Page 59 of Trouble in Love
The most terrible thing had happened.
Something that caused chaos and carnage. Disruption and delay.
Somehow, overnight, both Teddy and Asher passports disappeared.
It was crazy. Our little beach shack, the main house, Finn and Scarlett’s, all of their sheds, cars, and tractors in both properties were searched from top to bottom, front to back, but nothing was found.
It was like they’d been dumped into a smelly pair of gym socks then tossed onto the roof … I mean, vanished into thin air. The mystery meant the three of us were forced to reschedule our flights, and gosh darn it, that meant another few days in Byron.
What. A. Damn. Shame.
Even if I was thrilled beyond all comprehension, that jubilation couldn’t be expressed. Ma and Ana weren’t thrilled to postpone our welcome home party, and suspended or not, Coach was less than impressed too. I would be missing thefirst days of preseason training, but at least with this, my latest disappointment, no legal intervention or PR crisis meeting was needed. The acting skills I picked up on all those nights spent running lines with Clara were handy though.
“I can’t believe we have to stay here at the beach for three more days. I mean, the place is nice and all, but I was really looking forward to breakout drills and bag skates till I vomited.” In truth, I hadn’t done a bad skate since I started NHL. Most modern-day coaches preferred the carrot to the stick approach. I hoped the boys didn’t know that.
Guilt had my hands twitching as Asher slapped me on the back and apologized for me missing training for the hundredth time. Teddy didn’t seem too convinced, though. His darting eyes scouring over me as he quietly walked beside me, sucking the steaming hot jam from his donut was … scary. Vampire like.
“Hopefully, those passports turn up soon,” I continued, perhaps laying it on a little thick. “I’d hate to think how long it would take for the embassy to replace them. Imagine if we had to stay another few weeks.Thatwould really suck.”
Teddy coughed, choked and gagged, and not in a sexy way, but in the ‘I’m dying’ way. As always, Asher the knight in shining armor, lovingly slapping him on the back and ran off to get his man some water. Ted made a miraculous discovery, gripping my shirt and pulling me out of the flow of pedestrian traffic and into his face. “You hid those fucking passports, didn’t you?”
Fuck.
My head bobbed up and side to side like a freshly unwound jack in the box. “What passports? What?”
“What passports?”Ted tightened his grip.“The passports you were just fucking talking about! The ones that are keeping you from vomiting on a fucking ice rink, and me and Ashy from our second-trimester sonogram.”
Fuck.
“You didn’t tell me you had a sonogram.”
“I actually did. Last week after you snuck back in from a secret fuckity-fuck with your princess, but you were too busy thinking about getting your dick wet again to pay any attention.”
Again. Fuck.
Dread pressed against my chest. “Ted. I’m really sorry. I don’t know what’s come over me.”
“Apart from yourself the 7666 times you’ve wanked, andherevery few hours, and I’d say love has come over you.”
Love? I shoved my hands between Teds and mirrored his stance, my fists twisting into the soft linen of his shirt till we stood there clutching each other. “Love! Really? Ana said that I don’t even know her ... that I couldn’t … that it’s all too fast.”
“Please,” he scoffed. “You fell in love with the bowl of pasta Evie served you last night. I thought you were going to propose after the first mouthful. Besides, Ana’s straight. She’s got no concept of the accelerated obsession rate of queers. You’ve been fucking around for a few weeks now. If you were lesbians, you’d be married with six dogs and a blind, two-legged cat with an identity crisis…. wait. Hold the phone, Delores.” Ted paused, squealed and spun me in the opposite direction. “Over my shoulder, forty degrees right, near the persimmons. It’s Pol–.”
“Polly.” Bones turned to Jello as I spotted her silky hair, and her hips and her round ass just a few steps away. Looking like a fucking sexy angel sent by the Devil to test me while talking to a guy with striking blonde curls. Apart from the goofy smile I couldn’t contain my body stiffened in shock.
“Did you or did you not almost jizz in your slacks?”
“Not!” I coughed out. I totally did.
A battle of morality raged within me as I tried to focus on Ted, the friend I had completely wronged with my selfishness, with one eye, while the other was on Polly, the girl of my dreams who inspired that very selfishness.
My crisis came to an end with a stinging bitch slap to the cheek. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, Luca. Snap out of it. You look like Rodney fucking Dangerfield.” I had no idea who that was. “Lucky for you, I have experience with close friends ditching me for hot Australians. Just go talk to her, but I swear to God, Luca, the second we get home, those passports better appear, or your nuts will be the next things to go missing.”
In the NHL I faced two hundred- and fifty-pound behemoths set on pounding me into the ground on the regular, but still. “You’re kinda scaring me, Ted.”
“I know! It’s totally hot, though, right?”
“Oh, absolutely.” With his need for violence quelled and his ego boosted, Teddy straightened out my shirt, messed up my hair, and sent me loose.
