Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79621 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79621 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
“I know. I’m glad your friend was there. Smitty. He knows Jake pretty well. I heard he got you into the locker room.”
“What’s your point?”
She chuckled. “It’s an observation, not a point.”
“Hmph.”
“Don’t get mad. I’m not trying to be difficult. I couldn’t help noticing that he’s been around more. And…I approve. Not that you need it, but you have it.”
I stopped in my tracks and gaped. “Approval for what? There’s nothing to approve of. We’re friends.”
Piper snorted. “Friends don’t look at friends the way he looks at you. Just sayin.’ ”
“I—what? No, it’s not like that.”
“Why not? He’s dreamy and smart and—”
“He’s not out,” I snapped defensively.
Piper snickered, shoving my chest playfully. “There is something between you two!”
“No, there’s not.”
“Yes, there is. I knew it!”
“You don’t know anything,” I hissed, shushing her as the players started to file out into the corridor.
“Yes, I do. I know that you’ve been your old self for the last few months. A little less prim and proper, if you know what I mean. If we have the hockey coach to thank for that, then…yay.” She did a pom-pom cheerleader move, grinning from ear-to-ear.
“I—that’s not—you…”
Piper threw her head back and guffawed. “Oh, lighten up, Bry. He’s hot and he’s into you. Win-win.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Okay, listen. I don’t know where this is coming from, but—”
“Bryson, I wasn’t born yesterday, and I’ve known you for a very long time. You like him.”
Well, I couldn’t deny that. I mean…I could have, but it took far too much effort. I didn’t have it in me. “Yeah.”
She must have seen something in my expression, because she ceased the playful teasing and went directly into mom mode. “What happened? Did he mess with you? ’Cause if he thinks he can get away with—”
“Stop. No. He didn’t do anything wrong. I just…” I shrugged helplessly and looked away.
“Oh, honey.” Piper pulled her cell from her Louis Vuitton bag and started typing. “We’ll see Jake later. We’re going to the bar.”
“No.”
I didn’t want a drink, and I definitely didn’t want to drink with her at that hotel bar. That one belonged to Smitty and me. I wasn’t sure when I’d become selectively sentimental, but I wasn’t above grasping for excuses to avoid being alone with the one person who probably knew me better than anyone.
Piper had befriended me in those early, ugly post-rehab college days. She joked that I was handsome and that she’d had an insta-crush, but the truth was that in her youth, she’d had a thing for saving broken creatures. And I’d qualified. No doubt I’d seemed like a safe “bad bet.” My family was wealthy, well-connected, and my problems with the law were concealed as much as my father’s bank account would allow. I’d been fixable. Except for the gay part.
Whatever.
She was as persuasive now as she was then.
And that was how I ended up nursing a Diet Coke in the opposite corner of the bar where I’d met Smitty last year.
“I don’t know how to tell you this nicely, but I think you’re a self-saboteur,” she declared, leaving a red lipstick stain on the rim of the glass as she sipped her Pinot Grigio.
“No, I’m not,” I sputtered.
“You are. You always find a reason to walk away from romance.”
“There’s no romance, Piper.”
“And your reason is usually Jake,” she continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “Jake’s too young, Jake needs parents to act like parents, Jake’s career is taking off. But I don’t think it’s fair to Jake. He’s got his own life to live, and he worries about you constantly.”
“He does? No.” I shook my head. “He doesn’t.”
“Yes, observant one. He worries about you being alone in that huge house, working too much, not having a hobby you love. I mean, do you actually enjoy running?” Piper made an ew face. “I think it freaked him out when Smitty moved across the street at first, but he likes him. And he likes that you have someone around.”
I frowned. “Jake doesn’t—he doesn’t think we’re…”
“Lovers?” she supplied with a wink. “Oh, grow up. Jake knows all about the birds and the bees. He knows you’re gay and that you probably have gay sex with—”
“Okay, that’s enough.” I pulled her wineglass out of her hand and pushed it out of reach.
Piper just laughed and motioned for me to hand it over. “Give mama her medicine, honey. And admit something to yourself, if not me…you like the big hunk, so you pushed him away. It’s a naughty habit of yours, and I don’t approve. Neither does our son. If you don’t believe me, talk to Jake. He’ll tell you the same thing. He wants his dad to be happy. And he’d probably really like to not worry about you so much.”
Jake worried about me?
That made as much sense as my ex-wife giving her full approval for a relationship no one knew about. Yeah…I didn’t get it.