Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
R owdy
“Dude, what’s wrong with your face?”
I glanced over at my brother, riding shotgun. Rebel stared at me like he was looking at a pile of dogshit on the floor.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Your face looks like you took a hit from Big Tony.”
As I rolled my eyes, Kane barked out a laugh from the backseat.
I glared at him in the rearview. “What the fuck, Kane? Whose side are you on?”
Kane continued to laugh until he could barely catch his breath. Of course, that didn’t mean he couldn’t talk.
“Because he’s not wrong.” Kane managed to wheeze out. “You look like you got t-bagged.”
Now I rolled my eyes, because… “Fuck you, asshole. You both suck.”
“Nah.” Rebel snarked. “But we know you do.”
Jesus Christ, why the hell did my brother still act like a fucking twelve-year-old? I punched Reb in the shoulder, hard enough to make him flinch.
“Bitch.”
“Jerk,” Rebel shot back at me. “At least, I’m not lusting after some strange woman who stumbled into the bar and conveniently dropped into your arms.” He paused. “She is damn pretty, though.”
“I’m not lusting after her.” Okay, maybe I was a little, but I certainly wasn’t going to admit it. “And you don’t need to worry about how pretty she is. The woman was practically dead on her feet. She would’ve fallen if I hadn’t caught her.”
“Uh huh. Sure.”
I swear, my brother deserved whatever I decided to dish out the second we got out of the damn car. I didn’t care if Reb tattled to our mom. Christ, we were fucking adults. I should be able to smack my younger brother for his asshole-ishness without our mom getting in the middle.
But Reb wasn’t wrong. The woman was damn pretty.
For now, I decided to ignore Rebel and concentrate on finding the woman’s car. She’d been fairly specific about where her car had died, so it shouldn’t be hard to find.
“Hey,” Kane pointed out the front window. “That must be it.”
I checked the mileage readout on my Bronco and realized we’d driven almost three miles out of town. No wonder she’d nearly passed out.
“Damn, I can’t believe she walked all that way.” Rebel shook his head. “And in those shoes, too.”
Pulling my Bronco onto the shoulder, I stopped it in front of the high-end Acura.
“Nice car.” Kane leaned forward between the two front seats, gaze narrowed as he stared out the windshield. “Really nice.”
Yeah, it was. And the latest model, too.
“I think the lady’s above your station, dude.” Rebel’s tone held no trace of snark. I couldn’t really argue with him, and that really pissed me off.
“Let’s just change the damn tire and get back.”
I shoved my door open and got out before my best friend and my brother could continue to piss me off. Their razzing was getting on my nerves, but what pissed me off more than anything was the fact that they were probably right. The beautiful blonde who’d fallen into my arms tonight looked like she had places to be, and those places definitely didn’t include St. David.
And this was where I belonged.
I tuned out Kane and Rebel, who continued to talk shit as I got the spare and the jack from the trunk, and we jacked up the car to change the tire.
“I don’t know, man,” Rebel said to Kane. “He kinda looks like he got struck by the stupid bus.”
“I guess you’d look like that, too,” Kane grunted as he worked on the lug nuts, “if a woman who looked like her fell into your arms.”
“Fuck that shit.” Rebel huffed. “I don’t need a woman falling anywhere around me right now. I got too much shit going on as it is.”
“Good thing none of the women around here want anything to do with you, then because you’re a moody SOB. And what shit do you have going on anyway?”
Kane and Rebel kept up a steady banter, but I tuned them out as we changed the tire. The damaged one was going to need a new rim, and she probably didn’t want to drive back to wherever she’d come from on the donut. Which meant she needed a mechanic. And the only mechanic in town didn’t work on the weekend.
Maybe she’d be sticking around a little longer than expected.
Once we got the donut on, I threw the jack and the flat in the trunk then headed for the driver’s side door. I was just about to open the door when Rebel planted his ass on the door, arms crossed over his chest.
“All right, asshole.” Reb glared at me. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
I blew out a hard sigh, shaking my head.
