Chapter 3
Chapter
Three
Roxie
“Holy shit, you’ve got a lot of stuff,” Rylan grunted as he carried in the last box from my moving truck.
“Well, I planned to leave some of it at home, but—” My voice trailed off, and he didn’t question me further, just waved it off.
“We’ll find room for it. If not, there’s always storage units.”
“And donation centers,” I pointed out with a grimace.
Rylan and I had texted back and forth the entire last month. We talked nearly every day. We hadn’t gone deeper into our personal lives yet, just skirted around anything that required real vulnerability. He was guarded and I had a feeling it might take some work to figure out why.
I was quite skilled at getting the truth out of people.
So far, I’d learned that Rylan was a shameless flirt with everyone, he was a licensed physical therapist, and his boss was a complete and utter nightmare.
It felt like a turning point the day he called me to talk him down on a lunch break after a particularly bad day with her.
When we weren’t talking, I’d focused on making sure The Gathering Place was going to run smoothly in my absence. I’d hired on a few more team members and, thankfully, had a backup editor in place now.
Today was for moving in, then tomorrow, I’d go to the arena and meet with the new coach and team.
I was nervous as hell. Part of me didn’t give a single fuck what a bunch of hockey players thought of me. The other wanted this to go well. They had to like me enough to talk or this story would be doomed from the start.
Getting them to talk wouldn’t be a challenge. If I knew anything about Jeremiah Kingsford, it was that he’d put the fear of God in this team. They either cooperated, or they didn’t stay on the team.
Probably not the exact morale booster they needed but it at least would give them incentive to open up a little. The rest was up to me.
“You good, Rox?”
“I’m fine,” I said, lying through my teeth and trying to swallow down the fresh wave of nerves.
“Oh, come on. You’ve heard me complain about my terrible work weeks, and you’re going to keep whatever this is, quiet? At least make me feel a little better about my annoying complaining.”
“There’s a difference between complaining and venting,” I argued.
He just stared at me, waiting. Okay, I guess my new roommate wasn’t the type to let me deflect. Noted.
“I’m just a little nervous about how the players are going to react to me being there. I don’t think they’ll be outright assholes, but at the end of the day, I’m an outsider. They’re putting their jobs on the line if they fuck up and it kind of sounds like they really can’t afford to.”
Rylan shrugged. “That’s hardly your fault if they do. And if I know anything about hockey players, it’s that they’ll fuck up and never own up to their mistakes. Cocky bastards… every last one of them.”
“Isn’t that the fucking truth,” I said as I dropped the last bag on the pile.
Rylan added his box and turned to me, his fingers playing with the ring on his bottom lip. “You know, we don’t really talk about our shared hockey trauma, but the fact that we both have it kind of proves the point, doesn’t it?”
“My dad was a hockey player,” I admitted, giving him the quick overview. “When Mom found out she was pregnant, he shut down. The asshole left her alone for days before mailing her some hush money and cutting her out of his life.”
“Asshole,” Rylan said, his mouth twisting in disgust on my behalf.
“It doesn’t feel good to know your parent left and never thought twice about it. He just wrote my mom a fat check like that would solve everything.”
“Did she cash it?”
I laughed and shook my head. “She tore it up. We never heard from him again. I don’t even know if he even realized she didn’t cash it. She said she’d rather work three jobs than take his guilt money, and she did.”
“She sounds like a badass,” he said as he sat down on the couch. I curled into the opposite side for a breather. The place was a hot mess but it was homey. I could see myself settling in easily.
“That’s why, when she heard I was taking this job she finally took a job opportunity she was going to pass up. I couldn’t blame her for wanting to finally live her life. Hence why I have everything I own now in our shared space.”
He rolled his eyes playfully. “Remind me to thank your mom for that.”
“Careful. She’ll adopt you as her own before you know it.”
“I might not mind,” he said with a grin.
“So, you know mine, tell me yours,” I demanded.
