Bonus - Micah
MICAH
“I’m out of here.” Dom set his empty glass on the bar top at Tipsy.
We were celebrating our latest win. Tonight, we’d trounced Boston four to one, and we were looking pretty good with less than two months to go in the regular season. I was itching for playoff hockey this year, just like the rest of my teammates.
“Always bailing early. We’re celebrating here,” Sin called out.
Dom grinned. “You’d always want to be home if you had Ally and Olivia waiting for you. Well, not them specifically, of course. They’re mine.”
Sin shuddered. “Yeah, no thanks. Enjoy those diapers.”
“Worth every blowout.” He lifted his hand to wave at the rest of us and walked out of the bar.
“Yeah. No fucking thanks on that.” Haldy grabbed another beer and gestured across the room. “I’d rather go home with her. Fuck, she’s hot. Never seen her in here before.”
I followed his gaze, and my heart stopped a bit.
“Fuck no, you’re not,” I growled as I watched the woman walk toward us.
The woman who had irritated me for most of my life because she happened to be the annoying little sister of my best friend back home.
What the hell was Josie doing here?
She caught me looking at her, and her smile knocked me back a step. I hadn’t seen her in a few years, and it’d been four years since I’d made the mistake of kissing her.
One fucking kiss that no one else could ever know about, especially my best friend. Ray would string me up.
She tucked a long strand of purple hair behind her ear, looking hotter than she had any right to, and stopped in front of me.
“Hey, Micahtron, been awhile.”
Sin burst out laughing. “Micahtron?”
“Go away,” I muttered.
“Definitely not.”
I gave Sin my back and focused on Josie. Ray had told me two months ago that she was moving to Denver with some douchebag boyfriend and that he’d given Josie my number if she needed anything, but she hadn’t reached out.
“What are you doing here?”
She stared up at me with hazel eyes, nibbling on her lip like she was nervous.
Josie was never nervous.
Except right before she’d murmured something about going for it and then kissed me.
Fuck. I had no business thinking about that night.
“Just hoping to see you,” she said, that smile back in place.
“Micahtron?” Sin was still laughing behind me.
Josie’s eyes twinkled, and she looked around my arm at him. “He and my brother were obsessed with Transformers. Like, crazy obsessed. Hi, I’m Josie.” She held out her hand.
I linked my fingers with hers, ignoring the electricity that shot up my arm when I touched her, and tugged her away from my teammate.
“Hey,” Sin called out as I guided Josie away from him.
“Micah, seriously. It’s a funny nickname.”
“Of all the guys on the team you could’ve told, he’s the worst one.” I shook my head. “Fuck, I’ll never hear the end of it.”
She rolled her eyes at me. “Whatever.”
“Now, want to tell me what’s going on? I know Ray gave you my number.”
She was back to nibbling on her lip and it took everything in me not to reach out and touch her mouth, soothe the bruised flesh.
Fucking hell.
“Uh, yeah, he did. But I thought in person would be better.”
“For what?”
“Any chance you might want a roommate for a bit? You know I’m a great cook.”
“What?”
She sighed. “My idiot boyfriend—ex-boyfriend—skipped town. We were staying with friends of his and, um, now I’m kind of homeless. I have a few jobs lined up, but uh…” She trailed off, and I sighed.
She flashed me another smile. “It would just be for a little while until I get back on my feet. You know I’m good at that.” Then the big-eye face came out. “Please? I can crash on your couch or something. You’re gone half the time anyway. You’ll never even know I’m there.”
I barked out a laugh. Josie was like a hurricane. I would definitely know she was there, sending my ordered life into a tailspin, because if you looked up fly by the seat of your pants in the dictionary, there’d be a picture of Josie with an infectious grin on her face.
She batted her eyes. “Please, Micah? Please.”
My gut tightened for all the wrong reasons at her words.
“I don’t want to go home. I like it here, and you know my parents.” She dropped her voice. “Why can’t you go to college and get a stable career like your brother?”
I bit back a chuckle. Yeah, that was exactly how her dad sounded.
“You love my cooking, and you know it. And I can sort of be neat. I mean, not like your drill sergeant, everything-perfectly-in-place version, but I’ve gotten less messy.”
“If everything is in its place, you can always find it,” I muttered. And for me, Josie was always going to be messy.
“Chaos is good for you, Micah. Keeps you young.”
“I’m going to regret this.” There was no way I could say no to her, and she knew it.
She launched herself at me, her arms going around my neck as she stretched up on her tiptoes. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. You won’t regret this, I promise.”
What the hell had I just agreed to? And why did she have to feel so damn good in my arms.
Shit.