4. Tuevo
CHAPTER 4
Tuevo
S tunning and slightly psychotic in the head was what I thought of Meredith, but as we stood there, sipping our drinks, I couldn’t bring myself to pull away from her or suggest we go back downstairs. Whatever this was would end when the night did. Her wild pronouncement aside, she was wrong. Even if marrying into the Kelley family would be a thing of most people’s dreams come true.
Not mine, though. And definitely not while my hockey career was on the upswing. I had a decade most likely before I’d be forced into retirement and hang up my skates. Marriage wasn’t in the cards for me.
And even if I thought she was nuts, she’d been someone I wanted to spend time with since the first time I saw her picture. So what the hell. Let the crazy woman with her wildly incorrect predictions have her fun.
I’d have mine, right along with her.
“You know you’re attractive,” I said. She had to.
She wore that same mischievous grin. “It’s still nice to know others think so. How about we forget I ruined your last night with Caleb and head back downstairs? I’m pretty sure they’ll only give you shit for another minute or two.”
What the hell. They’d already had their laughs. I could take more. “Only if you let me buy you another drink.”
“You got it.”
By the time we got back downstairs, there was a fresh bucket of beers on the table. I helped myself to one as Caleb bumped his shoulder into mine. “You good?”
“You didn’t tell me your family was a bunch of wackos.”
He grinned, looking like the psycho Meredith claimed she wasn’t. “I figured that was a given.”
Maybe it should have been, given the stories I’d heard from him about growing up on his farm. According to Caleb, his family was practically royalty in their town. Ninety percent of the stories ended up with one of the boys naked in public, being able to ride their horses to school, and there were more than a few mishaps with their cattle walking down the town’s main street. A far cry from my young childhood getting bounced around city after city, while my mom pretended to be happy in a marriage to a pro hockey player who was probably the one who started the cliché of having a woman in every city when athletes traveled.
Which took effort, considering it was before the age of online dating and Tinder hookups.
“You ready to head back to Colorado?”
We’d been drafted together. Had spent years playing on the same team, chasing our dreams, and now we were twenty-two, heading off to different teams. Me, called up to Tennessee, but Caleb was traded to Colorado’s NHL team. Both of us were starting new chapters.
“I thought we already agreed we are.”
I chuckled and readjusted my ball cap. “Yeah, but my first practice is tomorrow. Hell, I shouldn’t even be here.”
Not that I was planning on getting wasted, but I should have been home sleeping, headed to the arena bright and early to meet my new teammates. I’d met a few already, but tomorrow would be my first morning skate. The Avengers’ roster was littered with injuries, the only reason they needed me immediately. If I couldn’t pull this off and leave an impressive mark with the team, there was a high probability I could be sent back to Virginia at the end of the season.
“Nervous, eh?” He chuckled. “Me too, but I get a week to worry about it. You’ll do great, though. Keep playing like you have been and the town will love you.”
“Right.” I took a pull from my drink and tipped my chin up. “Tell me about this sister of yours and her gift you failed to mention.”
“Can’t explain it, but we can show you.”
“Show me?” I imagined her walking around tables telling girls to ditch the assholes or telling men to walk away from a mom. “How?”
“Easy.” Caleb flashed me a Joker-like grin. “Meredith!”
“I’m right here,” she muttered, leaning forward from where she was perched on the other side of Caleb.
“Sorry, shrimp. Didn’t see you.”
I hid my chuckle behind my beer, poorly, and a flush of warmth swept through me as Meredith caught my gaze and rolled her eyes.
She really was beautiful. Shiny, long, red hair. Large doe-like eyes and pouty lips with a sharp bow at the top. Her skin was porcelain, creamy, and only made me wonder what color the hidden parts of her were. I cleared my throat and shifted in my chair to hide the semi I was sporting.
“What do you need?”
“It’s game time.”
She shook her head but laughed and pointed to me. “You put him up to this?”
“I’m curious.”
“Fine.” Her blue eyes narrowed on me. “Pick a couple.”
“Here?”
“Well, I’m not leaving the bar with a full drink, so yeah.” To prove her point, she brought the flimsy red straw to her lips and took a dainty little sip.
Caleb slapped my shoulder. “I’ll choose first.” He scanned the bar until he found a table with a lone man and a woman. They were sitting on stools at their table facing each other, her knees inside of his legs that were spread wide, boots propped onto the bottom rung of the stool. The guy was running his hands up and down her denim-covered thighs and they were leaning so close to each other they could have been kissing with each word they said. Every few seconds, he reached up and tugged on the pale gray scarf draped around her throat.
