Page 191 of The Husband Game

“Yeah.” Dustin sighed. “And some from people I thought I could call friends. Dallas Sutton sure has been vocal about his hatred for it.”

“You can’t win them all,” Zane said.

“No, I guess not. Ahh well.”

Dustin took a drink, glancing around until he found Charlie.

He was holding court like always, everyone around him responding to his natural charm, animated as he told a story.

But halfway through, Charlie glanced over at him and gave him a warm, happy smile.

“So, I guess you’re pretty okay for him,” someone said and Dustin glanced over at Taylor Hollis.

“Glad I have your stamp of approval.”

Taylor narrowed his eyes. “You ever hurt him and I’ll rip your spine out through your eye sockets.”

“Taylor,” Dustin said seriously. “If I ever hurt him intentionally, I’ll deliver myself on a silver platter to you for that purpose.”

Taylor beamed. “Glad to hear it. Because if not, I will tell Ava her Uncle Dustin hurt her Charlie and that might actually be worse.”

And then he was gone, disappearing into the crowd.

Slightly bewildered and more than a little terrified, Dustin headed for the bar to get a refill on his drink.

Half an hour later, after his conversation with several of the Otters players was over, Charlie sidled up to him, snaking an arm around his waist.

“Hi, kitten,” Dustin said happily.

“Hi.” Charlie kissed him on the cheek. “How’s it going?”

“Good. How are you?”

“Good. I just got an interesting message.”

“Yeah?” Dustin raised an eyebrow. “What was that?”

He held up his phone and Dustin took it, examining the screen. There was a brief email message with a photo attached.

I watched the game. Your husband played well tonight. -Dad

The photo was a grainy image of the hockey game on a hotel room TV.

“Does this mean …”

Charlie shrugged. “I think maybe he left my mom. It could be that I’m reading too much into this but he hasn’t traveled for work much in years so …”

“That would be good, right?”

“It would.” Charlie nodded. “We’ll have to wait and see.”

“Whatever happens, you know I’ll be right beside you every step of the way.”

Charlie rose on his toes and pressed a kiss to Dustin’s lips. “Likewise.”

“Huh. So I guess it was the best-case scenario after all,” someone said in a dry tone.

Dustin glanced over to see Wade Cannon smirking. “What do you mean?”

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