Chapter 28
FRANKIE
We’re halfway home on the E Line, still well surrounded by other hockey game attendees, when my phone rings.
If it wasn’t Logan, I wouldn’t answer it.
Since it is, I answer it with glee, because my heart has been in my throat since we left the arena.
“Hi,” I whisper. “I’m on the train.”
“Can you talk?” He sounds like he’s out of breath.
“Mm-hmm.”
“I need to get on the bus in a second, but I found a quiet corner. It’s a long story I’ll tell you later, but I have to go out with the team for a bit.” His voice dips. “I’ll duck out as soon as possible. I can’t wait to see you. I want to sleep wrapped around you again tonight.”
“I want that, too.” I glance around. Only Sloane and Liz are paying any attention to me.
Everyone else in this car in LA jerseys is completely oblivious to the fact that I’m talking to the guy they all saw score two goals against their team.
That’s surreal. “I, um, don’t have to get up early in the morning. ”
“Oh yeah?”
“What time do you have to get back there?”
“Eight or nine would be fine. My first timing would be a team meeting at ten.”
My heart, still in my throat, twirls with excitement. That feels like oodles of time. “Okay, well…see you at some point? We might not be home for an hour anyway.”
“An hour?” He sounds incredulous.
I laugh. “Welcome to LA.”
“Would it be faster to call a car? I’ll pay for a car, Frankie.”
I laugh.
His voice turns soft. “I’ll pay for anything you want or need.”
“Okay. See you soon.”
He laughs. “Too much?”
“Little bit.”
“Can’t wait to say it again while I’m between your thighs.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I say brightly.
When I hang up both of my besties lean in as one.
“What’s the plan?” Sloane asks.
I’m not answering that.
Liz waggles her eyebrows. “Are we being kicked out again?”
“No. Of course not.” I take a deep breath, forcing my heart back into my chest where it belongs. “He’s going to come by later. He has to go out for a bit first. And he’s going to sleep over.”
Sloane waves her hand. “I’m actually going to go meet Hot Thoracic Fellow in an hour because he wants to see the jersey in person. So I might not be home overnight anyway.”
“Merry is working, but I can go to her place when she gets off,” Liz says.
“You guys, that isn’t necessary,” I protest.
“It’s not a sacrifice for us all to get laid,” Liz points out.
And since I could use a distraction, Sloane has an hour to kill, and Merry is a bartender, we go to the lounge where Liz’s girlfriend works.
“What are you having, ladies?” Merry asks as we tumble onto bar stools in front of her.
“Can I see your mocktail menu?” I ask.
I want to keep my wits about me. And maybe I’ll do Dry January since I’m doing an intense rotation. Alcohol messes with my sleep, and that’s a premium for med students.
She drops one in front of me, then kisses Liz before grabbing her love a beer.
Sloane orders a chocolate martini and I ask for a lime and tonic concoction. While she’s mixing those up for us, I drop Logan a pin on our location.
Frankie
Hanging out here with my friends until you’re done whatever you’re doing
Logan
I’ll meet you there and walk you home
“Aw, he’s chivalrous,” Sloane says, reading over my shoulder.
“He’s something,” I mutter.
“What does that mean?” Her tone immediately shifts to wary.
As much as she’s affected by his charm, Sloane is first and foremost a girl’s girl.
She’ll have my back no matter what. Both of my friends will, which is why I love them so much.
They have taught me so much about the loyalty of true family.
“He’s so…so…” I reach for a word, any word, that could capture all of Logan, and I fail.
“I don’t think he sees any barriers, ever.
He’s relentless. When he called, he wanted to send me money to get off the train and take a car.
He said, I’ll pay for anything you want or need. I’ve known this man for five days!”
Liz laughs. “You should take him up on that. Let him pay off your student loans.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I—”
“And let the man walk you home.” She grabs my phone. “Even better, he should bring his team here.”
“What? No!”
But Liz is already typing.
“Give me my phone back.”
“You have limited time together. He needs to do a team thing. It can be here.” She shows me the screen. “Problem solved.”
Frankie
Update…this lounge is really nice, has a hot bartender, and is pretty private, if your team hasn’t decided on a place to go yet
Logan
On our way
“Why would you tell him that the bartender is hot?” I flick a glance at Merry. “No offence, of course. You are a smokeshow.”
“None taken. Who are we talking about?”
Liz silently asks me with her eyes if it’s okay to loop Merry in, then reaches across the bar and takes her hand.
“An NHL hockey team is about to show up. They have no idea who we are, except one of them isn’t going to stop staring at Frankie.
