“What?”
“I’ve thought about you every damn day. And you couldn’t even text me back.” His Adam’s apple bobbed.
“Nick, I had a mess waiting for me in Nashville—”
His jaw ticked and he held up a hand to stop me. “You know I would have been there for you. Dev can give you the file on me. I’ll see you when we meet in a couple weeks. Have a good night, Annabelle.”
He turned back to the ballroom and was lost in the crowd.
Chapter 15
Nick
OCTOBER | Tarot: XII. Suspended Person
“So where are you in school?”
A pretty blonde woman sat across from me, taking a sip from her cappuccino. Her blonde wasn’t as pretty as Annie’s. It didn’t quite match her skin tone. Probably wasn’t natural, but that’s her prerogative. But she had a dazzling bright smile, and blue doe eyes that made me feel all warm and nice. She was a sorority sister, she’d already told me, doing her senior year of a communications degree. I had a game later that evening and was squeezing in a coffee date between practice and the game. I’d met Britta on a dating app and was trying out coffee dates rather than dinner dates. Less commitment. More time to feel for chemistry. No pressure to go to bed since it was the middle of the day.
“I’m actually not.”
“Oh.” Her disappointment was quite apparent.
“I play hockey.”
She tilted her head. “Like field hockey or ice hockey?”
I smirked. “Ice.”
“That’s cool. But not for UCLA?”
“Uh, no. The Princes, actually.”
Recognition was slow moving over her. “Oh! The NHL team?”
“The very same,” I said wryly.
There it was: the moment she realized I might be made of money. Her blue eyes glowed, like a cheetah setting sights on its prey. “Oh, so you’re, like, famous.”
I shrugged. “Not really. I don’t get recognized much.”
She squinted. “Do you play games though?”
“Most, yeah.”
“Wow. Huh. Didn’t see that coming,” she said. “Do you like it?”
I chuckled. “Yeah, it’s pretty fun. Hard to date, though.”
She was handling it well, considering. “You must be on the road a lot.”
“Kinda, yeah.” I was the world’s most boring conversation partner at this point, but it didn’t matter. She’d gotten what she came for. “Actually, I’ve got a game tonight. I’ll probably have to get going soon. I like to take a nap before the game.”
She cocked her head to the side, a slow grin creeping over her face. “I could help with that.”
Damn. That was forward. But if I ever wanted to get better with women, I had to try. And she was certainly not the worst person I’d ever met. Pretty. Handling the fame and money thing decently well. And here she was, willing and offering. At least, I thought she was?
Fuck, fuck, what do I do? Which ofmy teammates should I pretend to be to have theconfidence to see this through? Mikey? No. Too wild. Leroy?Also far too wild. Stelle? Yes, Stelle. He was smoothwhile still being humble. And sane.
