The Playmaker

by Cathryn Fox

  “When was the last time you were in a meat locker?” Tabby teases, and Nina laughs.

  I slide in beside Nina and put my arms around her, warming her body with mine. “Maybe I keep it cold for other reasons.”

  “Do you think of anything else?” she asks, and gives me a playful whack.

  “Hockey, remember?”

  “Right,” she says with a laugh, and pushes me away.

  As she heads toward the stairs, Tabby bites into her pizza, snuggles up to Jack and says. “Well, it’s working.” Jack runs his hands over her to keep her warm, and when she smiles up at him, it hits me how good they are together. Jack places a kiss on her head, but she begins to shiver.

  “Why don’t you go get dressed, babe? You’re freezing.”

  “But food.” She takes another big bite.

  “It will be here when you get back.” Jack takes the slice from her and bites into it.

  She crinkles her nose. “Fine, just don’t eat it all while I’m gone.”

  “I’ll make sure to save you a couple slices,” Jack says.

  “I won’t,” I say, and she glares at me, the look reminding me so much of Nina that I laugh.

  She places a soft kiss on Jack’s cheek. “My brother is a big bully, but I know you’ll save me a slice. You’re way nicer,” she teases.

  “I’d give you all the pizza, babe,” he says.

  She sticks her tongue out at me, turns, and Jack stares after her as she hurries up the stairs to get dress.

  I take in the way he’s looking at Tabby. Not with lust, but with love. My heart tightens. “How long have you two been together?” I ask.

  “What?”

  I laugh. Christ, he was so caught up in Tabby, he couldn’t even hear what I was saying. “You and Tabby, how long have you been together?”

  “Over a year.”

  “How did you meet?”

  Like Cason, I’d set up a trust fund for Tabby, hers to use for school, buy a house, whatever she needs. With that, she made a good life for herself, and has a flourishing career. He’d just better not be using her for anything.

  Yeah, I’m a protective dick. So what?

  “We work together.”

  “You’re a lawyer?”

  He nods. “Just made senior partner.”

  Nice. “So you like Tabby, huh?”

  Jack pushes off the counter and straightens to his full height. I stiffen when he goes serious. Christ, I hope he’s not going to say no, that he only came here to meet me, because Tabby sure seems to like him a lot. If he breaks her heart, I’ll break his jaw.

  “She’s the kindest, smartest, most compassionate woman I know,” he begins. “And I love her, Cole. One of the reasons I wanted to come here is because I wanted to ask permission to marry her.” His look is a bit sheepish when he says, “I’m kind of old fashioned like that.”

  My heart thumps. I don’t know the guy well, but he looks at my sister with love in his eyes, and I have to trust that she knows how to make good decisions. I spent my life protecting her from Dad, taking the abuse, all the beatings, so he was too physically exhausted to turn any of his violence my sister’s way. “You want to marry her?”

  “Yes, I love her.”

  I swallow the lump in my throat and pull him to me for one of those guy hugs where we pat each other on the back. “You have my permission,” I say.

  “Thanks, man,” he says and hugs me back. “Don’t say anything.”

  “You have my word.”

  “I want to ask your father, too.”

  With my arms still around him, I stiffen. Shit.

  Just then, Nina comes back in the room.

  “I’m starved…” Her voice falls off when she sees the two of us in an embrace. We back away from each other and turn her way. “Um, if you guys need another minute.” She gestures with a nod to the stairs. “I can come back later.”

  “Get over here,” I say, and she crosses the room and falls into my arms. I hug her, and she jumps back.

  “I just changed and you’re getting me all wet.”

  I grin at her, put my mouth next to her ear and whisper, “Nothing new about that.”

  Before she can whack me, Tabby comes back and eyes the pizza boxes. “Feed me,” she says, and Jack grabs the plates and divvies up the pizza. We all grab a seat at the table and Nina pours us all sodas.

  As we eat, I look at my sister. “How long are you staying?”

