eyes come up to meet mine, regret hits me hard.
“Stormy, I’m sorry.” If I’d kept my shit together she wouldn’t be facing any of this.
She shakes her head. “It would have come out. You don’t even want to know how many times I’ve almost thrown our marriage in Ray’s face.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t.”
She lifts a shoulder and lets out a breath. “So, how’s this going to work?”
I push off the wall and take her hand, leading her to a stool at the island where I pour her another glass of wine. “Where should we start?”
She downs half of it in one big swallow and folds her arms over the counter in front of her. “Sex.”
“Yeah, that was outstanding.”
“Ha-ha. But also, yes. It was.”
I like that she agrees, even knowing what comes next.
“Still,” she starts, those pretty blue eyes fixed on her glass. “With us living together…”
“Crossing that line again would be a mistake.” As fun as it was, neither of us need this situation complicated any more than it already is.
She nods, then dares a look at me. “But what about your other women?"
Easy. “No other women.”
“Really?”
Why does it sound like she doesn’t believe me? “Not as long as we’re together.”
“And how long is that?"
“Depends on you. We’ll keep this up until you find someone else.”
It seems like a pretty generous offer, but for some reason, Stormy looks like I spit on her.
“Excuse me? So now I’m the cheater?”
Ahh. Got it.
“That's not what I’m saying.”
“Then what are you saying? Because it sounds like while you’ve decided to be faithful to our loveless marriage, I’m supposed to be out on the prowl looking for an opportunity to trade up. Because you won’t be free until I do.”
Something is seriously wrong with me. I’m telling her to find someone else and my inner caveman is flipping his shit when I even think about it happening? Not cool.
The whole point of this was to set her free, not lock her down.
“I’m not expecting you to be out on the prowl. All I’m saying is that one of these days you’re going to realize you want more. And I’m good until then.”
“No way. We need an end date that we both agree to so neither of us will be blindsided by the end of this thing. A plan.”
“What are you proposing?”
She pushes the glass around on the counter a bit, the wheels turning behind eyes I need to stop thinking about looking up at me as I moved inside of her.
“Two years. Two more years. It’s long enough that neither of us looks like we didn’t take it seriously. We gave it a shot and it wasn’t right.”
I nod. “Long enough for you to realize this isn’t the life you want.”
“Well, hold on. I don’t—”
I hold up my hand. “It’s easy and believable. Think about all the time apart. Never being the priority. The constant threat of trades. For a woman bound to her family business, a trade to another team wouldn’t just uproot you, it would—”
“Okay, I get it. People grow apart all the time. It doesn’t always have to end in some epic betrayal and heartbreak. No one has to be the villain.”
“Exactly.”
“And”— she leans forward, giving up a smile too contagious not to meet —“no one is going to be trying to set us up anymore!”
We’ve got early practice, so I start a pot of coffee for Stormy and try to creep through the apartment without too much noise on the way out. I think about texting to let her know when I’ll be back, but she was up late and I don’t know if her phone is silenced. A sticky note with the garage code and spot number next to the keys will have to do it.
Then I grab my bag and head down for the Lyft.
We’ll get the car situation sorted out along with everything else as it comes. Once I clear the air with Nichols, maybe I’ll ask him to help me pick up Stormy’s car where we left it back at her office.
Crazy to think he’s going to be my brother-in-law. The guy’s so over-the-top chatty and friendly as it is, once we’re officially in-laws?
I huff a laugh into my fist as the early-morning traffic moves on the Drive. I could do way worse.
Most of the team is on the ice already, so I haul ass getting ready. I’ve just laced up when the man himself rounds the corner.
“Got a minute?”
“Yeah, man.” I push up from the bench, wondering if I should start calling him Noel. “Wanted to talk to you anyway.”
He nods, his mouth splitting into a wide grin. “I bet you did.”
The hair on the back of my neck starts to stand.
That smile he’s giving me… doesn’t look quite right.
In fact, I’m pretty sure the only time I’ve ever seen a look on Nichols’s face like this was when we played against the Blaze last month and that fucker Holtz checked Whalen into the boards from behind and the kid got carried out on a stretcher.
“You’ve been married a year, huh?”
Misty must have clued him in on the timeline. I look around, making sure the locker room is empty before answering. Seeing it’s empty, I turn back and—
That’s when his fist plows into my face.
My head snaps back, and I gape at him. “What the fuck, man! A sucker-punch?”
Nichols can hit. I’ve seen him take a guy off his skates.
But as hard as he hits, I can take harder.
I have.
“Guess you shoulda seen that one coming a year away.” He rolls his shoulders, arms loose, weight shifting from skate to skate. “Bet you’ll see this one, though.”
Oh, I do. And I’m already cocked. “Let’s go.”
Next thing, we’ve got each other by the shirts and fists are flying as we grapple on the rubber floor.
He clips my jaw, and I growl, eyes narrowing as I lose my sense of humor about whatever the fuck is going on. I grab his arm mid-swing and shove it back so I can meet his eyes.
“I don’t… know… what crawled up your ass—”
“You did!” he barks back, fighting to get to me. “When you cheated… on my girl’s sister.”
The accusation lands harder than the sucker-punch, knocking me back.
Or no. That’s Rux and Vassar dragging me off him while Coach blows into the locker room, bellowing for us to break it up.
“What the hell’s the matter with you two?” he demands, face red, hair standing up.
“Nothing,” Nichols grunts as we both get to our feet. “Sorry, Coach. Accident.”
“We tripped,” I mutter.
I move to slap his arm for good measure but realize my teammates still have my arms pinned.
“That’s what I thought. No way would two of my players be dumb enough to get into a scrap… in my house.”
“Not these guys,” Rux says, clapping me on the shoulder. Hard.
“No way,” Vassar adds as Coach nods, heading back to the ice. “Not on this team.”
I grit my teeth, shrugging my teammates off. “He started it.”
Vassar raises a brow, giving me the OG resting prick face. “Really?”
Rux gives up a deep sigh. “Girls, I don’t give a shit who started it.” His voice deepens to this-is-your-captain level. “Get the fuck on the ice. Now.”
Forty minutes later, I’m dripping sweat as I skate up to Nichols. The look he gives me says he’s ready to go again.
Holding up my gloves, I shake my head.
“I didn’t cheat.”
His scowl deepens.
“Bullshit. I saw you.” The way he says it, with total confidence, makes no sense. Until he adds, “Tampa. The hotel bar.”
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!”