Page 149 of The Husband Game

On top of everything going on with Felix and Nico, did Dustin regret the choices he’d made this past summer?

Charlie’s mind had whirled with thoughts and fears, building and building in his head until he wanted to scream.

But Dustin had slept quietly beside him, clearly exhausted, so Charlie had bitten his lip and forced himself to take deep breaths until he too drifted off to sleep.

Now, as Charlie picked at his dinner, watching the game, the fears returned with a vengeance.

Before the past few games, Charlie had recorded a quick little video message for Dustin wishing him good luck. He’d made sure to send it early enough so it wouldn’t interrupt Dustin’s pre-game ritual and every time he’d gotten back a quick text or video message in reply.

But tonight he’d gotten nothing. And Dustin and the rest of his team were playing like shit.

At this point, Charlie was knowledgeable but no expert on hockey and even he could see that.

The commentators backed that up.

When the game finally ended in a 4-0 shutout with Toronto leaving the ice grim-faced, Charlie’s worries deepened.

He texted Taylor, asking what he should do. Taylor wasn’t much help.

Just try to be there for him was a good sentiment but it didn’t do a whole lot in terms of concrete suggestions.

Eventually, Charlie scraped the remainder of his uneaten food into the trash and finished cleaning the makeshift basement kitchen.

Their real kitchen was coming along but the new sink was on backorder and they had to wait a few weeks for that to arrive. Which was, of course, holding everything else up.

If that wasn’t a metaphor for everything else going on in Charlie’s life, he didn’t know what was.

Things humming along until something unexpected threw a snag in the works and knocked everything off-kilter.

Ugh.

Nothing to do but wait, he supposed.

So he waited.

He curled up on the couch in the media room with his laptop and watched some makeup tutorials—usually something that put him in a good mood—but tonight they weren’t very effective at cheering him up.

He switched over to a design show on TV as he checked his phone over and over to see if Dustin had messaged him before the flight back to Toronto.

Nothing.

Charlie stayed up long after Dustin was supposed to be home, until he couldn’t stop yawning.

As he stared blankly at the TV screen, a sick, sinking feeling settled into the pit of his stomach.

Would their marriage end like this?

Not with a big fight or a dramatic finality, but Dustin slowly slipping away, tired of Charlie and how difficult he’d made his life.

Wishing he was with someone who was easier. Who wasn’t so high maintenance. Someone who was more suited to this life of being an NHL spouse.

It hit Charlie then that he was the very first man to have married a current NHL player.

And God, he was the worst possible choice, wasn’t he?

Charlie’s stomach ached, both with hunger pangs from not eating tonight and the worry that had settled there, twisting and twisting, growing bigger by the moment.

Charlie’s biggest fear had always been that he was too much.

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