“Move your ass, Reb. I don’t have time for this shit with you.”
He didn’t move, eyes narrowing as he stared at me like he could read my mind. “You haven’t had time for anyone lately. And now some random woman drops into your lap, and you’re ready to take my head off. What gives? I know you haven’t been happy lately, but damn, man, you’re not acting like yourself.”
I didn’t have the slightest clue what to say to that because, one, my brother rarely discussed anything serious unless he was talking about hockey. And two… well, Reb wasn’t wrong. And when my brother noticed something was off, everyone already knew. Because Reb wasn’t known for being intuitive.
Turning to Kane, I got the same look. Except Kane looked much more relaxed about the whole thing. Rebel never looked relaxed about anything. Kane always looked like he was idling in neutral. Until he got on the ice and then he kicked some serious ass. Some players had been known to skate the other way when they saw Kane headed for them.
I shrugged. “Nothing’s wrong.”
“Yeah, that’s bullshit.” Kane spoke before Reb could open his mouth and say something that would truly piss me off. “We all know something’s been eating at you for weeks.”
“Hell, even Dad’s noticed.” Reb snorted. “So you know it’s gotta be bad.”
Shit. Our dad was pretty fucking oblivious most of the time unless it had to do with the team or the business. Not that he ignored his kids. Or his wife. Reston and Raffi Lawrence had had a legendary love affair. From their almost twenty-year age gap to their late-night elopement and her parents’ attempt to get their marriage annulled, even though she’d been twenty-four at the time.
“Has everyone been talking behind my back?”
Rebel shrugged. “Pretty much, yeah.”
Well, fuck. Just what I didn’t need. The entire town all up in my business. Not that they weren’t most of the rest of the time, but usually I could shrug it off because it was all surface shit. Who I was dating, how bad the team was playing and why it was my fault. I was the team captain, after all. And this team was woven into the town’s DNA, so everyone had an opinion and the feeling that they had a right to it.
And right now, I had something on my mind I really didn’t want anyone to know about.
Shaking my head, I used the key fob to open the door. “We don’t need to talk about this now.”
“No,” Kane nodded, “we don’t. But we will later.”
Fuck that shit. I had nothing to talk about. That phone call I’d gotten last week didn’t mean anything to anyone but me. It wasn’t like I was going to take the job I’d been offered. I couldn’t. I belonged here.
“Let’s get back to the bar.”
“So you can see your new girlfriend?”
Kane snorted as I rolled my eyes and consciously unclenched my hands.
“Rebel, you are going to lose your fucking teeth. Get in the damn car with Kane. I’ll see you back there.”
Climbing in, I shut the door in Reb’s face. It took me a couple seconds to realize the damn car started with the push of a button, which for some reason just pissed me off. Why the fuck didn’t cars have keys anymore? Why did people have to fuck with everything?
Shit.
Maybe Rebel and Kane had picked up on more than they should have. Which just meant I needed to be sure I kept my mouth shut. Or maybe I just needed the fucking season to start so I felt like I had a purpose.
Because I had more trouble keeping a smile on my face lately. Probably best to keep that thought from getting out there. My parents and siblings would be all over me. And I definitely didn’t need that on my shoulders, too.
The car purred and dinged after I pushed the button, engine noise nonexistant. Nice expensive car. Shaking my head, I got the car back on the road and was halfway back to the bar when I got a text from my mom.
Mom
Heading back to our place with Tressy and Krista. Bring the car here.
Yep. That’s what I’d figured would happen. Not only because there were no open hotel rooms anywhere near St. David because the season opened tomorrow, but because that was the kind of person my mom was. Raffi Lawrence gathered people like they were stray cats, and she was the Humane Society. My dad grumbled, but he rarely ever said no to his wife, and he wasn’t quite the hard ass he pretended to be. Actually, no one ever said no to Raffi. She was just as much a force of nature as her husband. She just didn’t do it as loudly.
