34. Theo
Now is not the time to gloat over winning a stupid bet. So just keep that competitive shit under wraps. Just shut up and listen to whatever she wants to say.
Gizmo’s head turned one way and then back the other as her stare followed my pacing in our hotel room.
“Listen, I’m not an idiot, okay? I know that was probably ridiculously hard for Rocky to force herself to do. I’m not even going to mention the bet. I mean, I know my sister and predicted that she wouldn’t have a problem with me dating Indie. But I like my balls attached to my body, and fucking with your mommy is not on tonight’s agenda.”
My hands went out in front of me in a “you know what I mean?” kind of gesture. I stopped in front of Gizmo as she lay on not one but four stacked couch cushions. We’d discovered she liked the view from up high on the couch.
“Sorry for the swearing, baby girl. Though, with a mommy like yours, you’ll be more fluent in profanity than any sailor, past or present.” And I swear, Giz’s eyebrow arched with judgment about my comments on Indie.
I flipped my hands over in a “take it easy” motion. “I’m not criticizing your mommy. It’s just not my fault Indie uses profanity the way most people use punctuation.”
Keeping my stare on Gizmo’s face for any more objections on her part, I dropped my arms back to my side. “Where was I? Right.” I started listing off the ways I could reassure Indie after her rough night.
“One, shut up and listen. Two, do not mention the bet. That was just to distract her from worrying about Emery, anyways. You’re too young to know about these things.” Gizmo let out a sigh.
“Three, room service or a bath?” I looked at my Chihuahua companion for her opinion. “You’re right. I’ll offer both. This is a very nice hotel—even if the pet damage deposit is going to be over one thousand dollars because they don’t actually allow pets—that tub in the bathroom is the size of a small swimming pool. She might love it.”
I moved over to the unoccupied edge of the couch, far enough away that I posed no risk to her tower of pillows, and sat down. Gizmo, confident that I was no threat to her comfortable bed, put her head down between her paws, her eyes half-closed. She was probably thrilled to have me shut up so she could catch some sleep.
I slouched further down into the couch so my head could lean on its back cushions. The reality of what Indie had done tonight started to hit me.
Jesus. She really chanced blowing up a friendship for you , asshole.
It didn’t matter that I knew that Emery would be accepting of my relationship with Indie. It only mattered that Indie had been overly worried about it, no matter what her rational side said. She’d taken a huge risk for me. God, if things had turned out differently… Would Indie have been able to bear it ?
My love for her grew exponentially with that realization. Without her having to say the words, her actions told me everything I needed to know about where we stood.
This was the real deal. For both of us.
It was like a physical weight pushed against my chest as I absorbed how big of a risk I’d ask Indie to take. Even during the biggest night of my life, draft night when I was eighteen, when all of us were still reeling from Mom’s passing, I knew I had my dad and siblings behind me to fall back on.
My limbs sank under the weight of my actions.
The beeping sound of the hotel room door card reader drew me from my thoughts. I jumped to my feet, ready to hug the shit out of my Rocky for doing something so brave for us.
Similarly, Gizmo’s little head and body popped up from her pillow. Her little tail wagged like crazy with her anticipation of her primary hooman coming home.
Not wanting to bombard Indie with questions, as that was the last thing she needed, I stood and waited as I heard her drop her bag and jacket on the front table around the corner from the living area of the hotel room.
She came into view, and I just managed to swoop down and catch Giz before she leaped off her pillow tower to see her mommy. God, this pup had no concept of her own size. She was three flipping feet or more above the marble floor of the hotel room. We didn’t need a trip to the emergency vet tonight to round out the evening.
“Jesus, Giz. Do you think you’re a Great Dane or something?” I admonished the vibrating ball of soft peach fuzz I held in one palm.
“Aww. Is your big, bad daddy getting my baby in trouble?” Indie smiled at Gizmo as she walked toward us.
Gizmo practically flew from my hand into Indie’s chest when she got close enough, which caused Indie to rapidly rearrange her arms to secure her.
“What a little menace you are!” I wrapped both arms around Indie’s waist, careful not to smoosh Giz, who was lapping up having all the attention. She promptly turned over in Indie’s arms to make her status as the “little baby” complete.
“Hi.” I moved my gaze from our dog to Indie’s face and examined her features for signs of how she was feeling.
“Hi, goalie.” She looked back at me, tired, but gave me what looked like a genuine smile.
“Let’s sit. It’s been a long day for you.” I wrapped my arm around her shoulders to guide her to the couch. Gizmo remained content in her arms.
I quickly maneuvered myself back onto the couch and shifted so that Indie would sit on my lap rather than in the small space between me and the pile of pillows.
“Cushion tower?” She looked over at Gizmo’s fortress and tucked her bare feet under the edge of the bottom pillow. Thankfully, she relaxed back into my arm that was wrapped around her waist, letting her head fall onto my shoulder.
I kissed her forehead. “Look, Gizmo demanded four pillows, okay? What am I supposed to do, refuse her the bare necessities that she needs to rest?”
The pup in question decided that we were in this cuddle pile for the long haul and started circling the divot where Indie’s thigh and pelvis met. Once she plopped herself down, I brought my other hand from where it rested on the back of the couch down to pat her back with two fingers.
I felt more than heard Indie’s laughter at my caving to the whims of a five-pound canine .
I hesitated to break the contentment we’d just created with them both in my lap, but my need to hear how everything had gone down won out.
If there were obstacles ahead with Indie, I wanted to know what I was up against. I shifted her closer by tightening my opposite arm around her, wanting to make it clear that she could let down her guard now that we were together.
“So, lay it on me, Rocky. How did it go?” I kept all of my initial relief and pleasure that she appeared okay, if emotionally exhausted, to myself for now.
