“He was not leaving you alone, despite your telling him multiple times.”
I don’t know what bothers me more—the way he stepped in and escalated things, or the fact that he saw me as weak and needing rescuing from the confrontation with Carter.
“I don’t need you inserting yourself into situations I already have a handle on. Or any situations, for that matter. I’m going home to put some ice on my face.”
“I’m coming with you.”
I step past him onto the sidewalk. “No, you’re not. Go back to your teammates, Renaud.” Using his last name doesn’t dismiss him the way I intend it to, because as I head down the street, he steps up beside me.
“I’m not going back in there.”
“Why not?”
“Aside from the fact that they probably wouldn’tletme back in, I can’t be held responsible for what else I’d do to the asshole who was harassing you.” He shoves his hands in his pockets as we walk.
Half a block later, when it’s apparent he’s intent on following me to make sure I get home safely, I say, “Are you sure your hand is okay? That was such a stupid thing to do after having multiple surgeries.”
He chuckles. “That was my right hand. If I’d used my dominant hand, he would’ve been on the floor. I went easy on him.”
I shake my head at him and his ridiculous bravado. “What is it about men that makes them think fighting is the answer to everything?”
“Maybe brute force is the way we protect people when words don’t do the job.”
I huff out a laugh. “Not every problem requires your fists to solve it.”
“That one did.”
My phone rings before I’ve even closed the door to my apartment, and AJ’s number flashes on my screen.
I barely even have time to say hello before she’s talking, “Morgan, where did you guys go? McCabe and I tried to follow you out, but by the time we were on the sidewalk, you were already gone.” We must have been standing in the recessed doorway at that point, so they didn’t see us when they looked down the street. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I say, glancing over the island into my kitchen where Aidan is fishing around in my freezer. “Just about to get some ice on my cheek, but I’m fine.”
“I’d like to know what the fuck Renaud was thinking,” she says. I’m holding the phone out from my face so it doesn’t touch my cheek, and since he looks over at me with a smirk, he must be able to hear her even across the room.
“You know what, me too. He’s right here. Hold on, you can ask him yourself.” I’m laughing silently as he glares at me, but I’m enjoying this too much. Getting in trouble with his boss would serve him right for involving himself in my life when I didn’t ask for his help, and for fighting after she told him that he needs to stop.
He hands me a bag of frozen corn as I set my phone on the island and put the call on speakerphone. His lip curls up into a subtle smile, and he shakes his head at me like he’s already thinking of a way to repay me for putting him in this position.
“Hey, boss,” Aidan’s voice is apologetic. It’s the kind of tone you use when you know you’re in trouble.
“No less than five hours after we announce you as the alternate captain, and you’re already fighting? And not even on the ice, where it’s legal?” AJ is pissed and not doing anything to hide it.
“That guy was harassing Morgan and refused to take his hands off her after she’d asked him to. What kind of an alternate captain would I be if I didn’t stand up for people who work for the team?”
AJ’s silent for a moment. “That’s really what started that?”
“Yeah.”
With the frozen corn held against my face, I shake my head at him trying to charm AJ. I can’t help but smile when he grins and gives me a wink, like he knows he’s saying the right things. This playful side of him is so much more like the version of him I sawwhen we were alone in Bermuda than the hockey player I’ve seen since we returned to Boston.
And truthfully, he does seem to keep showing up when I could use some backup—first at that dinner with my mom a week ago, and then tonight with Carter. He’s being a good friend, which is what we’ve agreed to since there’s no way we can actually avoid each other.
“You didn’t have to punch him. I specifically told you not to risk your hand by fighting,” AJ says, and I nod in agreement with my eyebrows lifted, but that motion hurts and I wince.
“I hit him with myotherhand. I’m not stupid enough to risk my career like that. Besides, he pushed me twice and threw the first punch,” Aidan says, and my chest shakes with silent laughter because, standing behind him, I didn’t even realize Carter hit him. I thought it was just a shove, since Aidan didn’t even flinch. “I was defending myself.”
“Bullshit. Maybe that first punch was self-defense, but the second and third certainly weren’t. And you wouldn’t have stopped there, either, if Morgan hadn’t told you to.”
