Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Summer
The best kiss of his life.
Sure, it had been good. Okay, amazing. But the best? Hatch must have kissed plenty of girls—Ava came to mind, unfortunately—but I couldn’t possibly have been at the top of his scale, could I?
It might have been a top-shelf kiss, but Hatch Kershaw was not happy about it. He thought I was pretending—and I was. At first. It started that way and developed into something else and now I was left wondering how to get me more of that amazing mouth.
Which was all wrong, of course. I had just crashed and burned my previous relationship, and now I was thinking about another man less than forty-eight hours later. Hatch was right: I did contain multitudes!
The part of me who was not a trophy wife wannabe or a bride on the lam needed to think about the future. This morning, I had texted Dash.
Could we talk?
It hadn’t been delivered. I appeared to have been blocked. I understood, but I had hoped he might have calmed down and would want to listen to what I had to say. Of course, he had every right to excise me for his mental health.
Still, I needed to talk to someone, and Hatch was clearly too angry to be a good sounding board. Both Adeline and Rosie had left messages. I suspected Adeline would be more sympathetic while Rosie would be all “fuck that guy” without even caring that I was at fault.
I texted them both on our group thread, Chirpy Chicks.
Is anyone up for a chat with the most hated person in the Midwest?
Rosie
If you’re talking about Conor, then it’s a pass from me. If you mean you, then of course!
Rosie had the weirdest hate-on for Conor Kershaw.
Addy
Summer, we’ve been so worried about you. Can you do a video call?
Me
Could we just do voice? Not looking my best.
Adeline did not need to see me in her childhood bikini. Good luck explaining that. Three minutes and one dropped call later, I was in an audio group hug with the only friends I had right now.
Self-pity much, loser?
Shut it, Shelby Mae.
Adeline went first. “First off, are you okay? Tell us you’re safe.”
“I’m safe. Honestly. I just had to get away.”
Rosie chuckled. “There’s getting away and there’s getting away. That was absolutely wild!”
“I know. I’m so sorry for putting you guys in that position. How awful was it?”
“Well …” Adeline stretched out the word. “I asked Lars to tell Dash. He was there when Ro came to say you’d left, and he is a teammate. But Dash had already received your text by then.”
Another person I had to apologize to. “Tell Lars I’m sorry. Tell everyone I’m sorry.”
“Listen, you can be sorry for the timing,” Rosie said, “but if you weren’t feeling it, then it was better you make the break. Any regrets?”
“Only that I hurt Dash. I tried talking to him but he’s not ready.”
“He probably needs some time,” Adeline said.
“He’s with his family in St. Bart’s, so I’m sure he’s surrounded by people who care about him.”
“Never mind Carter,” Rosie said. “What’s going on with you? Where are you?”
“I went out of town for a while. Just to clear my head.”
“Okay,” Adeline said, likely picking up on my reticence. “I hope you’re getting some sun and being kind to yourself. Is there anything we can do?”
These girls were too good to me. I did not deserve them.
“No, nothing. I’m going to call Ryder now and see about getting my job back.”
“But they already have a new person in the role.” I couldn’t blame Rosie for sounding skeptical. “I met her the other day. She’s kind of scary.”
A bit of a dragon lady, Lainey was perfectly capable of handling Ryder. “Maybe not the same job, but something else in the org.” An internship was my goal, though I could see that now being an issue.
“They might be able to help out,” Adeline said softly.
“But will they want to?” Rosie finished. “Dash works there, too, and to be honest, they’re probably going to take the side of the asset worth millions over the woman who left him at the altar.”
“You’re right, I know. I just don’t want to feel so … worthless.”
“You are not worthless.” Adeline sounded positively fierce. “Call Ryder. You never know, he might be able to help.”
Rosie hummed, which meant she was unconvinced but was biting her tongue not to say anything. “Do you need us to come see you? If you don’t want to be in Chicago, we can come to wherever you are.”
I would have loved to see them, but I had a problem.
Hatch.
I couldn’t reveal that he was my reluctant knight-in-hockey-pads. That he had whisked me away to safety and given me a roof over my head.
That I had tried to repay his kindness with a little role-playing and a kiss for the ages.
“It’s okay. I think I should be on my own for a while.”
