Page 18 of The Puck Player

“Erm, about three years officially, but we’ve been friends since I was five and he was eight, so I guess it was a long time coming.” It feels a little weird to tell the three of them something so personal considering I hardly know them, but I guess given who my dad is to them, that I know I can trust them to an extent.

“I bet your dad loves that,” Archer jokes, and I cringe a little at how right he is. My dad has never liked Ben, not when we were just friends, and definitely not now.

“About as much as you can imagine,” I reply with a laugh.

“Why is your dad scary or something?” Alexander cuts in, taking a sip of his drink and leaning back in his chair, putting his arm across the back of mine.

I look at him in confusion, flicking my stare to Archer and Daemon, and the former shakes his head with a smile, while the latter hides his smirk by dropping his head. It’s only then that itdawns on me that Alexander has no idea who my father is. He wasn’t in the kitchen on Friday night when Jake introduced me to the other guys on the team, and I guess no one has filled him in since.Oh this is brilliant.

“Oh yeah, super scary, he’s six-foot-five, a Navy SEAL, and totally hates jocks and businessmen,” I tell him with a straight face, and I see his eyes widen a little, as Archer and Daemon hide their amusement.

“And he hasn’t snapped Ben like a twig yet, why?” he instantly asks, and I almost roll my eyes at his question.

“He knows I love him,” I shrug, not thinking anything of it, but Alexander sits up a little straighter.

“And do you? Love him I mean?” he confirms, and I open my mouth to respond but then pause, because I’m not sure what to say.

I mean, yes, of course I love Ben, we’ve been in each other’s lives forever, so when we went from friends to more it felt natural, even despite our three year age gap, but as I flick my eyes back to Archer and Daemon, I can’t help but feel like maybe our love and their love is different. Ben doesn’t look at me like he might die without me, his body doesn’t move with mine like they are magnets, and we definitely don’t have the same level of passion, but that doesn’t mean we don’t love each other. Our love just isn't the same and that’s okay.Right?

“Yes of course I do,” I rush out, but from the way Alexander is staring at me, like he can see all the way into my soul, I get a feeling he doesn’t believe me.

Thankfully, Daemon clears his throat. “Dinner is two minutes out,” he grunts to the three of us, before moving his attention to Archer. “Get the plates, baby.”

I shift in my seat, remaining under Alexander’s weighted gaze, as Archer and Daemon dish up the meal Daemon cooked, and then join us at the counter to eat. I tell them a little moreabout my hometown, of course not mentioning the trauma of my dead mom and grandma, and I listen to the story of how Archer and Daemon got into a relationship. Apparently they used to hate one another, which is honestly hard to believe looking at them now, but when Alexander tells the story of Daemon breaking in on Christmas night, I am laughing until my sides hurt.

It’s almost ten when I get up to leave, and when I say my goodbyes and tell them I need to get home, Alexander insists on driving me. To no one’s surprise when he leads me to the garage, there is a black sleek car hiding there that I’m pretty sure is an Aston Martin, and I refrain from rolling my eyes as he opens the passenger door for me and helps me inside. Once he joins me I give him my address, and we begin our journey across town. He points out a few places as recommendations of good places to eat, and when we pass the white church again, my eyes can’t help but linger.

When we pull up to my apartment building, Alexander leans forward to look out of the front window as he turns off the car engine. “This is where you live?” His question seems innocent enough, but I can tell from the slight tone in his words that it isn’t up to his standard.

The houses on Hockey Row are ridiculously nice for college housing, although I’m sure given his net worth he is used to a lot nicer, but the apartment building isn’t so bad. Sure, it could do with a few updates, maybe some more lights outside, and some definite painting inside, but it isn’t that bad.

“Yep,” I reply, popping the P and instantly reaching for my door to get out. “Thanks for today,” I add over my shoulder, but to my surprise Alexander is climbing out on his own side. “What are you doing?” I ask, and for the first time he looks at me like I’m stupid.

“Walking you to your door of course,” he replies, like it’s obvious.

“You don’t have to do that,” I start, but he rounds the car and cuts me off.

“Aubree you’re a young, beautiful woman in a new town, just because the town of Fairfield is nice doesn’t mean bad things don’t happen here. I’m walking you to your door.”

His little speech takes me by surprise, and all I can do is nod in agreement as he gestures for me to lead the way. His hand curves around the edge of my elbow, just a grazing touch as he guides me towards the door, and I can see his eyes everywhere, checking everything. He leads me into the building, up the four flights of stairs, and all the way to my apartment door, his eyes inspecting everything, and he doesn’t relent until I have my door unlocked and I am over the threshold.

“Lock the door before I leave,” he demands, and I smile softly.

“Thank you, Alexander,” I tell him, and his eyes finally come back to mine.

“For walking you home?” he asks, completely confused, and I nod.

“For that, and for everything else.”

Then I close the door and turn the lock before he can respond, wondering how the hell I went from detesting his presence, to enjoying a full night of his company in the space of a week, coming to only one conclusion.

Alexander was right, he isn’t a heathen, he is so much worse than that.

Ibought the building. I bought the fucking apartment building. Yes, Aubree’s apartment building, the one that she lives in, the one I took one look at and knew it wasn’t good enough for her. Is that a little crazy? Yes. Is it also a little stalkerish? Also yes, but I don’t give a fuck, it was clearly in need of a new owner, so now it has one. I may have paid three million more than what it was worth to make it happen, but between the money and the help of Duchess, we got it done in two days. I signed the papers this morning, and the work will start next week. Nothing crazy of course, just some basic maintenance and painting, but the security cameras and night guard will be going in this weekend.

The new building manager I hired, who will act as the new owner, sent notice to all the tenants this afternoon about thechange in ownership and the upcoming amendments, and I’m just hoping Aubree doesn’t put the pieces together. I did my best to hide my thoughts about where she lives, but it was fucking hard, and if she asks I won’t lie, but I also have no reasonable explanation as to why I did it, except for the need to ensure she is safe.

Which is why I can’t sleep, because why the fuck do I care so much?

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