Chapter 34
CHAPTER 34
S unday came too fast. True to his word, Hunter changed the locks on the door. He insisted on installing a state-of-the-art locking system that included biometrics and a code for entry. By the time we returned with my stuff, the kitchen was pristine, almost as if I had dreamed the entire ordeal. From then on, Hunter and I finished out the week in domestic bliss. Minus the tournament, we spent every moment together. Hunter even watched The Vampire Diaries with me. Although, he doesn’t appreciate Damon Salvatore, a moot point between us. He’s team Stefan, which is a crime. Currently, Hockey House bustled with the other guys and I contemplated hiding in Hunter’s bed until graduation.
Hunter rolled over on top of me, his weight crushing me to the mattress. “I know you’re awake,” he sang into my ear.
I attempted to bury my head in his chest. “I don’t want to get up,” I groaned.
Hunter’s chest vibrated with his laughter. “Where is the fearless Maci who doesn’t take anyone’s shit?”
I huffed, “She’s out sick.”
“Is that so?” Hunter’s challenging tone caused me to pause. Suddenly, I was screeching and flailing as Hunter tickled my sides.
“Stop!” I squealed.
He refused to relent. “Make me!”
Pushing against his brick house frame was useless. Tears lined my eyes from laughing so hard. Someone banged on the door, saving me from death by tickling.
“Knock it off, lovebirds!” Axel yelled through the door.
“Fuck off!” Hunter hollered back, rolling off of me.
Gasping for air, I smiled at Hunter’s bedhead. “What?” He asked when he saw my face.
I shrugged. “You have a cute bedhead.” My hand reached out, ruffling his hair. Hunter responded by growling playfully.
“Come on Sunshine, Axel is back, which means there’ll be breakfast downstairs.” Hunter clambered off the bed and searched for clothes to change into.
“Can I just stay here?” I buried myself in his blankets.
“Maci Rae hiding? Who are you and what have you done with my girl?”
My girl. The way my heart swooned when he said it. I wanted that feeling to play on repeat, like my favorite song.
I pulled Hunter’s comforter up to my chin. “She is in twin mode. Not badass mode.”
Hunter searched through his clean laundry and threw a sweatshirt at my face. “Jackson is fine with us dating.”
I rolled my eyes. “There’s a difference between us dating and us living together and you know it.” Hunter grabbed my ankle and pulled me out of the bed. I gave a little yelp and tried to find something to hang onto.
“Come on, Crew will eat all the bacon, and I love bacon.”
“I hate you right now.”
Hunter opened his door, “No you don’t, see you down there Sunshine.”
Walking down stairs was like walking into the twilight zone. I nearly scrubbed my eyes in disbelief at the image taking place in front of me. Axel walked around the kitchen in a pink apron, humming along to Cruel Summer while flipping pancakes. He gyrated his hips and belted out the bridge into a spatula as if he was T-Swift himself. His man bun bounced, the blonde locks glittering in the sunlight as he hit every word. The guys bobbed their heads along, each helping with a specific task for breakfast. Cooper scrambled eggs, Jackson set the island with cutlery, Crew was pouring orange juice into a few glasses and Hunter sat smirking at my reaction.
“Aren’t you all just the Brady Bunch?” I slid into a seat next to Hunt. He immediately pulled my bar stool closer, wrapping an arm around my waist.
“We’re growing boys, we need sustenance,” He stole a quick peck on my cheek before standing up and helping Axel bring the pans to the island.
Axel smiled at me. “New roomie gets to do the dishes with the baby of the house.” He pulled off his apron and used it as a whip to slap Cooper’s ass. Cooper shrieked, spilling his orange juice down his shirt.
“Come the fuck on Axe!” He stood and attempted to blot the juice on his shirt with a dish towel.
Axel shrugged, “Sorry Coopy-poo,” He leaned in and kissed his cheek and Cooper punched him in the arm.
“Fuck off you viking wannabe!” Cooper huffed and left the kitchen.
