This was after he’d gotten John not just one beer, but three, and topped up Beth’s glass of wine—and mine—several times.
It was after we demolished the peanut butter sundae pie and after Damon turned on the charm in a way I’ve never seen before—doing dishes, talking about what a good job I do with the team. He’d deflected most personal questions about himself, but I did learn that his mom’s name was Darlene and he has an addicted to custom-made suits.
“Heisnice,” I say, somewhat surprising myself. Because I would have said Damon’s predominate characteristics aregrumpy, taciturn, and possessing a stubbornness that lives and breathes the sport andonlythe sport.
But nice?
No.
Only…that’s how he was tonight.
And earlier. And last night.
Something that has me ignoring the flutter in my chest.
“But he’s also my boss, Beth,” I say. “So, don’t get all romantic on me, yeah?”
“Oh, honey.”
Her exasperated words have me glancing toward her. She’s shaking her head, lips turned up at the edges. “What?” I ask.
“Thewhatis that you’re trying to tell me you haven’t noticed the way he looks at you.”
The flutter in my chest comes back,grows.
“Beth,” I say. “He’s my boss.”
“Not really, though,” she points out and she’s not completely right, but she’s also not completely wrong. “Don’t the owners and the board have the ultimate say about your job?”
“Yes, but they take Damon’s opinion seriously.”
Case in point, me having the head coaching job in the first place.
“Hmm,” Beth murmurs. “I’m sure that’s true.” She sips from her wine then turns and smiles at me. “Still, I like the way he looks at you.”
I do too.
It’s the fantasy I’ve been harboring for years.
And yet, I know, at the end of the day, it means nothing.
“He’s protective,” I say, shrugging. “You know that things were tough with Hiller?—”
She scowls fiercely, and my heart squeezes. While she doesn’t know the whole story of what happened to me—no oneexcept Damon does—I’ve told her and John enough for them to understand exactly how toxic it was behind the scenes.
Plus, she knows what happened to Ivy and the others because that’s why I’m in the position I’m in.
Her words that follow are just as fierce as her scowl. “I hope that asshole rots in prison for the rest of his sorry life.”
I doubt he will.
Because the world doesn’t seem to punish men who hurt women.
“Damon’s sister was hurt by a man,” I tell her, not wanting to share the details of a story that’s not mine to tell, and even though it was in the news, I’m not sure Beth is up to date on old hockey scandals, about my boss or not. “He’s protective of the women around him is all. It’s nothing more than that.”
It feels like more.
But that’s not Damon.
