Chapter Eight Wildcard
ZANDER
My mind is buzzing after practice as I get dressed and ready to take off for the day. The rest of the guys are chatting excitedly about the ICON articles… and about Rylee.
Beautiful, wild, infuriating Rylee. A goddamn Wildcard.
“Jensen!” one of the guys calls out. “Wasn’t that girl from ICON at your wedding?”
Looking up from his locker, Jensen replies, “Yeah, she’s Grace’s friend.”
“Dude, why don’t I remember her?” someone else asks off-handedly.
“Seriously?” another voice responds. “She was one of the bridesmaids, dude.”
“Honestly, that whole night is a blur.”
Thank God most of the guys don’t remember Rylee.
Everyone on the team was invited to Miami for the wedding, but by the time I took her back to her room, they’d all either called it a night or were so wasted, they wouldn’t have noticed a naked Margot Robbie walking among them.
This situation would be unbearably humiliating if anyone knew Rylee and I hooked up, but nobody has any clue it seems… including her.
Once I’m dressed, I grab my duffle and get ready to bolt out of the locker room, but Carson steps in my path, looking sheepish.
“Hey, buddy,” he begins.
I glower at him. “Hey.”
“Look, I’m really sorry about the mixup with the apartment,” he says with a heavy sigh. “Honestly, I’m pissed at Grace. The apartment’s mine, not hers. But because I had originally rented it for her, she thinks she can invite whoever she wants to stay.”
At that moment, Jensen strolls by and holds up his hands when we look at him.
“Nope,” he says as he continues on his way. “Not touching sibling disputes with a ten foot pole. Happy wife, happy life.”
“Coward!” Carson calls after him. Jensen flips him the bird without looking back.
“It’s all right,” I tell him when he turns his attention back to me. “Really. I’ll start looking for a new place right away.”
“Ugh, I feel so bad,” Carson groans. “I can’t imagine how awkward it must have been for you guys last night.”
“Well, she did try to kill me with a lamp while her demon cat attacked my leg… so, you know, a little awkward.”
Carson bursts out laughing at that.
“Holy shit,” he gasps, wiping literal tears from his eyes. “That sounds awful… I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah, you seem real choked up about it.”
He continues to heave with amusement as we make our way out of the locker room together. When we reach the hallway, his phone starts to buzz and he digs it out of his pocket.
“Oh, text from Sky,” he murmurs, swiping his thumb over the phone’s screen. “Huh… guess the girls are all hanging out at my place tonight. I have been ordered to hang out with you and stay away.”
“Lucky me,” I say.
“Your sarcasm is not appreciated.”
Looking ahead, I spot Jensen down the hallway. He’s stopped and is looking at his own phone, his brow furrowed in apparent confusion.
When we reach him, I ask, “You good, Cap?”
“Yeah,” he mumbles, glancing up at me. “I’ve been ordered to hang out with you tonight so Grace can have a girls’ night, I guess.”
“Same, bro,” Carson says, waving his phone. “I’ve been banned from my own home. Pretty fucked up.”
“Can you say whipped?” I chuckle.
He narrows his eyes at me. “Well, we might as well hang out at the apartment you’re getting kicked out of then.”
I roll my eyes. “Can’t Rylee just stay with you guys so I don’t have to be on the couch? It’s not big enough for me. I woke up with a back ache.”
“Nope,” Carson answers without hesitation. “I plan on ravaging my woman into the early hours of the morning, and I can promise you, we are not going to be quiet about it.”
I let out a bark of laughter.
Turning to Jensen, I ask, “What about you? Can you put up with the blonde and her furry demon?”
“Not a chance,” Jensen answers without hesitation. “Between our busy schedules, Grace and I barely get any time to ourselves and I’m not sacrificing what we do get for anything.”
I groan and shake my head. “Fuck… I hate that couch so much.”
“What about Wilder or Jayce?” Carson asks. “Could you bunk with either of them?”
I flinch at the thought. “Uhh… Wilder doesn’t like people invading his space for extended periods of time, and you know Jayce. He’s weird about showing off too much of his personal life.”
Carson pats me on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, buddy. You’re old pals Jensen and Carson will help you out… by finding another couch for you to surf on, because we aren’t about to let you cockblock us.”
Jensen gives a thumbs up and I shake my head.
So much for bro-code… they’re getting laid and I’m stuck on a too-small couch with a Wildcard and her demon side-kick.
Fuck my life.
“Eat dick, Zander!” Carson exclaims as he has Kitana rips Sub-Zero apart right in front of me.
“Fuck!” I growl as Fatality flashes across the screen, mocking me. “Why do I keep playing this with you? You’re freakishly good at Mortal Kombat! Such a basic-ass game.”
