“Where else would I put her?”
I shouldn’t be this defensive. I haven’t done anything wrong. I held her hair while she threw up, put her to bed, then checked on her every fifteen minutes until I gave up and dragged the yoga mat into her room.
But for a moment, I longed to let her cuddle right up next to me so I could hold her while she slept.
Tristan arches a brow. Like he can see inside my fucking head.
I sigh. “I slept on the floor because I was worried. She didn’t know I was there and tripped over me on the way to the bathroom. Her foot caused this.” I motion to my eye.
“You slept on the floor?” He doesn’t sound skeptical, which I appreciate.
“On a yoga mat.” It was seriously uncomfortable, and my back is still annoyed, but it was worth it to make sure Tally was okay.
I don’t say anything about her face-planting into my dick. Or that I saw her entire ass, thanks to a wardrobe malfunction. I can never unsee it, and I’m pretty sure my future dreams about it will land me a front-row seat in hell.
Tristan rolls his head on his shoulders. “She was pretty flirty with you.”
“She was hammered.”
“She sat in your lap.”
“Again, she was hammered.”
“And you let her.” He side-eyes me.
I brush it off. Evade. “She had a lot going on.”
“You can’t lead her on, though, man,” he says gently. “Unless there’s more to this?”
“That’s not…there’s not.” I shake my head.
“Then you might need to set some boundaries.” He claps me on the shoulder. “I get it, though, she was messed up.”
I haven’t said anything to anyone other than Dred about her proposition, and I don’t plan to. Not even Tristan. He’s one ofmy closest friends, but he could accidentally say something to Rix, and it could get back to Tally. She’s already embarrassed enough. The speech she gave this morning has been rolling around in my head. I don’t know how much of it was fueled by her hangover, but it hit a soft spot. She knows me, and she knows what it’s like to be wanted for the wrong reasons, maybe better than I realized.
But last night she was in full-on defiance mode. Hurt. Upset. Devastated and looking for an escape from the shit in her head. And I was the person she came to. Bringing her back to my place, being the one to take care of her, seeing her in my robe, sleeping in my spare bed…is giving me ideas I shouldn’t entertain. Can’t entertain.
Coach Vander Zee blows the whistle, ending that conversation and dissipating my fantasies.
But my mind is still whirling. I didn’t pay much attention to anyone but Tally at the Watering Hole. That doesn’t mean other people weren’t noticing us, though. Dred sure did. And so did Tristan. I should have let Quinn drive her home, but I couldn’t.
I declinethe offer to go to the Watering Hole after practice. Instead, I make a stop at the retirement home since it’s cribbage hour and I’m always down for cards with octogenarians.
“Stop letting me win, Phillip,” Gurdy says after she beats me for the second time in a row.
“I’m not. You have decades of experience on me,” I argue as I move the pegs back to the beginning and set us up for round three.
“You’re missing points left and right. What’s going on?” She covers the cards with her wrinkled, age-spotted hand and tips herhead. “Is it woman problems?” She squints. “Or maybe man problems?”
I sigh and flop back in my chair. “It’s woman problems.”
“Hallelujah. You finally got a girlfriend, didn’t you?” She slaps the table and opens her mouth to announce it to the entire room.
“No girlfriend.”
Her lips pucker. “Then what kind of woman problems? Did you get someone pregnant?”
“God, no. My coach’s daughter has a thing for me,” I confide.
