Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Lucien
I brush the snowflakes from my hair and ring Carter and Suki’s doorbell. A few seconds later, their pig Darling looks at me through the sidelight windows beside the door, pressing his nose to the glass.
Carter opens the door and frowns at the pig. “Get out of the way, Darling.”
Their pet moves farther into the doorway, completely blocking my entrance as he snuffles at my feet and legs.
“Hey, big guy.” I pet his head and scratch his ears like he’s a dog.
He’s wearing a Cleveland Crush sweater, his bulk stretching the letters out. Suki has all kinds of custom clothes made for him to wear in winter when it’s cold, but he still has to go outside to do his business.
“Hallie, call Darling!” Carter calls over his shoulder.
“Darling!” his youngest niece yells. “Come here, my Darling!”
The pig looks up at me with a glance that says, You understand, don’t you? before turning to trot away.
“Come on in,” Carter says. “We’re watching football. Harry’s helping the girls bake me a birthday cake.”
I step into the house, which smells like chocolate. Suki’s good friend Harry is a chef. Their home is a hub of sorts for their friends and family. Suki loves to host, and as the wife of our team captain, she plans and hosts a lot of informal get-togethers in their home.
“Thanks for the invite,” I say, taking my boots off and putting them on the big rug next to the door.
“Glad you could come.”
He leads the way into the two-story family room, where the game is on.
Bash and Lainey are sitting in an oversized chair, her on his lap and a blanket covering both of them.
Leo is sitting on the massive sectional, Talia and his wife, Mara, on the other side of it, both looking at something on Talia’s phone.
Talia meets my gaze and smiles. I woke up thinking about that smile this morning.
“Hey,” I say, giving a general wave to everyone saying hi to me.
“You know where everything is, help yourself,” Carter says as he sits down in a leather recliner.
“No fucking way that was holding!” Leo cries. “These refs are on the take.”
“Hey, Lucien,” Suki calls out. “Want a drink?”
I walk into the kitchen, where Suki is drying a dish and Olivia, Charlotte and Hallie are all watching Harry pipe frosting onto a three-tier cake.
“I’ll get it,” I say. “I figured you guys would shop all day.”
She shrugs. “We were hungry, and then the roads were getting bad, so we decided to come home.”
Her hair is up in a loose bun and she’s wearing leggings and an Ohio sweatshirt.
She and Carter had a whirlwind start to their relationship.
It started back when she was working as his nanny after he got custody of his sister’s three daughters when she passed away.
Now it feels like they’ve been together forever.
“That cake for me?” I ask the girls.
“No, but you can have some,” Hallie says. “It has a chocolate cake, a white cake, and a chocolate chip cake.”
“Nice.”
“Like I said, make sure you get pictures as soon as it’s done,” Suki says. “We have an accident-prone pig on the loose.”
“Hey Harry,” I say to the tall, lean man holding a bag of frosting with a tip up to the cake.
“Hi, Lucien. How’s it going?”
“Not bad. Good to have a day off. How’s the restaurant?”
“Busy. But that’s a good thing.”
“Can we go sledding?” Charlotte, the middle girl, asks me.
They still remember the time Leo, Isaac and I took them out on a day off last season so Carter and Suki could have some time alone. We went sledding, had burgers and shakes at a place that stuck all kinds of cakes and candy on top of the milkshakes, and played arcade games for hours.
I spent more than three hundred bucks on arcade tokens, and it was worth every penny for the big stuffed unicorn we all pooled our tickets to get for Hallie.
“Yeah, I’d be down for sledding,” I say.
“Okay, the hard part is done,” Harry says, handing the bag of light-blue frosting to Olivia. “Now you can write something.”
“What should I write?”
“Happy Birthday,” Charlotte says, her tone implying it’s obvious.
“I don’t know if I can fit that. I’ll try.”
“Luce, bring me another beer!” Leo calls from the living room.
“Do I look like your wife?”
“No, you did not,” Mara calls out.
They aren’t married yet, but she doesn’t let jokes like that slide.
When I walk back into the living room, Talia’s eyes find mine again, and she’s fighting a smile. “You two do have similar hair.”
“Anyone else want one?” I ask.
“I’ll take a gin and tonic,” Mara says. “With generous ice and a lime wedge, please.”
I scoff, though I’m not at all offended. “So I’m the bartender?”
“Don’t worry, I tip well,” Mara says.
“You want anything, Talia?” I ask.
“We should do boozy milkshakes!” Suki says.
“I want a boozy milkshake.” Hallie forgets the cake decorating.
“Just a regular milkshake for you, Hals,” Suki said.
Talia gets up from the couch. “I happen to make the world’s most incredible spiked chocolate milkshakes. If you don’t have all the stuff, I’ll go grab what we need.”
She’s wearing dark-gray leggings today, with a lightweight black sweater. Her hair is loose around her shoulders. When she walks into the kitchen, I follow.
“How’d the shopping go?” I ask as she makes a list of ingredients.
“I survived,” she quips.
