Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 105679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
We’ll have to start with this new wrinkle. “I felt weird tonight at the wives’ and girlfriends’ and husbands’ and boyfriends’ suite,” I admit.
“Because we’re married but not really married?” Hayes asks, sounding remorseful for putting me in this position.
“Yes, but also because…” I turn to Stefan. “I wanted them to know I’m not just a wife.” I draw air quotes, hoping it masks the sudden slam of emotion in me. “But I’m also a…”
Stefan drops his forehead to mine. “A secret girlfriend.”
Hearing those words from him both thrills me and saddens me. “Yes. Because they invited me to dinner and board games. With Hayes,” I add. I pull back to meet Stefan’s gaze. His expression is hard to read. There’s a bit of a wall up in his eyes. “I want you to go. Is there any way you can?” I ask impulsively.
I haven’t worked out the details. I haven’t planned this at all. I just feel he belongs there with me. With us.
I tell him the date. He thinks on it for a beat, but then he sighs. “Wish I could, but I have a thing that night. A dinner with one of my sponsors.”
He sounds disappointed to miss the get-together. I’m sad he can’t come too. But at least he knows I wanted him there. It seems a good start to what we’re forging tonight.
He strokes my hair. “But the rest of the time, we’ll be here. I’ll be here,” he adds. “Every night we’re in town, right, Hey You?”
“Fuck you, dickhead,” Hayes growls. But when he turns to me, his face softens, and he brushes a kiss onto my cheek. “I won’t let you down again.”
I still don’t know what happens when Hayes takes off that ring—if they’ll continue to want me together or if Hayes will walk away. If Stefan will want me to himself. I turn back to my secret boyfriend. “So what did you tell him? When he asked if you’d pursue me by yourself?”
“He said nothing,” Hayes answers for his friend.
Stefan flips him the bird now, but to me, his expression fully open and genuine. “Pretty sure you’d be impossible to walk away from.”
My heart flips as I let those words wash over me. The strength of them. The passion of them. The promise.
But as good as they make me feel—and they make me melt—I don’t know what I want at the end of this arrangement.
What I want right this minute, though, is a little more…throuple time. I gesture to the TV screen. “Want to watch something else? You two can pick your favorite shows since I already picked mine.”
“Schitt’s Creek,” Hayes says, like he’s calling shotgun.
“What’s yours?” I ask Stefan.
He just chuckles and shakes his head, saying nothing.
I poke his side. “I really need to know now.”
“Yeah, what is it?” Hayes goads. “Salty Licorice or Bicycle Men or, I dunno, Viking Thieves?”
Stefan snort-laughs. “Those aren’t shows.”
“Bet they are,” Hayes says.
“I’ll have you know Danish TV is quite excellent.”
“I’m not going to let this go,” I warn him.
With a beleaguered sigh, Stefan relents. “Fine. But I’ll show you.”
I give Stefan the remote control. He picks a thriller in a fishing town at the top of Denmark, and then translates the first few spoken Danish lines before adding the subtitles to the screen.
“That was such a flex,” Hayes teases.
Stefan turns to me. “Yes, yes it was,” he says.
In French.
Then he whispers something else in my ear in that language, and it feels like he’s saying, I’m so glad you’re here.
Me too.
But in the morning, something nags at me. Something that’s been nagging at me since I saw Xander and Simone a few days ago. I try to shake the irritating feeling as I research a post for Birdie. But soon it’s an incessant drumbeat and I can’t let it go.
38
ONE OF THE GUYS
Stefan
Old-fashioned perfume tickles my nose. Soft, delicate music plays overhead. Ladies shuffle by. That’s a department store for you.
When the helpful sales clerk holding a black gift bag strides over to Hayes and me, she flashes a congenial smile. “Here you go, sir.”
“Thank you very much,” I say, taking the bag.
“Appreciate it,” Hayes adds.
Our next stop is the arena, even though it’s a day off. As we walk inside the building, I dangle the bag in front of my friend. “Now, can you handle giving this to the boss, or do you need to leave it to the adult in charge?”
“I think I can manage,” he says.
Arching a dubious brow, I yank the bag away when he reaches for it. “Let’s see. What happened the last time you saw her? Oh, I remember. Your brain froze so you said you were still married, since that made it easier to go to a golf tournament.”
Hayes huffs.
“Yes, growl at me. That bothers me so much,” I say as we turn the corner to the hallway that leads to the executive suite. “I mean, we could let you try giving it to her and hope that if she, for instance, invites you to dinner, you don’t say great, I just bought a restaurant.”