Chapter 20
LUCKY NUMBERS
Ivy
Stefan stirs as the sun rises, his warm skin against mine. I’m used to waking up next to soft fur, a gentle paw, a lick of my nose.
I miss my girl, but I’ll see her this afternoon. Right now, I’m enjoying Stefan’s bare chest pressed to my back. He fits me well, all big and strong and a little greedy with his morning mouth, now coasting across my shoulder.
On the other side of me, Hayes is sound asleep, sprawled on his stomach like a starfish. “He’s a bed hog,” I murmur.
Stefan hums quietly against my skin, and, I think, peers over at his friend, as if checking my report. “Seems he is.”
Have they done sleepovers when they’ve been with other women? But that doesn’t feel like a morning-after question. Or, really, one I should ask at all.
I say nothing.
Stefan presses more soft kisses to my neck, then asks quietly, “Do you miss your dog?”
Like a cat enjoying the sun, I bask in the attention—both the question and his touches. “Are you reading my mind?”
He laughs softly. “No, I just had a feeling.”
“Why?”
He presses another kiss to my neck. Wow. He’s affectionate in the morning. Come to think of it, he was pretty affectionate last night too. “Your social media,” he answers. “There’s a lot of your dog. And clothes. And friends. And pretty things like pens and notebooks.”
“Stalk much?” I tease, but inside I feel glowy. He checked me out. Like, really checked me out.
“What can I say? I’ve had a thing for you for a while.”
I go still, a little surprised by the candor. I’m not used to that. “You have?”
“Yes,” he says, seeming undeterred by my reaction. “When I said last night I wanted to make my pitch, it was true. But you’ve also been on my mind since the Hockey Hotties event in the park.”
That was in April, at the end of last season. “I had no idea.”
“You were with that jackass,” he adds quietly as Hayes’s even breathing continues. Stefan runs his fingers along my naked shoulder, recounting the moment in more detail. “And Ryker was with the team. But that didn’t stop me from checking you out online that night.”
The idea of this confident, outgoing man being so taken he went home to look me up is like a shot of liquid gold in my veins. “And you developed a crush on my dog then too,” I tease.
He chuckles. “She’s cute. But it wasn’t till your brother was traded and I saw you’d ditched the douche at the start of this season that I decided no one was going to ruin my chance.”
I’m a little floored. But a little enchanted with him too. I turn to face him, searching for the full truth. “Really?”
His eyes are bright and honest. “You doubt me? Or do you doubt yourself?”
That’s a good question. I give it some thought, and no, I’m not someone who thinks oh god, why ever would that hot guy be into me? But I don’t think I’m doubting Stefan either. I doubt…men.
“It’s not you. It’s…people,” I say, cautiously.
“But I remember enjoying talking to you about all sorts of things. I remember thinking I liked that you had a sort of worldly charm about you. I didn’t think anything more on it because of my boyfriend at the time, and then I just thought you were with Annika. ”
His sunny expression vanishes. “I was. And then I wasn’t.”
It’s said crisply, like it stings. That worries me for him. “Does it still hurt?”
His brow screws up, as if he’s really considering the question. “It was months ago when she called off the engagement.”
I’m dying to know why. Truly, the desire claws at me. I don’t think it’s my place to ask, but I don’t have to because he keeps talking.
“I’d known her for years. Our families were close growing up. When she had a job opportunity in the States, she took it and we connected again, fell in love, got engaged. But she had an opportunity to return to Denmark, and she took it.”
Something seems to be missing though. “There was no cheating? No bad breakup?”
“None of that. It ended because I was willing to try the whole two continents thing. She wasn’t. That was that.”
And that’s what was missing. One person put in the effort. One didn’t want to. “Ouch.”
“Yeah,” he says with a heavy sigh and a cloud passes over his eyes, darkening his whole expression. This isn’t what I’m used to seeing from Stefan. He’s normally so upbeat, so happy-go-lucky.
“That must have hurt,” I say gently.
“It did,” he says, staring at the ceiling. He’s pensive for a beat, and I give him the time he needs till he turns to me. “But then you move on.”
“Truer words,” I say.
Even though last night feels distinctly like a one-night stand, this morning feels like a deep conversation with someone you want to see again. Especially when Stefan nuzzles me and says, “There you go again. Making me open up.”