  “Not as long as I’d like. I could only book off a few days.” Her eyes light up. “Hey, maybe when you’re better and the playoffs are over, you can come visit me.”

  “I’d love that.”

  From across the table, Nina smiles, a look of longing on her face. It’s clear she misses Cason, doesn’t see enough of him. With her parents absent in her life, it must be so hard on her, having no one. Well, she has her friend Jess, and she has me.

  Well…she has me for a little while longer, anyway.

  We fall into small talk as we eat, and when we’re done, I stand and stretch. “I need to get out of this suit.”

  Tabby shoos me away. “Go. You too, Jack. When you come back, I want to play a game.”

  I groan. “Why do we always have to play a game? Can’t we just watch a movie?”

  “No, we can’t. I want to play a game, so we’re playing a game,” Tabby says.

  “See what I have to put up with,” I say to Jack.

  He laughs. “What Tabby wants, Tabby gets.”

  I grunt. “Women,” I say, as the two women in my life clear the table and put the dishes in the sink.

  “Men,” they respond at the same time.

  Jack and I dash up the stairs, and I step into my room, the scent of Nina lingering in the air. In the bathroom, her swimsuit hangs from the shower. With any other woman, it would feel like an invasion, but not with Nina. No, with her it feels right, like that’s exactly where her swimsuit belongs.

  I peel off my shorts and toss them over the rod next to her suit, then tug on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. I hear Jack—my soon to be brother-in-law—in the hall, and we walk to the kitchen together, only to find it empty.

  “Where the hell did they go?” Jack asks, as an uneasy feeling moves through me, because I’m pretty sure I know where they are. There is only one room in this house Nina has never seen, and it’s the same room where Tabby keeps all the board games.

  Shit.

  “I think they’re downstairs.” I open the door to the lower level, and when I hear their voices, I follow the sound to the one and only room I designed myself. Jack follows me, and when I round the corner and see Tabby sitting crossed-legged on the floor, going through the stack of cards and games, and Nina beside her, looking at my old movie collection, I try for casual and say, “Find anything good?”

  Nina turns at the sound of my voice, and my heart jumps at the softness on her face. “These movies,” she says. “There’re all my favorites.”

  I shrug. “Yeah, I remember you and Jess watching them over and over.”

  “How come…did you…” Her words trail off when she sees the framed pictures on the shelving units on either side of the big-screen TV. She drops the movies she has in her hands and examines them. There are a ton of Cason and me, Tabby and me…and just as many of Cason, Nina and me. A smile comes over her face when she picks up the one of the three of us at the Aerosmith concert.

  “I never in a million years expected your man cave to look so warm and homey. It’s so different from all the other rooms in your house.” She goes quiet and runs her finger over the picture. “Who took this?”

  I shrug. “Cason gave his phone to someone. I can’t remember.”

  “How come you have it?”

  Because I asked for it.

  “I don’t know.”

  “You hated me, Cole. Why would you ever frame so many pictures of me?”

  Oh, maybe because you and your brother represent family, all the things I want but can never have, and I’ve been fu
cking crazy about you for as long as I can remember.

  Shit.

  “Cole?”

  I could lie and say my decorator did it, but I already told her this room was mine.

  From the floor, Tabby turns to me. I meet her eyes, and she gives me an understanding look. She knows what the Callaghans mean to me, how hard my life was at home.

  “How about a game of Cards Against Humanity,” she says. “Always a party favorite.”

  “Yeah, sounds good.” I step up to the card table and pull a chair out. Nina sits beside me, her face still perplexed, her eye a bit distance, like she’s remembering days gone by.

  “Do you have any chips?” Tabby asks as she sits across from me.

  As the tension in the room lightens, I laugh and say, “Is food all you ever think about?”

  “Not all,” she says, and grins as she leans in to Jack and gives him a kiss.

  “There are some things a big brother never needs to know.”

  Tabby laughs, and Nina joins in when I grab her head and run my knuckles over her scalp.

  “We have chips,” Nina says.

  We.