“Not much to tell,” he said, but I just raised a brow in challenge. He didn’t let me hide and I wasn’t letting him, either.
He sighed. “My ex was my first partner that wasn’t a woman. The man that made me realize I was bisexual. He was a delta. The kind of guy that was passionate and all-in on life. Our relationship was hot as fuck, far too fast, but it worked for us. Then one day, he was just… gone.”
My chest tightened at the pain in his voice.
“The worst part?” he went on before I could offer any kind of reassurance.
“I’d been so scared to tell my family, to come out to them, but I did it the night before.
I had this huge breakfast planned to tell him and then was going to bring him over to meet them.
Then I woke up alone. It was for nothing. ”
“Damn. I’m so sorry,” I said, anger flaring on his behalf.
“He left me a note on our bedside table. That’s how I found out that he chose hockey over me.”
“He didn’t even have the courage to tell you in person?” What a fucking asshole. I couldn’t imagine abandoning someone I cared about like that and not having the courage to look them in the eye.
“No. According to the note, it was a cleaner break for both of us. He said we wanted different things.” He let out a bitter laugh.
“He wasn’t wrong. I never wanted to leave my hometown and I should have just come out to my family but I wasn’t ready.
I did it for him because it meant so much to him.
Clearly, it did or he wouldn’t have left, but he could have fucking talked to me about it. ”
“Your hometown that I’m guessing is not North Crossing?” I teased lightly.
He gave me a look. “Yeah, yeah, the irony isn’t lost on me. After he left, I did what I said I’d never do. He ruined that house for me. The whole town, really. Everywhere I went, there were reminders of what we were and what I lost.”
“I get that,” I said as I scooted closer, offering silent support.
“It just felt like I wasn’t even worth a proper goodbye. There was no explanation and I didn’t get an ounce of closure… but he did.”
“Fuck hockey players,” I said definitively.
That made him grin. “I agree. One thousand percent.”
He clapped his hands together, like he was physically shaking off the mood.
“But we’re not here to talk about what shitty parents and partners the players make,” he said. “We’re here to celebrate our first official night together.”
“Oh?” I prompted. “And what are we doing to celebrate?”
“Well, that depends,” he hedged. “Are you the quiet, stay-inside kind of omega, or are you a let’s-go-out-on-the-town kind of omega?”
I thought it over for a second because, honestly, it varied. But I was new to town. We were also new to each other, and you could tell a whole lot about a person by sharing a meal and a drink with them.
“I think for tonight, I’m a let’s-go-out kind of person. How about you point us in the direction of a really good place to eat? Dinner is on me, and then we find the best dive bar in town.”
“The best dive bar in town is kind of a contradiction,” he pointed out, but he looked excited at the prospect. “But I just so happen to know the perfect place.”
“Awesome,” I said. “I just need to shower off all this moving grime and change my clothes.”
He glanced around at the sea of boxes surrounding us. “Are you sure you even know where to find them?”
“I am a meticulous kind of person. I promise, I’ll find them.”
It only took a few seconds of reading labels on boxes to find what I needed. He appeared over my shoulder, reading the label and letting out a startled laugh.
“Really? You labeled your clothes by event?”
“I hardly think ‘cozy clothes’ and ‘going-out clothes’ count as labeling them by event,” I pointed out.
“Sure,” he said, but it was teasing. Another moment that felt like he’d known me for years. I liked it a lot more than I should. He needed space, not me silently falling for him.
There were so many unknowns hovering between us. I’d written off hockey players, not alphas as a whole, but it seemed he wasn’t over his ex. Or at least, hadn’t moved on quite yet.
I’d had my fair share of solid dates but nothing that went further than that.
Scent matching and scent compatibility meant something to me.
I didn’t want to give my heart away to just anyone.
At the end of the day I was a romantic at heart and desperately wanted to believe there was a pack out there for me.
For us, I corrected myself quickly. Rylan was a part of that dream now.
