Page 54 of The Friend Zone

Luca’s smile widens. “Good. My mom is in full wedding planning mode. It doesn’t matter that she has a dozen Royal staff doing the actual planning, she’s directing operations with theexcuse that she’s so happy to see me getting married. She keeps saying that she thought I would be a bachelor forever. Whatever that means.”

Luca had a player reputation when he came to Star Cove, but I immediately realized that he was a great guy. “Nah,” I say honestly. “You just hadn’t met the right woman.”

He wraps his arm around my shoulders, placing a brotherly kiss on my temple. “That’s true. I was just exploring my options until love found me. And I owe it to you that it did. If you hadn’t bought me for Lake at that auction, I would still be caught up in one meaningless hookup after the other.”

His words make me think about Jagger and my heart clenches painfully in my chest.

For a second there, I thought I would be the one who changed Jagger’s life the way Lakyn did with Luca. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

“Talking about hookups,” my sister’s voice pulls me out of my reveries. “Is there something we should know?”

I pretend not to know what she’s talking about. “No, why?”

Lakyn walks behind me. “Moore, number fifty-eight. You’re wearing Ryker Moore’s jersey.”

I swear hockey players are the nosiest creatures on Earth. Lakyn’s fiancés fire ten questions per second on my relationship with the Cove Knights’ new center forward.

“I’ve heard great things about Moore,” Blaze says seriously.

“Me too,” Cash agrees. “I hope he’s treating you right, Bay.”

I smile. “We had a bit of a bumpy start,” I explain how at first Ryker and I couldn’t help but antagonize each other. “But he’s a great guy. He treats me better than Topher ever did.”

“Duh,” Lakyn snorts. “Forgive me for being obvious, but it doesn’t take much to be better than Topher.”

I know I owe my ex absolutely nothing, especially after things ended between us. “To be fair, at the beginning Topher was really good to me. He just changed last year.”

Lakyn rolls her eyes. “Whatever. You know what I think about that. He was extra nice to you so you wouldn’t see how shitty he was to everyone else.”

“You’re probably right,” I concede. “But Ryker is nothing like Topher. I promise.”

Luca crosses his arms over his ripped chest. “He better not be. We’ll make sure we get to know him tonight.”

“Tonight?” I ask confused.

“Yeah at the party.” Blaze offers.

“Party? Guys, what are you talking about?”

Cash shakes his head. “See? I told you to ask her first. Maybe Bay just wanted to Netflix and chill.”

That was exactly how I pictured my reunion with Lakyn and her guys.

“It’s my fault,” Blaze rubs the back of his neck. “I thought it would be fun to see our former teammates and we invited the team to our house after the game and emailed an invitation to Liv and Viv and all the girls who were Zetas last year.”

“You did what?” I groan.

“Except Bianca and Kylie,” Lakyn reassures me. “And Topher. The emails made it clear that they aren’t welcome in our home.”

That tidbit of information helps put my nerves at ease as I settle in my seat with a glass of champagne in hand and my twin sister by my side.

The way her men dote on her warms my heart. It’s almost funny seeing three hot, famous professional hockey players turn into eager golden retrievers in front of their woman.

They make sure that Lakyn—and by extension I—always has a drink in hand and they keep bringing us plates with offerings from the sumptuous buffet available in the VIP box.

My heart overflows seeing how loved Lakyn is. She deserves to be put on a pedestal.

Of course I take all the credit for knowing what kind of man—or men in her case—she needed even before she realized it.

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