“A new mattress?” I know exactly what he means, but I’m being sassy.
He gives me an overdramatic stare. “A gorgeous guy who cares enough to want you to sleep comfortably…”
That’s true, but it surprises me that he’s not making some kind of pervy remark. His blue eyes are sincere. He reaches out and hugs me. “Okay. Simmer down, brother.”
“We’ve got to go,” Ned says, grabbing Morgan by the shoulders and gently pulling him off me. “If I don’t get him out of here, he’s going to leave me for your boyfriend.”
“Thanks again for the furniture.”
They walk out the front door and down a couple steps, then Morgan turns back around. “You want to thank me? Send me a picture of his dick.” Ned and I both give him horrified stares. “So I can see if it’s the same one from the internet photo!”
Oh, right. I forgot about that. Jude’s penis is on the internet. I don’t respond; I just wave good-bye and close the door. Then I take the stairs two at a time and run into my bedroom and launch myself onto the new mattress. It’s like landing on a cloud. Which, I smile as I think to myself, is an appropriate metaphor for how my life feels right now too. My life was in free fall and Jude is my soft landing.
24
Jude
“Let’s go!” Coach calls as he passes the locker room, the rest of the coaching staff following along behind him. Everyone is in their new Thunder training sweats that carry the Stanley Cup logo with the dates under it. Back-to-back is not something the team owner wants to forget or wants us to forget. Not that we could.
“That Zoey?” Duncan asks, pointing to my phone as I hurriedly tuck it back in my pants hanging on the hook in my locker. I nod, and he smiles at me. “Welcome to the club, buddy.”
“Whatever.” I blow him off, but I’m smiling as we walk down the hall.
Eddie overhears as he comes up behind us. “You get in that hot redhead’s pants?”
I nod. “She’s got a name. It’s Zoey.”
“Right, Zoey.” Eddie grins. With the mustache he insists on sporting, he looks like a guy who would try to sell candy to kids out of the back of a windowless van. “So does her carpet match her drapes?”
For the first time ever I feel an animosity toward Eddie for one of his off-color comments, which I usually find amusing. But I also know I’ll sound like a giant hypocrite if I tell him to shut the fuck up, so I swallow down my anger and try to play it off casually. “You’ll never know.”
“I can try and find out if you’re done.”
My feet have just hit the ice, and even though I’m furious I decide to skate away, fast. I want to punch him with my glove on and knock him out until the season is over, but I need to let it go because that dick pic already has me on the management’s shit list. I don’t want to start any team drama so I skate. Hard.
Ten minutes later the coaches have us doing passing drills, and Eddie is off with Noah at the other end of the ice doing goalie crap, so I have time to calm down. It’s crazy that I’m this pissed off. He used to make lewd comments about Tessa a lot when I was dating her, and I never got irked. I knew Tessa wanted nothing to do with him, and I’d bet a year’s salary Zoey wouldn’t touch him either, yet…now I’m contemplating physical violence.
After twenty minutes of drills, Coach calls a break and we skate to the bench for Gatorade. Duncan smiles at me while Levi is crouched down beside him messing with his skate laces. Like Eddie, I haven’t seen Duncan much since we started because he’s defense and was doing drills with the defense coach at the other end. Now we’ll probably scrimmage, followed by a shootout game. I’m looking forward to a few hard slap shots at Rollins.
“So you and Zoey wanna go to the movies with Carla and me tonight?” he asks.
I laugh. “What is this, 1952? Do you want to go to the sock hop together too?”
“It’s just fun to hang out with other couples,” Duncan replies, and he sounds offended. I instantly regret being hard on him, because he’s honestly a great guy. “Or are you guys still in that honeymoon phase where all you want to do is be alone naked?”
“That phase should never end, Darby,” I reply and squirt some green Gatorade into my mouth. “When it ends so should the fling.”
“I’m not talking fling. I’m talking relationship,” Duncan clarifies, and then his bushy red eyebrows pinch together, and he frowns.
“What are you doing tonight? Going to the movie with Carla and Duncan too?” I ask Levi. “Or are you and Tess having a quiet night at the malt shop? One milk shake, two straws?”
“You’re in a mood,” he says in a low, calm voice.
He’s right. I am. “Sorry. I’m just kidding around. So you going out with Tessa tonight or do you wanna hang out?”
“Tess is in Seattle for work,” Levi explains. “I was going to marathon something on Netflix and order something greasy for the last time until May.”
“Wow. You’re a wild child, Levi. Tessa should worry about leaving you alone.” I’m just a bucket of sunshine today.
