The Trouble with #9

by Piper Rayne

  “You didn’t even tell me your parents want you to marry Nadiya,” I say. “What does that have to do with protection?”

  He runs his hand through his hair. “They look at me to take care of her. Trusted me after I killed their son. Now I say screw off, she can go back to Russia?”

  Oh shit. This is so much worse than I thought. I sit on the bed, my legs losing all their strength. “Are you going to tell them no?”

  “I don’t know. Nadiya hasn’t told them about Jessie yet. We have a few weeks until she graduates to decide.”

  My mouth drops open. “In your head, do you just think you’ll marry Nadiya and all four of us will live here together? When either of your parents visit, we just swap partners and I sleep with Jessie and you sleep with Nadiya?”

  He groans and lets his head fall back. “I don’t know, okay? I haven’t thought that far ahead.”

  I cannot believe this man. He’s blinded by his need to protect everyone around him. I stand from the bed, unable to be in this room with him any longer. “Well, think about it. Think about living for yourself, Maksim. Be the protector of yourself for once.”

  “What do I have to protect?”

  I soak in his words until I think I find a suitable answer. “Nothing, I guess. Since you don’t love me, you clearly don’t have to protect your heart. So, bye, Maksim. I wish you all the luck in the world.” I walk toward the door. “And I mean that, because I do love you. I knew heartbreak was a risk when I got involved with you, but it’s that love that makes me want the best for you. Have a great life.”

  I dig my colleague’s card out of my purse and place it on his dresser, walk out, and shut the door. I leave my hand on the door handle for a moment, tears welling in my eyes. Because if he twists that door open and begs me to stay, I might not have the willpower to say no.

  But then I let my hand fall away. I can’t be with a man who doesn’t believe in me or what I do… a man who doesn’t even love me like I love him.

  I walk down the hallway. Nadiya and Jessie are there waiting for me.

  “Everything okay?” Nadiya asks.

  I wind my arms around Nadiya and pull her into a big hug. “Please look after him.”

  Jessie runs her hand down my back. “Don’t leave. You guys are so good for one another.”

  I step back, sucking back the tears until I can be alone. “It’s better this way, but it was nice while it lasted. Good luck, you two.”

  With one last hug, I walk out of Maksim’s house, climb into my car, and weep for the future I thought we had together. I really did love him, even if I wasn’t on his list of people to protect.

  I drive over to Jana’s as soon as I leave Maksim’s.

  She probably knew where all this was going after last night, so she opens the door with martinis in hand. I accept one and collapse into her arms, shedding more tears.

  “I will kick his ass, you know that, right?” Her hand runs down my back.

  I nod into her neck. We make it to her couch, and I lie with my head in her lap, her fingers running through my hair.

  “Hockey players break hearts. You knew this, yet you fell in love anyway.”

  “He was so sweet. The stuff he said to me. I really thought he was different.”

  She sips her martini. “He didn’t cheat on you, Paise. His head is just all messed up. It’s still fixable.”

  I laugh because that is one bonus. At least I’m not the stupid woman who didn’t know he was cheating on me.

  “He’ll probably have ten women in his bed tonight.” I wail at the thought, invoking a fresh torrent of tears.

  “He’s not like that.”

  The television is on, so without bothering to ask Jana why she has ESPN on, I sit up and grab her remote to turn up the volume so I can find out what people are saying. “Langley apologized?”

  “He went to the hospital last night after everyone left. Said he was sorry to Aiden, I guess. The press was there when he left, so he said he didn’t want to make it a big deal, but he also doesn’t want kids to get the wrong idea. That it’s not how you play hockey and he’s been so blinded by hate that he let his emotions get the best of him. He kind of alluded to Ford but didn’t say his name outright.”

  I sit back and take a sip of the martini, cringing at the amount of olive juice in it. How does she drink these?

  “He’s sure got his head on straight,” I say, wishing Maksim was the same.

  “Yeah, makes those hormones go into a frenzy.”

