Page 58 of Fool Me Once

“What kind of whispers?” he grumbles.

“I heard you’re banging a smoking-hot widow.” Ryder grins. “I heard she’s got, like, seven kids or something.”

“I heard she has six.” I shrug. “I heard he’s going to coach her son’s hockey team too.”

Tripp reminds me the most of Kolt, which means we’re likely not getting shit out of him. So, when he skates past us, I’m not surprised.

What shocks me is when he calls over his shoulder, “She only has three kids. Nice try though.”

As he exits the ice, Ryder grips my shoulder and shakes me. “Oh shit! Trippy is now Daddy Trippy! But a widow? That’s kinda hot.”

“I know,” I agree. “Why is that Garth Brooks song suddenly coming into my head?”

“Fuck yes! I bet she’s feeling the thunder all right.” He smirks. “Good for Tripp. I’m happy for him.”

Stopping on the edge of the ice, I swing my gaze toward his and narrowmy eyes. “Oh, by the way, what the fuck is going on with you and my sister?” I bark out. “You two act fucking weird around each other. Did something happen?”

He knows my rule. After the way one of our teammates—now an ex, thankfully, after he got traded to another team—recently treated Saylor, I don’t want anyone who shares the ice with me dating her. It caused way too much chaos in my life, and I’m not dealing with that again.

And Ryder is well aware of this.

He’s suddenly edgy, making me question everything with him and Saylor even more, but then he plasters on his usual charming demeanor and looks at me like I’ve got two heads.

“What are you talking about?” He snorts. “What the fuck do you think is going on with me and your sister? You know she’s never liked me.”

My eyes narrow. “Yeah, and why is that?”

“Shit if I know!” He laughs, smacking my back. “Don’t be trying to change the subject from you though, Sawyer. I asked you what was going on, and you dodged the question, making it about Tripp and his lonely widow.”

“We don’t even know if she’s lonely,” I point out. “And now that she’s got Tripp, she certainly isn’t.”

“Stop deflecting, asshole,” he utters. “What’s going on with you?”

I throw my head back and pull my helmet off. The thing about Ryder is, he always knows when something is going on with me. Usually, I can say the same about him. Even though I know something is weird between my best friend and my little sister, I don’t know exactly what it is because I’ve been so invested in Gemma.

“I’ll tell you more when I can, all right?” I sigh.

“Tell me this—you and that girl really faking it?” he asks, seeing right through me. “Because it looks pretty real to me.”

“I gotta go,” I mumble. “See you tomorrow.”

I skate off, but not before he calls from behind me, “You headed to Frank’s, brother?”

I hold my middle finger up because I don’t go around telling people that I go to Frank’s bakery and buy a bunch of doughnuts and hang out with homeless people. It would look like a publicity stunt, and that’s the last thing it is.

“Fuck off,” I call out, knowing Ryder is just busting my balls.

He does shit for the community all the time, and just like me with my damn doughnuts, he doesn’t want people to talk about it. We aren’t heroes. Shit, I’m not even that noble of a man. I got lucky, and now, I get paid to do what I love. The least I can do is provide some overpriced doughnuts to people.

I walk next to Paige on the sidewalk, passing the other houses on the street, with Storm tugging on the leash. She and Kolt live in the same subdivision as Smith, and each of their houses has a gate at the end of their driveway to keep predators and superfans out. Since they live at the completely other end of it, Paige drove to Smith’s, and we took our walk from his house. It’s nice to get out of the house because, lately, I’ve felt like the walls are closing in.

I know using sex and orgasms to numb my pain isn’t working, but when it’s happening … it helps me to shut everything else out. So, I push myself on Smith, knowing he’ll never tell me no.

We’ve been sharing a bed since we got back from Tampa. Every night, I reach for him, and with just one look … he knows what I need.

“I dare to say, Storm is your dog now.” Paige laughs, and Storm’s tail wags at the mention of his name. “He loves you.”

“He’s a good boy,” I say, smiling. “We get each other, I guess.”

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