Page 26 of The Fake Out

“Hey, what was that for?” he asked.

“We don’t need to put on the show anymore.”

“Okay…” he trailed off.

I sighed. “I’m sorry. Maybe this was a bad idea. Also, where are we going?”

“To my car.”

“To go where?”

“My place.”

I stopped in my tracks. “Blaise.”

“For privacy,” he explained. “My family’s all at the bar.”

“What does your family have to do with it?”

“I live with my dad. Come on, I’ll make you a cheesesteak.”

I laughed. “You’ll make me a cheesesteak?”

“Yeah, woman, let this Philly boy make you a legit cheesesteak. It’s literally the only thing I can cook, so don’t get too excited.”

I laughed again. This man was entertaining at best. “Okay, lead the way.”

I followed him to his car, and we drove the quick drive to the row house where he lived with his family. It surprised me Blaise didn’t drive a fancier car. It was nice, but it wasn’t flashy like any of the other hockey players I knew. Dinah’s fiancé Noah had a fancy new SUV, but nothing too outlandish. Rox’s brother, on the other hand, had a Maserati, which seemed dumb to me if you lived in the city, but I had been to their condo building. They lived in a nice place with a secure underground garage. Still seemed foolish to me.

Blaise led me into the house and walked me through the living room to the small kitchen. The house was modest when you thought about the fact his dad was a hockey legend. Blaise instructed me to sit at the table while he worked on dinner. He undid the buttons at his wrists and pushed up his sleeves. Holy forearms, I forgot how built this man was. Goddamnit, I don’t think the no-sex rule was going to work with this man; I wanted to be underneath him again.

I pulled my sketchbook out of my bag to distract myself and tried to think of an idea to cover up Blaise’s tattoo. He didn’t love the maple leaf idea, but he didn’t give me anything else to work with. I rolled up one of my sleeves to inspect the new tattoo I let Eddie do on my blank arm. It was this cool design of a compass with swirls of watercolor around it. Eddie had been experimenting with the style, and I let him practice on me.

“Is that new?” Blaise asked and nodded at my arm.

I held up my arm for him to see. “Fresh ink. Just healed last week.”

He came over to me and ran a finger across my skin while he studied it. “Pretty. I like your colorful tattoos.”

“So do I.”

“Brat,” he teased.

I stuck my tongue out at him. “Go back to making me dinner.”

He gave me a little sarcastic salute and went back to the stove. My mouth watered at the smell of the meat cooking.

“So, are you going to lay these ground rules on me yet?” he asked.

I sighed. “Honestly, I was gonna tell you we shouldn’t go through with this. But then he gave me that wedding invitation.”

He scrolled through his phone. “I actually can go to that. We don’t have a game.”

“Of course you don’t.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Seth’s a diehard Bulldogs fan. It’s why we were at your dad’s bar all the time. I think he only invited me because I’m dating you. Of course, he’d want a hockey star at his wedding.”