Page 52 of Nash

She's wearing a pair of mismatched socks, a baggy pair of pajama pants, and a thin long sleeve T-shirt. Her hair is gathered on top of her head in a messy bun, and I swear I don't know if I've ever seen her look more beautiful. There’s somethingextremely intimate about seeing her like this, with her guard down and everything about her so completely at ease around me. She feels safe to be herself with me and that has me thinking that shehasto have feelings for me that go beyond the arrangement we originally struck.

“You good?” she asks when she's made it to her spot on the couch and I haven't taken mine next to her.

“Never better,” I answer, peeling off my jacket and hanging it on a hook near her door before I take my spot next to her.

She shifts into me, sighing slightly as she scrolls through her list. “What are you in the mood for tonight?” she asks. “Monroe said Pax is hooked on one of these true crime documentaries.” She stops on the one she mentions. “But if that's too heavy then Blakely said this show is like a comedy regency romance.”

I curl my arm around her shoulders, relaxing further into the couch. “What’s your vibe tonight?” I ask.

A crease forms between her brow as she thinks about it, her eyes darting between the two choices she's narrowed it down to. She clicks on the true crime.

“Let's give this a shot,” she says. “Monroe says it's all Pax has been watching recently.”

I laugh softly. “For someone who is as boy-next-door as he is, he sure does like his dark and disturbing documentaries.”

“It’s so funny,” she says. “He's an absolute teddy bear. But Monroe is pretty obsessed with these things too.”

“Her I get,” I say. “She can be scary as hell when she wants to be.”

Reese laughs, and the sound fills my veins. “You just say that because she beats you up when you're on her table.”

“Still no less scary,” I say.

She chuckles, situating herself against me, resting her head on my chest as the documentary starts.

And after an hour, she’s completely and totallyout.

Her body is heavy and comfortable against mine as the documentary comes to a close. I gently reach for the remote, clicking off the TV but make no move to change our position. I'm completely content with her sleeping in my arms, comfortable and couldn't be happier.

And after I sit there for a few minutes, smiling down at how beautiful she looks while sleeping on my chest, I'm struck with an undeniable truth.

I am absolutely and totally in love with this woman.

I broke rule number one.

I am so fucked.

CHAPTER 14

REESE

The away sectionis on their feet, myself included, cheering our heads off as Clay and Lawson work together to score the game-winning shot against the Maple Leafs.

We’ve just won. Holy shit. The Cup really is in our sights this year.

Blakely and Monroe agree with this insight, the three of us beaming long after the game has ended.

I have to skip the bar celebration despite being on cloud nine that we won. I head back to my hotel room while everyone else is getting ready to go celebrate the win, Nash offering to stay behind with me, but I encourage him to go out. He deserves a night of fun after all that hard work, and I won't be long, I just have to wrap up a few work things first.

That's the beautiful thing about having my career take off in a way I always hoped for, I have more on my to-do-list than ever before.

And the first order of business right now is fixing and adjusting an ad for my sister’s business.

I open my laptop and log into those accounts, shifting and adjusting the metrics on a few things before picking up the phone to give her a call.

“Hey, sis!” she answers on the second ring. “I saw your team won. That's amazing!”

“Thanks,” I say smiling. “They kicked ass tonight. I'm so proud of them. The Cup is an absolute possibility this year.”

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