Page 25 of Daring the Defender

Shelby looks up at me, and there’s no missing the flush in her cheeks. “I’ll be fine.”

“Okay,” Axel relents. “Let’s talk in the morning then. Good night.”

“Night,” she says, but doesn’t exhale until his footsteps retreat and are on the steps.

Once we’re both sure he’s upstairs, I take a step back, giving myself a little room from this sweet smelling girl. I should leave, immediately, but I have questions.

I blink. “I only had one beer at the party, so I know I’m not drunk, but you’re going to need to explain this to me better.”

She peeks out the curtain, like she’s making certain he’s gone. In a low voice she says, “I just don’t think this is where I need to be. There’s no need to disrupt anyone this late at night, but I’m going to let him know tomorrow that I’m going back home.”

Taking her by the shoulder, I spin her around to face me. “Okay, what happened?”

Her big blue eyes dart away. “Nothing happened.”

“You went from cleaning out the porch and moving in to hiding from your brother.” I cross my arms over my chest. “Yournotoriouslyoverprotective older brother.” I narrow my eyes. “Nuh-uh. Spill?”

Her hands clasp and she worries that little band on her ring finger. I kind of hate that ring. “Fine. I hung out with Nadia and Twyler tonight at the Badger Den and it was…” she pushes her hair behind her ear, “... a lot.”

Nadia took this innocent good girl out to a bar? During hockey season? Say no more. “So they popped your hockey bar cherry.”

“Ugh,” she drops her face into her hands, “doallof you have dirty mouths?”

“Probably. And for the record,” I grin, “that wasn’t even close to dirty.”

“That doesn’t make it any better. It just proves how out of place I am. I’m just not used to all this...” She pulls at hershirt. “The tight clothes, which by the way, I think belonged to someone called a puck bunny. And Nadia’s language is filthy–”

“Nadia has spent a lot of time around athletes. Same with Twyler. It comes with the territory.”

“All I know is that coming here was a mistake.”

“Why? Because a few cuss words and that sexy shirt are an affront to your good girl sensibilities?”

She stares at me. “Don’t call me that.”

My eyebrows raise. “A good girl?”

“I think I lost that title when I ran away and hurt both David and my family. I made a commitment to him and then panicked when I felt like things were moving too fast. But coming here isn’t the answer. I don’t know what I thought would happen by coming here, but I know for certain that getting cornered by some guy at a bar wasn’t–”

“You got what?” I ask, voice tight. “By who at the bar?”

“Oh.” Guilt flickers across her face again. “Some jerk at the bar got a little too close. Mike helped me.”

“Mike the owner?” We all know Mike. He’s a solid guy. Former Wittmore player, class of ‘91.

“Yeah.” She absently tugs at that shirt again, giving me a flash of upper boob.Jesus.It’s no surprise that some kid tried to make a move on her. “He kicked him out.”

“Okay.” I take a deep breath, trying to wrap my head around everything Shelby is saying. I gesture to the couch, “Sit.”

She does as she’s told, and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. Where’s the fight in this girl?

“Why did you leave home?”

She makes a face, like she’d tasted something bitter. “Things were moving too fast. My mother and David’s mother skipped right over the engagement party to the wedding. They’d picked everything out; the date, the colors, even my wedding dress. And if that wasn’t bad enough, I found out that my father had plansto build us a house. Planshechose. On property he picked out. Everything just felt really out of control.” She rubs a hand over her chest. “Out of my control for sure.”

“That makes sense.” Darla and I’d started making plans for our future. It was scary but exciting and I thought we both wanted the same thing, until it turned out that we didn’t.

“And David? You still love him?”

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