I laugh lightly. “I didn’t make you.”
“Yes, you did.”
I swat his arm playfully. “I didn’t!”
“You absolutely did. Just like at the party. You’re too easy to talk to.”
“Other people aren’t?”
“There’s this thing called questions. Most people don’t ask them.”
That’s so strange to me. “How else would you get to know someone?”
“Excellent question. I have no idea, but most people I’ve met don’t ask me all the things I like about Denmark, like you did that day, or if my grandmother’s cats were taken care of, like you did on the patio.”
I don’t even try to hide my smile as I say, “You like to ask questions too.”
“You got me there,” he says, and he’s light again, breezy again. “Though, come to think of it, you were a little standoffish that day at the rink the other week.”
Chagrined, I admit the truth. “I thought you were still with Annika.”
He rolls his eyes. “Woman, I was flirting with you. Was that not obvious? Do I need to up my flirting game?”
“Oh, I knew you were flirting. I just didn’t know you were single.”
He shoots me a serious stare. “I’d never flirt with you if I was involved with someone. I’m certainly not going to go out and flirt with another woman later today for that matter either.”
Does that mean he thinks we’re involved? Or just that it’d be tacky to flirt with someone else after fucking another woman? Probably the latter.
“Good. Then I won’t flirt with someone else today either,” I say, then let my eyes drift to Hayes. “Except for maybe Hayes.”
I say it to test the possibility. I truly don’t know how far this sharing extends. Stefan’s eyes twinkle, but then the man in bed with us stirs, shifting slightly under the sheet. Both Stefan and I go starkly quiet.
With one deep sigh, our bedmate is breathing steadily again, snoozing. I relax.
“Here’s a question,” Stefan says quietly. “What happened to Fedora Fuckface?”
A laugh bursts from my chest. Immediately, I slam a hand to my mouth so I don’t wake Sleeping Beauty. When my laughter settles, I answer. “The jackass hooked up with my boss. Well, former boss.”
Stefan’s jaw drops. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
I flash a fake smile, one clearly meant for Xander. “I wish. But he also dumped me saying he needed and deserved a girlfriend upgrade. It turned out he was banging my boss while he was with me and while I was working for her.”
I tell Stefan the rest of the story and with each successive morsel, his jaw drops farther.
When I drop the tidbit about the blow job engagement picture, Stefan’s jaw is unhinged.
Then he’s speechless for a long beat. “Holy shit. I always thought he was a twat with those stupid hats. But fuuuck. That’s award-level douchery. I’d like to kill him for hurting you.”
I smile stupidly. I shouldn’t enjoy this caveman side of him. But I do.
“You’d like that?” he asks with a quirk in his lips.
I smile and shrug. “Maybe.”
“He never deserved you.”
“I’m sort of learning that.”
“Also, his wedding sounds like a train wreck.”
“They invited me to it,” I say, and once those words come out, it hits me that I’ve still got to plan for this event. “It’s in a few months.”
He growls. “You laughed in their fucking faces, right?”
“Actually,” I begin, then I tell him the story of how I landed a plum gig covering their wedding.
When I’m done, Stefan nods, clearly impressed. “You’re brilliant, Ivy. I thought that at the event in the park. I was impressed by your quick wit.”
“Thank you,” I say, a little awkwardly. I’m not used to compliments from men that sound so genuine.
“Seriously. I mean it. You’re going to do huge things. And even though your ex is a dick, I love that you turned this around into a chance for you. Your writing is fun and fresh.”
“I like that you found my writing,” I admit.
“Took you long enough to figure out it was me,” he teases.
“Oh, excuse me for not memorizing your jersey number.”
“Bet you won’t forget it now.” He tips his forehead to our bedmate. “Or Number Twenty-one.”
“My lucky numbers,” I add, feeling sassy with him, feeling confident.
His eyes twinkle. He likes this side of me. “They’d better be.”
But before we get sidetracked with this flirting, I return to the wedding story, compelled to tell the rest of it.
If I didn’t, I’d be keeping something from Stefan and that seems wrong after last night, but mostly after what he just shared with me.
“That’s how I met Hayes—after the invite to my ex’s wedding.
