Chapter 7
Seven
Conor
It’s been three days since the night with Eloise, and I can’t stop thinking about her. It’s as if she’s become an obsession, constantly on my mind.
Unable to sit in my condo any longer with thoughts of the woman I can’t have rolling through my brain, I head to the workout facility my agent rents for his Chicago clients, my three closest teammates on the Falcons included.
“Look who finally decided to work out in the offseason?” Tweetie, our left wing, flexes his biceps as if I should be jealous he hasn’t stopped his workout regimen since the season ended.
“Well, some of us still have youth on our side.” I drop my bag and sit on the mat to change my shoes.
Tweetie is the oldest player on the Falcons, but he’s still on the first line, and his game is on point. I’ve never asked, and he’s never mentioned retiring, but we both know he’s on borrowed time. I never want to stop playing, so I understand why he’s been at the gym every day so far this offseason to make sure his playing days don’t come to an end.
“I can still kick your ass.” He picks up some dumbbells, sits on the bench, and starts his curls.
I decide to stretch because I have slacked a little more than I usually do during the offseason, for no reason other than I feel unsettled lately.
“Where the hell did you go the other night?” Tweetie asks, stopping my thoughts from floating back to Eloise.
“The clubs aren’t doing it for me anymore,” I answer. They aren’t, but I’m also not sure Tweetie is the person I want to talk to about this Eloise situation.
Tweetie keeps his cards close to his chest as far as his romantic past. Since I played in Florida before being traded here, I heard rumors of him getting serious with some woman named Tedi. But I heard that after he was traded from Florida to Nashville, they broke up. No one really knows who initiated the breakup or why it didn’t work out, but he’s implied a handful of times that she might have been the one who got away. He ignores that fact, though, and continues acting as if he’s getting some kind of fulfillment from the women who flock to and fawn over him, which is enough to tell me he’s not the one to go to for advice on this matter.
“Just a blonde with a tight ass in leather pants does it for you now?” He smirks at me in the mirror.
“Fuck off.” I stand to do the cardio I desperately need before weights. “I was helping her out.”
“Help her out by being her last hook-up before she walks down the aisle?”
Why did I think Tweetie didn’t notice where I was and who I was with the other night?
“I helped her because her friend was wasted and could barely walk.”
“Always the good Samaritan.” He grins at me.
I press the button on the treadmill, and in the mirror, I catch Rowan walking in.
“We could have shared an Uber! Why aren’t you fuckers texting in the group chat?” He drops his bag next to mine and toes out of his street shoes.
“You spending so much money on my little sister that you can’t afford an Uber?” I ask.
Rowan, our center, fell in love with my little sister while I was still playing in Florida, and now I have to watch him touch her all the time. Since they got together, there’s apparently never enough seating anywhere because she’s always on his lap. All in all, I love to give them a hard time, but he loves my sister and treats her how he should, so I’m good with it.
“Want to compare endorsements?” He smirks at me in the mirror.
I increase my speed on the treadmill to drown out these guys and their bullshit.
“He’s in a mood,” Tweetie says. “I think it’s about the blonde from the other night.”
“What blonde?” Rowan asks.
“Oh, that’s right.” Tweetie drops his weights and acts all dramatic. “You don’t go out with us anymore.”
“Kyleigh and I just went to the club with you guys last week.”
“So, it’s an every other week thing? Good. This week, we’re on the list for that new club on Rush.” Tweetie gets on the treadmill next to me. “Want to race, sunshine?”
“We have a wedding this weekend, sorry.” Rowan stretches on the mat in front of us.
I’ve always thought I was flexible—I have to be, given that I’m a goalie—but damn, Rowan must be doing yoga with Ky or something.
“Your ass is doing that hot yoga shit, aren’t you?” Tweetie asks before I can call Rowan out.
“Jealous?”
“Fuck yeah, hook me up.” Tweetie pumps up his speed higher than mine and shoots me a cocky smirk.
I increase my speed and up my incline, working my thighs.
“I don’t want you staring at Kyleigh’s ass in class,” Rowan says.
“I stare at her ass all the damn time,” Tweetie says.
I reach over and lower his speed, and Tweetie almost trips over his feet and falls down on the treadmill. Of course, he barely fumbles before recovering and pumping up the speed again, shooting me another ego-driven grin.
Rowan reaches over and presses the button to go faster over and over, making Tweetie have to jog then run.