  Not me though. Although it’s admirable what Langley did, my hormones only respond to one hockey player now.

  “You know something funny?” I say.

  “What?”

  “We didn’t even do our nine dates. I fell in love with him in eight dates. That has to be a record.”

  I think back to all the dates we had. The candy place, Costco, then our latest date, where we built a blanket fort in his family room and binged Netflix all night, only for the fort to crash down when we were having sex.

  “Just be happy you didn’t waste your time with eighteen dates or something.”

  She’s right, I should be thankful I didn’t waste more time on Maksim. But what I really regret is allowing my heart to get involved, because right now, it feels as if it’s going to take a lifetime to heal.

  “You’re an idiot,” Nadiya says when I enter the kitchen a while later.

  “Another reason why I’m happy I’m a lesbian,” Jessie says.

  I roll my eyes, ignoring them and walking out the patio door toward the beach. I hold on to the railing while I stretch. I’m not much of a runner, but jogging seems to clear everyone’s heads in the movies and shit, so I’m gonna give it a try. I bring up one leg to stretch my quads.

  “Seriously, she’s perfect for you. What did you do?” Apparently Nadiya has followed me out.

  Thankfully Jessie stayed inside.

  “It’s none of your business. She ended it.” I switch legs.

  “Oh no, you don’t. You’re not going to sit here and blame her. Because that girl who walked out of here wasn’t a girl who wanted to end it. She might’ve been given no choice, but she didn’t want it to end.” Her finger’s pointing at me and her voice is rising.

  “Ne vmeshivaisya v eto, Nadiya,” I say, bending to touch my toes.

  “You are my business. The minute my brother chose you to be his best friend, that made you my business.”

  I roll my eyes again and stretch my arms over my head. “Well, your brother is dead, so take me off your list of concerns.”

  Her hand lifts and I see it coming before I feel it. She slaps me across the face.

  “Poshol na hui, Maksim. What do you think Armen would think of you right now? Screwing up your entire life. For what? Hell, he’s probably your damn angel and brought that woman into your life. And you just chew her up and spit her out. For what? Because of what happened to Aiden? He’s fine and what happened to him isn’t your fault.”

  “So everyone keeps saying,” I say, jogging in place.

  She shakes her head. “I’m going to call your mama.”

  “Don’t forget she wants you to be my wife. Are you gonna call her every time you’re not happy with my husbandly performance?”

  Her fists clench at her sides. “We’re not getting married.”

  “Then tell your parents about Jessie.”

  She stares at me silently.

  “What?” I inch forward. “Want me to mind my own business?”

  She says nothing, so I continue to egg her on.

  “Thought so.”

  Everyone talks a good game, but at the end of the day, it’s still up to me to protect them when they can’t do it for themselves.

  I jog off the patio and onto the sand. Damn, this is harder than it looks. My feet keep sliding, so I go toward the water where the sand is packed down. I get in a good groove, hoping for clarity to come, but it doesn’t. I’m still the same piece of shit who killed my best friend and go
t another best friend seriously injured.

  I cut through a yard and walk five blocks to the nearest bar, then find a vacant stool to sit my ass on. Option two for figuring out what the hell is wrong with me—alcohol. But two beers in and I’m annoyed by the stares from patrons and the few who interrupted my self-reflection by asking for an autograph, so I split.

  The next day I’m chilling at my house, staring at the TV. Thankfully, Nadiya and Jessie are gone. I’m sick of their opinions. When the doorbell rings, I roll my eyes, wondering who’s next up to give me advice.

  Ford doesn’t wait to be let in, just uses his key I gave him.

  “Asshole,” he says, helping himself into my fridge and grabbing Nadiya’s leftover pizza.

  “Please help yourself,” I deadpan.

  He sits in a chair and stares at me while I’m watching SportsCenter. We can pretty much chalk our season up to being done now that we’ve lost our top-line center.

  “That’s what best friends do,” he says. “I know you and Aiden have some sort of bromance thing going on, but I like to think we’re best friends too.”

  I shake my head at him.

