I unclip Byron’s leash and he happily dances after the men as they disappear into the kitchen.
“What’s with you and JP?” Lacey immediately whispers urgently.
I give her a blank look. “What?”
“We haven’t talked since the wedding. What was going on?”
My eyes flick toward the kitchen. “I don’t want to talk about this right now.”
“Oh my God.” Her eyebrows fly up.
The men return, Théo with a beer in his hand, JP a bottle of water.
“On the wagon now?” I ask him. “Maybe that brawl was because of overindulging?”
He sits back down and casually leans back. “It wasn’t a brawl.”
“What would you call it? Saturday night?” I give myself a mental high-five for that one. “You’re a hockey player. Just a normal thing for you.”
A muscle tics in his jaw.
“Oh yeah, training camp started today!” Lacey exclaims.
“Yeah.” JP holds up his bottle. “That’s why I’m drinking water. And why I can barely walk.”
My eyes widen.
“We did testing today,” he explains to me, apparently seeing my confused look.
Damn. I don’t want him to talk to me.
“And for the Condors, too,” Lacey adds. “How did the first day go, Théo?”
“Can’t talk about it.” He nods at JP. “The enemy is here.”
Lacey’s mouth falls open. “What? You mean you guys can’t even talk about hockey?”
“Better not to. In fact, he probably shouldn’t even be here.” Théo gives JP a smirk.
“You invited me!” JP shakes his head. “Asshole.”
I find myself studying his mouth. His lip was bleeding the other night, but it looks okay now. In fact, it looks beautiful…sexy…He looks up at me, catching me. His eyes grow hot.
Shit.
I stare down at my wine.
“Okay, then, we can talk about something else,” Lacey says. “How about politics?”
The guys groan, and I grin.
“Okay, then, let’s talk about how Batman is not a true superhero,” she says.
I laugh.
“Of course he isn’t,” JP says. “He’s a fictional character. Therefore not a true superhero.”
“Oh, come on!” My eyes bug out. “The very definition of superhero is that it’s fictional.”
“Says who?” JP meets my eyes, his chin jutting.
“Says me.” I frown. I actually don’t know why I said that.
“Taylor’s right,” Lacey says, consulting her phone. “Wikipedia says a superhero is fictional.”
Now I lift my chin at JP with a satisfied smirk.
“Okay, then. He’s not a superhero because he doesn’t have superhuman abilities.”
“What?” My eyebrows pull together. “Sure he does. He has superhuman strength. He just doesn’t brag about it.”
“That’s not superhuman. He just works out a lot. Plus he has money to buy a lot of gadgets.”
“There’s no way working out a lot is going to give you the strength to punch someone across a room. I mean, I guess he can’t fly, and he was never horribly mutilated or bitten by a spider or whatever, but clearly he has superhuman strength.”
“No.” JP shakes his head. “He just has training and money.”
“Ugh.” I can’t believe I’m hearing this.
I catch Lacey and Théo exchanging glances at our heated debate, and I sag back into my chair. Why am I arguing about this with him? It’s Batman, for cripe’s sake. “Whatever,” I mutter, and drink my wine.
“When’s your first game?” Lacey asks JP brightly.
“No hockey talk, remember?”
She rolls her eyes. “I think that’s pretty safe.”
“Tuesday,” he says. “Against Nashville.”
My head jerks up. He’s going to be playing the first game of the year against Manny? Uh-oh. I cast a wide-eyed glance at Lacey.
“Oh!” she exclaims. “Um…”
JP flashes an evil grin. “Yeah.”
“JP…” Théo says warningly.
“What?”
“Remember those bad decisions we were talking about earlier…?”
“Yeah.” He purses his lips. “I’m not going to do something stupid.”
“Okay.”
“I can’t speak for him, though,” JP adds bitterly. “Clearly, he’s an asshole.”
I catch my lower lip between my teeth. He doesn’t know exactly why Manny was so jealous.
We make eye contact and a shiver works down my spine, both of us knowing we did a lot more than dance together.
Lacey wrinkles her nose. “We hung out all the time when I first moved here. I thought he was a good guy.”
JP’s jaw tightens.
As if sensing the tension snapping around us, Lacey changes the subject again. “Hey, today I saw one of the graffiti condoms.”
We all stare at her blankly.
“Haven’t you heard?” She gazes around at us. “There’s a guy going around town finding dicks that people have painted on buildings and walls, and he spray-paints condoms on them.”
“Uh…” I shake my head. “I hadn’t heard about that.”
“Oh, I did,” JP says.
“I saw one today.” Lacey grins. “It’s hilarious.”
“All those unprotected dicks do send a bad message,” JP says with a chuckle. “Safe sex is important.”
A vision of naked JP rolling a condom onto his impressive erection floats before my eyes. I whimper, quickly turning it into a cough. He shoots me a raised-eyebrows glance. My cheeks flame.
“Says the guy who thinks safe sex means not getting arrested,” Théo says.
