Page 98 of Crush
“Oh, stop it.”
“Seriously. You were a big reason we won that game tonight.”
She laughed. “Iwas? Me?”
“Yeah.”
“What the heck did I have to do with that game?”
Quietly, I explained how the boys had zeroed in on an alleged nanny-crush since day one. I told Brynn how that rumor turned into one of the team's longest-running inside jokes of the year—one that drove me crazy at first.
“Mm,” she said, sipping her wine. “Sothat'swhy they voted us King and Queen at the gala.”
“Partly, yeah. But also because they like you.”
She laughed. “They don't know anything about me!”
“Well … um … maybe I talked about you enough that they had an idea? They could tell that I liked you, anyway.”
“Aw, Shea,” she teased. “They knew you needed a little help getting the girl.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“But what's all that got to do with your game tonight?” she asked.
“I walked into that dressing room tonight, and it was like we'd lost the game before we even set foot on the ice. So I said, fuck it. After months of denying it. I finally came clean.”
Her eyes went wide. “Wait. You told them?”
“Yeah.”
“But I thought you said it was a secret!”
“I'm sorry,” I said, frowning. “You're not mad, are you?”
She shook her head. “Not mad at all. Actually … I like hearing that. Makes it seem a little more real.”
“Oh?” I started to scoot closer, just a tad closer, across the couch. But Pickles slowly turned his head and shot me a defiant stare:back away, old man, she's mine.
The cat was right. I didn't dare go any further, or I could make a mess of things.
“What a jealous cat.” Brynn laughed and pet Pickles's head. “Oh! That reminds me. I'm supposed to tell you something. But first, you have to promise that you won't get jealous or overprotective or weird. Okay?”
My heart skipped a beat. How could I agree not to be jealous about something before she even told me what it was? Was this the part where Brynn told me something terrible? Was there someone else in her life?
“I don't like the sound of this …” I said lowly.
“Relax. It's about Chloe. She told me she has her first official boyfriend.”
Relief flooded my heart.Whew.But then—wait a minute.
“Chloe has awhat?”
“Boyfriend, Shea, a boyfriend.”
I glanced upstairs, in the direction of Chloe's bedroom. Brynn put her foot in my lap to keep me calm—or maybe to anchor me in place, and not go running upstairs to have a chat with Chloe myself.
To stay calm, I squeezed her little foot in my hands and gave her a rub. “Who's the boyfriend?”