  “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have given me a key.”

  “I gave you that key to check on the house three years ago when Nadiya and I went back to Russia. You never gave it back.”

  He ignores my comment. “So… why are we depressed and why is the pretty therapist moving everything out of her office at the Fury offices?” He sits back with the pizza on his lap. “I mean, I have problems, man, but you’re causing your own problems.”

  “You caused your own too when you stuck your dick in someone you didn’t know.”

  “Touché,” he says, biting the piece of pizza.

  I don’t bother asking about Paisley. Her work is none of my business anymore now that she broke up with me. “I’m not depressed. And she broke up with me, so I have no idea why she’s doing what she’s doing.”

  He nods, lips pressed together. “Aiden said you haven’t been by.” His eyebrows raise.

  He might be one of the only men I know who grooms himself to the point of having perfect eyebrows. And because we share a locker room, I know he does a perfect manscaping job too.

  “I haven’t had the time,” I say.

  “He’s back home now. On bedrest. Poor guy can’t even fuck until he’s cleared of his concussion.”

  I nod. “I’m sorry to hear it.”

  “Then go visit the guy.” He drops the box on the coffee table and stands. “Tell me Nadiya is on her period. It’s the only time you have junk food around here and I’m dying for a Coke.”

  “I have no idea.”

  I used to mark it on the calendar, hoping it’d be when I was traveling. Living with a woman for the past four years has definitely prepared me for mood swings. But Nadiya found out and let’s just say she didn’t appreciate my efforts.

  He comes back with a Coke, and I wonder momentarily if that’s why Nadiya went off on me like she did. Doesn’t matter because if I’d asked if she was on her period, she’d probably beat me to death with a bag of Oreos.

  “Okay, I’m done with this. I don’t like it. I need you to be the glue that keeps us all together.” Ford’s voice has a whine to it. “And I know I don’t believe in monogamy, but you and the pretty therapist had something good going. I’m not blind. I knew you two were screwing. Especially in Nashville when that Russian beauty kissed you. I felt the wave of female pissed-offness from Paisley.”

  “It’s over. She broke up with me. I told you that.” I stand and grab my keys. “Let’s go to Drake’s.”

  I’d rather face embarrassment with him than sit around here and talk about Paisley all day. The only thing more painful than knowing I failed another friend is knowing I failed her.

  “Cool.” He scribbles a note on the empty pizza box and puts it back in the fridge.

  Nadiya’s going to murder him one day.

  “Hey, he’s been asking about you.” Saige hugs me and kisses my cheek when she answers the door. “He’s in the family room.”

  I walk through his house, saying a quick hello to Aiden’s mom and sister. I’ve been to Wisconsin on more than one occasion, and they come down to Florida at least once a year, so we’ve met a bunch of times.

  His nephews and niece are in the pool with his dad. I pop my head back there to say a quick hello before going over to Aiden and giving him a hug.

  “Hey,” I say.

  “About time.” Aiden knows me and he knows about Armen, so I’m pretty sure he’s put two and two together.

  “Sorry, I was busy.”

  “Pretty therapist dumped him,” Ford says.

  “What?” Saige must have killer hearing. She walks in with her hands on her hips. “Why?”

  Ford runs his hand down my body. “Clearly because he’s turned into a bump on a log. Who wants to date that?”

  “Ford, my nephews need someone to throw them in the air in the pool. Saige, babe, give me and Maksim a minute,” Aiden says.

  “I’m not leaving. I’m sick of being cut out of shit. When my life was falling apart, we included you, Shamrock. We’re a threesome.” Ford crosses his arms and I laugh for the first time in two days.

  “Fine. Stay, but if you say one thing about monogamy, I’m gonna have my triplet nephews punch you in the nuts,” Aiden warns then sets his eyes on me. “Don’t do this to yourself.” He gestures to his arm in a sling. “This is not your fault. I’ll heal and I’ll be good. And this might be my first concussion that knocked me out, but it probably won’t be my last. None of this is because you got ejected. Langley apologized, I accepted. I signed up for this when I signed up to be a professional hockey player.”