JP shoots him a narrow-eyed look. “Hey.”
“You got caught in a storage room in the arena,” Théo says. “And the backseat of a car. And—”
“Yeah. You believe in safe sex. You always took a condom when you went out.” JP pauses. “Although it was always the same one.”
Théo cracks up, as does Lacey.
“Also, I thought your definition of safe sex is a padded headboard.”
Lacey wipes tears from her eyes. “Oh my God, JP.”
My smile is stiff. “So funny.”
Actually, he is funny. I just don’t want to laugh at his jokes. Ugh.
He casts a slitty-eyed glance my way now, catching my sarcasm. And it’s like flames ignite between us. Heat sears over my skin and spreads from my belly through my body. My pussy squeezes.
I toss back the rest of my wine and jump up. “I better get going.”
At the same time JP stands and says, “I should go. Early morning tomorrow.”
We eye each other. More static electricity builds around us.
“JP will walk you home,” Lacey says.
“That’s okay,” I immediately respond. “I have Byron.” I look down to where he’s snoozing at my feet.
“It’s dark,” JP says roughly.
“I only live a few houses down the road.”
“It’s dark,” he repeats and picks up Byron’s leash.
Annoyance scrapes over my nerves. I grew up in this neighborhood, for cripe’s sake. I grit my teeth and say to Lacey, “Thanks for the wine.”
“No problem. Let’s get together this weekend.”
“Sure. You should come to yoga class Saturday morning.” We all head to the door.
“Ugh.” Lacey scrunches her nose. “The paddleboard yoga class?”
“Yeah.” She keeps making excuses not to come.
“I’ll end up in the water. Pass.”
I
laugh. “Oh, come on. It’s fun! And even if you do fall in the water, so what?”
“I’ll think about it,” she says reluctantly.
I shake my head and wave goodbye as I step out into the fresh night air, scented with the ocean and the jasmine plant growing next to the door.
“She won’t come,” I tell JP.
“Yoga on paddleboards?”
“Yeah. It’s cool.”
“Okay, sure.”
Clearly he’s skeptical.
“You really don’t have to walk me home,” I tell him stiffly, setting out along the sidewalk of the narrow side street.
He follows. “I want to talk to you.”
Great.
“What’s with you and Manny?” he demands as he falls into step next to me. Byron trots along happily in front of us, making the left turn at Speedway that will take us home.
“Nothing.”
“Bullshit. He fucking jumped me because we were dancing together. Apparently, you two were seeing each other.”
“He’s an idiot.” I sigh. “He came to see me the day after the wedding and apologized.”
“What the fuck? He apologized to you? I’m the one he should be apologizing to!”
He sounds so outraged I laugh. “He wasn’t apologizing for the fight.”
The air around us changes, vibrating with…something. “Fucker,” he mutters.
I shrug. Let him be pissed. I’m pissed too. At both of them. And myself.
“This is my house. I mean, my parents’.” I stop in front of the Craftsman home with the tall picket fence around it. “Thanks for walking me home even though I didn’t need it.” Byron is sniffing around the grass beside the gate. “Come on, Byron, let’s go in. Good night, JP. Good luck with your season.”
I leave him standing there as I open the gate and step into the yard, which is shadowed by palms and big fig trees.
“Wait.”
I turn, firming my lips. “What?”
“I have something that belongs to you.”
I frown, then it clicks and my eyes bug open.
He grins.
I start toward him. Does he have my panties in his pocket or something?
He shakes his head. “I don’t have them with me. I’m keeping them. Just reminding you.”
I freeze and glare at him. “Asshole.” Then I spin around and slam the gate shut behind me.
Chapter 7
Taylor
Lacey doesn’t come to yoga class, but she does agree to have lunch after it. She meets me at the marina and watches the last part of the class. Maybe she’ll be convinced to try it.
I meet her on the beach, carrying my board. “I just have to put the board away and grab my stuff. Be right back.”
Along with the others in the class, I trudge into the building housing Makara Yoga. It’s cool today, so I’m wearing leggings and a long-sleeved tee. Lacey and I are just going to walk over to Bandit’s, known for their fabulous shrimp, on the same marina basin as the yoga studio. It’s a casual place, so it doesn’t matter how I’m dressed. I slide my feet into my flip-flops and sling my purse over my shoulder.
“Did you hear about what happened in the game the other night?” Lacey asks as we walk there.
“What game?”
“The Golden Eagles versus Nashville.”
“Uh…no.” Right. JP mentioned it the other night. “What happened?”
“Manny and JP got into a bit of a shoving match.”
“Oh Jesus. Really?”
“I didn’t see it, but Théo told me about it. It looked like Manny was chirping at him.”
“Damn. What is wrong with Manny?”
“Maybe he’s still mad because JP got the better of him that night at the wedding.”
“Men.” I roll my eyes.
We’re shown to a table for two outside, right next to the water, boats bobbing in the marina only a short distance away.
“So? Ready to join me next weekend for a class?” I ask Lacey when we’re settled.
