“Avoiding your wife already?” Luke’s deep voice cuts through the silence of the dark room as soon as I’ve closed the den doors to get some privacy.
“Jesus.” I jump. “You scared the fuck out of me.”
I scan the room until I see where Luke’s sitting—in the armchair his father loves so much. Despite the lack of light, the moon casts a bright glow through the picture window. The family dog, a wolfhound named Roxie, is sitting on the floor by the armchair. She looks at me with interest until she realizes I have no treats to give her, and then she lies back down at Luke’s feet.
I glance past Luke’s head. In the moonlight, I can just make out the framed photograph of Luke and our Texas cousin, Logan, at the last rodeo where Luke ever competed. The one where he got thrown off a bronc so brutally we all feared we’d lost him.
The photo was taken before the rodeo began. Luke’s arm is around Logan’s shoulders, and both cousins are smiling.
“Can’t believe I’ve never met our cousins from Texas,” I say casually.
Without turning around to see what I’m looking at, Luke says in a lazy tone I know he uses when he doesn’t want to betray any emotion, “Logan’s coming up here this spring. He’s going to drive up some cattle.”
“Well, hopefully, I won’t be on a road trip so I can finally meet him,” I say. “What are you doing sitting here in the dark?”
“Same thing you came here for. Taking some space.” He grins. “Well, I’m not hiding from a woman. There’s that difference between us.”
“I’m not hiding from Mia.” I take a seat on the couch across from him. “I’m…doing the right thing.”
“So, doing the right thing involves leaving her alone on your wedding night?” Luke raises an irritating-as-fuck eyebrow at me. “Sounds like a grand plan, cousin. Good thing you became a big hockey star—you’d have failed the hell out of being a nice, normal guy.”
I run my hand down my face in frustration. “So what would you do? Because believe me, the things I want to do with Mia are not nice in the least.”
Luke shrugs. “I’d probably do those not-nice things with her and then regret it in the morning. Or—I wouldn’t regret it. Sometimes you just need to do what you want, Dec. Life’s too short for what-ifs.”
Pain flashes across his face.
My cousin loved being a bull rider. And then one day, that dream was taken from him. So, he took over running his parents’ ranch. He made the transition look seamless, although I know he went through hell.
“I wouldn’t have handled it a hundredth as well as you have,” I say to him out of the blue.
He flicks his gaze to mine. “You don’t know that.”
“I do,” I say. “If I had lost the ability to play hockey…I think I would have wanted to punch a wall.”
“Who says I didn’t?” Luke says in that slow cowboy drawl he has. “What a man does in the dark doesn’t always show in the light.”
“I just wanted to let you know I admire how you’ve dealt with the change in plans. A change you didn’t know would be coming.”
“Appreciated.” Luke gives me a brief nod, and I know that topic is closed.
I’m surprised he let me take it this far.
He stands up. “I’d better go back out to the tent to survey the damage. The party should be breaking up soon. Have a good night.”
I raise my hand in a wave. “Goodnight.”
Chapter Sixteen
Sometimes, before I’ve even stepped out on the ice, I can feel I’m gonna have myself a game. The game after my wedding night is like that. I’m so amped up, and I have nowhere else to put the energy other than onto the ice. Mia was on my mind the entire flight to the east coast.
Even as I hit the ice for pre-game, I can’t push her out of my thoughts.
I’m not used to this. Thinking about a woman during warm-ups is a no-no. I’m always all-in on the upcoming game. Distraction has never been a problem for me before.
But I’ve never been married before, either.
And as I take my warm-up shots, everything feels different.
