Page 114 of Slapshot Bride

Easton finds me minutes later.

“Hey…” He takes my hand and pulls me against him, his back to the team, carefully blocking them from my view. “You good?”

I nod.

“Thank you for today, sweetheart. You’ll probably have my heart until forever now,” he smirks.

But he doesn’t see how his words affect me.

When he says things like that, it becomes increasingly difficult to see the already faint line between what we’ve been doing, and the agreement we had at the start.

This is fake. Or it’s supposed to be right? But why does my heart feel like it’s falling off anytime I think of it not being real?

Lord… not now. Not this way.

Things get complicated when feelings get in the mix.

“Come on… come listen to Wyatt’s recent escapades. The night after we left the bar,” He tugs me along to the living room, and pulls me to sit on his lap, straddling him in front of everyone, while he holds me possessively.

And I feel at home. Like I’m with my family.

“I’m telling you, she was batshit crazy!” Wyatt’s exclamation pulls me back to the present.

I laugh because this is Wyatt for you.

“Damn, she handed your ass to you. I’d love to meet her,” Kai says.

Wyatt shakes his head and drains the rest of his beer. “Fuck no. Never happening. I’m never crossing paths with that woman again.”

“Famous last words,” Kai mutters.

Wyatt flips him off, but there’s a grin tugging at his mouth as he reaches for another beer.

“Actually, I think I might be done with crazy altogether.”

That gets everyone’s attention. Kai’s eyebrows shoot up. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me.”

“No, I heard the words. I just don’t believe they came out of Wyatt Larkin’s mouth.”

Wyatt shrugs, suddenly very interested in the label on his bottle. “Maybe it’s time to try something different.”

“Different how?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugs again, way too casually this time. “Find a nice girl. Someone normal. Sweet. The kind you could actually bring home to your mom without giving her a heads-up first.”

Kai leans forward, grinning. “This hypothetical nice girl have a name?”

Wyatt goes still for half a second before taking a long pull from his beer. “If she did, I sure as hell wouldn’t be telling you guys.”

“Holy shit.” Kai sits up straighter. “There’s a girl.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Who is she?”

“Nobody you need to worry about.”