Page 37 of I Could Be Yours

And there’s the awkwardness I wanted to escape.

“So thanks for stopping by.” I head for the box on the counter. “And for dropping this off.” I pull a pair of scissors from the drawer and run them across the edge.

“What’s in there that was so important, anyway?”

I show him the contents.

“Are you fucking kidding me? This is what I wasted my entire night for?”

I pat him on the chest. “Did you not get an outstanding handy out of the deal?”

He side-eyes me but offers a grudging smile. “It was an excellent handy. And I did get to play with your clit ring, so I guess it was worth the trouble.”

CHAPTER 12

NATE

“Icannot believe this shit,” I mutter as we board the plane.

“What are the chances, right?” Flip is all smiles.

“We’re not changing seats. The girls sit with the girls, and the guys sit with the guys, and that’s that,” I snap. “This is not a couples’ weekend.” I thought I was being all sly, keeping the destination of Tristan’s boys’ weekend under wraps. But here we are.

“I’m not part of a couple,” Flip reminds me.

“Neither am I.” Essie’s sunshine-and-rainbows voice comes from behind us.

“Or me!” adds Dred Reformer, Flip’s neighbor and firmly platonic friend.

“The rest of you better not pair off,” I grumble.

“Do you hear that, sweetheart? You sit with Tristan, and I sit with Aurora.” Lavender pats Kodiak on the chest. She’s his wife, and a tiny thing. She’s wearing a dress the color of her name with lime green infinity symbols edging the hem and winding around her waist and over her shoulders. It’s more like art than clothing. “I’m right across from you.”

Kodiak frowns. He and my brother played hockey together for a summer when they were teens at the Hockey Academy.

“What’s the holdup?” Essie asks from behind me.

“Kodiak doesn’t want to be separated from Lavender,” Flip explains.

“Everyone needs to sit in their assigned seat so we don’t hold up boarding!” I call.

Lavender unwraps the scarf from her neck and winds it around his hand. “You’ll be fine. Until an hour ago, you thought you were spending three days away from me. You can handle sitting across the aisle for five hours.”

He sighs and flops into his seat. Aurora, also often referred to as Hammer because the hockey boys like to use last names, takes the spot beside Lavender, and they share a giggle. Aurora works for the Terror; she’s also Roman’s daughter and Hollis’s girlfriend. Roman and Hollis retired from the league at the end of last season, they’re best friends, so the levels of complication are high.

There are sixteen seats in first class, and we take up all of them. My group includes me, Kodiak, and my brother’s current and recently retired teammates.

The girls in Rix’s friend group have dubbed themselves the Badass Babe Brigade. Today they’re wearing shirts proclaiming them asBea’s Babes. Two of them are pregnant, so we get them seated quickly. Rix and Essie end up across from me and Flip.

Everyone takes their seat, and because karma is clearly having a laugh at my expense, Essie makes eye contact while applying her lip gloss. I immediately want to take her to the bathroom so I can kiss it right off her perfect lips.

“What are the fucking chances, eh?” Flip says jovially.

I drag my gaze away from Essie. “Seriously.”

If everyone pairs off, I’ll be super pissed. But at the same time…I sure wouldn’t mind getting my hands on Essie again. Or having her hands on me. I’m also hella impressed that she single-handedly managed to wrangle all these women onto a plane without anyone finding out where they were going. I finally had to cave a couple of days ago and tell Flip so I could get his help on a few things.

More passengers board the plane. It doesn’t take long for people to realize first class is full of professional hockey players. The poor flight attendants keep redirecting people to their seats, and boarding takes way longer than it should. Women and children shriek, and men turn into starstruck fools. It’s quite the experience.

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