Carson cackles in evil glee. We’re sitting together on the couch in my would-be apartment, playing video games while Jensen lounges in an armchair next to us. He laughs, pointing at the TV.
“Your ass got whooped,” he taunts.
“Shut up!” I snap. “You guys suck, kicking a guy when he’s down.”
“Ahhh, feeling bummed that you’re such a loser, pal?” Carson asks with mock sympathy.
“No,” I growl. “I’m frustrated… I still can’t believe I haven’t found any place close enough to stay yet. I thought that list my apartment complex gave me would help. Didn’t realize they’d be all booked up already.”
We spent the first couple of hours of the evening going through that list of hotels and apartments and making calls to see if there were any available, but I guess I was too slow to the punch. Plus, my apartment building is huge… lots of people looking for places to stay.
Which means I’m pretty much fucked.
“Don’t worry,” Carson tries to assure me. “We’ll keep looking. There’s got to be a place… ”
The sound of the front door’s lock clicking cuts him off. We all look to see it opening, and I’m tense and ready to attack a would-be intruder before Grace and Sklyer come stumbling into the apartment. To my surprise, they’re dragging/carrying a barely conscious Rylee.
“Hey, guys,” Grace says, sounding breathless. “Sorry to interrupt. We’re just going to go tuck her into bed, okay?”
“Okay… ” I murmur, then louder, “Be careful when you open the door. Her attack cat is in there.”
Grace gives me a thumbs up as she and Skyler make their way down the hall with Rylee in between them, who starts mumbling.
“Kodiak… mad at you… ass… ”
What the fuck?
I glance at the guys, and they look just as baffled as I feel.
Several minutes later, Grace and Skyler come back from the bedroom, looking exhausted.
“Jesus,” Skyler pants. “I need to get more cardio in.”
“Oh, I can help you with that, Star,” Carson calls out with a grin and a waggle of his brows. “I’ll get you good and sweaty. No clothes required.”
Skyler giggles and replies, “You think you can put me through my paces, huh?”
He chuckles. “Absolutely. We can go right now and squeeze in a work out before bed… and in bed.”
As the two make googly eyes at each other, I shake my head, unable to ignore my concern for Rylee. She looked rough.
“I think I’ve seen her drunk more often than sober,” I mutter.
Grace visibly cringes at that. “Yeah, I suppose you have. Before the wedding, it was Nashville, right? When she puked on you?”
“Yep.” That was not a good night. I can’t remember ever being so angry at someone before, and she’d been totally oblivious.
Grace sighs, a flash of sadness crossing her features. “Rylee’s never been great about moderating her alcohol intake. She tends to over do it when she’s stressed. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does… it’s not good.”
“What was she so stressed about to get her to that state?” I ask.
“That’s the thing,” Skyler answers. “We couldn’t figure it out until she got so sloshed she started mumbling about some Kodiak guy being a jerk. I’ve never even heard of the guy before.”
Grace shrugs. “Could just be a guy she was dating and she doesn’t want to talk about him anymore. That happens sometimes.”
Kodiak… the name she mumbled when we were together the night of the wedding. Who the hell is this guy? Seems like he’s more to her than just some guy.
Carson and Jensen stand up to escort their women home for the night. We say our goodbyes and I follow them to the door so I can shut and lock it behind them. I get ready for bed and stretch out on the couch as much as I can. God, so uncomfortable.
As I lay in the dark, enveloped by the quiet of the apartment, I can’t help but think of Rylee and this Kodiak guy.
Whoever he is, she must be really hung up on him.
I feel a twist of jealousy at the thought.
Not because it’s Rylee… just because it’d be nice to have a girl focused on me the way she seems focused on him.
Seems like everyone is capable of finding someone - Carson and Skyler, Jensen and Grace… even my sisters - but I’m stuck here, alone, on a couch, hoping the girl down the hall doesn’t puke on herself in the middle of the night.
Sighing, I grab my phone and open Cloak. Taking Wilder’s advice, I start to scroll through profiles of girls that are the opposite of me. My only requirement is that they live in Nashville, or are willing to relocate since I plan on moving back home once my NHL career is done.
I spend a few minutes perusing hobbies and such, seeing if anything sticks out.
I love pottery and knitting…
My hands are so big, I can’t really do such delicate hobbies.
I want to live that van life…
No thank you.
I’m a Queen and I expect to be treated as such…
A girl who knows her worth, but I get the feeling it’s a slippery slope into entitlement with this one.
Let’s go for a run together then cuddle up and watch every Fast and Furious movie…
Huh… that one's kind of intriguing.
I check the time and realize it’s nearly one in the morning. Deciding it’s quitting time, I send off a few pings to the girls who stick out and toss my phone to the floor before curling up for a long, painful sleep.