Page 46 of Tempting the Goalie
I nod. “Sure.”
“You’re eating dinner,” Eric says.
“Sorry, I can wait,” Luc cuts in.
“I just finished. It was delicious. Thank you,” I say to Eric. I take my plate to the sink, rinse it off, and place it in the dishwasher. I give Eric a peck on the cheek. “Thanks for feeding me.”
With that I tell Luc to follow me. We head outside through the sliding kitchen door. The sun has pretty much set and it’s getting dark. Luc waves to my family and says bye as he closes the sliding door.
We head down the deck and onto another patio area.
“Is it me or did that feel really awkward?” Luc asks as we make our way to one of the many trails on our property.
“It was definitely off. Everything has changed, huh?”
“Yeah,” Luc blows out a breath. I think we are about to have the relationship talk when he goes off on a rant about his sister living at home with his dad drinking again.
“Can you believe how irresponsible she is?” he asks, looking at me with an incredulous look.
I feel like crawling out of my skin. Just like I don’t lie to my family, I don’t lie to Luc. But does withholding information fall under the same category as lying?
“You knew?” he suddenly says before I have a chance to answer.
“Elyna called me. She asked me not to mention anything because of the Frozen Four,” I explain, but my best friend turned lover doesn’t look appeased.
“You know how much I worry about her and Braden. How could you keep this from me? Something could’ve happened to them. Papa could’ve burned down the house, or who knows what?” He flails his hands and his voice is raised because he’s clearly upset.
“I know we always share things, but Elyna is an adult. She made a choice. I felt the need to respect it. I told her to speak with Phoenix about staying in one of our cabins.”
He exhales. “I don’t like that she left me in the dark, not about my dad. You out of everyone should know how he gets when he drinks.”
I do know. Charles Chabot is a clumsy drunk and it can lead to bad things. Like the time he fell asleep in the bath with his clothes on and the radio fell inside while it was plugged in. No one knows how that man survived not being electrocuted, but he did. There were other times when he’s driven drunk to the local bar in town. Daddy stopped him and arrested him and took away his license for a year. Luckily, there have been no injuries, but it doesn’t make it less worrisome.
“I know, Luc, but she didn’t want to distract you.If I would’ve come and told you what was going on, you’d have wanted to leave Riverside, and who knows what? You wouldn’t have been as focused as you were. Your team won the championship, and you played a major role in that win. You know I’m right, so you can be angry all you want but?—”
I don’t get out another word. Luc has looped his arm around my waist, pulling me into him and placing his mouth over mine.
“Are you effing crazy?” I push him away. “Any one of my brothers could be walking this way.”
“Dammit, you’re right,” he says, dropping his hand. “I’m so worked up; all I can think of is being inside you.”
“Come with me.” I take his hand and lead him away from the main house toward the orchard. It’s where the cabins are, but this time of year my brothers probably have them filled with employees. I know better than to look for an empty one. We pass the cabin area and head toward one of the buildings Eric recently had built where he manufactures apple cider for export.
We head inside.
“This is a terrible idea,” Luc chides.
“Eric isn’t the type to work late at night. Trust me,” I assure.
“Hmm, that makes me feel better.” He chuckles. “Every time you’ve said trust me when we were younger, we’d always end up in trouble.”
“We aren’t kids anymore,” I remind.
“Oh, I know that, Isabelle,” he says, his voice low and throaty.
“You’re playing dirty now.” I laugh.
“It’s the only way I like to play.” His gray eyes have a mischievous glint to them.
