Page 29 of Run Game
“Noooo,” I say, drawing out the word. “But it’s the end of the world if they think we were in here fucking all night!” I’m starting to spiral, obviously.
He rolls his eyes. “Weweren’tin here fucking all night. As a matter of fact, I poked you with my midnight snack twice and you didn’t even move.”
“Yourmidnight snack?” I question, raising a brow.
“Yeah,” he shrugs. “I get boners in the middle of the night. Wanted to make sure you weren’t interested.”
I scoff. “Oh my God. What is wrong with you?” I drag my hands down my face, trying not to go into full panic mode. “What are we going to do?”
He walks over, soothingly rubbing his hands up and down my arms to calm me. “My car is out there. They already know I’m here. Let’s go up there and act like it’s not a big deal. I promise they won’t think we were fucking.”
I honestly have no idea why he’s being so understanding. Or why he hasn’t outed this whole situation to our friends yet, seeing as how I know he’s perfectly happy telling the whole world for some reason. I’ve been going back and forth with it and it just feels yucky lying to Mads. I know I need to at least let her in on some of what’s going on between Dalton and me. I just have to figure out what details I want to share and which ones I want to stay between him and me. I guess once the conversation happens, I’ll just let it go wherever it goes.
“Okay,” I relent. I go to turn but he grabs me by the arm, spinning me back around. “What?” I ask.
He cups my face in both hands. “I don’t know when I’ll get a chance to do this again.” He leans forward, dropping his lips to mine in a teasing kiss. As he starts to back away, I fist his shirt and jerk him back to me, needing more. I open my mouth for him when his tongue darts out, letting it tangle with mine. We stand there, making out for several minutes before I break the kiss, barely able to catch my breath.
I try to ignore the ache between my legs as I smooth my hair and clothes before wordlessly opening the door and heading toward the kitchen with Dalton following closely behind. As soon as I round the corner, Mads and Blaze come into view. She’s sitting on the counter while he tends to the breakfast food on the stove. When he leans over and kisses her, he catches our movement out of the corner of his eye and turns his full attention to us.
“Well, well, well,” he says playfully, making Mads look in our direction. “What do we have here? Is this a double walk of shame?”
“Very funny,” Dalton says. “I was cleaning my storage area yesterday and wanted to get your golf clubs out of the way, so I brought them back. Dia was alone, so I annoyed her until she let me stay. We fell asleep in the theater room. That’s it.”
Blaze raises a suspicious brow, eyeing us both for a moment before shrugging his shoulder. “Oh. Cool.”
I stand there, completely flabbergasted as Dalton turns to me with a cocky grin because his dumb story actually worked.What an asshole.
Everyone goes about their business, busying themselves with breakfast preparations while my mind is going a million miles a minute. I’m at war with myself, stuck between being relieved that they bought Dalton’s excuseand wishing they had grilled us about what’s really going on. I don’t know what I want anymore, but I know that the longer I stand here, willingly keeping something so big from my best friend, the more I feel like I’m being choked by my own conscience.
“We’re married,” I blurt, causing all three of them to stop what they’re doing and turn to me. I freeze in place, hoping that if I don’t move, the floor will swallow me whole and we can pretend this never happened. Unfortunately, thirty seconds later, I’m still here and they’re still staring.
“What?” Mads says with an incredulous laugh.
“We’re married,” I repeat.
“What?” she says again.
“We—”
“We have to stop them or they’ll keep going,” Blaze interrupts, looking at Dalton. “What’s going on?”
Dalton looks at me and I give him a weak smile. He takes a couple steps closer to me in silent support as he explains. “Dia and I ended up alone in Vegas, so we decided to walk along The Strip. We got to talking and she told me how her ex said she wasn’t wife material. We were standing right in front of the chapel at the time, and I decided to throw her over my shoulder and talked her into marrying me to prove him wrong. It was just supposed to be for the night, but it turns out that getting married is a hell of a lot easier than getting divorced.”
“What does that mean?” Mads asks.
I finally find my voice. “We have to share a legal residence for six weeks before we can file for a divorce. That’s why I’m here in Boston. I switched my driver’s license to say I live with Dalton right after we got back from Vegas. That’s when our six weeks began.”
“Wow,” Blaze says, blowing out a breath.
Mads looks at me, unshed tears filling her eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Fuck.
I shrug, full of shame for keeping this from her for so long. “I guess I didn’t want you to try to change my mind about the divorce. I know you’re a romantic. And your relationship with Blaze is what fairytales are made of, so it’s fair to assume you’d want that for me. But that’s not what I want for my life. After Josh, I decided not to put myself through it again. I’ve been left too many times to believe that the love you’ve found is out there for me.”
“Josh was a piece of shit,” she whispers.
Dalton grabs my hand, interlocking our fingers and squeezing gently, letting me know he’s there. Grounding me. It doesn’t go unnoticed by the others, but I don’t care. They don’t have to understand what we’re going through.
