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And now I don’t have to feel any sort of guilt for the way things went down since I’m the one out all that money.
But the way he’s laughing is also showing me for maybe the first time ever that maybe Dex Bradley isn’t such a bad guy after all.
Maybe we could even find some way to be friends.
CHAPTER 34: Ivy Maddox
Happy Birthday
“I was really hoping I’d win that Lake Tahoe trip,” he says on our way home.
I narrow my eyes at him. “But instead you won the fantasy draft at Dex’s?”
“How’d you know about that?”
“Ainsley told me. She said Dex saw West put the clipboard out and knew it was you three. Why do you think Dex wrote down your number?” I purse my lips and fold my arms.
“Are you mad at me?” he asks softly.
I sigh. “Yes and no. On the one hand, it was actually kind of funny. But if you wanted to fuck with Dex, why didn’t you come to me?”
I get it was him with his teammates and their antics, but I could’ve been a resource. I’ve never been particularly close with Dex, but his wife is my best friend, so I’ve gotten closer with him over the last year. I’m all for funny pranks, especially when a charity is going to benefit from it anyway. But for just a moment tonight, it felt like Cash was just another person ten years older than me who’s trying to manage me rather than letting me be a part of things.
I want to be chosen, not managed. I want to be treated like the adult I am.
It’s probably something I should say to him.
“Because I felt stupid that I even suggested it, but once West gets an idea in his head, it’s happening. I got mine in the end since Dex wrote my name down, so now I feel even stupider.”
“Rightfully so,” I agree.
He chuckles. “But can I tell you something?”
“Hm?” I murmur.
“When I turned around after I paid for the item and Dex was standing there laughing at me, it was the first time I could actually see us becoming friends.”
“Why do you hate him?”
“You know why,” he mutters.
“If it’s because of my dad’s casinos, then no, I don’t. Because you married me. Was that all a part of your hatred for my family? Was falling for me along the way part of it?” I ask.
He glances up at me, and he looks a little wounded by my question. Or maybe tortured. I’m not sure I can make the distinction in the dark in the back of this car.
He stares at me a long time, and I think for a moment he’s going to say something, but then that moment seems to just pass us by.
“No,” he finally mumbles, and he averts his gaze to the window.
We arrive home, and he takes a shower while I debate what to do. Things feel suddenly off between us, and I’m not sure why. Maybe because I felt left out, but I suppose that’s going to happen when we’re at an event his closest teammates are also attending. I spent most of my night catching up with Ainsley, so it’s not like I was chasing him down to spend time with me.
But his season is quickly approaching. Tomorrow is his birthday. Training camp starts in thirteen days.
Things are going to change, and now is the time that he should be bonding with his teammates—even if it’s over pranking someone at a charity event.
So while he’s in the shower, I let it all go, and I strip out of my dress, leaving it draped over the dresser. I wait on the bed for him, naked, with the news I haven’t told him just yet.
It’s a little after midnight when he emerges from the bathroom in nothing but a towel, and he stops and stares at me lying on his bed, completely naked with my legs open and ready for him to move in between.