  Damn, I like the sound of that.

  “And wine?” Tabby asks.

  “You know I always keep your favorite white wine here.”

  “Oh, it was Tabby’s wine I drank last week?”

  “Yeah, but I have a few more bottles stashed.” I look at Jack. “Beer?”

  “Sure.”

  I slide from the chair, and Nina stands. “I’ll help you.”

  “I’ll shuffle the cards,” Tabby says.

  I point at her. “No cheating.”

  Her jaw drops like I just said something ludicrous. “I do not cheat. Besides, you can’t cheat at this game.”

  “Knowing you, you’ll still find a way.”

  I turn and find Nina smiling at me.

  “What?” I ask as we make our way back to the kitchen.

  “I really like your sister.”

  “She likes you, too.”

  “You think?”

  We reach the kitchen and I pull her to me. “What’s not to like, Nina?” I say, and close my mouth over hers. I’ve been dying to kiss her all night.

  “What was that for?”

  “No reason. Kissing anytime I want, remember? All part of the arrangement.”

  She gives a curt nod at the reminder, then roots though the cupboards for the chips and a big bowl. I grab the wine, and beers, and Nina helps me with the glasses. We head back downstairs, and Tabby’s eyes go wide when she sees the chips.

  She rubs her hands together. “Mmm, barbeque, my favorite.”

  “Same,” Nina says.

  “I knew there was a reason I liked you,” she teases. “And not just because you’re here taking care of my brother. I can’t imagine any woman wanting to put up with him for any length of time.”

  “Hey,” I say, feigning offense, even though I know she’s teasing.

  “I like being here with Cole,” Nina says. “He’s not so bad when he’s not calling me names.”

  “You’re not so bad when you’re not making me paint a damn daisy.”

  Tabby chokes on a potato chip. “You painted a daisy,” she says, laughing.

  “Dude, what happened to the man card?” Jack teases.

  “Right?” I shoot back.

  Tabby glances around. “I want to see this painting.”

  “Not a chance.”

  “It’s actually pretty good,” Nina says. “I think he should frame it and put it in this room.”

  “I am not framing it.” I uncork the wine and fill their glasses, then pick up my cards. “Can we leave my man card alone and play these one’s already?” I read over my cards. Jesus, I have some pretty raunchy ones. I grin at Nina as she makes a face. This is going to be fun.

  “I’ll go first,” Nina says. She takes a sip of her wine, picks a card from the stack, then cringes. “I’m not sure I can say this out loud.”

  “Sure you can, Nina. You can say anything around me, remember?” I add, alluding to all our dirty talk.

  Color moves into her cheeks, and she reads the card. I look at the ones in my hand and, because I know her well, probably more than she ever realized, it’s easy for me to pick the one she’ll find the funniest.

  When my turn comes around, will she know the best card to play for me? Probably not, since I keep my cards close to my heart, so to speak.

  Would Nina like that guy if she got a glimpse of him? Even if she did, I’m not good enough for a girl like her—a point I can’t ever forget.

  By the time we finish our fourth round—Tabby with the highest wins—my gut hurts from laughing. Most of the wine had been drunk and Jack and I are on our second beers. My heart fills as I look around the card table. God, it’s so nice to spend time with my family like this. Well, Jack’s not family yet, but he soon will be, and Nina…she’s the family I always wanted.

  Then do something about it. Make her yours.

  Fuck.

  Nina takes her turn to read the card again, and when it says something about a helicopter and its pilot, my gaze flashes to Tabby to find her looking back, a measure of worry in her eyes.

  “What?” Nina says, her cautious glance going between the two of us.

  Recuperating quickly, Tabby says, “Oh, nothing. Cole used to talk about being a pilot when we were kids. After Mom left, Dad bought him a chopper…”

  Her words fall off and tension fills the air, takes up space.

  “A pilot, huh,” Nina says. “Here I thought you were born with a hockey stick in your hand,” she teases, her words cutting the tension and lightening the mood. Goddammit, I love her for that.

