Page 71 of Scoring Grey

“I thought so at first. You telling me you gave up your trust fund also played into it. It’s partially why I agreed to your scheme with fake dating Blair. Suddenly, I felt the need to be a people pleaser to keep my job, be a role model for Adler, and support my family, but I don’t see it that way anymore.”

“No?”

“Nah, as long as I have you and Adler, the rest doesn’t matter.” I grab my jersey and pads off the floor. “The girl I want chose rags over riches and she’ll exchange silk blouses for sweaty T-shirts all for a good ride.”

She swats my stomach. “I gave up my shares to High Tower because I have no interest in ever taking over the Beck legacy. Iverson, on the other hand, changed his mind. It only seemed fitting to give them to him. That didn’t leave me poor. My father’s business does very well. I make good money working with him, and I enjoy it.”

“That’s good to know. My boat painting Baby Mama. You might become the breadwinner because I’m done playing by other people’s rules. They’ll get their story… our story when we’re ready or not at all, but first, I’m taking you home.” I smack her ass. “Sweaty T-shirts, skirts, and leg warmers might be my new fetish.”

20

ELOISE

“Ican’t believe you’re leaving next week already. It feels like you just got here.”

“Lou, I was only supposed to be here for a week. One week turned into a month. Maybe if you’d come up for air once in a while…”

“Hahaha, you kill me,” I say flatly. I tap my index finger to my lips. “I believe it was you who said we needed make-up sex to get on the same page.”

“Yeah, make-up sex. Not a marathon,” Dash says coolly as he opens the fridge for a beverage.

I roll my guilty lips. Ever since Cal and I opened that door, keeping our hands off each other has been impossible, not just because we haven’t had sex in years, but because of the intense intimacy. Sure, we fuck. We’ve always been extremely attracted to each other, but now there’s so much more. We were teenagers when we used to hook up. It was all about sneaking around, cars, parties, school, you name it, and we probably hooked up in it, but never at our houses. Now it’s different. I get to fall asleep with him inside of me and wake up with his arms around me. We’re making up for lost time and strengthening a bond that was always there. We know we’re not out of the woods. We can’t outrun our pasts, but we can make sure that our house doesn’t fall and that starts with ensuring the bones are good. That we are good.

“Meh, you sound bitter and jealous. I’m still unsure why you broke up with?—”

“Ah ah ah, don’t say it. Don’t say her name. I don’t want to talk about it.” He settles on a Coke and helps himself to the leftover box of pizza Cal and I ordered for dinner last night.

“Fine…” I say as I walk over to the fridge and grab water before hopping up on the countertop across from him as he eats at the island.

“Any new leads with all the drama surrounding you guys?”

“Not really. Iverson thinks he may have found something. We have yet to uncover any money trails, but he did find something my mother marked as classified from the year before I was born. He’s been doing some research of his own, trying to find a trail that may help him hack into the file. If he knows what the file contains, he thinks he’ll be able to get access.”

He guzzles half of his coke before taking a bite of pizza and asking, “What about Blair and Austin? Anything new there?”

“We now know Blair wasn’t using Austin.” I hold up my hand. “Scratch that. She could very well be using Austin for some other agenda. What I meant to say is we found out their friendship dates back further than her being hired to handle PR for the Kings. Cal hired a PI to look into Austin and Blair’s relationship. Austin is always taking shots at Cal and he never really understood it. He’s positive the bad blood between them is because of Blair. Security footage the PI obtained shows they’ve been seeing each other for over a year.” I anxiously tap my fingers on the countertop, getting worked up the way I always do whenever her name is mentioned. “I don’t believe this is all a coincidence. I still think Blair is Lucas’s weapon since it can’t be him… at the very least she’s a messenger. She was sent here as a reminder of our conversation all those years ago.”

Dash nods and takes another bite of his pizza.

“What, no side this time? You always take a side.”

“Hey, I don’t pick sides. I offer neutral perspectives, but the two of you have good reason to be torn about Blair’s involvement. I could see it going either way, but if I had to choose right now”—he shakes his head from side to side—“I’d lean more toward your thinking, but it’s possible her intentions didn’t start out cruel. Lucas could have come to her after he saw her get close to Cal. We know Cal’s put up impenetrable walls all these years.”

He’s not wrong. I’ve learned a lot about the man who owns my heart over the past couple of weeks, but the most telling and stomach-churning have been the lengths he’s gone to, to cut his father out of his life. All this time, one of my biggest stands was protecting the relationship he had with his only living relative, meanwhile he was dismantling it. It just proves nothing is always as it seems.

“Where is Callum? Practice?”

“He’s right here… thanks for cock blocking earlier. I wasn’t aware too much sex was a thing,” Cal says, walking into the room.

“Do you have bionic hearing or something? Damn, seriously, shouldn’t you be at practice? You literally have a playoff game tomorrow.”

The Kings sealed the wild card seat and won. Last week, they battled the Ice Sharks in the first round and won. Tomorrow is the first night of the second round and the team is pumped as they should be. So far, they only lost one game, but Cal will tell you they never should have been the wild card seat anyway. This is the first time since he joined the team that they weren’t a top three seat.

“Does that mean you’re coming?” Cal asks before pecking my cheek and grabbing a protein shake from the fridge.

“Hell yeah. You’re facing the Stars. Jay Pullman is a legend.”

“Give me that.” Cal swipes the pizza out from in front of him. “I know Eloise is letting you stay in her rental, but I wasn’t aware she was footing the bill for your meals, too.”

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