Page 54 of Slap Shot
I’m a lucky girl.
Gotta run. He says he’s not getting out of the shower until I come in there and join him.
Lexi
Someone is going to come.
Piper
Liam just asked why I laughed so loudly. Have fun, Em!! We’ll all get together soon.
Piper
The week after next!
Me
Sounds good. Night, everyone!
I lock my phone and smile, glad to be included in a really fun group of women. Turning my attention to dinner, I polish off the spring rolls before I move onto the white rice and orange chicken. When I finish, I put all the empty food containers on the coffee table and pull a blanket over my lap.
Before I can get too comfortable, the front door opens then closes with a soft click. I crane my neck and see Hudson walking down the hallway.
“Hey.” I mute the television and smile. “How was the food fight?”
“How’d you hear?” He leans against the wall and matches my grin. “Could you smell the garlic sauce from the foyer?”
“I was added to a group chat with Emmy, Lexi, Maven, and Piper.” I sniff and wrinkle my nose. “But now I can smell it. Did youbathein it?”
“I might as well have.” He sits in the chair next to the couch and grimaces. “I think it’s in my hair.”
“I hope you retaliated appropriately.”
“Yeah.” His grin widens to a beam. “I launched a whole bowl of tzatziki at Grant’s face.”
“Ah, to be thirty again.”
Hudson leans forward and grabs the collar of his stained shirt with one hand. He pulls it over the back of his head and all the way off, leaving him bare-chested.
I gape at him, caught off guard by seeing his naked torso for the first time.
Broad shoulders covered in patches of freckles give way to sculpted biceps and pec muscles. His skin is smooth and blemish-free, his summer tan fading away as we move through November. Blond hair cascades down his stomach and disappears in his jeans. There’s a mole next to his belly button and veins that travel down his arms.
My mouth goes dry, and I know I’m no better than a man with the thoughts racing through my head.
I’m staring at him like I haven’t been fed in goddamnyears, but I can’t help it.
Hudson Hayes is built like a god, and he’s hot as hell.
I could pretend to be oblivious to it before.
Sure, he has a pretty face. A smile that can make you blush and eyes that twinkle when he thinks something is really funny.
But now?
Now I know he has a six-pack.
Now I know he’s been hiding a body that looks like it was handcrafted out of the finest marble, but he does and he is, and my brain nearly short-circuits because of it.
