Chapter 6
DRED
Connor’s timing could not be worse. My friends pile out of the elevator as he makes this announcement. Rix is carrying a churro cheesecake, and her husband, Tristan, has a cooler, also likely full of delicious things made by Rix.
Dallas and Hemi, Lexi and Roman, Hollis and Hammer, Essie and Nate, and Tally all wear matching confused expressions.
Only Ash and Shilpa are missing, but Shilpa just had a baby, so the Palaniappas get a pass on fajita night.
The men of the group are current and recently former Terror hockey teammates—except for Nate, who is one of Tristan’s younger brothers—and the women are my Babe Brigade.
They’re the only real family I’ve ever had, and I’m about to drop a significant bomb on them. Here’s hoping they can handle it.
“Am I high? Did Connor just say you and he are engaged?” Rix’s eyes are saucers.
“The fuck, man?” Hollis shoots daggers at Connor with his eyeballs. “When are people going to stop stepping on my damn toes?”
Hammer squeezes his arm and whispers something to him. Probably reassurance. He’s been waiting to pop the question while everyone around him gets married.
“This is a joke, right?” Flip looks like he’s on the verge of something not good.
“It’s not a joke.” Connor looks Flip dead in the eye as he leans down and kisses my cheek.
His lips are soft and warm, fingers flexing gently on my shoulder. I’m annoyed at the thrill that shoots down my spine. I give him what I hope is a scathing look. “Can’t resist lighting the match, can you?”
“Just playing my part, darling.” He winks. “I’ll be in touch.”
And with that, he slips past everyone and disappears into the elevator, leaving me to deal with my very confused friends.
Fucking Connor Grace. Why can’t he be the nice guy who sits next to me at Callie’s hockey games?
I take a deep breath. He’s fixing your life, I remind myself.
You probably should have asked him to stay. And needle Flip? Not a great idea.
It seemed like a fantastic idea in the moment, but how the hell am I going to explain this?
“I think we should move this into Flip’s apartment,” Rix suggests. The before he blows a gasket in the hallway is implied.
Lexi slips between the others to join me, worry etched on her pretty face as she threads her arm through mine. She’s pregnant and showing and still acting as a barrier between me and Flip and everyone else. Aside from Flip, Lexi is my best friend.
She’s married to Roman Forrest-Hammer, formerly Hammerstein, the Terror’s recently retired goalie. Lexi understands loss. She became the legal guardian to her sisters Callie and Fee when her mother and stepdad were killed in a boating accident a couple of years ago.
“Is everything okay?” she asks.
I nod. “I’ll explain.”
We file into Flip’s apartment. He’s already pacing with his hands in his hair. “How long has this been going on? How can you be engaged to that assclown? Why would you commit yourself to someone like that?” He spins to face me. “Why him?”
Flip knows me better than anyone. Of course he’s upset.
Before I can respond, he fires another question at me. “Is this some kind of revenge plan on his part?”
I cross my arms. That Connor’s world and mine overlap should be wildly implausible, but I’m still a little offended. “Because he obviously can’t be truly in love with me, is that what you mean?”
“He doesn’t deserve you!” Flip shouts. “He’s malicious. He always has been! He’s going after the people I care about!”
If that were really true, it wouldn’t be me Connor went after, it would be Tally. But Flip isn’t ready to pull himself out of Denial River yet.
“Are you saying I’m not strong enough to stand up for myself in the face of coercion?” I press.
He continues to pace the room. “Have you lost your mind?”
“Aside from the sandwich incident, he’s actually a decent guy,” Nate says.
“Don’t take his fucking side!” Flip snaps.
Tally steps in front of him and places a hand on his chest. “This isn’t helping.”
I sigh. I expected a meltdown. But Flip is already in a spiral, so I need to recalculate. He’s not reasonable enough to be given the truth and hear it. And beyond that… “You know what? I don’t owe you or anyone an explanation. Not everything is about you, Flip.”
He spins around, and his anger melts as his face changes to a mask of guilt and regret. I’ve said this exact thing to him before—when his sister, Rix, and his best friend, Tristan, were hate-turned-love fucking behind his back.
His choices had made it difficult for them to be honest with him.
And his reaction now is doing the same for me.
We stare at each other, our friends gathered around us, not taking sides, not judging, ready to step in if they’re needed.
God, I love these people. They’re more than enough reason to go through with marrying Connor.
Besides, I’ve already signed the paperwork, and I have a feeling getting out of it would cost more money I don’t have.
