Chapter 40

Forty

Eloise

In two days, preseason training camp starts for the boys, so we all decided to head to Peeper’s downstairs because we’ll have less time together from now until the end of the season.

Conor has been touchy, practically never allowing me out of his sight. I can feel his anxiety over the upcoming change to his schedule. Yes, he’s been accessible up until now, but he has to go back to his job, which keeps him away from home a lot.

“Come here.” Conor grabs my hand and guides me onto his lap.

I sit and wrap my arms around his neck. His arms tighten around me. We’re going to have to have a conversation about this, but not right now. Not when we’re having fun with friends. But he can’t be worried about how I’m handling everything while he’s supposed to be blocking shots on goal.

He kisses my neck. “I would rather be upstairs, driving into you,” he whispers, and my face heats.

No one is looking at us. Kyleigh and Rowan are playing darts against Jade and Henry, and we’re to play the winner.

“It’s unfair that Jade and Henry are a team,” Tweetie says. “I think we should put our names in a hat and draw to make it fair.”

“Why don’t you just practice more?” Henry asks, sitting on a stool with Jade’s back to his chest.

“I can’t time warp back to ten years old and have Jade’s dad teach me.” Tweetie shakes his head.

“I want to know why I never received lessons from Reed,” I say.

Reed is Jade’s stepdad and was Henry’s Big Brother when he was younger. He obviously taught them to play before I met Jade during freshman year in high school.

“He tried. Remember that New Year’s Eve party?” Jade raises her eyebrows.

“Oh right. I guess I just suck at it.” I shrug.

“Don’t worry, you’re good at a lot of other things.” Conor kisses my neck again.

“Cool it with the sexual innuendos.” Kyleigh throws her dart, and it doesn’t land on the board.

“Oh, come on, I’ve been watching you pet Rowan for an entire year.” Conor pats my ass.

“And you’ve had something to say every damn time.” Rowan kisses Kyleigh when she comes back from the board without much success.

Jade and Henry are going to win, which surprises none of us.

“Get ready, love birds, you’re our next victims.” Henry tips the top of his beer bottle at us.

Conor pats my hip. “Let me go to the restroom before we’re up.”

I stand, and he presses his lips to mine quickly before he leaves the backroom.

His teammate Alvin, which I’m not sure is his real name, sidles up next to me and sits. “You sure changed our boy,” he says, leaning back in his chair with his legs stretched out.

The two guys who are usually with him sit on either side of us.

“Excuse me?”

“In a good way,” the one on my left says.

“Of course,” the one next to him says.

“It takes a special woman to tame a playboy like Pinkie.” Alvin raises his hands in front of me. “It’s a compliment.”

I sip my drink, telling myself I don’t really care what Conor did before me, it’s how he treats me now that matters, but I can’t deny that a small piece of me wonders if I’m good enough. Tristan sure treated me as though I was disposable.

“Alvin and the Chipmunks, get the fuck away from her.” Tweetie slaps the back of Alvin’s head. “What are these dumbass rookies saying to you?”

“Nothing.” I stand to compose myself because Tweetie must have seen the expression on my face in order to make him ask what we were talking about. “I’m going to the bathroom.”

I walk across the room, hearing Tweetie tell them they’re idiots and to mind their own fucking business.

Jade grabs my hand before I can leave. “Are you okay?”

I nod and open the door, sliding out. I just want to see Conor, feel his arms around me. Then my body will relax, remembering who we are together and that he’s not the guy those rookies seem to think he is.

I head down the small hallway toward the bathrooms and stop in my tracks. Conor’s standing in front of a brunette, the same brunette I found with her friends, writing the sign outside the security gate. She runs her fingers down his chest. He steps back but leans in, saying something to her. She pushes off whatever he said with a flirty smile and wraps her arms around his neck.

I clear my throat.

Conor turns his head, his face going pale just as it did the other night when I know he was hiding something when I came back into the bedroom with my bowl of ice cream.

He lifts her arms off him and steps back, saying something I can’t hear before he walks toward me, grabs my hand, and leads me down a different hallway, pushing open the back door.

“It’s not what you think,” he’s quick to say.

“Okay then, tell me what it is.”

He releases my hand, walking along the loading dock. “She’s just a fan, and I was telling her I wasn’t interested. She just couldn’t seem to understand it.”

There’s something on his face that I can’t read. As if he’s worried I won’t believe him.

I decide to trust him until he proves to me different. I saw him step back from her touch after all. “Okay.”

He stops his pacing and turns to me. “That’s it?”

“I can’t say my stomach didn’t drop when I first saw you two, but I believe you.”

Rushing over to me, relief washes over his face as he cradles my cheeks, pressing his lips to mine. He distracts me with a soul-searing kiss, the firmness of his lips, the gentle way his tongue sweeps into my mouth all conveying that I’m the one he wants and no one else. By the time he closes the kiss, I gasp for a breath.

“Let’s go upstairs,” he murmurs along my lips.

“No, we’re hanging with friends tonight. You can wait a few hours.”

His hands run over my body, grabbing my ass and pulling me into him. “One more kiss then?”

“Sure.”

This time our kiss has an urgency and desperation the other one didn’t. As good as it feels, a piece of me thinks there’s something more to that girl based on his reaction to me not being upset about seeing them together.

“Oh, god, get out!” Ruby shouts from behind us. “This isn’t your bedroom, it’s my bar. Go.”

Conor laughs and slides his hand in mine. “Sorry, Rubes, just needed a little alone time with my girl.”

Ruby tosses a dish towel over her shoulder. “And you got it. Now get in the backroom. The girls are out tonight and desperate to get in there.” She eyes me.

I offer her a smile that probably conveys Conor’s already had one run-in with a very handsy one. “Sorry, Ruby.”

She shoos us away, and Conor guides me through the bar toward the backroom. As we make our way through the crowd, the brunette passes by and shoulder-checks me. My mouth drops open, but she continues walking, giving me a look and a smirk over her shoulder.

Man, the girls weren’t joking when they said it’s hard to date a professional hockey player.

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