  I love her?

  Fuck, man, I’m in more trouble than I thought.

  She turns to Tabby. “What are you plans for the rest of the weekend?”

  “I’m not sure. What are you two up to tomorrow? I want to spend as much time with Cole as I can.”

  “Cole has his checkup tomorrow morning. I was going to take him, but you can if you want.”

  “No, you can. After all the traveling, and time change, I’m going to force myself to stay in bed longer to adjust.”

  “If I get the all clear, Nina and I are going to go for a skate. Come with us.”

  “That sounds like fun.” She turns to Jack. “Feel like skating tomorrow?”

  “Only if you want me to make a fool of myself.”

  Tabby laughs. “Don’t worry. I might laugh but that doesn’t mean I don’t still love you.” Jack beams at that. “Plus, these guys will help. Nina used to be a professional skater.”

  His eyes go wide. “Yeah”

  “Key words, used to be. I haven’t been on the ice in…forever.”

  “Since her fall,” I say and her gaze flashes to mine. “Tomorrow, we’re going to tread lightly together, right Nina.”

  She nods, and I hear her swallow as she turns back to Tabby. “Any friends still in town that you’re looking to catch up with?”

  “Yeah, a few. I want to introduce Jack to my best friend, Tawny. We’re still close”

  “That’s nice. Will you see your dad?” she asks.

  Without missing a beat, Tabby says, “Oh, for sure.”

  She shoots me a quick glance and I play along, like I’ve always played along. We never let anyone know what went on behind closed doors. We always kept our dirty little secrets just that…a secret. I’m guessing she never told Jack too much about her childhood, which is why he wants to ask our father for permission to marry her.

  “I was hoping to meet your dad,” Jack says.

  Tabby gives an easy wave of her hand. “Oh, yeah, we’ll make that happen.”

  “He’s been crazy-busy lately, though,” I say.

  “Is that why he hasn’t been around?” Nina asks, her brow furrowed in concern.

  “Yeah. He wants to be here, but work, and his health hasn’t been so great.”

  Nina’s hand closes over m
ine. “I’m so sorry to hear that.”

  Tabby grabs the bottle of wine and holds it up. “We polished it off, Nina.”

  “Want me to grab another?” I ask, grateful for the change in subject.

  Tabby stretches. “I’m kind of tired. I think it’s bedtime.”

  “Agreed,” Jack says, and finishes his beer. The two make their way up the stairs, and I turn to find Nina glancing around the room again, taking it all in.

  “Nina?” I ask and bring her attention around to me. “Ready for bed?”

  “I’m exhausted. How about you?”

  I grin at her. “Been ready for hours, and never too exhausted.”

  She rolls her eyes at me, and I give her ass a slap to set her in motion. She yelps and darts upstairs. The second she enters our room—correction, my room—I shut the door and lock it.

  “Tonight was so much fun,” she says, the happiness in her tone fucking me over. I want her happy like this all the time. I want to be the guy who makes her happy, the guy who puts a smile on her face.

  “You think the night is over?”

  She spins to see me, and I crook my finger.

  “Come here.”

  She saunters toward me, exaggerating her wiggle. “You have something on your mind?”

  “Maybe I do.”

  She steps up to me, and I slide my hand around her back, drag her body to mine to show her just how hard I am for her.

  “Maybe you should tell me,” she says.

  “I’d rather show you.”

  She laughs, and the sound travels through my body. “I’d rather like that.”

  I close my lips over hers for a soft kiss, and when she opens, my heart misses a bit. It’s insane how responsive she is, how much I want her in my arms, my bed…my life. Her hands sweep around my back and I pick her up.

  “Don’t strain yourself,” she whispers through deeply intimate kisses, and my heart squeezes at the way she cares about me. I set her on the bed and stand back to remove my clothes. Once I’m naked, I crawl over her and find her mouth again.

  A surge of protectiveness moves through me as she adjusts beneath me. “I’m not hurting you, am I?” I ask.