2. Tuevo
CHAPTER 2
Tuevo
D amn it .
I met Caleb when we were nineteen years old, called up to the AHL Virginia team that fed into the Tennessee Avengers. He and I had both left college to pursue the NHL and ended up rooming together for the first six months, in that span of which I learned everything under the sun about him. His twin brother Cameron who was playing football for Notre Dame, his oldest brother Dalton who would someday take over their family’s ranch in Colorado, and his two younger brothers, Gavin and Bryce. But the person he talked about the most?
His little sister, Meredith. A spitfire he called her. He missed the hell out of her. And if he wasn’t chuckling at random TikToks or dancing his thumbs across his phone screen, there was no doubt he was talking to her.
I’d waited years to be able to meet her. I heard all the things about her. Saw all the pictures… and damn those pictures. After a while, I’d stopped getting hard at the sight of the framed picture of the two of them at her high school graduation that he kept perched on his bedroom dresser. But the gut punch effect every time he flashed me a picture of her was the same knock-you-off-your-ass hit that had me spinning onto the ice and left me discombobulated. The few times I’d talked to her on FaceTime calls were worse.
She was gorgeous. A fifteen out of ten, no hesitation, and he’d told me the most hilarious stories of her, her loyalty and sweetness mixed perfectly with her sass and need for constant adventure.
Until that very moment when she gaped at me, jaw tightened, and all her happiness at seeing her family vanished.
Damn it .
That was what she said, and I was still gaping at her, that gut punch feeling a whole lot more like I just got side checked into the boards and never saw it coming.
Fortunately, she turned, threw her arms around Cameron, and then was passed to Dalton. The man was all mountain man. Plaid shirt, Wrangler jeans, cowboy boots worn for function and not style like all the other cowboy wannabes we’d spent all night around.
“Hey, I’m Hailey.” A tan hand with slim fingers appeared in front of me. I shook off the pain of Meredith’s initial reaction.
“Tuevo. Nice to meet you.”
“You too. Meredith’s been excited to meet you, so don’t mind her. She’s hella strange sometimes.”
There was a smile on her face. Lips kicked up at a corner and an adorable, sweet girl next door blush rising on her cheeks that made me feel more like she knew some secret but would never spill.
“I got that vibe,” I joked. Meredith was still gushing with her brothers, arms wrapped around Dalton’s middle. “Do you two need a drink?” It was my turn for the next round anyway.
“Sure. I’ll have a vodka cranberry and Meredith usually drinks whiskey.”
A whiskey girl. I liked it.
But I’d been attracted to her for two years without ever meeting her face-to-face, so that wasn’t a surprise.
“Hailey!” Meredith called for her, and Hailey smiled at her friend. “Come meet my brothers!”
“Thanks again for the drinks,” she told me before heading into the madness that was the Kelley family.
“No problem.”
By the time I came back, Meredith had her head thrown back with loud, boisterous laughter echoing across a group of ten. Her long red hair fell back, and as the guys thanked me for the round, I handed Meredith her drink.
“Hailey told me you liked whiskey. Whiskey sour okay?”
Her eyes, the color of the drink in my hand, widened. “Perfect, actually. Thank you.”
“Any sister of Kelley’s is a friend of mine.”
Those eyes narrowed. “Friend…”
“Sure. Caleb talks about you more than he talks about your mom or hockey. Feel like I’ve already known you for years.”
She brought her thin, red straw to her lips, wrapped them around it, and took a sip. All the while, her eyes were on me, scanning my face. If I thought it’d help my situation, I’d puff out my chest.
She didn’t seem to be the kind of girl all that impressed with nice pecs and chiseled abs. This was a girl who needed more than that. Attention. Conversation. Affection.
It was also too damn bad her brother was my friend. That made her off-limits regardless of how my body reacted to her, so much more visceral than to pictures.
A line of sweat dripped down the back of my neck as she watched me. As I waited for her to say something.
Anything.
She blinked, lowering the drink while her fingers twisted the straw. “We can’t be friends, Tuevo.”
Disappointing, for sure. “Why not?”
“Yeah, Mere. Tuevo’s a great guy! The best.”
She grinned up at Caleb and then smirked. “Because, Caleb…”
His jaw dropped. His eyes flashed to me and then he barked out a laugh.
From the other side of the table, Hailey’s giggle grew louder.
I was the fool standing there. Totally lost.
“You’re fucking with me right now, Meredith. Aren’t you? My best goddamn friend?”
But Caleb didn’t sound all that upset about it. Whatever it was…
“Nope.” She was still wearing that same shit-eating grin as she shook her head at her brother. “Sorry, Caleb. Not joking.”
I shuffled on my feet. Not only were her brothers laughing—Dalton hiding his behind his full beard and fist—but if I hadn’t known what Caleb was wearing before we left the hotel tonight, I wouldn’t have been able to tell the two apart. They were both laughing so damn hard we were gaining the attention of everyone around us.
“What am I missing?”
“Meredith has a gift—” Caleb said.
“It’s never been wrong,” Cameron finished for him.
“You’re screwed, kid,” Dalton added.
I was never laughed at, but I tried to play it off. The fact that everyone who knew Meredith knew what was going on and they thought it was hysterical left an uncomfortable itch between my shoulder blades. That one place that could never be reached.
My smile fell and my lip curled. “Why can’t we be friends?”
And what was this gift ?
“I can’t be your friend , Tuevo.” She grinned, beautiful lips stretched into a wide, perfect smile and her hand settled on my shoulder. The first contact with her erased that itch, chilled the sweat, and left my heart racing. “Because someday, you’re going to make me your wife.”
Her brothers busted out in guffaws behind her, Cameron now bent over, hands to his knees as he tried to catch his breath. I scanned the table, the group, and my gaze settled on Hailey.
Her lips were pressed together, and her eyes were large, brows raised.
“What the fuck?” I stepped back.
This wasn’t funny. There was nothing funny about this. I took another step back, but it was Caleb who stopped me. The asshole.
“You can run all you want, but my brothers and I would like to go ahead and welcome you to the family, bruh.”
“You’re all fucking nuts.” None of this was funny. Some lame damn joke I was supposed to go along with? Fuck that. “Screw you,” I told Caleb and then glared at Meredith. She was chewing on her bottom lip and shrugged. “Screw all of you.”
I turned, snatched my beer off the table, and got the fuck out of there.
I was never getting married. I was attracted to Meredith. There was nothing unattractive about her, except for maybe the gift she claimed she had. And the worst part? Her brothers were in on it. What was this, one last prank of Caleb’s before we parted ways and became friends who would play against each other a handful of times a year?
He knew.
He knew how much I despised the very idea of marriage. No way in hell was I ever going to put a woman in that position. Not now. Not with Meredith. Not for all the money in the world and most definitely, although last on that list, never while I was in the profession I was in.
Ever.
Fuck Caleb and his pranks.
Fuck his brothers.
And fuck Meredith for going along with all of it.