“I’m kidding, asshole,” Tweetie says. “I stopped looking once you got all serious, and I found out she was Pinkie’s sister.”
Rowan continues to stretch. “Back to the blonde?”
Oh fuck, I’m not sure I want to have this conversation with anyone here.
“Ah, the blonde bride-to-be who Conor ruined for her soon-to-be husband.”
“Jackoff, I didn’t fuck her.” I stop my treadmill, annoyed and frustrated.
“You wanted to,” he says, stopping his treadmill too and following me to the benches.
Fuck yeah, I did, but I’m not telling them.
“You got with a bride-to-be?” Rowan asks.
He looks as confused as I am because he knows I’d never cheat on anyone or be the one they cheated with. He saw Kyleigh and me through our parents’ divorce.
“No. I helped a bride-to-be get her drunk bridesmaid into her hotel room. End of story.”
“Except.” Tweetie lifts his hand then points at me. “You didn’t get home until five in the morning.”
Rowan’s eyes shoot up and glance between us.
I shake my head. “It sounds bad, but honestly, I didn’t do anything. And how do you know when I got home?”
“I have eyes everywhere,” Tweetie says with a shrug.
“Sounds like you’re holding out on some details,” Rowan says, bending his body practically in half.
“Hell, what is my sister doing to you?”
“She’s getting me in shape. In more ways than one.” He winks, and both assholes laugh. “Now, stop deflecting. Give us the details.”
I lean my forearms on my thighs and stare at the floor for a second. “Have you ever met someone and instantly felt like there’s something between you? Not to sound stupid, but a spark that just feels different. A familiarity?”
“No,” Tweetie says—a little too defensively.
“You don’t want to hear this, but I felt something similar with your sister.” I blow out a breath, but Rowan continues. “I wanted to see her again, and then I wanted to talk to her, and then I couldn’t get enough of her. But if you really want to know, that first night at that wedding, I was completely obsessed with her before we ever left the venue.”
It’s the affirmation I was looking to hear. That you can find a connection with someone you’ve just met. But there’s one problem—the woman I felt chemistry with is marrying someone else.
“Well, it was a one-night thing, and it’s over.” I shrug.
“Except you’re all in your feelings about it,” Tweetie says.
“Man, that sucks. She’s marrying some other guy? Do you think she’s happy with him?” Rowan joins us on the benches.
“Funny thing is, Jade is her maid of honor. I guess they were high school friends?”
“Are you talking about Eloise?” Rowan asks, mouth agape.
My head rears back. He knows her too? How has she met two of my teammates and our paths have never crossed until now? “You know her?”
“Kyleigh designed her dress.”
I stare blankly at him. He’s got to be kidding me.
“So, during this magic moment between you two, it never came out that your sister designed the dress she’s going to wed another man in?” Tweetie asks.
I ignore Tweetie. “What else do you know?” I ask Rowan, desperate to find out more details because… what? I’m going to stop the wedding if she’s not happy? I’d never do that. Maybe I just like to torture myself.
He shrugs. “Henry probably knows more than me. I saw her at Kyleigh’s shop last fall with Jade. She was trying on a wedding dress. I wasn’t paying attention because I had brought Kyleigh an iced coffee, and we were in our little bubble.”
“Surprise, surprise,” Tweetie says with an eye roll.
Rowan flips him off without looking in his direction. “But she left abruptly, and Jade chased her, then Henry chased Jade. That’s about all I know. That, and the fact that I have to go to her wedding on Saturday. I’m sorry. I’m not sure what I would’ve done had Kyleigh been about to marry someone else when I met her.”
“It’s okay. It’s not like there’s a future for us or anything. It was one night, and I’m probably making it bigger than it was. I need to push Eloise out of my head. Don’t say anything to Henry or Jade, okay? I don’t want this to be a thing. Plus, I’m sure Eloise wants to keep it a secret.” I go over to my bag, change my shoes, and put my bag over my shoulder.
“You’re the dirty secret,” Tweetie says, laughing.
Rowan watches me carefully.
“Pinkie, you need to work out, at least to rebound off this blonde who’s got you all fucked in the head,” Tweetie says, but I just wave and walk out the door.
I’m half tempted to follow them to the wedding Saturday and hide in the shadows. Maybe when I see her marrying another guy, I’ll finally know that anything between us is out of the question. But I’d never ruin her day, so I’ll torture myself until there’s no hope left.