Chapter 15
Bishop
It’s almost 1:30 in the morning by the time we get to Brooke’s. After beating San Francisco, we flew out that night to Los Angeles to take on the Demons, which is one of two teams in LA. We won that game 2–1, and after quick showers, took a bus to the airport where we boarded the awesome, kickass team plane back to Phoenix. I was riding so fucking high off back-to-back road wins—as a member of an expansion team—that I was too wired to even sleep on the flight home. Brooke, on the other hand, spent the entire flight with her head lying on my shoulder and snoring softly. I was content with this and listened to music.
When we pull into Brooke’s driveway, she yawns before turning tired eyes to me. “Are you going to stay tonight?”
I turn off the car and shake my head, twisting my neck to look at her. “I think I’m going to stay at my place tonight. I have some laundry that I need to do and we’ve got a morning practice. It’s just really hectic on game day, you know.”
As excuses go, this one is pretty lame. It’s true that we have a home game tonight and it’s also true that I have laundry and a morning practice. One could even argue that I need to go home just so I can get some good rest rather than spending time inside of Brooke’s body. Tomorrow’s game is going to be brutal given we are coming right off a two-game road trip.
Despite all of that, my excuse is lame because Brooke and I live fairly close together. Staying here tonight would not throw me off my schedule at all.
But I have been thinking about it on the drive from the airport to her house. While I am fucking stunned over how much I enjoyed these last few days with Brooke, I’m also freaked out over how much I enjoyed these last few days with Brooke. It felt a little too good sleeping with her at night, and it felt a little too fantastic having her watch me while I play. If anything, I just want to prove to myself that I can go a night without her.
Brooke smiles at me and nods. “You really should get some good rest tonight, Bishop. I’m sure you’re exhausted.”
Not so exhausted that if Brooke were to tell me right now that she wants me to take her in the house and fuck her all night long, I would absolutely be all over that. But lucky for me, she just gives another tiny yawn and pushes open the passenger door.
She waits for me while I grab her suitcase from the trunk of my car and carry it for her up to her front porch. When we get there, we can see that there is a note taped to her door, illuminated by the glow of the porch light.
I set the suitcase down as Brooke reaches for the piece of paper and pulls it off. She unfolds it and I watch as her eyes move back and forth as she reads the words.
“Huh?” she says in a bewildered sort of way.
“What is it?” I ask her.
Her eyes come up and meet mine. “It’s from a friend back in New York City that I worked with at the magazine. She took an impromptu vacation and decided to come visit me.”
I cross my arms over my chest and lean against her door. “She didn’t call you first?”
Brooke shrugs. “Nanette is more of a spontaneous type of girl.”
“You don’t seem overly excited by having a friend drop in to visit you.”
The guilty expression on her face tells me all I need to know. I don’t think this Nanette is a very close friend of Brooke’s at all.
“It’s just…I don’t know, it’s really kind of weird. I have no clue why she would do this.”
I can tell that Brooke is troubled by this, but it’s not like this is a stalker ex-boyfriend leaving a note at her home. There’s nothing about this situation that would warrant me staying with her tonight.
Although I would, if she asked.
Fuck. No, I wouldn’t.
I am going to prove to myself that my balls belong to me solely.
“Are you going to go to the game tonight?” I ask her, and then mentally kick my own ass for that. I have no business asking the question when the answer is suddenly very fucking important to me.
“I was,” Brooke starts, off but her voice trails a bit. “But now that Nanette is in town, I guess I need to visit with her. The note says she’s staying at a hotel close by.”
“You can have my two season tickets so you can sit together if you want,” I blurt out.
Fuck. Now why did I just offer that? There would be absolutely nothing wrong with Brooke not coming to the game tonight to hang out with her friend.
My mouth is open and yapping with absolutely no control “Maybe we can go out after the game.”
I feel like my body has been possessed by a demon who is offering things that I don’t want to happen. It clearly wants to be near Brooke despite my logic and reasoning telling me to cool this a bit.
But it’s good we take a break, right? I need to get refocused on…um…life. Or hockey. Or whatever. Just something other than incessant thoughts about Brooke and how well we seem to fit together in all ways.
