ME: How are you?
Erase the message to Mia and start again.
Me: I miss you.
Erase.
Me: I lied. I don’t want it to be just one weekend.
Erase.
Me: I need you.
The elevator dings, and I step off unsteadily, my heart pounding. The emptiness in my stomach mirrors the hollowness in my chest, and I shove my phone into my pocket, another message unsent.
How could I let her walk away like that? She’s worth more than any fucking career, and if it wasn’t for Alex, I’d already be in Ottawa right now.
Then there’s what happened in the gym today. I can still feel Alex’s hard cock rubbing against mine. The way he looked up at me with his hooded eyes had me nearly coming undone. It was my last vestige of sanity. The knowledge that it would cost me more than I could afford is what had me hauling myself off him.
Alex’s apartment door is closed. He’d gone to Lucas’s place after our shitty-ass meeting with Coach.
I unlock my door across the hall and step in. My place is all modern lines and masculine finishes. I’d told the designer I wanted it to be clean but moody. Somewhere I could sink into after a brutal game.
I pick up the semi-full decanter of bourbon on the sideboard and pour two fingers into a glass tumbler before making my way to the living room. Sunlight floods through the floor-to-ceiling windows, spilling onto the black leather couch.
Collapsing on my sofa, I take a deep drink from my glass and flip on ESPN. Alex’s smiling face immediately fills the screen. He’s got the perfect balance of cocky and playful that the cameras eat the fuck up.
I cannot believe Damon Everette’s getting on Alex’s case about his image. As if we don’t know this has nothing to do with building a wholesome image and everything to do with Alex nearly hooking up with Everette’s niece.
It took all my willpower not to round the table and tell him exactly what I thought about his bullshit.
I’ve always been protective of Alex, but something snapped into place in Napa, and now, that boy is mine. No one fucks with what’s mine.
Napa gave me a taste of everything I’d ever wanted. Alex, Mia and me. The family I’ve always craved but never had. At fifteen, moving out to play AAA hockey felt like a dream come true, but I didn’t understand then I was giving up my parents for my career.
That I’d never experience that sense of belonging again. They say your team is your family, but with the ever-present possibility of being traded, it never quite fills the void created by my decision over a decade ago.
My parents thought they’d still see me, but with the high demand of hockey and the endless travel schedule, the distance grew between us until it felt easier to stay apart.
Mia and Alex are different. I’d do anything to have them both in my life. They threatened to trade Alex, not knowing I’d be gone with him. I don’t give a single fuck about the game compared to him.
He’s my only true family, and now I need a plan to get Mia back. Because life will never be whole without her.
She completes Alex and me. I have no doubts he feels the same way about her as I do.
Now we just need to figure out how to bridge the gap between us in Boston and her in Ottawa to prove we’re in this for real.
That we’ll do what it takes to make it work. However, before we do anything drastic, we need to know our girl is ready. Because she is ours, even if she hasn’t admitted it yet.
