Page 114 of The Husband Game

Fuuuck, this was miserable. He forced a pleasant look on his face but his feet were beginning to feel like they were on fire and they itched.

One of the reporters shifted and out of the corner of Dustin’s eye he caught a glimpse of Matty smirking at him.

Oh. OH.

It wasn’t some allergic reaction to the soap. His asshole teammates had put Icy-Hot in his shoes.

The jersey and the little shrine to Charlie were a well-timed diversion and that was why his socks had gone missing.

The bastards were clever, Dustin would give them that. And clearly working as a team. Exactly what he’d hoped for but not like this.

“Dustin?” a guy from the local Tribune asked.

“Yes. Sorry. What was that?”

Dustin gritted his teeth and answered questions while he tried not to squirm. At least it’s not your underwear, he chanted in his head.

He’d been the victim of an Icy-Hot in the jock prank in juniors and holy shit was that miserable.

Eventually, the reporters ran out of questions to ask and put away their phones.

As they began to filter out, Dustin looked around the room at his teammates, eyes narrowed, trying to pick out who’d helped Matty pull this off.

He rose to his feet, stifling a yelp as the added pressure made the itchy, hot misery grow.

“Hey, are you okay, Dustin?” one of the reporters asked, a young woman named Molly Perry who wrote for a local paper. “You seemed a little uncomfortable there.”

“No,” he scowled, toeing off his sneakers in front of his stall. “These assholes put Icy-Hot in my shoes!”

Laughter broke out around the room, some from the few reporters still lingering.

“Ugh. You’re all horrible, horrible people,” he muttered as he stomped his way to the shower.

It took a lot of soap and scrubbing, but eventually, Dustin’s feet finally stopped feeling like they were on fire.

They were very red though, he thought ruefully. And he’d been in such a hurry to get to the shower, he’d gone barefoot. He better not get athlete’s foot from that shit.

The media was completely gone when he stepped into the dressing room and he held up his middle finger, showing it off to the still snickering guys. “Sit and spin, boys, sit and spin.”

“Love you, D!” Dominic called out.

“Yeah, just wait until it’s your turn,” Dustin growled. “We’ll see who’s laughing.”

He shoved his feet into his shower shoes, dumped his now useless sneakers in the trash, threw his gear bag over his shoulder, and stalked out of the room.

“Don’t forget your new jersey!” Colton called after him, tone obnoxiously cheerful.

Dustin answered with another upraised middle finger, this time over his shoulder. “See you tomorrow, assholes!”

He finally let himself grin as he strode down the hall. Total asshole move, but funny as hell.

Someone was going to owe him new sneakers though—those were one of his favorite pairs.

But who to blame?

Matty had been their prankster as long as he’d been with the team, and the Charlie diversion had his name written all over it. Colton had quickly joined in his shenanigans after he joined the team and Icy-Hot in shoes was definitely his brand of humor. Dom? Well, he just egged them both on.

Dustin had no idea if anyone else had joined in. They’d probably had at least one or two other guys playing lookout or something.

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