Page 21 of Daring the Defender

“Are you sure?” Twyler asks, eyes taking me in. “Do you need some water?”

“No really, I’m fine.” And embarrassed. I can’t even drink a soda and not embarrass myself.

“Thank god.” Nadia exhales. “Your brother will kill me if he found out I took you to a barandlet you choke to death.”

“He’s just overprotective.”

“Tell me about it. Overprotective is his entire personality.” She reaches for my hand and squeezes. “By the way, whatever you say about Reid, or anything else, I won’t tell him.”

“You may as well tell her,” Twyler says, “because she’s not going to drop it.”

“Nothing was going on. I showed up unannounced, and when I told him I was looking for Axel, he invited me in and one thing led to another.” I say this calmly. Casually. Like climbing onto a strange man’s lap is something I do regularly. “It looked worse than it was.”

“It usually does,” Nadia snorts. “Reid’s really sweet and has excellent taste in true crime documentaries, but he recently broke up with his girlfriend and has gone a little wild.”

“She would know,” Twyler adds. “Nadia totally had a lady boner for Reid last fall.”

“Beforeyour brother.” Nadia clarifies, noticing my surprise. “And it wasn’t a boner. He just seemed nice and I was testing the water with hockey guys.”

“So you guys dated?”

Nadia’s eyes widen again. “Oh god no. We went onadate. Here, actually, and it went absolutely nowhere. He wasn’t over his ex, and I was unfortunately involved in my own toxic situation at the time. We both moved on quickly and just stayed friends.”

“Well, that sounds like a story,” I say, swirling the ice in my glass. “The toxic relationship part.”

“Oh, it is.” She nods vigorously but adds, “Unfortunately, due to legal proceedings I’m not supposed to talk about it.”

Some of my father’s concerns about Axel’s dating situation are starting to make a little more sense. But Nadia seems like a good person and it’s obvious my brother loves her. Anyway, I have more questions about something, well,someoneelse. “So Reid had a serious girlfriend?”

“Darla. They’ve dated since freshman year,” she says, resting her empty can on the table.

“Reese says they’ve always been kind of off and on,” Twyler adds, “but this one seems permanent.”

“She broke up with him,” Nadia confides, “and I think that’s why he’s drowning himself in puck bunnies and sorority girls.”

“Total rebound, fuck-boy behavior.” I try not to react to Twyler’s language, but it’s impossible. No girls I know talk like this. She adds, “It’s pretty common with these guys. There are a lot of girls around, willing to have no-strings relationships. Reese and I ended up together after his own spiral after a breakup.”

“These men do best with a support system,” Nadia agrees. “Anda lotof pussy. I’m here to provide both.”

“Nadia!” Twyler admonishes, but this time my cheeks don’t turn pink. I can feel it. I’m full red.

Awkwardly, I slide off my chair and croak. “Bathroom?”

“Back corner.” Nadia points behind the bar. “I’m going to get another drink. You guys want one?”

“I’m good. The team has an early workout tomorrow,” Twyler says, eyes back on the game. “Kirby keeps favoring his left side. I wonder what’s going on?”

Nadia follows me as I try to escape, chattering the whole way. “Twyler was the hockey trainer-intern until she and Reesegot serious, then she switched over to work with the basketball team. She’s very focused on injuries.”

“Ah, okay.” I nod my head and hustle forward, trying to get some distance between us. “I’ll, um, meet you back at the table.”

Although a bar bathroom isn’t the ideal place to try to calm my nerves, I do my best. Corralled in a stall with marked up metal doors, I take a deep breath. I’m not a prude. I’m not. I’m just… who talks like that? Is that how college women speak? Fuckboys and the p-word. Gosh, maybe I am a prude.

I stay in the stall until a couple of girls come in talking loud and laughing.

“Oh my god, did you see Jeremy?” one says, the rest of her words drowned out by the flush of the toilet. I head to the sink. Two girls duck into the empty stalls but continue to talk.

“You said you weren’t going to hook up with him again?”

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