Brooke pulls her keys out of her pocket and unlocks the door. She turns to me with a soft smile and says, “I think that sounds awesome if you’re sure you don’t mind giving us the tickets. And going out after sounds great as well.”
“I’ll invite a few of the guys too,” I tell her, absolutely trying to ignore the surge of joy that swept through me when she accepted my offer.
“Nanette will love that,” Brooke says dryly. “When she found out I was moving here, all she could talk about was how hot hockey players were.”
A thought suddenly strikes me, and I can tell by the look on Brooke’s face the same exact thought strikes her as well. “We’re going to have to tell your friend about our little charade.”
Brooke nods. “Shit. She absolutely would be privy to the fact that you and I were most certainly not dating in New York for a few months before we moved here.”
“Is she a good enough friend to you that she’ll keep the secret?” I ask her with a small amount of legitimate worry. I can tell that Brooke doesn’t have a strong connection with this woman.
“I’m sure she would,” she says, but she doesn’t sound overly confident. “Once I explain things to her, I’m sure it will be fine. Besides, she’ll probably be heading back to New York pretty quickly.”
“All right,” I mutter.
“All right,” Brooke echoes.
We stare at each other awkwardly in the glow of the porch light at 1:30 in the morning. Not a single person around to observe whether I leave without a backward glance or I kiss the fuck out of her.
A good night kiss is absolutely not necessary to give credence to our story, since no one is here to witness it.
When my mouth comes down on hers, my arms wrapping around her, I realize it must be necessary to me. And I know I am in a world of shit because of it.
I turn the key in the lock as quietly as possible, noting that Dax’s vehicle is in his side of the two-car garage. We decided to rent a house after taking a quick weekend trip to Phoenix once we signed our new contracts. We had been living in a small apartment in lower Manhattan, which was not much for a whole lot of money. In Phoenix, the cost of living was drastically different and we opted for an actual house rather than an apartment. It’s almost like we were growing up and we even made this decision knowing that we would have to do yardwork.
I push the door open slowly and immediately see Dax lying on the couch watching TV. All the lights are off, but he’s bathed in a blue glow and I can see his eyes come to me with surprise. “I thought you’d stay at Brooke’s.”
“I don’t have to spend every night with her,” I say defensively, and that gets a chuckle out of Dax.
“Dude, you and Brooke looked like you were not living a lie the last few days.”
“Really?” I ask him with sincere curiosity, my pique receding fairly quickly. I have no clue how well we’re pulling this off and I know he’ll be honest.
Dax sits up and mutes the TV. I slouch down on the opposite end of the couch from him, throw my arm over the back.
“There’s something real between the two of you,” Dax says with such surety in his voice I almost have to believe it.
Never one to hold out secrets from my best friend, I admit to him, “I like her, man. She’s smart and sexy and funny…”
“So make it real with her,” Dax suggests.
“We’ve known each other an entire week,” I tell him dryly. “I said I like her, not that I want to go steady with her.”
“There’s nothing wrong if you do,” Dax says with a meaningful look. “But I don’t think they call it going steady nowadays.”
I give him a roll of my eyes and decide to drop the subject. I’ve been thinking about this so much it’s making my head hurt. Instead I fill him in on Brooke’s friend coming in to visit. “She’s going to go to the game tonight with Brooke and I thought maybe we could all go out after.”
“Is she hot?” Dax asks with a suspicious expression.
“No clue,” I tell him.
Dax shakes his head before he says, “Well, you better invite some of the guys, because I am not going to be a blind date with a woman I have no clue what she looks like.”
That gets me and I let out a deep laugh from way down low in my belly. I’d like to say that’s typical of Dax, but fuck, it would be typical of me too. “I had planned on inviting Legend and Eric. I thought maybe I’d ask Tacker too.”
Dax shakes his head, not in denial but more in a sad, resigned way. “Tacker won’t come.”
Yeah…he probably won’t.
Still, I know I bailed on him on this road trip staying in Brooke’s room both nights, but I want to make some type of effort to get to know him a little better. While he gives more than 100 percent of himself to this team, the guy shouldn’t have to go through life carrying such heavy burdens.