Page 2 of Undeniable Love

I rushed across the bar to the table and Caleb immediately scooped me up and into the air. He and Cameron were identical twins, but I’d never once confused one for the other. I blamed it on them only being two years older than me and growing up as their best friend.

“I’m so excited to see you and so happy for you!” I squeezed Caleb so hard he choked and set me back down on my feet. “When do you leave and when do you start?”

“I fly out as soon as I see this asshole start his first game.”

Caleb spun me around and pointed to his friend, Tuevo Skyye, across the table.

And oh dear sweet Jesus. The man was fire. So much more attractive than when I’d met him on FaceTime calls with Caleb. Tall, muscled, not unlike any other professional hockey player, but his jaw could have cut granite and his nose was surprisingly perfectly straight. He had gorgeous, sparkling blue eyes and he wore my kryptonite.

A backward hat.

It concealed enough of his hair, except for the longer, shaggy length that was so blond it could have been spun silk.

And his smile.

That scent I caught from across the table.

Tingles erupted. My spidey senses ignited when it came to some weird magical gift I had of knowing who would be perfect for each other in relationships.

And mine were flashing winning lights.

No. This was horrific. The worst possible timing.

Tuevo’s grin grew and mine fell flat.

“Damn it.”

CHAPTER 2

Tuevo

Damn it.

I met Caleb when we were nineteen years old, called up to the AHL Virginia team that fed into the Tennessee Avengers. He and I had both left college to pursue the NHL and ended up rooming together for the first six months, in that span of which I learned everything under the sun about him. His twin brother Cameron who was playing football for Notre Dame, his oldest brother Dalton who would someday take over their family’s ranch in Colorado, and his two younger brothers, Gavin and Bryce. But the person he talked about the most?

His little sister, Meredith. A spitfire he called her. He missed the hell out of her. And if he wasn’t chuckling at random TikToks or dancing his thumbs across his phone screen, there was no doubt he was talking to her.

I’d waited years to be able to meet her. I heard all the things about her. Saw all the pictures… and damn those pictures. After a while, I’d stopped getting hard at the sight of the framed picture of the two of them at her high school graduation that he kept perched on his bedroom dresser. But the gut punch effect every time he flashed me a picture of her was the same knock-you-off-your-ass hit that had me spinning onto the ice and left me discombobulated. The few times I’d talked to her on FaceTime calls were worse.

She was gorgeous. A fifteen out of ten, no hesitation, and he’d told me the most hilarious stories of her, her loyalty and sweetness mixed perfectly with her sass and need for constant adventure.

Until that very moment when she gaped at me, jaw tightened, and all her happiness at seeing her family vanished.

Damn it.

That was what she said, and I was still gaping at her, that gut punch feeling a whole lot more like I just got side checked into the boards and never saw it coming.

Fortunately, she turned, threw her arms around Cameron, and then was passed to Dalton. The man was all mountain man. Plaid shirt, Wrangler jeans, cowboy boots worn for function and not style like all the other cowboy wannabes we’d spent all night around.

“Hey, I’m Hailey.” A tan hand with slim fingers appeared in front of me. I shook off the pain of Meredith’s initial reaction.

“Tuevo. Nice to meet you.”

“You too. Meredith’s been excited to meet you, so don’t mind her. She’s hella strange sometimes.”

There was a smile on her face. Lips kicked up at a corner and an adorable, sweet girl next door blush rising on her cheeks that made me feel more like she knew some secret but would never spill.

“I got that vibe,” I joked. Meredith was still gushing with her brothers, arms wrapped around Dalton’s middle. “Do you two need a drink?” It was my turn for the next round anyway.

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