20. Erin
CHAPTER 20
ERIN
R usty had turned bossy, and the weird thing? I didn’t hate it.
My husband was bossy, and I’d spent our entire marriage dreaming of putting his sausage and meatballs through the grinder. Every time he told me to lie down and spread my legs, I put horse pee in his coffee. You know how hard it is to collect horse pee? So freaking hard. Almost as hard as feigning sympathy when my not-so-beloved had performance issues.
But Rusty was bossy in a different way. You’re leaving that shitty hotel. Go get some rest while I make lunch. Plus he’d squeezed my hand. That night in the Salt Shaker, he’d told me a hand-squeeze was more intimate than a kiss on the cheek, so why had he done it?
We’d collected my belongings from the Galaxy, and I had to concede that my new room was much nicer than the old one. I felt like a princess. No, really. Mav had decorated the room for his niece with a pink canopy bed, a rocking horse, a silver velvet couch, and the contents of half a toy store. Unfortunately, six years after swearing she wouldn’t have more children, his sister had popped out a boy, so the play castle had been removed to make way for a race car bed.
Rusty had offered to give me his room, but I’d missed out on most of my childhood, and didn’t every little girl dream of being a princess? Plus there was hot water in the en-suite. Anyhow, I didn’t think I’d sleep because my mind was churning with confusion over Rusty’s behaviour, but the mattress was soft as a cloud, and I’d drifted off while he went off to cook.
Cook.
A soft knock sounded.
“Lunch is ready.”
He’d been serious about that? I could have stayed in that bed all day, but my stomach grumbled and I remembered I forgot to eat breakfast. Spending a day with Rusty without being on active surveillance promised to be weird, but I couldn’t say I hated the idea. The clues so far pointed to him coming out of the same mould as my brother and Zach—competitive but kind. I walked into the kitchen as he pulled a casserole dish out of the oven.
“Wait, you actually made lunch?”
“I said I was going to.”
“But you’re a hockey player. I didn’t think you knew how to cook.”
“Then it might surprise you to hear that hockey players need to eat too.”
“Duh. I figured you’d have a chef.”
“The team has a chef, but when I’m at home, I like to cook for myself.”
He set the dish on the table, and I leaned forward on my elbows to take a look. “What is it?”
“Hoppel poppel.”
“What?”
“Egg casserole. My mom used to make it from leftovers when I was a kid, and it’s still my favourite food. ”
It had the look of a ploughed field, although it did smell good. “What’s in it besides eggs?”
“Fried potatoes, onions, bacon, green peppers, and melted cheese. Try it—you might like it.”
I spooned a pile onto a plate and took a taste. Then another, and another, and another. Well, colour me surprised.
“It’s good, huh?” Rusty said around a mouthful.
“Okay, you can stay.”
“Why, thank you, ma’am.”
Man, I could live on this stuff. But maybe with ketchup.
“How’s Trooper doing? I haven’t seen him since we were at the veterinarian.”
“He’s a happy little thing, although I’d say he can’t wait to get out of the cage. Is Sin coming back? She didn’t mention any plans to me.”
“I’m not sure. All I know is that they’re tracking some sick dude who calls himself AceInTheHole on the dark web.”
“The dark web? Isn’t that where the criminals hang out?”
“I hear there’s regular people too, but yup.”
Alexa had tried explaining more about it, but computers weren’t my strong point, so most of it had gone right over my head.
“You said earlier he was a poker-loving nutjob—did he lose money in the casino or something?” Rusty asked.
“Nobody knows, not yet. But ‘ace in the hole’ is a poker thing, that’s what Ari said.”
“And a golf thing. And an LGBTQ thing. And also a general term for a hidden advantage.”
“An LGBTQ thing? You mean ace?”
An old roommate of mine was ace, one of the few roommates who didn’t totally creep me out, and for a while, I’d wondered if I might be too, because I had zero attraction to men. But then I’d developed a crush on Zach Torres and realised it wasn’t all men, just most of them. Clearly, the crush went the way of the dodo once I actually met Zach because lusting after Ari’s boyfriend would be weird and gross, but I couldn’t deny he was hot.
And now, sitting opposite Rusty, I realised I’d found another man to add to my “not a sleaze” list.
“My little sister’s favourite show used it to refer to an ace character,” he said. “But I agree the poker thing is more likely, seeing as we’re in Vegas. Do you want ketchup? This needs ketchup.”
Rusty rose to his feet, and the realisation that had been slithering in like a slow-rolling fog suddenly struck me like a hammer. This was what Zach and Ari had. What Kai and Maya had. Not the romance—because Kai and Maya were still avoiding that part—but the comfort of finding someone you liked and just hanging out with them. Obviously, Rusty wasn’t boyfriend material because he was still in love with Florence and also a super-rich hockey star, but he was nice. And if he was staying in town for a few more days on his wild goose chase, maybe I could use the time as practice? I knew now that there were at least three men in the world who weren’t assholes, possibly four because Cole seemed to be a good guy too. Perhaps there was another lurking somewhere?
If I found him, I found him. But otherwise, I was happy on my own. I had friends, a job I mostly enjoyed, and a place to stay with my brother.
It would be dangerous to wish for more and risk ruining what I already had.
The hoppel poppel did taste better with ketchup. Rusty had left my phone by my plate, and I checked the tracking app. Kelsey’s dot was at Miller, Sigmund, and Pace.
“She already got lunch,” he supplied. “We can kick back with a movie this afternoon. Your pick. ”
Or not. Because five minutes later, the dot began to move. Rusty ran around covering dishes in foil like a pro while I put on shoes and grabbed my purse.
As we hurried out the front door, he touched a hand to the small of my back, then removed it just as quickly.
“Shit, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” I took a deep breath and wished I hadn’t snapped in the veterinarian’s office. “It’s really okay.”