But when she had an opinion, she let you know. I loved my mom, but she sometimes got a little too invested in her children’s lives. And if I told her about the phone call I couldn’t stop thinking about, she’d tell me exactly what I needed to do.
And I wasn’t sure I wanted her to be right.
Coward.
Maybe. Or maybe I was a thirty-year-old who didn’t need my mom to solve my problems and didn’t need any more shit floating around my head before the game tomorrow.
A game that doesn’t mean shit. It’s not like you’re playing for the Stanley Cup.
Hell, it wasn’t like we were playing for any cup. Our league was barely professional and made up of the same teams every damn year. Sometimes a start-up joined, but they usually failed in a few years or moved up to the ECHL if they brought in enough money.
There were always new players every year, and some of them stuck around long enough to get their nicknames in their second season.
But, for the most part, if you started in this league, you stayed in this league. The guys who came to us from other leagues, like the ECHL and the WHL, usually went back after they got their shit together. That’s what Pop was good at. Helping these guys get their shit together.
And you’re gonna turn down a legit offer to advance? Maybe the only one you’ll ever get? Why is that?
Jesus, I needed my brain to just shut the fuck up.
I cut through Main Street, the one traffic light blinking yellow, only a couple of cars on the road. If you were out driving now, you were late for your third-shift job at one of the two factories in the county or you were heading home from the bar.
No lights shone through any of the businesses’ windows at this hour. Gerhart’s Hardware. Maggie Mae’s Beans and Leaves. Levengood’s Funeral Home. Steinbeck’s Flowers.
St. David also boasted a CPA, a tiny bookstore, a thrift store, a Subway and a couple of diners, one on either end of the main drag, which consisted of about five blocks.
If you blinked, you’d miss half the town. Most people traveling through never knew they were in St. David. Not that a lot of people ever drove through .
At the end of the last block, I pulled into the half-circle driveway in front of my parents’ home, parked the car by the front steps and ran up the flight of stairs to the wide front porch. I walked through the door and into the entrance hall that’d been a lobby when this place had been a bed and breakfast. Turning left, I headed for the great room, where the family typically hung out. When I didn’t find anyone there, I headed for the kitchen at the back of the house.
I couldn’t get over how quiet the house was. How empty it felt with my parents living here alone. No wonder my mom wanted us to visit so much. I made a mental note to remember this when she asked me to stop by the next time.
No one in the dining room or kitchen, either.
Which left the bedrooms. Knowing my mom, she already had her guests tucked into the suite on the first floor. My parents’ home had been built by an iron magnate in the 1910s who had promised the local farming community that his factory would provide for them for the rest of their lives. And it had, until the early ’60s when his last remaining descendent sold the plant to some huge corporation, which had kept it running for a few years then shut it down, putting a third of the town’s adults out of work and crippling most of the other businesses in town.
Some enterprising young couple had turned the house into an inn in the ’70s, but by then, the town had had one foot in the grave, with little to attract visitors. My parents had moved here after getting married. Pop had just resigned his commission from the Army and my mom had recently graduated from college. Between my parents’ almost twenty-year age gap, their purchase of the biggest house in town, my dad’s ownership of a multimillion-dollar business, and his crazy dream of building a hockey dynasty from scratch, the residents of St. David had thought they were either insane or arrogant, or both, and maybe delusional, as well .
Probably a little bit of all that. But my parents had won over almost every single person in town. There were a few holdouts who thought the Lawrences were too damn uppity, but those people had a stick up their ass. My family did a hell of a lot for this town and for those who lived here.
And they collected people like a beach collected driftwood.
Heading for the guest wing, I began to hear voices, so I was on the right track. Seconds later, as I rounded the corner to the guest wing hall, I stopped short when I nearly ran into Tressy. She let out a little shriek and put her hand on her chest. Without thinking, I put my hands on her shoulders to steady her. Then immediately took them back when I felt the heat of her skin seep into mine. And sink straight into my gut.
“Oh, hey. I didn’t mean to scare you. You okay?”
