Too Many Men

by Amber Lynn

  She figured the physicality limited how long a player could keep at it, but it didn’t seem like early thirties was a logical limit. Sarah made a mental note to talk to Reid about that and the trade thing. Asking Kellie may have gotten her answers faster, but she didn’t want to reveal how little she really knew.

  “That’s got to be hard to pick up your family and move. Do you guys have other kids?”

  With a baby, Sarah thought it might be easier than having to worry about kids in school and the shock factor that may come with having to leave all of their friends behind. Sarah had always lived in New York, only moving out of her parents’ house, into her dorm, then into various apartments in the city. She’d basically only lived in a five-mile radius all her life.

  “No, Henry is our first. Brendan has a boy and girl from his first marriage, but they live with their mom in Minnesota, which is where he started his career.”

  It sounded complicated, and not something Sarah was comfortable diving into. It felt rude to just let the conversation die there, since she had moved down to sit next to Kellie.

  “Where do you guys live back in New York?”

  Sarah was mildly proud of herself for coming up with something that made sense to ask, and not the weird rambling she seemed to spew out at Reid. It solidified in her mind it was something about him that was causing the odd phenomenon.

  The question led to Kellie driving a discussion about where their home was in great detail. It was about three miles from Sarah’s apartment, so they weren’t neighbors by any means. Kellie wanted information about schools, shopping and the best restaurants. It made for easy talk as Sarah continued to monitor every move Reid made. She didn’t know if there’d be a quiz at some point, but she wanted to make sure if he mentioned something particular he did, she’d be able to say she remembered it.

  The Aces ended up keeping the one-goal lead they’d had after the first period and defeated the home team, much to the chagrin of their fans. Sarah was glad she hadn’t opted to sit in the crowd, because they seemed like they would have turned against her quickly for cheering for the away team.

  After the three stars were named, the rest of the people in the suite started trickling out. It felt odd to sit back down while everyone was leaving, but Reid had said to wait there for him. His threat of spanking her if she didn’t stay put wasn’t exactly a deterrent, but she didn’t want to get lost in the unfamiliar place.

  “You coming down for dinner?” Kellie asked. “I’m pretty sure that’s where everyone else is heading. We like to get there before the guys do to make sure they don’t eat everything.”

  Sarah smiled, and let it spread across her face. Without Reid on the ice in potential danger, she was able to relax.

  “I heard that rumor, but I’m not doing the team dinners yet. This is kind of a needed break from life back in New York for me, so we’re staying in tonight. Reid told me to wait for him here. You don’t think that will be an issue, do you?”

  She didn’t want to second guess Reid, but there weren’t people lingering in the suites next to her and the stands were pretty thin of people. If they were in his home arena, Sarah wouldn’t have been as worried, but the whole concept of being in enemy territory made her nervous.

  “It might be a while before he comes up, but I’m pretty sure you’ll be fine. If someone tries to tell you otherwise, call Reid and have him deal with them. I know we aren’t at home, but the guys have some pull, or at least they can get the names to drop to make things work.”

  It made sense. Sarah was going to ask Reid if there was somewhere else they could meet. He didn’t want her standing around in a parking lot by herself, but there had to be a door somewhere she could stand around instead of being the only person left in the suite.

  “I’ll do that. If you’re going to be at Thursday’s game, maybe we could sit together again?”

  Since she was already in Florida, Sarah assumed Kellie was hoping over to the next city for the game. While Sarah didn’t mind sitting alone, she was curious what other hockey wisdom she could pick up.

  “I’d appreciate that. It’s sometimes hard to fit in with the group that’s already bonded since the start of the season. There are still a number of months left, so I’m sure between the games and the parties different players put together, we’ll all be one big happy family before too long. I’ll talk to you soon.”

  Kellie had already loaded the remarkably still sleeping Henry into a stroller and had been pushing it back and forth as their conversation carried on. Sarah didn’t understand why she wanted to be part of the big happy family, but evidently the idea didn’t terrify her as much as it did Sarah.

  Sarah nodded and waved as Kellie made her way out of the suite. That left her alone staring at an arena that had just had about twelve thousand people in it, but was down to no more than fifty fans lingering and a crew with garbage bags starting the cleanup process. From her vantage point above a number of the seats, Sarah was glad that wasn’t a job she had to do. People clearly didn’t believe in picking up after themselves.

  The phone in Sarah’s back pocket buzzed, telling her someone had sent a text message. Figuring it was Reid giving her an idea of how long she’d be waiting, she pulled it out to look.

  May had been texting at random times claiming she was sorry, to which Sarah had replied she needed some time away from everything to clear her head. She hadn’t come out and said she was leaving town, but the texts had stopped coming in so she figured she’d deal with her best friend later.

  Aaron’s texts were still coming in every day, mainly just letting her know that he loved her and understood she was taking some time to think about things. It was a change from his frantic calls and texts, so Sarah figured May had probably told him it was only a matter of time before she was back in their corner.

  Surprisingly, the text wasn’t from Reid, May or Aaron. It was from Trevor.

  We need to talk about things. When you get back in town, give me a call.