Connor doesn’t seem like the type to half-ass something like this.
Flip raises his hands. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I’m just… I’m shocked. I didn’t see this coming. At all.”
“I don’t think any of us did,” Hemi, the head of Terror PR and one of the Babes, adds.
I seriously hope I haven’t made her season impossible with this new development. Flip and Connor were at least civil at the end of last season. Fingers crossed they don’t go back to fighting in the locker room over their teenage stupidity—or this.
“I know.” I glance around the room. “Connor and I both go to Callie’s games.” It’s true, even if it has little to do with why I’m in this position.
“So you’ve been secretly dating each other?” Flip asks, the hurt in his voice slicing through me.
Lying will just make this more difficult, so I carefully step around the truth. “We know each other better than any of you realize.” Maybe even better than he and I could have known. “Connor and I have our reasons for getting engaged.”
“This sounds like a business transaction, not a marriage,” Flip says.
I can barely meet his forlorn gaze. Flip has deep convictions about love and marriage and what it all means. “I need you to set aside your personal feelings about all of this and just…support me, okay?”
“Are you in trouble?”
“No.” Not anymore, provided Connor follows through. I get the sense he isn’t someone who doesn’t keep his word.
“So you’re not in danger?” Flip presses.
“No. I’m not in danger.”
“And this isn’t coercion on his part?”
“You know I wouldn’t let that happen.” I’ve been forced into enough corners in my life. This one I can confidently navigate without falling on knives.
Flip nods slowly, shoulders deflating as he exhales a heavy breath. “This is something you want?”
“It’s the right thing to do,” I reply.
“You didn’t answer the question,” Flip presses.
“It’s what I want. He has a big heart. You’ve seen him with Callie.” None of it is a lie.
“He’s stepped up for us in the past.” Tristan wraps his arm around Rix’s shoulder. “In Aruba he took care of the hotel situation.”
“He took care of a lot more than that,” Nate mutters, but I think I’m the only one who catches it.
Essie hugs Nate’s arm and kisses his bicep.
I ran into Connor on the beach in Aruba after the wedding. He seemed particularly despondent, even with his bottle of expensive champagne and the pretty view. I didn’t push then, even though I wanted to.
Flip turns back to me. “If you ask me to support you, I’ll support you, no matter what. But if he fucks you over in any way, I’ll end him.”
I smile up at my best friend, grateful and sad. “I know you will.” I can’t tell him why I’ve made this choice. He’ll want to fix it, and I won’t risk it changing our friendship. Everyone in this room is too important.
I just hope Connor doesn’t give Flip another reason to hate him, for the health of his team and our friendship.
After a long look, Flip hugs me. “If you let me, I will always have your back, Dred.”
“I know,” I say, muffled by his chest. “Thank you. I promise this is the right decision for me.”
“I need a drink,” Flip announces. The guys follow him into the kitchen.
The girls converge on me.
“Are you pregnant?” Rix asks.
“No. I’m not pregnant.” And I don’t have plans to consummate the relationship even though I find Connor wildly attractive.
“Are you going to tell us what’s going on?” Hemi, who is usually the boss of us, asks gently.
“Eventually, yes.”
“But not right now?” Hammer clarifies.
“Not right now, no.”
“Have you secretly been in love?” Tally asks hopefully.
With Connor? No. But his grandmother is another story. “It’s a complicated situation. I promise all of you I want this, and that eventually, I will explain it all, but for now, I just really need you to be on my side.”
“Okay. We can do that,” Lexi pipes in.
The rest of the girls nod their agreement. This group has been through it over the past few years, from Hemi’s on-ice engagement to Lexi marrying the team goalie last season. We always have each other’s backs.
“He really is a good person,” Essie whispers.
I smile, even as that makes me wonder what she knows that other people don’t.
“Whatever you need, we’re in this with you,” Rix promises.
I nod. I want to believe I won’t end up with a broken heart, but I don’t know if that’s possible—not because I’ll fall for Connor, but because I already love Meems.
The guys return with drinks and stare expectantly at us.
I need to diffuse the tension and take the attention off me, otherwise I might crack under the pressure. “How are we feeling about this year’s prospects?”
“Pretty sure Brody will be a top pick when they call him up,” Roman says, bless his heart. He’s on my side because I was on his when he and Lexi planned a shotgun wedding last season to save her career.
Brody Stiles is Tristan’s younger brother. He’s currently in college, but destined for the pros.
“He was magic this summer at the Academy,” Hollis agrees.