Page 56 of Ice Cold Rival

Cole picked at his crust. “Is that because she’s special or because she used to be Kane’s?”

I chewed slowly to let the anger simmer down to a reasonable level before I responded. Cole was asking because he was concerned for Kenzie, and I couldn’t blame him. My track record wasn’t great.

But dammit, he was supposed to trust me not to hurt her for selfish reasons.

“Because she’s special… and because we haven’t had sex yet.”

Cole got really still as he stared at me with his brows up near his hairline. The disbelieving silence stretched for an awkward moment, until Mase dropped his plate on the counter with a clatter.

When we turned to look at him, he shrugged. “Sorry. The moment felt dramatic.”

“Look—” I leaned forward, and the kitten let out a pitiful meow when I squished him against the table. We rearranged, while Cole dutifully waited. “Look, I didn’t know who she was the first time I met her, and I still couldn’t get her out of my head. After I found out her connection to Kane, yes, it was a little bit of sweet revenge, but she was one hundred percent on board with the plan. Now, she’s all I see. All I want to see.”

Cole’s tense expression relaxed. “Welcome to the club, man.”

Mase grunted his support and finally joined us at the table with a bag of chips.

In the back of my mind, I thought I should probably feel guilty for lying, but the rest of me insisted I’d spoken nothing but the truth. This may have started off as a way to fuck with Kane, but now, all I wanted was her.

Besides, hadn’t I been lying to them this whole time? I hadn’t thought about it until Kenzie brought it up, but suddenly, protecting myself against these guys felt stupid.

“I’m rich,” I blurted out.

Cole laughed. “Okay.”

Mase didn’t even look up from his chips. “Yeah, we know.”

“Like billionaire rich. Grew up on an estate, went to fancy private school, had a full staff rich.”

That got their attention. Cole put down his food and folded his hands on the table. “Some new information there, but I repeat… okay. Why the sudden emphasis on your finances? Are you planning to buy a small country and form your own hockey league? Because I could be convinced.”

Mase shook his head. “It’s why he’s always had his one-night rule. I’d imagine Kenzie is causing all kinds of problems up there.” He tapped the side of my head.

“Ahh,” Cole nodded wisely. “I thought you just had a really short attention span.”

“Kenzie knows too, and I realized I had no reason to hide it from you guys. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth earlier.”

Mase squinted at me. “We don’t care how much money you have. I’m glad you trust us enough to talk about it, but there’s no need. Nothing has changed in the last ten minutes. Tell us what’s going on with Kenzie.”

After spending the early part of the semester frustrated at them for not believing in me, the unconditional support now felt pretty fucking good. The rush of emotion made me blurt out the fears I hadn’t let myself acknowledge yet.

“What if I fuck everything up with her? At least once a day I wonder where I got the balls to think I knew how to be in an adult relationship with someone. Kane screwed her up pretty bad, and I don’t want to make it worse.”

Cole held up both hands. “Don’t look at me. I’m not sure I’m in an adult relationship. I mean, yes, I’m going to marry Avery the first chance I get, but we’re also planning to go to the Next Best Ninja training camp for our honeymoon.”

“You’ve already talked about a honeymoon?”

He raised a brow at my incredulous tone. “Don’t you call your girlfriend Wifey?”

My eyes narrowed. “How did you hear that?”

“Word gets around and sound travels. The real question is?—”

“Enough.” Mase cut him off. “This is why I don’t come up here. Reece, you’re a million times better than Kane, and the fact that you’re worried about hurting her means you’re actively trying not to.”

Cole nodded and went to clean our mess at the counter, seemingly content to let Mase take the lead.

“And what about all the ways she could get hurt that I don’t anticipate?”

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