Page 38 of Offside Angel

“At your fuck shack?”

“Sex pad,” he corrects. “It’s a luxury penthouse, not a wooden hut, thank you very much. But… yeah. I’m there most of the time and I hardly make it out to the house. Plus, everyone in that neighborhood is married with kids. I need to be around the young, vibrant people of the world.”

It’s not a terrible idea. Davis’s neighborhood is nice. Safe, too. A gated community would ease some of my worries about all the people who walk past my building every day. Security is good, but we’re in the thick of it. Mira barely even goes outside.

“I’d cut you a deal,” he says. “Not that you need a deal. But if you were interested, we could make it happen.”

“I’ll have to think about it, but that sounds cool.”

He arches a brow. “How cool? Cool enough that I shouldn’t bother cleaning the place up for listing photos or…?”

I snort. “And here I thought you were doing me a favor. You just don’t want to deal with listing it.”

“Correct. Or going over offers or talking to strangers or reading through long, drawn-out contracts. Think it over,” he says, already skating towards the other end of the ice where Cole is calling for him. “That fuckin’ swingset you built last time is still there. You already acted like you owned the place. Might as well make it a reality.”

Davis skates off before I can even pretend to be sorry. Aiden had a blast on that swing the week we stayed there. I don’t regret it.

“Did I hear something about a swingset?” Jace asks. He and Reeves step over the bench on either side of me and drop down. “Rachelle has been hounding me about getting one for Gallagher.”

Reeves shakes his head. “Don’t give into the pressure. He’s never going to use it. I built one for Jalen for Christmas and he doesn’t touch it. The wasps love it, though. I had to get rid of three different nests underneath the slide over the summer.”

“If I buy Davis’s house, Gallagher can come over and share mine,” I offer.

They both snap their attention to me. “You’re moving?”

I shrug. “Davis just offered, but it’s not a bad idea. Suburbia could be good to us. Maybe I could finally get some sleep.”

There’s only so many times I can wake up in the middle of the night and fuck Mira to calm myself down before I’ve got to get my shit together. And fucking her isn’t a solution when I’m here and she’s at home… without me… vulnerable……

Just like that, my heart rate is triple digits again.

“You installed that new security system,” Jace points out. “And you have a bodyguard on her right now, right?”

I’m about to nod when Reeves adds, “Plus, Jemma is heading over there now.”

“What?”

“Jemma is heading over there.” He frowns. “At least, I think… Yeah, Wednesdays are her day. Tomorrow is Taylor’s.”

“Rachelle is taking Friday,” Jace chimes in.

I shake my head. “What are you two talking about?”

“The schedule.” Reeves circles a hand in the air like he’s bored with trying to catch me up. “The women wanted to make sure Mira wasn’t alone too much. Taylor’s theory is that Mira is her own worst enemy and too much alone time will have her so deep in her head we’ll never get her out.”

“A distraction schedule.” Jace shrugs. “At least, that’s what Rachelle called it. For the foreseeable future, Mira will have two sets of eyes on her at all times.”

Mira will probably hate that.

But I have to admit, it makes me feel better.

Mira said I’d already found a family with my friends, but this only proves that they are her family, too. They want to take care of her almost as much as I do.

Is this what it feels like to have a heart?

“Not all of us can afford to buy our position on the team.” Carson’s voice drifts across the ice towards me. It’s like someone is running aluminum through a grater with how it sets my nerves on edge. “If anyone else bailed before a game, they’d be a free agent before puck drop.”

A few of the rookies laugh, but most of them have the decency to glance nervously towards where I’m sitting. It’s no secret who Carson is talking about.

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