She smiles. “I have to work next Saturday.”
“Phhht.” But I grin. “You should just quit your job at Jolie.” Lacey sells cosmetics at the big beauty supply store.
“I can’t quit my job!”
“I think Théo can afford to support you.”
“I don’t want to be supported.” She gives me an affronted look. Then she shrugs. “Actually, I may quit my job at Jolie if things keep going well with the movie gigs.”
A few months back she got a job helping with the makeup on a Hollywood movie, and since then she’s worked on two more.
“You like doing that, don’t you?”
“I love it.” She smiles. “It was really cool doing the makeup for Blake after the explosion…all the blood and dirt and gore.”
I grimace. “Fun.”
She laughs. “No, really!”
“I know, I know. So you and Blake Lively are best buds now, huh.”
She chuckles again. “Right.”
We order beers, and popcorn shrimp and spicy fries to share.
“Okay, what is going on with you and JP?” Lacey leans forward.
“Whatever do you mean?” Then I snort. “Okay, I made a big mistake.”
Her eyes bug open wide. “What?”
“I slept with him. The night before the wedding.”
“Oh.” She blinks.
“And the night of the wedding. During the wedding.”
“Whaaaat?”
“Yeah.” I whoosh out an exhalation big enough to sail a boat across the nearby basin. “I don’t know what got into me.”
“Apparently, he did. More than once.”
“Ha ha. Yeah. He was flirting with me and it was fun, and I was there alone and so was he…He is good-looking…”
She wrinkles her nose.
“Come on! He looks a lot like Théo. Only better.”
“What?” Her spine straightens. “Take that back.”
“It’s in the eye of the beholder. You think Théo’s better-looking because you’re in love with him.”
Her forehead creases and her mouth kicks up at one corner.
“Anyway, I figured, why shouldn’t I have a fling with a hot guy?”
“Mm-hmm. But at my wedding?”
“We snuck up to his room.” I nearly fan myself, remembering how hot it was. Damn.
“Your face is red. It was good, wasn’t it?”
“It was amazing.”
“Did Manny find out? Is that what happened?”
“He figured it out, yeah.” I bite my lip and sit back as our waitress brings our beers. My stomach tightens, and then I confess, “I sort of wanted him to know.”
Lacey slumps in her chair and closes her eyes. “Oh my God.”
“I know, I know. It was stupid. I feel terrible about what happened.”
“You slept with JP to get back at Manny?”
“No!” Now my eyes pop wide. “Manny wasn’t even around at the rehearsal! That was all…JP.” I lift my chin. “I’m not going to apologize or be ashamed of wanting to have sex with a good-looking guy who was into me.”
“Ugh. You should know I’m not judging you for that. You have every right to sleep with whoever you want.”
“Thank you.”
“But it did, uh, cause a little problem.”
“I know, and I’m so, so sorry.” I lean forward, holding her gaze. “I feel responsible.”
“I don’t blame you. Is that why you took off?”
“Yes, but I was pissed, too. I mean, what right did Manny have to do that? He left without even ending things with me. I hadn’t seen or talked to him
in months. What a douche!”
“Did you talk to him?”
“At the wedding?”
“Yeah. Or, after.”
“He came to see me the next day.” I grimace. “He apologized. He said he didn’t realize how much he missed me until he saw me leaving with JP.”
“Idiot.”
“I know, right?” I roll my eyes. “I told him to go back to Nashville and forget it. And forget me.”
Lacey tilts her head and gives me a sad smile. “I know you really liked Manny.”
“I really did.” I pout.
“If only he’d figured shit out before he left, maybe things would have worked out.”
“Who knows?” I hitch one shoulder.
Our food arrives, so we pause the conversation to arrange the baskets of shrimp and fries, then dig in.
“So that’s why he was bugging JP in the game,” Lacey says.
“Maybe. Idiot.”
Lacey picks up a fry. “Back to you and JP…”
“Right. I don’t want anything to do with him either.”
“What did he do to deserve that?”
“They were fighting! On the dance floor! At your wedding!”
“He didn’t start it.”
“Well, I know, but…it was just stupid. Hockey players are stupid.”
She lifts an eyebrow.
“Not Théo.”
She nods.
“Also, he’s an asshole. Look what he did to Théo, his own brother.”
“You mean when he and Emma got together?”
“Right.”
“But you knew that about him when you slept with him.”
She’s got me there. “Whatever. It was just a one-night thing.”
“Okay. It might make things a little awkward if you two are going to snark at each other every time you’re together.”
“We’re not going to be together.”
She pushes her bottom lip out doubtfully.
“Even if we are, I can be friends with him.” I shrug and munch on a shrimp.
“Mmm. Okay. If you say so.”
“Why do you look like that?” I eye her.
“Like what? Like I don’t believe you two can just be friends? Maybe it’s because of the sexual tension that just about set the air on fire the other day when you were at our place. The looks you two kept giving each other. I knew something was going on.”
In It to Win It Page 6