Page 4 of Allie's Enforcer

“Go on.” Miles gives him a little nudge. “Explain everything to her.”

“I sent it to Miles’ house because I was embarrassed by my taste in literature.” I have a hard time making out his rushed words. “I love reading those books. It’s my obsession.” The words sound rehearsed. Colter turns to Miles and glares at him for a few seconds before muttering under his breath, “Okay. We’re even.” Then he rushes from the bookstore like his rear end is on fire.

Miles ignores his friend’s departure and turns to look at me. I almost melt on the spot from the heat shining from his liquid steel eyes. “Now that we’ve cleared that up, can you check the status of my real order?”

“Sure.” He follows me over to the computer. “What’s your phone number?”

Miles spouts off his number, and I type it into the computer. When an order for the latest Slade Gray comes up, I double-check the date before turning to him. “It will be here next week, hopefully on Monday. I can drop it off on my way home that night if you’d like.”

“I’ll come by and get it. After all, it’s the perfect excuse to come see you.” My heart and insides turn to mush while Scarlett and Maddie shamelessly eavesdrop on our conversation. “I’ll be seeing you.” He smiles at me and heads for the front door.

“Okay,” I call behind him, and my voice comes out sounding like a constipated squirrel.

“That is one seriously hot man.” Maddie stands next to me and fans herself while we watch him walk down the sidewalk and disappear from view. “And he is already head over heels for you.”

“Come on.” I roll my eyes at my friend. “He was just being nice.”

“Nice?” Scarlett cuts in. “The books in the kids’ section almost caught fire from the sparks shooting between you two.”

“Do you two realize who Miles and Colter are?” Maddie leans on the counter. “They’re Silver Spoon Falls Falcons players.”

“Huh?” Okay, I’ll admit I know next to nothing about sports, and that definitely sounds like a sports team.

“The hockey team,” Scarlett explains, and I feel silly for not knowing that.

“Allie ensnared herself a hot hockey player.” Maddie wiggles her eyebrows. “If I didn’t have my own hottie at home, I might be jealous. Now, we can discuss you buying my silence.”

I turn my fiercest glare in her direction. “Buy your silence?”

“Yep.” My best friend shrugs. “If you want me to forget,” she makes quote signs with her fingers, “to tell my husband, your overprotective brother, about this.”

“You’re a cruel woman.” I shake my head. “Can you give me at least a day or two before you tell Fischer?” Once my older brother knows about Miles, all bets will be off. The Mackenzie men are notoriously overprotective cavemen.

“If you promise to give me all the down-and-dirty details.” She wiggles her eyebrows.

“It’s a deal.” It’s not a hard promise to make. I would’ve given her all the deets anyway.

The next day,I’m reading the last few pages of the great mystery book I bought online a few weeks ago while waiting for the weekly team meeting to start. Actually, I’ve been staring at the same page for fifteen minutes. Nothing holds my attention since my soulmate dropped into my life. I hear a growl from the door and turn to watch as Colter storms toward me.

“You fucker.” His roar echoes around the otherwise silent room. Several teammates turn to watch us. I guess he’s still salty that I pulled out the big guns to motivate him to fix the embarrassing situation for me. “I can’t believe you told everyone what you made me do yesterday.” He shouldn’t be shocked.

When I realized I’d do whatever it takes to win over my girl, I knew first on my list was finding a way to control the damage Colter’s stupid prank had already caused. As luck would have it, the perfect information fell into my lap, and I used it to convince my friend to admit his guilt. In the spirit of the situation, I added a little extra humiliation to the mix and forced him to make his little claim.

Can I help it if our teammates somehow heard about our outing to Gatsby Books?

From the look of outrage on Colter’s face, I can tell he stopped by the locker room on his way to the weekly team meeting.

“I think you’re forgetting that you were the one who ordered that goddamn book in my name,” I remind him. His own actions led to the humiliation he endured yesterday. “Surely, you knew I’d find a way to get revenge before you pulled your little stunt.”

“If it wasn’t my entire future we’re talking about here, I would’ve told you to suck my cock,” he growls and turns to storm off toward the locker room. “Now, excuse me while I go remove the fake tentacles from my locker,” he calls over his shoulder, and everyone in the room cracks up.

“Where did you guys find the purple stuffed tentacles?” I ask Atlas, our goalie.

He holds up his phone. “Google is your friend. You can find anything on the internet.”

“What in the hell do you have on him?” Noah, one of our defensemen cuts in. “It has to be good to make that asshole sing your tune.”

What can I say? I got lucky and a helpful little birdy told me all about Colter’s indiscretion with Razor Montgomery’s sister. The knowledge came at the perfect time and gave me the ammunition I needed to persuade my friend to see things my way.

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