  “But my job—”

  “Bullshit. You’ve taken the role of keeping us all safe for way too long. Your job out there is to prevent the opposing team from scoring. Sure, you need to protect us, but you’ve been taking cheap shots like you have to prove something out there.”

  “I can’t speak for Aiden, but I have fun on game days. Can you say the same?” Ford chimes in.

  “I love my job.” They both quirk their eyebrows at me, so I say, “I guess over the years I’ve enjoyed it less and less.”

  “Since we all got close. Since we became—”

  “A threesome,” Ford says again.

  “I was gonna say friends, but yeah.” Aiden smiles at me.

  “I guess.” I shrug.

  He’s right though. Once I considered them my true friends, I played more aggressively, ready to protect them no matter the repercussions.

  “We’re tough guys too, you know,” Aiden says.

  “Well, I do have the prettiest face out of the three of us,” Ford says, beaming. “I’d hate for it to be beat up. The ladies might complain.”

  We both groan.

  “What? I’m sorry, but you know I’m the pretty one.” He looks at us like we can’t possibly argue.

  “Go win Paisley back. She’s good for you,” Aiden says.

  “I said a lot I can’t take back,” I tell them.

  “That’s what flowers and apologies are made for,” Ford says.

  “It’s gonna take a lot more than that.” I sit and think about all the nasty things I said to her. How I lied when I said I didn’t love her. When she said she loved me, all I wanted to do was bury my head in her neck and profess my love right back, but I couldn’t get my feet or my mouth to move. She already thought I was a piece of shit, so why try to change her mind?

  “Then do whatever it takes to get her back,” Aiden says. “If you love her like I think you do, then you do whatever you can to win her over again.”

  “I’ve got this whole thing with Nadiya and my parents. I don’t want Paisley in the middle of all that.” Which is the truth. She deserves a lot better than a guy who won’t stand up to his parents.

  “She’s gonna slip out of your grasp if you wait too long,” Ford says.

  “Let’s just watch
the game,” I grumble.

  Lucky for me, Aiden’s triplet nephews run in and jump on Ford, ending the conversation.

  “Hey, you’re messing up my hair,” he yells as they climb all over him, laughing. “Who cuts your nails? Edward Scissorhands? Jeez. I’m gonna need stitches.”

  We all laugh, watching them ruin Ford’s country club look.

  “Best five dollars I ever spent.” Aiden’s dad comes in, putting his hand out in front of me. “Nice to see you, Maksim.”

  “You too.” I shake his hand, swallowing the guilt I feel over failing to protect his son.

  Maybe Paisley’s right about one thing. Maybe it is time I live my life for myself.

  I walk into Mr. Gerhardt’s office for the last time as someone who works for him.

  “I’m leaving now,” I say.

  “I can’t convince you to stay?” Mr. Gerhardt rises from his office chair.

  “I don’t think I’m meant to work here. If anyone needs me, send them to my main office.”

  It was a tough decision, but I signed off on everyone but Maksim. I just can’t in good conscience allow him to skate out of therapy when he might be the one on the team who needs it the most. And that’s saying a lot when his teammate is Ford.

  “So… Maksim?” He lowers his chin and looks at me from under his bushy eyebrows.

  “Jana told you.” I can’t even be mad at her at this point. I was terrified for the man in front of me to know, and now that he does, it feels very anticlimactic given the circumstances.

  He nods. “But only after I questioned her after hearing about you two being the first ones at the hospital together. You could’ve told me. I feel like a fool that I kept setting you up.”

  “It’s against the rules for me to be involved with a patient.”

  He laughs. “Oh, Paisley, my rule follower. I always knew my daughter picked the best friend. My wild child needs a girl like you to keep her in line. But sometimes rules are meant to be broken. Someone said that once.”

  I cringe. “Not when it comes to the ethics of my profession. But I did it anyway. My conscience tells me I never acted as his therapist though, so I guess that makes it a little better.”