Page 33 of Bet On Me, Daddy

Which left him in a still decidedly pissy mood when they racked the weights and headed back upstairs.

Ice gave him enough time to drain a bottle of water and get his breathing somewhat back under control before he pounced. “So. Gonna tell me what’s eating you?”

“Just a day.”

Tipping his own water bottle to his lips, Ice raised a brow and sipped. “This ‘day’ you had wouldn’t have anything to do with a certain red-headed bartender, would it?”

“Maybe.” Fuck it. He might as well just come clean. Ice was like a dog with a bone when he got a whiff of something. “I went by the coffee shop she works at this morning.”

“And she was… not happy to see you?”

“That’s the thing.” Frustration burned under Beckett’s skin as he turned to pace the kitchen. “She seemed fine at the shop this morning. We talked, flirted a little. Then I saw her again at lunch because apparently two jobs aren’t enough for her and sheruns deliveries for one of those fucking food apps and she was making a delivery to our building. And she was like a completely different person.”

“What did you do to piss her off?”

The question, and the ease with which it rolled from his best friend’s tongue, did nothing to soothe his irritation. “Nothing! I swear, Ice, I’ve gone over it a hundred times in my head and I have no fucking clue what I did to piss her off. And she’s been under my goddamn skin all day.”

Eyes narrowed, Ice took another sip of his water. “Define ‘all day’.”

The request stopped Beckett in his tracks. “What?”

“You said she’s been under your skin ‘all day’. Do you mean just since you saw her at lunch? Or before that?”

“From the moment I got out of bed. Notice I didn’t say the moment I woke up since I didn’t actually get any sleep last night because she was under my skin then, too.” It was humiliating to admit it, but if he couldn’t tell Ice, then he couldn’t tell anyone and he was starting to feel like he might spontaneously combust if he didn’t talk it out.

“Beckett…” Ice hesitated, clearly weighing his words. “Have you stopped to consider that you might have dropped pretty fucking hard after your scene last night?”

“No. I don’t drop.” Never had, not even when he’d first gotten into the scene.

“Uh-huh. When was the last time you played with someone you were actually invested in?”

“I’m not invested.” But the words rang hollow, even to his own ears.

Because he was invested, for the first time in a very long time, as much as he didn’t want to be. The last time he’d felt anything like this for a woman, she’d been in his house, in his bed every single night.

Then she’d been gone, and after that, he’d never let his emotions get involved when he played. It was about the release, the rush that came from having a willing woman at his feet. Occasionally it was about the sex, too, but even that he’d kept carefully separated from his emotions.

Until Ruby.

“Fuck.”

“There it is.” Draining the last of his water, Ice set the bottle down on the counter and pulled his phone from his pocket. “Are you supposed to be meeting Ruby tonight?”

“She’s working tonight but I told her I’d see her there.”

“All right.” Ice nodded as he tapped out a message. “Braden will let her know you won’t be around until later and then he’ll be on his way over with dinner. And Holden, most likely.”

“I don’t need you to baby me, Ice. And I promised Ruby I’d be there.”

Tucking his phone back in his pocket, Ice pinned him with those dark, serious eyes and Braden knew he wasn’t leaving his house without a fight. “You care about her?”

That was a loaded question if he’d ever heard one. “I don’t know how I feel about her yet.”

“But you feelsomething,” Ice pressed.

He couldn’t really argue that. “Yeah. Yeah, I feel something.”

“Then trust me on this. Take some time for you. If she matters, then you’re going to want to take care of her. And you can’t pour from an empty cup, my friend.”

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