I’d just found out about their engagement when I ran into Hayes in the elevator for the first time.
I poured out my whole sob story to him. He volunteered to go to the wedding as my plus-one. ”
Stefan smiles with genuine affection for his friend. “That’s very him.”
“Is he a white knight?”
“He doesn’t like it when people are hurting. He wants to fix things,” he says.
“You like that about him.”
“Yeah. I do. He’s a good guy. I can always count on him.” Stefan says all this with no jealousy, no weirdness—just a rock-solid understanding of who Hayes is.
Maybe good guys are good in bed. I can’t wait to tell Jackson just how great some are. “He seems to be,” I say.
“I’m glad he’ll be there at the wedding. To protect you,” Stefan adds, then glances at the clock. A reminder that it’s ticking, and we both have places to be.
“What sort of threats do you think I’ll encounter at a faux fairy-tale woodland wedding?”
With a shrug, Stefan says, “Bears, I suppose.”
“He could protect me from a bear?”
“Yes. But here’s a tip—if there’s a bear, just run faster than Hayes.”
I crack up, then I stop laughing when Stefan kisses me quiet. “Shh. Don’t wake that bear.”
“But I have morning breath,” I whisper in protest.
“I don’t fucking care,” he says, giving me another kiss. “I’ve been wanting to wake up next to you for a long time. Don’t you get it?”
He’s thoroughly over his former fiancée and into me? I don’t know that I do get it. I don’t know that I understand what Stefan wants from me either.
Except I suppose I do know his actions and his words. Pretty sure he wants more. Maybe he even thinks we’re involved?
What does more mean though? For him, for me, for my job, and for…the three people in bed? We still work together. I don’t want to lose my job or my focus on rebuilding my career.
We kiss for a few more seconds till he pulls back with some reluctance.
He drops a kiss to my nose. “I should go. I have to make a few calls before this breakfast thing, and you have the annulment. But we should—” He cuts himself off when he looks to Hayes, then winces. “I should go.”
I swear he was going to ask to see me again. And I want to say yes.
But I don’t know how this works. Any of this. Instead, I let him go with a soft smile and a thanks for last night.
When he’s gone, I head to my suitcase and tug on a long T-shirt, staring at the gold band on my finger, then checking out the matching one on the man still in bed.
They look so surreal. Both will be gone in an hour, and only last night’s crew, an Elvis impersonator, and a showgirl will be the wiser.
Yesterday, I felt surprisingly empowered saying I do.
I wasn’t the yes-woman I’d been to Simone for the last year.
I was yes-womaning myself. I said goodbye to the person who wanted to please a boss who never truly cared about her.
Let go of the woman who wanted to spend time with a guy who never truly saw who she was or bothered looking.
I embraced the woman, the new me, who felt empowered enough to ask for two men in bed.
That daring night was like a fabulous outfit that makes a statement.
But like all good outfits, you can hang it up and tuck it into the closet once you take it off. As I grab some fresh clothes for today, Hayes stirs at last. Blinks his eyes. Scrubs a hand over his scruffy jaw. Meets my gaze. “Hey.”
His voice is froggy.
“You’re a heavy sleeper.”
With a smile, he scratches his head. “Yeah, I am. Were you guys up for a while?”
“Just chatting,” I say.
He hums. “That sounds nice.”
There’s no jealousy from him, and it’s so fascinating. I don’t know what to make of it. But I know this. Last night is over, and daylight has come.
He pushes up on his elbows and checks the time. “I should get ready for our…” He doesn’t seem to want to say it.
“Annulment,” I supply, just so he doesn’t forget we have an appointment.
He winces like Stefan did before he left. Like this pains him. I feel off as well. But what, exactly, is making me sad? Is it the marriage ending? Or is it the ending of the unexpected connection forged between the three of us after dark?
I have no answers. I hunt for a pair of jeans. Hayes is laser focused as he picks up his discarded clothes. He tugs on his jeans and T-shirt, smooths a hand down his chest, and blows out a breath. That feels final too. “I’ll meet you in the lobby in thirty minutes. Is that enough time?”
“I’ll be ready in twenty,” I say, resolute. I refuse to be someone who hangs on too long.
With a crisp nod, he leaves, and, missing my two men, I prepare for the end of my eight-hour marriage.