“You more than survived.” Mara walks into the room and puts an arm around her. “You have two gorgeous dresses for Lucifer’s wedding. All you need now is a date.”
Talia’s cheeks turn pink as she flicks a glance at me and says, “I don’t mind going by myself.”
“You’re going to a wedding?” I ask.
“Kyle and Audra’s.”
I just look at her for a second, because I can’t believe what I just heard.
She’s going to the wedding of the man who cheated on her?
Probably because it’s also her sister’s wedding, but she’s well within her rights to flip those two assholes the double bird and skip it.
With all these people around, though, I don’t say that.
“It’s over the all-star break,” Suki says. “So she just needs to find a man who’s free over the break and wants to hang out in Hawaii for three days.”
Talia gives Suki a look that wordlessly says, Shut up.
“I’ll go with you,” I offer.
“Perfect!” Suki claps her hands together, looking up from Talia’s grocery list. “I have everything we need except whipped cream.”
“We know why you’re out of whipped cream, pervs,” Bash quips from the other room.
Talia’s face is a darker shade of pink now, but I don’t know why.
“You don’t have to do that, Lucien,” she says. “Really, I’ll be fine.”
“Are you kidding? I’d love to go with you. I can’t stand Kyle. We can sneak Nair into his shampoo. It’ll be fun.”
She looks flustered. “I don’t even know for sure if I’m going.”
“Well, if you decide to, I'm in.”
“I’ll go get some whipped cream.” She won’t meet my eyes, and I don’t know why she’s acting so strange.
“I’ll come with you.”
I haven’t even taken my coat off yet, and this will give me a chance to talk to her about why she doesn’t want me to come with her to the wedding.
Once we’re in my car, before I’ve even started it, I look over at her.
“It felt like you were uncomfortable back there. Is there someone else you want to ask to go to the wedding with you?”
She shrugs. “No. I’m just uncomfortable over the whole thing. If I don’t go, everyone will think I’m at home crying over it. If I go alone, I’m pathetic. If I go with you, they’ll wonder how a chunk like me got a date like you and assume it’s a pity date. I can’t win.”
I gape at her in disbelief. “If you don’t want to go, don’t. You don’t owe them shit, Talia. And don’t put yourself down like that. I don’t like it when people say shit about my friends.”
A smile tugs on her lips. “Are we friends?”
“I think so.”
“Even though I cockblocked you?”
I shouldn’t say it. She’s Turner’s daughter. Forbidden fruit. But that Loki energy takes over. “I was looking at the wrong woman that night anyway. You did me a favor.”
She drops her brows, looking skeptical. “What do you mean?”
“You’re everything a man could ever want in a woman. You’re beautiful. I have to force myself to look away from you when we’re stretching, and I only do it because I don’t want your dad to stab me to death with a skate blade.”
She laughs softly. “You don’t have to say that.”
“I’m not just saying it. When you touch my ankle to stretch me, I get ... you know.”
Hard. It makes me hard every time and I feel like a high school kid who can’t control himself.
She waves a hand dismissively. “Men are like that. Melina probably gets it all the time.”
“No, I’ve never gotten aroused from a female doctor or trainer touching me. Until you.”
She holds my gaze for a moment and then looks down at her lap. “If you’re willing to go to Hawaii with me, I’d really appreciate it.”
Relief floods through me. I didn’t like the idea of another man going with her. I don’t even like the idea of my teammates getting stretching or other treatments from her.
“I’m all in.” I start my car. “Let's make him regret every choice he's ever made.”
She hums with amusement. “I don’t know about that. Wait ’til you see my sister.”
“Okay, new rule.” I give her a serious look.
“From now on, anytime I hear you put yourself down, you have to listen to three compliments and you can’t argue about any of them.
” I don’t wait for her to agree to the rule.
“You have a very sexy voice. When we’re stretching and you tell me to go as far as I can, I’m not thinking about stretching. ”
Her cheeks flush and her brows arch with surprise.
“Number two: I would crawl on my hands and knees for miles just to touch your breasts. Happily, they’re incredible.
And also, I think about the way you called me out on that bullshit pickup line every goddamn night.
The compliment there is that I know there’s nothing easy about you, and it’s sexy as hell.
Make me work for you, Talia. I will. I want to. ”
Her lips are parted slightly as she holds my gaze, her hazel eyes glossy with unshed tears.
I didn’t realize I felt all this for her until I said it.
I like being around her, and not just because I’m attracted to her.
She’s funny and sharp, and I want to be more than friends with her, but the friends part is important, too.
I want to go buy whipped cream with her. Watch shows with her. Eat lunch with her.
And more. A lot more. But she’s been hurt, and I have to move slow.
“I don’t have the right words,” she says, looking away. “Just ... thank you.”
Her voice catches on the last part, and I put my car in drive, sensing that the conversation has gone as deep as she can handle right now.
Macintire did a number on her confidence. It’s not a surprise to me that he didn’t see what an amazing woman he had in her. If he doesn’t regret it now, I’ll make sure he does later.