  It was kind of creepy that the man she wanted absolutely nothing to do with knew she was out of town. She figured that everyone must have figured out she left if he was bringing it up, which made it a little surprising Aaron’s texts had calmed instead of turning more frantic. The idea of calling Trevor wasn’t going anywhere near her priority list. Whatever he thought they needed to talk about, they didn’t.

  Sarah stood up from her spot and stretched her legs. Since her phone was already out, she went ahead and sent Reid a text asking how long he thought he’d be. A response came almost immediately.

  Almost there. Skipped shower, so I’ll need to take a quick one in the hotel before we order room service.

  She’d wanted him to hurry, but she wouldn’t have balked at him washing some of the sweat off. Her stomach rumbled thinking about food. There had been popcorn in the suite to snack on and someone had stopped in a few times to ask if anyone needed some food, but Sarah didn’t know the protocol and she was fine waiting until she could eat with Reid.

  Sarah was about to text back that he didn’t need to hurry when she heard footsteps behind her. Those little butterflies that seemed to take over her stomach whenever Reid was around started flapping their wings as she turned to see the man who’d managed to put a suit on, but hadn’t bothered taking a comb to his hair. It was wet enough that he could’ve taken a shower, and the fact that he didn’t made Sarah hope he’d at least poured some water on his head.

  “How’s your arm?”

  The urge to run and hug him was tempered a little knowing that he could be injured and he probably smelled like a yoga mat after a hot yoga class. Sarah had done one of those in her life at the insistence of May and had ended up tossing out the mat afterwards.

  Reid looked confused for a second and then proved both arms were able to move just fine. Kellie had said he’d be okay, but it took seeing it to give Sarah any relief.

  “I’m guessing you’re talking about the hit into the glass. I’m all good. I
t just stung for a few minutes. You ready to get back to the hotel? I’m thinking quick shower for me to get the stink off and then a nice soak in the Jacuzzi while we wait for food to come up. You game?”

  Sarah rolled her eyes at the question. Her and Reid plus a Jacuzzi? It sounded like a perfect end to the day to her.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Your turn,” Reid said as he stepped out of the shower.

  They’d made it back to Sarah’s apartment midday Friday and they had both felt the shower calling them. Well, first they felt the call of nature urging them to check the sturdiness of Sarah’s bed, making the shower necessary to clean off the sweat clinging to their skin. Unlike their hotel room, Sarah’s shower wasn’t big enough for the two of them to share.

  “I wish I would’ve considered shower size a little more carefully when I was apartment searching.”

  Sarah stood in the doorway naked. The bathroom was so small she couldn’t even walk in while he toweled off with a towel that was probably bigger than the bathroom itself. Reid had been surprised to find almost beach-sized towels hanging from the two hooks behind the bathroom door.

  He finished his initial drying and wrapped the towel low around his waist. He could have opted to just walk around naked like Sarah, but once she was done, they needed to sit down and talk. They’d done a lot of that during their working vacation, and some of it had been serious, but they need to figure out what was next now that they were back home.

  It was a conversation Reid was looking forward to on some levels, but he was worried the thoughts in his head were too controlling. He didn’t want Sarah thinking he was going to end up like her ex, making all her decisions for her.

  “I’m sure if we really wanted to play in it, we could figure out a way. We may have to stretch our bodies’ willingness to be flexible, but it could be done.”

  There would be hardly any room to move, but if they wanted it enough, there was always a way. Reid walked over and tried to think calming thoughts as he got closer to the naked woman he couldn’t get enough of. In a week’s time, he’d gone from someone who didn’t want to be distracted from his game, to someone who didn’t want to be distracted from Sarah. There were parts of the notion that worried him, but the excitement of spending time with her overpowered the worry.

  “I know it’s way too early to be asking this, but when in a relationship do you think it’s right to move in together? I know your place is bigger, but you have Nico there. He seems nice enough, but I don’t think he’d be comfortable with all the noises I seem to make when we’re playing around. I signed a six-month lease, so unless I sublease this place, I’m stuck with it for a little while, but it’s probably not too early to start looking around for a new place.”

  Reid studied the way Sarah bit her lip and hesitated as she thought about her words. He understood why she’d be afraid to share those particular thoughts, because he was worrying about them himself.

  “Well, I’m sure Nico actually wouldn’t mind those noises you’re talking about. Although, I would call them banshee screams instead of just noises, but maybe they sound a little different from your perspective.”

  Leaning down, Reid gave Sarah a quick kiss and picked her up so he could rotate which one of them was in the bathroom. The idea of standing around and watching her shower like she did him was tempting, but Reid’s stomach was telling him the small snack he’d had on the plane wasn’t going to keep him running much longer.

  “That being said,” he continued. “I do think we have some things to talk about as far as what’s going on between us, but that discussion can wait until after you’re out of the shower. I’m going to go look around in your cupboards and see if I can find anything to make for lunch.”

  Reid hated leaving Sarah with the uncertainty in her eyes, but he hoped a shower would work to clear her head as much as it had his. Hot water and steam tended to always make him feel better. After one more kiss, he turned Sarah around and gently pushed her towards the shower.