Rylan was my omega. That changed everything. Even if he needed time, I’d spend it showing up for him and proving that I’m worth trying again for.
Rylan was already waiting when I walked back into the living room, freshly showered and changed into my normal clothes. His smile widened at the sight of me and for a moment it was hard to breathe.
The way he looked at me sometimes made me feel like he also felt more bubbling under the surface.
Fuck. I had to stop getting my hopes up for my own sanity.
“Are you sure you’re up for this? Can you keep up?” he teased.
“I’m not sure I’m the one you need to worry about,” I shot back as I tucked my wallet, keys, and phone into my pockets.
My jeans barely left room, hugging my ass and hips. The dark wash looked perfect with the black tank top that had a lacy overlay. I’d thrown on my usual makeup—dark shadow and eyeliner with black lipstick. My earrings were little daggers wrapped in vines with a rose.
“You look incredible,” he said, his eyes heating slightly before he seemed to shake himself out of it.
The omega wanted me, too.
“So do you,” I said, giving him the same slow-perusal as he gave me.
Rylan had put some kind of curl product in his hair after his shower, so his curls were glossy and hanging perfectly around his face. He looked more relaxed now, the dirt of moving washed away.
He’d also picked jeans that hugged his ass.
And it was a glorious ass. The kind toned in the gym but still naturally soft enough that it would be there regardless.
He was one sexy omega.
Then he was pulling me out the door and leading me to his black SUV.
Rylan even opened the door for me. He started to reach for the belt like he wanted to buckle me in but stopped himself.
The fact the instinct was there had my chest warming. Once we gave in, I just knew we’d fit together perfectly.
If we were this comfortable in one day, I knew he would make me feel like a queen. And I would worship him right back.
For now, this was enough.
It was nice to know that I had someone to go out with and a familiar face in this town. We’d be able to meet up for lunch or dinner, or go out after hard days. I felt a lot less alone.
“I’m going to need you to keep an open mind here,” he said, giving me a teasing grin as he drove across town.
That did more to unsettle me than reassure me.
“Where are you taking me?” I demanded, my voice full of amusement and a little trepidation.
“It’s what one might consider a hole-in-the-wall restaurant.”
“And this is how you’re going to introduce me to the city?”
“Oh, yeah,” he said, completely confident in his choice. “And to be fair, it’s kind of a two-for-one deal. Dinner and a dive bar. You’ll love it.”
“Give me the name and I can look it up,” I countered, my phone at the ready to search for it.
“Nope,” he sang out.
“You’re not helping,” I pointed out with a huff. He just chuckled and shot me a wink before turning up the music and singing along softly as he navigated through North Crossing.
I decided to let him have his secrets for now as I studied the town rolling by.
Westgrave had always seemed like the perfect size to me. Somewhere between a small town and a small city. There were enough places to make sure we had proper shopping and things to do without feeling overwhelmingly large.
North Crossing was even smaller. More like a typical small town despite the giant hockey arena looming over the other buildings. They’d made hockey their entire lives here.
It was unavoidable, which was another reason I was confused why Rylan had come here of all places.
Especially while he hated his job.
“So, why did you pick North Crossing?” I asked as I turned back to him.
His smile dimmed slightly, but he just shrugged.
“It was close. It was still small and when I drove through the towns looking for a job, it just felt like this was the one. It was the middle of winter the first time I came here, right when all the decorations and lights were up for the holidays. I just… fell in love.”
“And the Narwhals?” I questioned. “They seem to be a pretty prominent figure in this town.”
“They are,” he admitted, “but honestly? Most of them head into Chicago or one of the bigger cities when they want to celebrate rather than sticking around here. So, they’re actually pretty easy to avoid.”
“Good,” I said. “I’ll be spending too much time with them anyway.”
He pulled up in front of an older brick storefront that had a sign out front that was hand-painted.
“Keep an open mind,” he said again as we climbed out, beckoning me to follow.