From the looks of it, they looked completely taken with each other.
“Those two.”
“Too easy,” Hailey crooned.
Meredith lifted her brows toward me, a challenge. “What are your thoughts?”
“On what? If they like each other?”
“No. How long have they been together? Will they last?” She leaned in and lowered her voice like we were in on a private joke together. “Has he been faithful?”
“Why isn’t she the one who could be unfaithful?”
“That’s easy.” She leaned back, scanned the floor, and pointed to another couple. They were sitting at a table with two other women. All laughing. The guy, too. “That girl is cheating on him.”
This was insanity. Absolute insanity. “There’s no way you know that.”
“And that guy at the table Caleb chose isn’t cheating on his girlfriend. Yet. I give them two more months.”
“Please.” I skewered Caleb with a look. Across the table, both Cameron and Dalton looked as amused as Meredith. “There’s no way. That guy? Totally into her.”
“For now. It won’t last.”
“What makes you say that just by looking?”
“I don’t know. But I can prove I’m right on at least one.”
“How?”
“Because girls talk about everything when they go to the restrooms.”
So we wait. I could do that. At that moment there was nothing more captivating than learning more about Meredith and spending one last night with Caleb before we went to our new homes.
Until then, I grabbed Cameron’s attention from across the table. “How’d you get lucky enough to be able to make it down here this weekend?”
“Didn’t make the playoffs and before you give me a pitiful, I’m sorry thing, don’t. After the season we’ve had, I needed the break.”
At twenty-two, he was in his fifth year as a quarterback at Notre Dame, starting the last three years. “You ready for the draft, then?”
“I should go in the first handful of picks. At least that’s what our agent says.”
“Glad you waited another year?”
He shrugged. “Mostly. It’ll be good to go to the draft with my degrees, but a part of me still wishes I had skipped out on the season. Especially with the injuries we had.”
Cameron was one of the top five college quarterbacks in the country, but their team had struggled this season. According to Caleb’s last update, Notre Dame had lost their two best running backs. Because of that, Cameron’s passing yards were the highest they’d ever been even if their record was the worst the team had seen in a decade.
“Your agent give you any indication on where you’ll end up?”
“There’s a bunch of NFL teams not doing as well as anyone expected, and there’s only a few weeks left. Right now it could go either way, but personally, I’m hoping for Denver. It’d be nice to be closer to home again. Hell, I’d take Kansas City even if I have to play backup for a couple years. Sounds like Arizona might be in play, too.”
“All of you together again, huh?”
He slid a frown toward Meredith. “If we could get her back there, then it’d be perfect.”
“Like hell,” Meredith chimed in.
“No desire to move back to Colorado?”
“Nope. Not until I start missing snow and I project that happening never.”
“You’ll have to show me around Nashville then.”
Her smile was sparkling. Almost daring. “You got it, hotshot.”
Her friend Hailey was down at the end of the table, talking to Dalton. “How about your friend? She has a boyfriend, right?”
“She hasn’t asked. I won’t give my opinion.”
“Really?”
As if she knew we were talking about her, Hailey smiled our way. “You talking about me?”
“Tuevo here wants to know what I think about you and Darrick.”
“Oh no.” Hailey started shaking her head and waving her hands. “I’m totally off-limits.”
“Why’s that?” Who wouldn’t want to know if they’d be happy forever with who they were seeing?
Except for me, of course.
Hailey grinned. “Takes the fun out of living, I guess.”
Next to me, Meredith chuckled.
I grinned at her. “Are you going to apologize for ruining the fun of me living my life?”
“Not a chance in hell.” Hailey went back to her conversation with Dalton, ignoring us, and Meredith leaned in closer. “Between you and me? He’s going to break her heart. And when he does, I’ll be there without a single I knew it coming from my mouth.”
“You don’t want to protect her?” That had to be breaking some kind of girl code.
“If she wants my opinion, I’ll give it, but I’m not in the business of breaking hearts. But to be honest, I’ve always pictured her with someone different. Someone rugged. A football player or something. I don’t know. I guess we’ll see.” Something snagged her attention and I turned to see. The three girls with the lone guy at the table were pushing off their stools. “And if you’ll excuse me, I’m also going to prove how right I am.”
She yelled Hailey’s name, and they went off, following the three girls to the restroom.
Caleb’s hand landed on my shoulder. “You in love with her yet?”
“Fuck off.” I shoved him, but my words lacked heat.
She was hot. She was something different. She’d clearly be unimpressed with the fact I was some NHL player given her family. She was everything I’d want if I was looking for someone or something serious.