The guys laughed at his retreat while I watched the exchange with my eyebrows glued to my hairline.
“You guys are a bunch of assholes,” I said, stealing a piece of bacon from the pan.
“He’ll be fine. If he can’t handle some ribbing, he knows where the dorms are.” Jackson shrugged and loaded his plate .
“Plus, he earned it after that shit with Hunter on the ice.” Axel added.
Hunter filled my plate with pancakes and eggs before filling his own. “Cooper has been through the ringer a bit, but he knows how it is. He’s the baby. It’ll be worse if he gets drafted.”
A pang of sympathy struck me. Crew had a mighty shadow and Cooper surely felt it. He was great in his own right, a gifted goalie who earned his place on the team with every shut-out and victory the team has. He could be a cocky asshole who needed to learn to respect women. But overall, the guys were wrong in their assumptions about Coop. Sure, he was younger, but that shouldn’t mean that he’s treated subpar. Hockey players had a code with goalies—they protected them. Surely Cooper was worthy of more than the shit they had been giving him.
“Isn’t the golden rule of hockey to not fuck with the goalie?” I said cheekily.
Axel groaned while the others smirked. “Come on, baby Rae! We have his back on the ice. I beat the fuuuuuuck out of some IU dickwads last week for shoving into the crease.” He flung the spatula into the sink and I shrugged my shoulders.
“Do it on and off the ice.” I pointed my fork at him. “He might take it, but I will shove this fork into your dick if you keep it up. I know where you sleep, Andrews.”
Axel took a step back and clutched a napkin to his chest like a shocked maiden. “St. James, call off your girl. She’s clearly delusional if she thinks she’s coming near Axe-man.”
Jackson choked on his breakfast, and Crew slapped his back while fighting his own laughter. “Please do not tell me you named your dick that,” Crew cackled.
My lips twitched while Hunter shook his head. Axel scoffed, adjusting himself, and stabbed his pancake with a fork. “Like you fucks don’t?”
The silence that ensued caused Axel to flick his eyes around the room. “You’re all messing with me, right? Maci, Hunter has a nickname for his right? Tell me you scream how great being canonized by the Saint of his pants when you climax?!”
Hunter’s jaw tensed, and my brother turned green. “Watch it Axel, or I will castrate you with a rusty spoon.” Hunter’s eyes flashed dangerously, and I felt my cheeks flame with desire. I liked possessive Hunter. Fuck, if he wanted me to pray to the saint between his legs, I would in a heartbeat. But the rest of the team didn’t need to know that. I rubbed a hand down his thigh and he captured my hand with his own and squeezed three times. It wasn’t the time to ask, but I needed to know why three squeezes. Later , I told myself.
Axel waved his hands in front of his chest in a placating manner. “Fuck, fine, sorry!” He stood and took his half empty plate with him. “I didn’t mean any disrespect!”
I couldn’t contain myself any longer. I snorted, which turned into full-out belly laughter. Holding my stomach, it hurt from laughing so long. Axel leaned into Jackson and stage-whispered, “Did she break?”
Jackson shook his head. “She just saved your ass.”
Hunter took in my red cheeks as I wiped tears from my eyes and waved Axel off. “You’re lucky I like you, Axel.”
Axel smiled, “Love you too, Huntie!” He made kissy lips at Hunter, which resulted in Hunt throwing a sausage link at his head.
The laughter subsided, and Jackson cleared his throat. “I guess we should all discuss why Maci is a permanent member of the breakfast club.”
The mood and I looked to Hunter for comfort. Guilt washed over me for crashing into their home like the meteor in Smallville . I didn’t want to decimate their lives with my problems. Hunter assured me multiple times that they were all cool with it, but I had the feeling that it wasn’t true for everyone. Cooper had been throwing glares at me repeatedly since he came back. I get it though. Hockey house is sacred. Most of the team would give up their left nut to live here, and I got that privilege like its oxygen.
