“Thank you so much for coming,” Anne said to Ryan as he signed the last of the pucks. “The kids really love having you guys visit.”
“I had fun,” Ryan said. “I’d be happy to come back. And if there’s anything you need...”
She laughed. “We needeverything. But if you want to spread the word about how to donate to us, I’ll always appreciate that.”
“You ready to go?” Wyatt asked. He was holding the empty, balled-up duffle bag.
“Yeah. Okay.”
“Do you think I could come with you again next time?” Ryan asked when they were pulling out of the parking lot.
Wyatt looked delighted. “Absolutely! So you liked the kids? They’re great, right?”
Ryan smiled. “I liked them.”
Dallas Kent’s house was exactly what Ryan had expected it to be: enormous, ostentatious, and stupid. It definitely reflected the personality of its owner.
Ryan had very begrudgingly made the drive out to Kleinburg for Kent’s birthday party, hoping the entire way that it would be a laidback sort of affair that would mostly just be his teammates and their partners. He was dismayed to find that, despite the ridiculous size of Kent’s mansion, it was uncomfortably crowded with people. Most of the people were young women Ryan didn’t recognize. He did not, in fact, see many of his teammates’ wives and girlfriends present.
“Kent lives here alone, doesn’t he?” Ryan asked. He absently trailed his finger over the keys of a grand piano Kent owned for some reason.
“Well,” said Wyatt, “I don’t think he spends many nights herealone.”
Gross.
Ryan wasn’t going to pretend he had the best eye for design and decor, but Kent’s house looked like it had been decorated by a team of frat boys who had each been given a million dollars and told to spend it on “rich guy things.” The result was a hideous mess of giant televisions, marble statues and fountains, framed black-and-white “tasteful” photographs of naked women, leather couches, and, yes, a grand piano. Ryan had only seen a few rooms, but as far as he could tell every light fixture was a chandelier.
“I guess the basement is the real party place,” Wyatt said. “Legendary beer pong matches have happened down there. I’ve heard the stories.”
“Great.” Ryan took a sip of his beer. “Do some of these girls seem kinda young to you?”
“Everyone seems kind of young to me these days. But yes.”
“Where did they come from?”
Wyatt shrugged. “Who knows? Kent always manages to surround himself with women. The guy is obsessed.”
Wyatt said it lightly, but Ryan had noticed that Kent seemed to have an unhealthy fixation on women. And on what he could get those women to do. Ryan had played with a lot of guys who talked about women in ways that made Ryan’s skin crawl, but Kent was very possibly the worst of them.
“You look like you’re expecting the man of your dreams to show up at this party,” Wyatt said with a grin.
“What?”
“You look stylish. The tight, sexy clothes, I mean. It’s a good look on you.”
“Whatever,” Ryan said, but he felt his cheeks heat. In truth, he had put quite a bit of effort into his appearance tonight. He had used his hair product, and had rubbed oil into his beard, as per Guillaume’s instructions. And he’d worn an outfit he had bought with the intention of wearing to a gay club the next time he ever decided to go to one: charcoal jeans that had some stretch in the fabric, so they hugged the significant bulge of his thighs and ass, and a black, short-sleeved button-up shirt that strained around his biceps and across his pecs. The outfit was a lot more revealing than the loose shirts and bootcut jeans he normally wore.
Ryan wasn’t sure what had prompted him to dress outside his comfort zone tonight. His teammates had teased him a bit about his makeover when they’d first seen him before the game last night. Now they were back to mostly ignoring him.
“Houde just texted me.” Wyatt held up his phone. “There’s a poker game starting downstairs. You want in?”
“No thanks. I’m going to stay up here, I think.”
“For fuck’s sake. This is the Halloween party all over again. You didn’t even wear a costume to that!”
“I wore a costume,” Ryan protested. “I was a cowboy.”
“Yeah, but when your whole costume is a hat, and then you leave that hat on a chair all night, it ain’t a costume.” Wyatt clapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t have too much fun, Pricey.”
