Page 219 of Branded
It was.
And it was time to change.
“Marin,” I said, straightening my shoulders, lifting my chin, glad that when my voice came out it was steady. “This is Beth, Hazel’s friend.” A breath. My heart pounding like I’d run a marathon, and I supposed I had, albeit a mental one. “I know you said you wouldn’t get in my head, but…what if I open the gates and let you in?”
Right.
I was lined up.
The horn had just blown.
Now all I needed to do was put one foot in front of the other and start covering those miles.
Silence. Long enough that I practically saw myself tripping over my own feet, face-planting on the asphalt. Then Marin spoke. “You sure you’re ready for that? I think you get that I don’t beat around the bush, and if you’re locked down tight…”
I sat in the quiet of Marin trailing off, taking a beat, considering, breathing, and…knowing.
Knowing that I was ready.
That I couldn’t keep doing this.
That it was time.
“I’m ready,” I whispered.
Marin didn’t make me wait for it, didn’t make me work any harder for it. Instead, she just said, “I have Tuesday at five open.”
Twenty-Nine
Raph
“You need to get a better picker,” Smitty said as we all got dressed after the game. We were in the away locker room at the arena, since we were on the road, and while our equipment and support staff did their best to give us everything we might need…
It wasn’t home.
Or maybe it was just that Beth was in my bed, waiting for me to join her there.
It would be late, so I wouldn’t wake her, but I was damn sure going to wake her as early as was reasonable…and if that ended up after I’d gotten just a couple of hours of sleep, then so be it.
I had a list of sexual fantasies to get through.
And I was finding that Beth was just as creative in bed as I was.
Meanwhile, though, I was trying to play it cool. Mostly because Smitty hadn’t spilled the beans yet. Something I knew was coming because I’d asked Pru and Hazel for insider information and they’d only given it when they knew what the date was…and hell, who was I kidding? Everyone was being real cool, but my and Beth’s time not being a conversation topic in the locker room would only last so long, and then all eyes would be on me and Beth and our relationship?—
“My picker isn’t broken,” Cas protested.
Thankfully, Cas’s inability to date a normal woman was still the hot subject matter up for discussion rather than me and my pursuit of Beth.
Theo snorted. “That’s what you said about bringing that girl to CeCe’s.” He shook his head. “Now you and I have had to dodge her the last three times we visited.”
“Carrie was an exception,” Cas protested. “Normally my picker is on point.”
Smitty began ticking off on his giant ass fingers. “Carrie. Margaret. Rosa. Becky. Lisa.” A shrug. “And those are just the ones I remember from this season.”
Cas yanked up his pants. “I’m not into commitment unless it’s the right person.”
“Which is just my point,” Smitty said, sitting—still naked because the man would walk through life buck ass naked if he could and not get arrested—on the bench, rubbing his hair with a towel. “You need a better picker.” A beat, his gaze dipping toward mine before heading back to Cas’s. “To find the right person.”
