Page 23 of Blind Luck

“Get it yourself. How’s the wedding going?”

“The groom was ready to hook up with a stripper at his bachelor party. I was getting out my phone to record the evidence when the best man puked on the asshole’s shoes and the stripper got the hell out of there. I give it six months.”

“You’re not going to warn your cousin?”

“If I ruin her big day, she’ll hate me more than she hates Elias, and so will every other woman in my family. Besides, if she leaves him after five months but before six, I win three thousand kroner.”

“How much is that in dollars?”

“About four hundred bucks.”

“The price of happiness,” Rusty muttered, both disgusted and totally unsurprised. “You should tell her. Save her from making a big mistake.”

“At least Katherine is trying.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You haven’t looked at a woman since Flo dumped you.”

“Don’t call her Flo. She hates it.”

“Newsflash: she can’t hear us.”

Right, because she was in Savigny at this moment, no doubt in bed with Kirk, who Rusty had considered a friend until that motherfucker stole his girl. Okay, so they’d been on a break, but it would have been a temporary bump in the road if Steiner hadn’t gotten involved. “I just need some space to think things through,” Florence had said about his decision to sign a new contract with the Commanders. “I really thought you’d make the right choice.”

Rusty hadn’t realised therewasa right choice. Hadn’t realised that when she said, “I’ll leave it up to you,” it had been a test.

“Well,Ihate it when you call her Flo.”

“Just go follow Kelsey, and if she’s cheating, you and Silas can commiserate together.”

Mav had always been king of the ice and an assholewhen it came to women, probably because he treated every girl he dated as a commodity rather than a partner. So Rusty had no hesitation in telling him where to go. It wasn’t the first time, but insults rolled off Mav like coffee cups off a car roof.

“Hang the fuck up and go get the goods on your cousin’s fiancé.”

“You really think I should get involved?”

“What if he doesn’t use protection? What if he gives her an STI? Or gets the next stripper pregnant? Or worse, what if he gets Katherine pregnant and then there’s a kid tangled up in the mess?”

“I’ll think about it, okay?”

Rusty hung up and tossed his phone onto the coffee table. Other than the mirror on the ceiling in the master bedroom, the house hadn’t been decorated by Mav, that was for sure. There was a lot of white, accented by what the interior designer had probably referred to as “jewel colours.” And velvet. Velvet was a feature.

Four thirty a.m., and a yawn crept up on Rusty. Years playing sports had taught him more about his own mind than a psychology degree ever could, and he knew if he didn’t decide on Ari’s offer one way or another, he wouldn’t sleep a wink. He picked up the phone again. Played the surfing video once more. Twice. Three times. Okay, he could see why Mav might want Erin’s number, but she was still crazy.

Crazy, but if Mav was right, she’d also saved a man’s life that day.

Before he could change his mind, he typed out a text to Ari.

Rusty

Got the okay on the room. Call me ASAP.

He didn’t expect the phone to ring thirty seconds later.

“Do you make a habit of calling people in the middle of the night?”

“You were obviously awake. If you don’t want people to call you ASAP, don’t tell them to call you ASAP. You decided you didn’t need a reference?”

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