  He hadn’t received an official tour of the apartment, but it wasn’t hard to figure out where everything was. The open floor plan, which was literally open since Sarah didn’t have any furniture, made it impossible to miss where the kitchen was.

  Looking through the fridge and cupboards didn’t net much food, which meant they were going to have to hit the grocery store at some point if he was going to spend any amount of time in the apartment. Between practices, games and daily workout routines, Reid burned a lot of calories and he needed plenty of carbs and protein to replenish them.

  Reid settled on making a few turkey sandwiches with the lunchmeat and cheese he found in the fridge. He was in the middle of chewing his first bite when he heard a knock at the door. Since it wasn’t his place, he didn’t jump to find out who wanted an audience. Sarah had just gotten in the shower, so there was a good chance the person would disappear before she got out and could answer.

  A second, more forceful knock came as Reid leaned against the counter and finished his first sandwich. He wanted to sit down and talk with Sarah when she got out of the shower, but heading to a furniture store to fill out the apartment a little more was probably more prudent.

  “I know you guys are in there. I just want a few minutes of your time to talk. I promise I’m not here to start anything.”

  Reid frowned hearing the guy’s voice. There was nothing special about it, but the pool of who it belonged to had to be limited. Reid didn’t like the fact that the man seemed to know who was inside the apartment.

  Dusting bread crumbs off his hands, Reid decided it was best if he met whoever seemed to know the couple’s movements. The only words the guy had said made Reid think he’d been hanging out in the parking lot waiting for them to get home. Since they’d been home for about an hour, it felt like a long time for a guy to be creeping around outside.

  Unlocking the door, Reid swung it open to find a guy about his size getting ready to knock again. He’d expected Sarah’s ex to be smaller for some reason. He also thought he’d be a little more weasel-like than the guy with a straight jaw that Reid felt like punching before any words could be exchanged.

  “Oh, wow. I, um, thought an hour was enough time for you guys to get settled, but apparently you guys are moving fast with the new relationship.”

  The man’s hazel eyes raked over Reid’s body in a way he was used to only the fairer sex doing blatantly. It was a bit uncomfortable, but Reid didn’t show it.

  “What do you want?”

  The more important question was who the guy was, but Reid figured out it wasn’t the ex as soon as he spoke without the door muffling the sound. There wasn’t the annoying whining hanging onto every word that Reid had heard over the phone the one time he had spoken to Aaron.

  “I’d like to talk to Sarah for a few minutes. I texted her the other day and asked her to call when you guys got back, but I figured I’m not her favorite person right now, so that call wasn’t going to be happening anytime soon.”

  “I take it you’re the ex’s boyfriend.”

  Knowing who he was didn’t answer the question of what in the world he was doing at Sarah’s door. Or why he seemed to be stalking her. Sarah had mentioned the text, and like the guy assumed, she had no plans of responding.

  “I suppose that’s an accurate description. I’m Trevor.”

  Reid stared down at the hand the guy extended. Trevor quickly realized Reid wasn’t into getting to know him and had no plans of shaking his hand.

  “Okay,” he said, dropping the hand back to his side. “I imagine you’ve heard all about me and what a horrible guy I am, but I need to talk to Sarah about Aaron.”

  Hearing the name made Reid growl. Trevor seemed to understand the danger lurking and took a step back.

  “Look, I come in peace. I’d like to get my boyfriend back and Sarah’s the only one who can help me do that.”

  Studying the man, Reid tried to get a handle on whether there were some ulterior motives. He
didn’t fully know Trevor’s reason for being there, but he wanted to believe the simple statement. He’d seen the texts Aaron sent Sarah multiple times during the day and how conflicted they made her. They’d seemed to lessen while they were out of town, so Reid had hoped the guy was getting a clue.

  “Sarah wants nothing to do with Aaron.”

  Speaking for someone else wasn’t Reid’s usual thing, but he wanted to protect Sarah from the outside world, and Aaron was the biggest threat lurking. She’d convinced herself that even when she thought things were finally right between her and the creep, it was only because Reid was on her mind. Reid loved the idea that it was a possibility, but he hadn’t got the feeling he’d made that big of an initial impression.

  “Which is music to my ears. It’s been two weeks since she found out about me. I thought the whole masquerade would be over and Aaron and I could finally move on, but Aaron has always wanted things he can’t have, and Sarah is now his sole focus.”

  There was a bitterness to the man’s tone that made Reid feel like it was even more important that he protect Sarah. Trevor may have said he came in peace, but Reid got the feeling he wasn’t fond of Sarah.

  “Like I said, Sarah doesn’t want anything to do with him, so you’re free to play whatever games you two like to play as long as they don’t involve her.”

  “I would love to get things back to what they were a year ago, but Aaron blames me for Sarah leaving and basically wants nothing to do with me.”

  The guy sounded miserable, but Reid didn’t see how that was his problem. He considered shutting the door in his face, and it must have shown because Trevor reached over and put his hand on the door. Reid looked over at it and laughed to himself about the guy thinking it’d keep him from slamming the door.