I cleared my throat before explaining to everyone the abridged version of what has been happening the last couple weeks. Jackson looked like he was going to punch someone, while Crew and Axel looked like they swallowed lemons whole. Everyone had finished eating, and I made work of clearing plates. Jackson swatted my hand as I tried to reach for his and Axel’s plate.
“Axel was fucking with you. We all can clean up after ourselves. Sit down, Mace, let’s talk about this.”
Suddenly, Jackson appeared older than me. His eyebrows drew down, and he crossed his arms tightly across his chest. A few of his knuckles had bruises and a slight cut was visible above his eyebrow. Something niggled at me that these weren’t hockey related injuries. I made my way back to my bar stool, abandoning Hunter and my plates in the sink.
“What can we do to make sure this fuck doesn’t keep coming around?” Crew asked.
Hunter sighed, “I already outfitted the house with additional security and changed out locks, plus what I texted you guys earlier still stands—no more parties or puck bunnies for the foreseeable future,” pausing Hunter locked eyes with every guy at the table. Driving his point home.
“What about girlfriends?”
Eight pairs of eyes simultaneously turned on Jackson in horror.
“Girlfriend?!” Axel sputtered.
Crew laughed, “You’re telling me the king of puck bunnies has settled down? Found the “one”.”
Jackson’s face remained stoic, and he shrugged. “I’m not confirming or denying anything. Just answer the question.”
Hunter stared down Jackson for a few moments before conceding, “Do you trust her? ”
Jackson nodded. “She’s a far better person than me. She could tell me birds braided her hair this morning and I would believe her.”
Axel snorted, “You’re fucking Snow White?”
Crew slapped him behind the “Cinderella, you fucking moron.”
Jackson shook his head. “The point being, she's a good person. Things are complicated right now, but if the opportunity is there, I want to bring her home.”
Hunter sighed, “Fine, because you said she’s literally a Disney princess, but no one else got it?”
Crew nodded, and Axel grumbled. After being smacked in the chest, he relented, “Yes, yeesh, I can get my rocks off anywhere. Just means it’s time to mark a few places off my bucket list!”
Crew groaned at Axel. “Not the fucking bowl.” He buried his head in his hands.
“The bowl?” I asked, “The fountain in front of the foreign language building?”
Axel smiled wickedly. “The very one. It’s been my dream since freshman year to bone in it.”
“We’re getting off track,” Jackson chimed in. Hunter nodded at him. “You’re right.”
We decided the guys would take turns staying at the house with me. I wouldn’t be alone. Hunter volunteered to get me to all of my classes and the ones that he couldn’t Jackson would help with.
“We should let Kennedy in on all of this,” I added as we were hashing out more details. Hunter was leaning against the island on his elbows, and he pulled away.
“That’s not a bad idea. She could stay here at the house with you on nights we have road games.”
“Or I could stay with her at her place?”
Hunter narrowed his eyes at my suggestion. “Mace, I made this place Fort Knox. You two can stay here. ”
“She’ll do it,” Jackson said, looking up from his cell phone. I furrowed my eyebrows at my twin. Was he texting my best friend?
“How do you know that, Jax?”
He smirked, “She’s your replace-a-Robbie, right?”
I scoffed. Just when I thought Jackson had turned off the Jackhole for the day, it came sprouting to the surface. “Fuck off.”
Jackson smiled and ignored me. “She’ll come here. She’s loyal, which means she’ll only want to do what's best for Maci.”
“Then it’s settled. We have a solid plan. I appreciate you guys helping us.” Hunter clapped Crew on the back and the others said farewell in their own ways until we all disbursed to go about our days. Hunter planned to take me in for my weekend studio time today so I could get some work done. We both changed quickly and made our way to campus. The entire way there, I couldn’t get Jackson’s words out of my head. It bothered me how he made assumptions about Kennedy. He seemed too familiar with her and it raised questions with me.
There was no way that the two of them could be entwined…could it?