Page 31 of Accidentally Fudging the Beast
"Good to see you, Dani," Colt murmurs, giving me a genuine smile.
"Thanks," I whisper.
Briggs shoots me a grin and then jerks his chin in a nod, but doesn't say anything. Karsen and Cale both say hello.
"I thought you'd still be laid up, dying," Colt says to Trent, who flips him off.
"Did you know that your hives had hives yesterday?" Karsen asks. "I've never seen anyone swell that fast. How much of her fudge did you eat?"
"He was probably shoveling it in like a fuckin' kid in a candy store," Cale retorts, chuckling.
"Fuck yeah, I was. It was delicious."
I spend the next five minutes toggling between being overwhelmed and guilty while the guys razz the hell out of Trent about almost dying yesterday.
The nervous bubble in my stomach only grows every time I peek up at Trent, only to find his eyes already on me. He's not just looking, either. He's watching me like he's waiting for me to run, screaming into the night.
He doesn't let me go, not once. His hand is warm on the small of my back, anchoring me to him like I'm liable to drift away.
Maybe I am.
I've never felt so out of place before.
A pack of puck bunnies converging around the dessert table doesn't help. They form a wall of hair extensions and eyelash glue, dressed in designer brands and four-inch heels as they sip festive cocktails and shoot me smiles full of gritted teeth and disapproval. They're playing nice, in that cutthroat, merciless way that makes me want to breakout in hives.
"You hungry?" Trent whispers when he notices me glancing toward the table, his fingers stroking my side.
"Um…" I sneak another peek at the table, my stomach churning. But before I can tell him that I'd rather starve than wade into those bunny-infested trenches, he's already leading me in that direction.
The bunnies part like the Red Sea around us. One tries to say something to Trent, but he doesn't even look in her direction.
"This looks way better than hospital Jello," he murmurs to me, loading up a plate with a little bit of everything. "But I still wish it were your fudge, Sunshine."
A puck bunny snorts loudly into her drink.
I just smile and keep loading my own plate. I kind of hope she chokes on her jealousy. And maybe that makes me terrible, but it doesn't matter how much they preen and bat their fake lashes at him. He'll never want them. They don't even know the first thing about him.
I do. Little by little over the last few months, he's opened up to me. He's shared pieces of his world. I know how he thinks and what makes him laugh. I know what he loves and what annoys the hell out of him. I know that hockey is his life, and his family means everything to him.
And I know that he'd never demand that a single one of these women sit at his side in the ER while he's in a hospital gown, covered in hives, miserable and vulnerable. He'd never guilt them into staying the night with him.Frankly, he never pays them any attention at all because they don't even exist to him. But he faked an injury for weeks just to spend time with me.
Something about that makes me feel better, like the ground is solidifying beneath my feet a little bit.
He grabs a pair of champagne glasses from a passing waiter and leads me toward a less crowded corner of the house while they glare daggers at our retreating backs.
The kitchen is occupied by several of the older players and their kids, who are building a snowman out of Rice Krispies and marshmallow fluff. One of the kids is eating the carrot nose, while a toddler in a red turtleneck licks the counter with terrifying focus.
Trent lifts me up onto a barstool so we're eye-level, then pulls up right beside me, his thigh pressing into mine.
"You okay?" he asks, his voice low.
"Yeah," I say, nodding. "It's just…a lot."
He leans in, his voice barely above a growl. "Want me to call a code red and fake a medical emergency? I can pretend I'm dying again. I have recent experience, you know."
"Please don't," I mutter, but the fact that he would makes me smile, which seems to make him happy.
"Don't stress," he says. "Nobody's judging you. They're all just glad you're here."