The t-shirt she wore was at least two sizes too big for her, falling off her shoulder, and had my face splashed across the front of it, a promotional giveaway from a few seasons ago. I had my arms in the air and a stick over my head, and I looked like a fucking mountain man. She probably hadn’t even recognized me. Which was a good thing. At least tonight I looked somewhat civilized.
And damn, I’d been staring at her bare shoulder.
You’re not a fucking perv. Knock it off.
No, but I was a red-blooded male, and she was a stunningly beautiful woman I wanted to strip naked and fuck against the wall.
Shit.
“Tressy? Everything okay?”
But not with my mom sticking her head out of the doorway down the hall.
Fuck.
Tressy turned her head, her mouth already curving in a smile that made me wish I was wearing pants that didn’t make it perfectly clear I was getting a hard on .
“It’s fine. Rowdy just startled me.”
My mom turned to me with a wry grin. “Yeah, he was a way of doing that.”
I couldn’t let my mom get away with that. “I still don’t think I was born a month early, Mom.”
Mom didn’t even bite on the old joke. “Rowdy, what are you doing here?”
Rolling my eyes, I smiled at Tressy, making sure I poured on the charm. “Ma, you told me to bring the car here.”
Tressy’s smile was a punch to the gut, making me feel a little drunk. What the hell was going on?
Maybe you’re just horny.
Yeah, probably, and it absolutely sucked that she was just passing through. It wasn’t like we’d get the chance to flirt. Or fuck.
Double fuck.
“Rowdy?”
Crap. I’d been staring at her, smiling like an idiot.
Because you are an idiot.
I dragged my gaze away from Tressy, trying not to notice my hands on the t-shirt were positioned directly over her nipples. Yep, not the place I wanted to be looking now, because my mom was staring at me, and her expression said she knew what I was thinking.
“Anyway, so the car’s out front. I left the key-fob on the table downstairs.”
“Thank you. For everything.” Tressy’s soft voice drew my attention back to her like a fly to honey. “I appreciate it.”
When she spoke, I swore my blood heated and fizzed.
“No problem. Didn’t take much to change the tire.”
Her wry smile fired heat in my gut. “I obviously couldn’t do it, so…”
Her gaze dropped and mine followed. I’d never considered bare feet sexy before, but her toes, nails polished with black paint, made me think about having her rub them against the back of my bare legs while I?—
My gaze snapped back up, finding a point over her shoulder to look at.
“Yeah, anyway, I think the rim’s bent so you’re gonna need to see Donny. He’s the local mechanic. I should probably get going. Season starts tomorrow.”
Even though she looked exhausted, I still saw interest in her eyes.
“You’re a hockey player, right? Your mom told me you have a game.”
“Yeah.” And then because I couldn’t help myself, I said, “You should come to the game tomorrow night. I’m not sure Donny’s going to be able to fix your tire right away so you could be stuck here for a few days. You should come.”
She didn’t say no right away, and my pulse kicked up.
“I guarantee you’ll have an amazing time.”
“Guarantee, huh?”
Her smile spread, and I had to lock my jaw so my mouth didn’t hang open.
Gorgeous. So fucking pretty.
“Absolutely.”
We stood there staring at each other for several seconds until she blinked, and her slight smile disappeared in a flash. I felt like I’d been robbed.
“I wasn’t planning on being here tomorrow.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry, I’m just so tired. I’m not thinking straight. I can’t thank you enough for everything, but?—”
“Rowdy, why don’t you say goodnight, sweetheart?” My mom’s voice knocked me back to reality. “Tressy’s about to fall asleep on her feet.”
Tressy was studying her feet at the moment, blonde hair falling around her face. And I was an asshole because she was clearly exhausted, and I didn’t want to leave .
“Yeah, of course. Goodnight, Tressy.”
She looked up but didn’t meet my gaze directly. “Goodnight, Rowdy. Thank you again for all your help.”
“No problem. I’ll see you tomorrow, Tressy.”
That was a promise.