Page 109 of Any Second Now
Me
hey, how are you?
Raleigh stares down at her device. She taps some more, then flips it over and looks in the direction Jacob disappeared.
Well, shit. I’m getting ignored. Plus, she’s messaging someone else. Lucy? For her to read when she wakes up in the morning? Not me, that’s for sure.
“Let’s go,” I growl.
“Where to? Wanna go try to find girls?” Lachlan’s slurring his words. He’s got bags beneath his eyes, and his blond curls are wild. Maybe now that Melissa’s gone he’ll grow his hair long again.
But there’s no way this dude wants to go find girls. And I sure as hell don’t either.
“No. You’re going home. And so am I. Then we’re going to wake up and go to the gym and sweat all this out. It’s time to start getting ready for hockey season.”
I give Lachlan’s considerable forearm a push.
“Hey. Fine.” He sighs.
I cast one final glance at the table. Her ex is approaching and Raleigh offers him a tight smile as he sits.
They look like a married couple working their shit out. And that’s pretty close to what they are. So they’re divorced—that doesn’t have to be permanent. They have history.
Fuck this.
I’m done.
Done with pretending to be someone who I’m not.
Done with going down a path that will only lead to heartache.
I’m gonna go tuck the Aussie into his bed and then head home and do a hundred pushups. Remind myself of who I am.
And it’s no one’s boyfriend.
CHAPTER 23
Pucked Around and Found Out
RALEIGH
Sunday, July 27
Ishould not be coming up with new cross-stitch ideas, but here we are.
After the Atticus video, which is at six hundred thousand views and still slowly climbing, I got messages from customers asking for hockey-themed designs.
What I also got was a ton of comments detailing what women would do to Atticus iftheywere sitting next to him on the couch. Also—and this is when I stopped looking—many comments questioning whether I was hot enough to be dating him.
The answer was unanimously no.
Some even wondered if I was his sister. Then the conversation in the comments switched to his actual sister, my best friend, who is dating the Blizzard team captain.
I lay my notebook down next to my open laptop and reach for my lukewarm coffee.Pucked around and found outis accurate for my current situation.
My eyes spot something brown tucked into the cushion of the table’s seating bench next to me.
“Megghen!” I reach for the gift from my chicken. It almost blended right in—I’m lucky I didn’t sit on it and get raw egg on my ass. I really need to stop letting her wander around the RV. I groan and shut my eyes, egg still in my palm.
