I order another Crown and Coke and wonder, if I were single, would I have the balls to take her home tonight?
My phone vibrates in my pocket. I grab it and see HOME on the call display. I sigh, leave my drink on the bar next to Alex and head into the hallway that leads to the bathroom.
“What?” I snap into the phone.
“Devin? Where are you?” she asks and I know she had to raise her voice so she could be heard over the background noise she can hear through the phone.
“Out. Is Conner okay?”
“He’s asleep. We need to talk.”
I hang up and turn off my phone. I still have nothing to say to this woman and there’s nothing she can say that will make me want to go back to the hell that was me trying to save our marriage. I head back toward the bar to pay my tab and say good-bye to Alex and Tommy. When I find them, they’re talking with the girl I was admiring before and her friends.
I walk over and touch Tommy’s shoulder. “I think I’m going to go.”
“Really? Are you okay?”
“You should stay for a drink,” the dirty blonde says out of nowhere and I look over at her. “You look like you might need one.”
I hesitate. She smiles and gets even prettier. “My treat,” she adds.
“Mytreat,” I insist and head to the bar. She follows me. Tommy and Alex stay with her friends.
“A Crown and Coke and a…” I turn to her so she can tell me the poison of her choice.
She’s standing behind me, and when she leans in toward the bartender, her body presses up against mine.
“A gin and tonic, please—and two broken-down golf carts.” She smiles and winks at me. “We’ll call them broken-down Zambonis for you.”
I laugh at that. She knows who I am. “Guess the guys told you what we do for a living.”
She shakes her head. Her hair tumbles over her shoulders. “Your face is on billboards and I’ve gone to a game or two. My dad is a big sports nut. So why did you become a hockey player instead of a male model?”
Oh, this one’s brought her A game. Before I can figure out how to respond, the bartender has put our drinks, and the shots she ordered, in front of us. She reaches in and takes the shot glasses and hands me one. We clink glasses and down them together. As we reach for our drinks, her big gray eyes that almost match her dress fall to my hand. Mylefthand.
“You’re wearing a wedding ring?” she questions.
“I’m wearing a ring,” I correct her and sip my drink. She sips her own drink wordlessly, her eyes sweeping over my body without even trying to hide it. “Does it matter?”
“Not to me,” she responds easily and leans toward me. She smells of cinnamon and something musky. “But maybe to the person that gave it to you.”
“She doesn’t give a fuck,” I tell her.
Her lips are precariously close to my ear. My dick starts to get hard. It’s been that fucking long. Her lips brush my ear and the side of my cheek as she pulls back a little bit. “Then I only have one more question. Your place or mine?”
Chapter 10
Callie
The noise pulls me from my much-needed sleep. If there is anything that makes me a bear—a vicious, seething bitch of a bear—it’s having my sleep disturbed. When we were teenagers and Grandma Lily first started leaving us all alone in Silver Bay over the winters, Rose and Jessie were terrified at night. The old farmhouse creaked and groaned and the land outside was so dark and eerie because we were so far out of town, but I was never scared. God help any burglar, rapist or serial killer that broke in and woke me up. On more than one occasion I had thrown things—pillows, alarm clocks, water glasses—at my sisters for waking me up.
So when the sound—it’s like a dog stuck in a fox trap—becomes relentless and makes it impossible to fall back asleep, I start to get irate. What the hell is it? I throw the covers off and walk over to the window and glance outside. I don’t see an animal out there. I cock my head and listen more closely, trying to determine not just what the sound is but where it’s coming from.
It still doesn’t sound human, but I’ve at least figured out it’s coming from inside this house. My brain is still groggy from sleep and I have a panicked moment where I worry it’s Conner. As I run down the hall and into his empty room, I remember he’s at Ashleigh’s tonight. As I step back into the hall, I realize the sound is coming from Devin’s room.
I freeze. What the fuck do I do? It doesn’t sound like a noise he would make. I still can’t even tell if it’s human. There’s a slight bit of light spilling out from the door, which is cracked open maybe half an inch. I pad quietly toward it. I pause outside it and raise my hand to knock, but hesitate as the noise stops and I hear a voice.
“Harder. Yeah. Like that. Fuck, you’re so big!”