We signed off with promises to check in in a couple of days. I didn’t want them worrying about me or asking too many questions.
They were right about one thing: Ryder wouldn’t give me my job back. Onto Plan B. Next, I called Scott Kincaid in Rebels Talent Development.
“Hello.”
“Hi, Scott, it’s Summer.”
“Summer! You’re the last person I expected to hear from.”
“Did you get the report I sent? It should have landed in your mailbox a few days ago.” Three days before the wedding, in fact. I’d worked on it, eager to take my mind off my topsy-turvy life. Maybe I should have thought more about my upcoming nuptials instead of NHL prospects.
“Yeah, I got it. Great work as always. I figured you’d be so busy with everything.” He paused a moment, then asked, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I am. I know it didn’t look good, how I handled it. Anyway, I just wanted to reach out to talk about continuing the work we’ve been doing together.”
If I phrased it as a collaboration, maybe he would be more open to the idea.
“You said you wanted to enjoy married life for a while and that’s why you quit your job.”
I sighed. “It was more that Dash didn’t like the idea of me working. He thought it didn’t reflect well on him.”
“Okay. So what do you want to do now? I don’t see you going back to the front office.”
“No, that’s not likely. But I had hoped I could be considered for the Rebels intern program. I’ve produced good work for you, and you had said you’d put a good word in with Ryder.”
He hummed. “Right. But things are kind of complicated now. We have Carter to think of, and for us to be offering his ex-fiancée a position—”
“Unpaid.”
“All the same. It would smack of disloyalty.” He took a breath. “But …”
Hope flared. “But?”
“You’ve got a great eye for hockey prospects, and your reports are excellent. I think we just need to wait for the dust to settle and see where we stand.”
That was probably the best I could hope for. “I appreciate your willingness to be neutral here.”
“Don’t know about neutral. But I recognize talent when I see it and I’m not talking about Carter.”
I smiled. This. This was what I was supposed to be doing. Why had I not put my foot down with Dash and told him this was what I wanted?
Because your instincts are terrible, Summer. Otherwise you wouldn’t be kissing Hatch Kershaw …
“So, now that you’re not on your honeymoon and you’re out of a job, it sounds like you have some time on your hands.”
“Do you need some work done?” Maybe Hatch had a computer I could borrow.
“I’ll send the specs to your email.”
We had always worked using my personal email because Scott worried Ryder would think I was being poached by another department. Sensitive office politicking. Once I ended the call, I felt a little bit better.
Then I remembered my run-in with Hatch. Today’s run-in, not the kiss from last night. I would not be devoting any more brain space to that.
I threw the University of Michigan tee over Adeline’s bikini—I suspected Hatch was annoyed with my skin-revealing outfit—and headed outdoors. He was stretched out on a lounger wearing board shorts and nothing else.
My mouth went dry. Then it watered. Then dry again.
Talk about skin revealing. That body was fact and proof of deities who worshipped the male form.
All the Kershaws were beautiful, but Hatch was in a class of his own.
Scimitar cheekbones, a perfectly chiseled jaw, those jewel-green eyes.
Okay, so I was focusing on the face because dwelling on his body might make my hormones bubble to a boiling point.
I chanced a dip south. He had chest hair. I hadn’t expected it, and seeing that smattering of hair, the goodie trail, the flatpack abs, had every part of my body doing a celebratory samba.
He pushed his sunglasses onto his head, gave a Class A glower, and barked, “What?”
“Were you able to fix the bike?”
“No. The tube is shredded. I’ll have to get a new one in town.”
It hadn’t looked that bad before, but what did I know. “I’ll get an Uber later. Bring it into the bike shop myself.”
“Do you need to be in town today? More underwear to buy? Mayhem to cause?”
“No—”
“Then I’ll take care of the bike later.”
I figured it wasn’t a hill worth dying on, not when there were a million other peaks to climb.
“I just talked to Adeline and Rosie.”
“Did you tell them where you were?”
I shook my head. “I thought it best to keep that to myself.” I took his silence for agreement. “Could we talk about what happened before?”
He sat up on the lounger and swung his long, strong legs so his feet touched the ground. I took it as an invitation to sit beside him. My thigh brushed his, and the heat of him wafted into my airspace. Damn, call Air Traffic Control at once.
