Page 73 of The Pucking Proposal

Someone recites, “Don’t fuck a teammate’s sister.”

“That’s right. Hope and Joy have been off-limits since day one, and you know it!” He points an accusing finger at me. “So what do you do? Go and fuck her. You did, didn’t you? Don’t try to deny it. Why else would she be holding up a damn ‘I love you’ sign? You stick your dick in damn near anything that walks, get them all fucked up in the head, and then move on to the next, don’tcha, One-Night?”

I’m doing my best to let him rant. He needs to get it all out. But I can’t let that stand. Not when he’s talking about Joy that way. She might be his sister, but she’s my heart.

I move in, throwing a punch of my own this time ... right to his jaw. I feel it connect, feel the shift of his jaw because he wasn’t expecting me to fight back when he’s certain he’s got righteousness on his side.

“Fuck you, Shepherd. You don’t know shit! I love her, okay?”

That makes everyone stop and stare at me in shock.

“What did you say?”

I don’t know who asks. It doesn’t matter because in the next second, the door of the locker room flies open and Joy barrels in with a security guard hot on her ass. “I’m allowed here!” she insists, but she’s not stopping either way, even as the guard tries to grab her arm.

I instantly move in to make sure the guard doesn’t touch her, informing him with a hard stare and a raised, gloved fist that if he lays a hand on her, he will die by mine. “Put your dicks up in front of my woman,” I snap at all the guys, breaking the other rule about Joy Barlowe.

“Did he sayhis woman? Did we suddenly end up in aBridgertonepisode?” Max stage-whispers.

“He also saiddicks, so I don’t think so,” Randall answers. “Andssshhh, this is about to get good, I can tell.” I’m pretty sure he mimes eating popcorn too.

The security guard freezes when he sees me staring him down like he’s two seconds from death. His eyes quick-scan the room, noting the crowd of players, all of whom are eyeing him like he’s the problem here, not Joy, even though she steps right up to the team’s star player, plants her finger in his face less than an inch from his nose, and snarls, “If you punch Dalton again, I will light your truck on fire and piss on the ashes, tell Mom and Dad about graduation night, and make sure you never get a moment’s airtime again. Capisce?”

Shepherd’s brows jump up his forehead at her laundry list of threats and then drop down in bewilderment. From behind her, I can’t see her face, but something there makes Shepherd pause. “What the hell’s going on, Joy?”

“I’d like the answer to that too,” I say.

Joy holds up a finger to Shep, telling him to wait one second, then spins in place and meets my eyes. At first, hers are full of fire, but they soften the instant she sees me and she snuggles into my chest, looking up at me like I hung the moon and stars. Her voice goes sweet as she says, “Heeey there, so I’m gonna defend your honor against myasshole brother, and then we’ll figure us out, okay? Plus, after that, I’m gonna need you to keep me from murdering that lying bitch Mollie the Moosette. Yeah?”

Too stunned to speak, I nod mechanically. Before she turns away, though, I’m smiling. “Did you sayyou’redefendingmyhonor?”

She places a gentle hand on my cheek. “Of course. The only thing my brother’s scared of is me, so I got this.” With that, she spins to face Shepherd, leaving me stupid and shell-shocked.

“I’m not scared of you,” he insists, crossing his arms over his chest.

She cocks her head, letting him know that no one believes that. Least of all her.

“Look, Dalton and I are dating.” She waves a hand like that’s not quite right. “Well, we were until last night when I went and fucked it all up. And you’re gonna have to get over your little temper tantrum about it because I love him and I’m gonna do my best to fix things with him.”

“You’re dating?” he echoes, not sounding any less confused. “For how long?”

I think he got stuck on the first thing Joy said, but I heard it all. A tiny spark of hope starts flitting around in my heart. It tried to start when I saw her sign, but Shep’s punch kinda blew it out. It’s back now, glowing brighter by the second.

Joy glances back over her shoulder at me, but tells Shepherd, “Since October.” It’s a dropping bomb and she knows it.

“October!” Shep roars. “The fuck?”

“We didn’t mean for it to happen,” I try to explain. “At first it was—” I stop, not wanting to tell Shepherd how things started between Joy and me, and he narrows his eyes as if he can guess. I assure you, he cannot. Never in a million years would anyone come up with something as wild as a good luck penis peekaboo meet-cute. But it worked for Joy and me. “Things that we didn’t plan for kinda fell into place.”

I lay my hands on Joy’s shoulders, pulling her back to my chest.

She might think she’s defending me, but she’s not going up against her brother alone. We’re doing this together. It was always gonna be us tellingShepherd as a team. I’m trusting in what she’s said—that she loves me and we’re gonna fix things. At least for the moment, she deserves that trust.

We deserve this chance.

“I want you to get your fucking hands off my sister,” Shepherd growls at me.

I don’t move, but Joy replies for me. “And the day I give a knick knack, frick frack, good goddamn fuck what you want is the day I’ll let you dictate who I date.”

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