Page 50 of Center Ice
“Maybe. Maybe not. But there were five other players on the ice who were meant to do just that.”
“Fair point.”
“So anyway, yeah, Jameson knows. I didn’t want to tell him until we’d talked and figured out how to go about it. But hethought something was going on between us and you got it from hooking up with me?—”
A low laugh rumbles out of me. “I wish.”
“—so I had to tell him the truth. I hope you don’t mind that we weren’t able to talk about it first.”
It makes me wonder how many other things there will be in Graham’s life that we’ll need to talk about first to make a decision. I hate the thought of us parenting Graham and it not being a true partnership. I always imagined I’d want a family eventually, but I never imagined I already had a child or that I’d be incapable of thinking about anything else but his mother twenty-four hours a day.
“I don’t mind,” I say. “He’s your brother, and I trust that you know the best way to handle him. Is that why you called, to warn me that he knew?”
Her cheeks turn pink, and she bites her lip. “Maybe that should have been why I called. I just really wanted to talk to you. I tried to talk myself out of it?—”
“Why?”
“Because you’re sick, and it’s late. You probably need your sleep.”
“Not as much as I need to see you right now.”
“Drew.” She says my name the same way she always does, with a hint of warning. It gives me the same butterflies in my stomach that it always does. “You can’t say things like that to me.”
“Why? Would you rather I lie to you?” This is a path I shouldn’t be going down and I damn well know it. But seeing her, even on a video call, has made me feel a hundred times better.
“No, I never want you to lie to me.”
“Well, same. So tell me, why couldn’t you stop yourself from calling?”
She huffs out a breath and gives me a little roll of her eyes.
“Audrey, you said you never wanted me to lie to you. Can you not even give me the truth right now?”
“You don’t want the truth,” she says. That has my attention.
“And why not?”
“Because I went to dinner with my sister, Lauren, Morgan, and Paige tonight. I was finally able to tell them what’s going on now that I don’t have to worry about Lauren having to lie to Jameson about it.” She stops talking and her cheeks get even more pink. She brings her free hand to her throat, like she’s trying to make herself stop talking, and the sight of her fingers pressing on her neck like that has my dick suddenly wanting in on this conversation.
“And?”
“And I told them about how we hooked up that night. It just got me…thinking.”
“About us?” I ask, hoping I’m right.
“Yeah. It’s probably just because it’s been a long time since I’ve had sex.”
“Oh yeah? How long?”
“Since before you were in the picture.” She clears her throat, and the sound is loud in the silence of her bedroom.
“What about your little friends-with-benefits situation?” I ask the question as casually as I can, as though the thought hasn’t been plaguing me since she told me about that asshole Karl. What kind of moron could fuck her and then walk away, not wanting a commitment? I mean, besides me when I was twenty-two.
“I haven’t talked to him in weeks.”
“Why not?” I know the answer, but I want to hear her say it.
“Why do you think, Drew?” The look on her face is one of exasperation.