“I should apologize,” he started, surprising the hell out of me.
“Oh, no. That’s on me. I shouldn’t have blindsided you last night. Yet another example of my poor decision making.”
“You had good intentions.” He raised an eyebrow. “I think.”
“I did. But the execution wasn’t the best.” I took a chance. “Unless it was?”
“Unless it was what?”
In for a penny … “Unless it was the best kiss of your life. Which I find hard to believe because …” I trailed off. Why did I find it hard to believe?
It was the best kiss of mine.
“Because …”
Oh, he was going to call my bluff. “I guess I would have thought you’d have had tons of great kisses. Great kissers tend to produce similar results in the kissees.”
“The kissees? We’re making up words now?”
“Sure, why not? And don’t change the subject.”
“Your reasoning is that I couldn’t have possibly thought last night’s kiss was the best kiss of my life because I’m such a great kisser and I would have already achieved those lofty heights?
” When I merely smirked my agreement, he went on.
“You don’t think a great kisser could always be striving to kiss better, to improve the kiss experience, to aspire to the best kiss ever? ”
He sounded so passionate, and I had to admit I loved that. Dash was so blasé about everything. Nothing stoked his fire, not even hockey, yet here was a man getting riled about kissing and the desire to always be improving.
In his passion, he had moved a touch closer, his thigh pressed against mine, the heat of his skin searing mine.
I smiled, unable to help myself. For the first time in weeks, maybe months, I felt lighter. “I apologize for casting aspersions on your mission to become the best kisser in all the land.”
He grinned back. Oh wow. “As you should.”
And there we were, smiling like fools. We’d achieved some semblance of a truce, though we hadn’t been enemies before. Well, he hadn’t been mine, but I think he thought I was his.
I would question that later.
His grin faded. “What I said, about the roles you play—that was uncalled for.”
“You were right. I do play different parts. I always have.”
He waited for me to elaborate. It was one of the many things I enjoyed about him. He didn’t try to fill silences. He just let me be.
“I’ve always wanted to fit in, and sometimes that involves being a chameleon.
Becoming who people expect in a particular situation.
The perfect fiancée, the good employee, the fun friend.
” The hard worker, the dutiful daughter, the subservient wife.
“I might be a lot of those things you said, but I’m not a gold digger.
That’s the one thing I take issue with. Dash and I were casual for the longest time.
When we first started dating, I had to pay for all our dinners and movie tickets because he wanted to make sure I wasn’t ‘in the relationship for the money.’”
“What a jerk.”
Yes and no. “He had a right to be wary, even if the way he expressed it was weird. I don’t think it even occurred to me that we would get married.
I wanted other things. A career. A life that wasn’t dependent on anyone else.
But he was persuasive, and I suppose I fell for his charm and maybe I was blinded by his wealth.
I never had that, growing up. Suddenly I’m being offered the world on a platter, and it fried my brain a little. ”
His stare was so intense, yet I couldn’t look away. His close regard fueled me.
“But then I started to see that every day we were engaged, every day counting down to the wedding, felt like a death march. Like I was heading for a life that hollowed out every part of me. And it was all my fault. Not Dash’s, or not really.
I think he started to realize that he’d invested all this time in me—in us—and he didn’t want that to go to waste.
But I was in so deep that I couldn’t see everything that was wrong with us as a couple. Until he told me to give up my job.”
“You liked your job,” he said quietly.
“I loved it. And I know it doesn’t seem that important, helper to the general manager, but I was learning so much.
And I wanted to keep learning. Maybe do something bigger instead of signing on for something smaller.
I barely resisted, Hatch. Dash told me I didn’t need it, and I let that dream go in service to what I thought was another.
Being a rich man’s wife.” I swallowed. I could hardly believe I’d spoken all these words aloud to this man.
“Never again. Now I’m going to focus on me.
My career, even if I can’t get back with the Rebels.
Ryder might give me a good reference, or … something.”
So a bit of a damp squib there at the end. Go, girl to oh no, girl.
“Sounds like this is the role you were born to play.”
I searched his face, looking for hints of humor and saw none. He was being his usual, serious self.
“What role is that then?”
“Summer Landry, the girl with the world at her feet.”