Chapter 6 #2
I worked better solo, knowing I was the only person I had to count on. When I put expectations on someone else’s shoulders, I was inevitably let down. Life had proven that time and again. It was easier to handle everything on my own.
In the hours I’d been here, I’d managed to get some amazing shots of Chase out on the ice, running drills with the kids, giving them pep talks…
being the kind of supportive, encouraging person I’d always known him to be.
I had plenty of content, but I didn’t want to leave early and miss anything, so I hung out in the stands.
Addison and I were the only ones left in the building besides Chase, the kids in the program…and Levi. I’d done my best to ignore him all afternoon, but it had been like trying to ignore a raging inferno.
While I’d been interviewing Chase’s old coach, some of the kids and parents, as well as Chase himself, I swore I’d felt Levi’s gaze on me, the hot brand of it warming me from the outside in, despite the freezing temps inside the rink.
But every time I slid an inconspicuous glance in his direction, his focus had been on the boys or his phone or a spot on the wall. Literally anywhere but on me.
And I refused to admit, even to myself, how much that rankled.
I glanced over at Addison. She was living up to every ounce of her boss persona, an iPad propped on her lap as she conducted business from the bleachers.
“You’d probably be a lot warmer if you did this back at the resort instead of here,” I said. “Maybe with a nice, sunny view of the ocean while you’re at it.”
She shot me a smile, wiggling her fingers encased in fingerless gloves.
“But then I wouldn’t get to be here when my hot beast of a husband is done and full of all those endorphins coursing through him.
We never got to experience that post-hockey-game sex coma, so I’m definitely going to be fucking that man in the locker room as soon as he’s done. Fair warning.”
I huffed out a surprised laugh and raised my hands. “I won’t stand in your way. And speaking of getting busy… You were right.”
“I usually am, but about what, specifically?”
“Mabel. Somehow while I was trying to figure out a different place to stay besides your brother’s apartment, she let me know she and George had a playroom in their home, complete with a sex swing.”
Addison snorted and shook her head. “Not even a little bit surprised. She hosts her spicy book club in the parlor at the resort, and some of the things those women talk about would make a sex worker blush.”
“Sounds like fun.” And something I wouldn’t mind getting in on.
God knew it’d be the only action I’d be seeing in the near—or distant—future.
“I’ll have to find out when the next one is.
I want to interview them while I’m there to talk to Aiden about his blockbuster romantasy career.
Gotta say, I never saw that one coming.”
“You aren’t the only one. Shocked the hell out of me, too. But it makes sense. He’s so bottled-up, I figure it’s gotta go somewhere other than my best friend—and, by the way, she lets me know how well my brother’s accomplishing that, despite my pleas for her to shut her damn mouth.”
I grinned over at her. Though her words said she was sick of what her best friend was putting her through, there was no denying the affection in her tone. “Don’t be too hard on her. I’m sure she’s happy to have that kind of relationship with you.”
“Oh, don’t get me wrong. I love the girl. And I love telling her all the crazy, depraved things Chase and I get up to. It just really, really freaks me out to know that my brother has made her come more times in a single night than I can imagine and not broken a sweat.”
Jesus. More times than she could imagine?
I was lucky to get one, and Aiden was apparently handing them out like candy?
Was this what I’d been missing by avoiding the dating pool?
For the first time ever, I was second-guessing the focus I’d put on my career instead of on men, because my battery-operated boyfriends were growing tiresome.
My expression must have betrayed my interest and the natural questions that popped into my mind because she held up a hand and shook her head. “Nope. I’m not talking about it anymore. If you want to hear that story, you go right to the source and leave me out of it.”
I was about to respond when a deep, throaty chuckle caught my ear, and I glanced out to the rink. Since I’d been talking with Addison, the kids had cleared the area. Now, it was just Chase and Levi on the ice.
While I was used to Chase’s easygoing nature and his free-flowing smiles and laughter, that was something I hadn’t seen from Levi in more than a decade.
Even so, there was no reason the sound should have melted over me like honey, making me feel warm and gooey all over.
Old memories I’d tried hard to forget shuttled to the forefront of my mind, sending me back to a time when his laugh had been as familiar as my own.
And there was no reason for my stomach to flip when Levi’s gaze lifted to mine for the briefest moment, a flicker of something I couldn’t quite name in his eyes, before it was gone in a blink. And then the smile dropped from his face, a cold frostiness replacing his once-warm expression.
It didn’t matter that he’d kept some memento from when we were kids—one he probably didn’t even remember he had. It also didn’t matter that we were going to be roommates, stuck living together for the next six weeks. With a single look, he reminded me exactly what we were to each other.
Absolutely nothing.