I couldn’t imagine Emery denying anyone their happiness. She was a champion at setting up random people in her life and watching them just “click” as couples. I knew she would want the same for Indie, even if she hadn’t completely forgiven me for the last couple of years of keeping everyone at arm’s length.
“Keen to find out how the next part of your night is going to go, babe?” Even said in jest, I wanted to wipe her mind of anything else but letting go of the stress she’d been feeling earlier.
“Ha. I’ll let you in on a little secret, Rocky.” I tilted my head down to speak next to her ear. “I already won the lottery the first time we kissed and every day since.”
Indie shivered as my lips brushed the skin of her earlobe. I punctuated my words by pressing a soft kiss to her temple, getting a quick hit of the sweet scent of her shampoo and skin before leaning back again.
“Theo! You are not meant to be sweet right now.” She swatted my arm playfully. “You’re meant to be collecting your prize. Specifically, those things you texted me earlier.”
My cock thought her idea was solid, and the blood flow in my body was roaring to assist, but I wasn’t going to let myself get distracted. As much as my body was ready to show her how much I wanted her at any given moment, my brain pushed aside any sexy thoughts to hear what she had to say.
“My prize is sitting on my lap. So I’m doing pretty well. Seriously, Ind, tell me how it went.” I gave her a gentle squeeze to urge her to keep talking.
Indie sucked in a deep breath, jostling Gizmo, who had fallen asleep almost instantly once she’d curled up—it was almost 2:00 a.m. Toronto time, after all. She snuffled a little bit with the movement of Indie’s stomach.
“It was… fine.” Her hesitation concerned me.
“Fine” didn’t really tell me anything. Maybe I should have been the one to tell Emery to spare Indie this discomfort after all?
Before I could fall too far into the regret spiral for not sparing her from this situation, she continued.
“It really wasn’t a thing. Em actually laughed.” Indie shook her head as if she couldn’t believe the words she was speaking. “She was happy for me—for us.” Her final words came out as a whisper.
A surge of gratitude for my incredibly kindhearted sister ran through me and settled most of my worries. Having a gut feeling about Emery’s reaction versus hearing it come true were totally different emotions. I was going to have to figure out how I could show my sister how important her understanding was.
Uneasy about breaking the spell of the moment, I forced the next words out of my mouth.
“How do you feel about the whole thing?” Indie was the queen of keeping her feelings close to her chest. Unless she was pissed off, it was hard to tell the depth of her emotions a lot of the time.
I couldn’t let the subject drop without some insight into her thoughts. I wanted to be her person, in a different way than Emery and Abbie were, that she trusted with her scariest feelings. She needed to see that she could believe that I would help her carry them without demanding anything in return.
From Emery’s updates, I knew Indie tended to take on the world for others. That earning the gift of having her rely on me would be something special. I wanted to be the person who helped her carry her load. And I would do just about anything to make it happen.
“I’m not sure, to be honest.” She sighed, her head resting more firmly against my shoulder and her eyes shutting. “I kind of feel like I’ve been put through one of those pasta makers where the dough gets squished in there and then forced into a new shape.”
Her head shifted slightly so her forehead was resting against the side of my neck. I waited for her to continue.
“In my head, I knew Em was going to be okay with it. She’s literally the sweetest person in the entire state of California, if not the country. She’d never want either of us to deny ourselves the chance at being happy. But even knowing that, the uncertainty of messing with two decades of friendship felt much bigger than anything my brain could come up with to reassure me.” She released another deep breath, like sharing her worry helped it leave her body at the same time.
As she spoke, her limbs felt like they were melting into mine. Each muscle that I hadn’t even realized she’d been tensing released fiber by fiber, the toll of the situation seeming to leak out of her with each word.
There wasn’t a single cell in my body that wanted to say, “I told you so.” That stupid bet was just a distraction and had served its purpose. I racked my brain for the right thing to say that would show her all I cared about were her feelings right now.
“I can see how big of a risk that was now. Thank you for talking to Emery, for both of us.” My words felt too small for the significance of her choice, but it was the best I could come up with.
Indie pulled back slightly and opened her eyes. They looked clearer than before. A small smile formed on her lips.
“You’re feeling really grateful, hmm?” The sly expression that she put on when she was feeling playful appeared on her face.
I bent my neck so I could reach her mouth and gave her a tender kiss. It was soft and short. I didn’t want to take it any further than emphasizing how happy I was that she’d bet on us.
“Yep.” I popped the p sound.
She raised her hand that wasn’t cradling the little cinnamon bun that Giz had turned her body into and brought her fingertips to the neck of the T-shirt I was wearing, letting the tips of her index and middle finger drift back and forth under the neckline.
“So that sounds to me like you’re inclined to give me anything I want at the moment, right?” Her tone was seductive.
I nodded, glad that she didn’t know I was liable to give her anything she wanted at any moment.
“How about this, then… The little wager we made earlier in the day, you offer your prize to me?” The playfulness in her gaze turned heated.
My cock got right back in the game like it was the relief goalie getting called into a playoff game in overtime, thickening in my sweatpants so fast that there was no way she didn’t notice.
She trailed her fingers from my throat down my chest and abs as far as she could reach before she carefully slid her hands under Gizmo. Indie stood slowly and lifted her back onto her pillow tower without startling her awake.
From her position above me, Indie arched an eyebrow when I didn’t answer right away.
“Are you sure you don’t just want to sleep? It’s been a long day.” I scrutinized her expression, looking for a hint of uncertainty, but found none. I had to trust she knew what she wanted.
“Definitely not too tired.” She held out her hand to me. There was nothing for me to do but take it and follow her into the bedroom of the suite.