At some point he might carry her out of here over his shoulder.
That will be what she wants, even if she protests. ”
Merry glances at Sloane in her LA jersey, then to me in Logan’s sweater. “That’s the team that’s coming in, then? Buffalo?”
My cheeks flame in embarrassment, but I nod jerkily.
She grins. “And the rest of it? Might one of them carry you out like you’re his prized possession?”
“All true,” I manage to say. “Especially now that your girlfriend poked the bear and tried to make him jealous.”
Liz waves her hand dismissively. “Text him back and clarify so he doesn’t come in all steamed.”
I’m already typing that.
I don’t want to make Logan jealous, even for a second. The thought makes me queasy.
Sloane claps her hands. “And now we get to observe the gladiator outside the arena.” She leans in and directs the next part to Merry. “Don’t get me wrong, I like the guy, but it’s one thing for him to be nice to us because he’s trying to impress Frankie—”
Merry looks at Liz. “This is the nice guy you met two nights ago?”
She looks unashamed at the secret keeping. “Yeah.”
Sloane continues as if she wasn’t interrupted. “It’s another thing to see how he is with people in public.”
“In public is exactly the problem,” I say, squeaking with panic.
“Calm down. A cocktail lounge in Culver City is random enough that nobody will think twice.”
“I’m wearing his name on my back.”
“What a weird coincidence,” Liz says serenely.
Could it be that simple? A stolen moment in public, hidden in plain sight. My pulse beats faster still, excitement layered on top of fear. Both co-existing.
“Fine.” I take a deep breath. “This is fine. But I want to hide the back of my jersey in a booth, if you don’t mind.”
Merry waves us off. “I’ll bring your drinks over to you.”
We head to a big round corner booth. Sloane and Liz slide into the middle, and I sit on the edge, my back firmly against the vinyl, my eyes glued to the entrance, although with LA traffic, it might be ages before they actually walk in the door.
“Oh, wow.” Sloane nudges me. “Apparently a hockey player slept with one of his teammate’s mom.”
“What?”
She shoves her phone in front of my face. It’s a hockey gossip blog account, suggested to her by Instagram as a new follow.
I scan the salaciously worded graphic quickly. “That was just an online rumour that sprouted legs.”
“Apparently it happened again.”
I push her phone away. “Don’t believe stuff like that.”
And then against my better judgement, I tell her the entire back story about why that rumour took off, and how people want to assume the worst of a player, because he’s done other bad stuff regularly…
“I had no idea there was so much lore. Okay, I’m following that page for sure.”
“That’s not the takeaway I was suggesting.”
“Mmm.” She nods and keeps scrolling.
I shake my head and look across to Liz, who is watching Merry put the finishing touches on our drinks with a lovesick look on her face.
Crap, that’s totally how I’m going to look as soon as Logan arrives.
Sure enough, when the door opens forty-five minutes later and more than a dozen giant men fill the space, I immediately find him in the middle of the pack. He’s changed into jeans and a light blue buttoned down shirt with the sleeves rolled up.
Our eyes meet across the room. The impact is visceral and steals my breath. He’s affected, too. His jaw tightens, and for half a second, his stride falters. Then someone claps him on the shoulder and he forces a lazy grin as he responds to whatever they’re saying.
His gaze doesn’t leave me, though.
I press my back harder against the booth.
“Holy shit,” Sloane breathes. “They’re all so big.”
“That’s what she said,” Liz murmurs, and I would laugh if my heart wasn’t trying to escape my chest.
The team spreads out toward the bar. Merry greets them, then gestures to the double-wide glass doors, where string lights illuminate the narrow private patio at the side of the building.
I read their lips as they debate where they want to sit. Or stand.
“Here’s good.”
“Sitting under a palm tree sounds good, too, though.”
“Yeah, let’s go outside.”
“Let me just look at this menu first.”
Logan doesn’t weigh in. He feigns scanning the room in casual curiosity. Three, two, one… Eye contact again.
He covers his mouth with his hand, tugging on his lower lip.
“Get a room,” Sloane mutters. “Oh, Hot Thoracic Fellow is almost here. I can’t believe I’m going to miss the rest of this show.”
“You should tell him to come inside,” Liz says.
“It’s not that good of a show. Unlike Little Miss Married over there, I’m not introducing anyone to anyone for at least a few months.” She pats my hand. “Let me out.”
I scoot out of the booth, and as soon as I do, one of the players spots my jersey. His face lights up and he nudges the guy next to him, pointing.
“And it’s on,” Sloane says, giving me a thumbs up as she starts to walk backwards to the exit. “Just be cool.”