Page 31 of The Husband Game

There was an edge to Charlie’s voice and something in his eyes that made Dustin quietly say, “Okay. Sure. If that’s what you need.”

Charlie’s expression faded into one of profound relief and Dustin was about to suggest they get up and have breakfast when the slam of the front door made them both jerk in surprise.

“Dusty!” There was the heavy sound of pounding feet on the stairs.

“Who the fuck is that?” Charlie hissed as he hastily swiped at his hair and rubbed his fingers along the corner of his eyes.

Dustin sighed, leaning back against the pillows. “That would be Matt Carlson. My teammate.”

“Umm. What the fuck, Dustin?” Charlie stared, bug-eyed. “Seriously?”

A big man with brown hair and a beard appeared at the top of the stairs, grinning widely.

“Hey, you are home! Awesome. You wouldn’t answer my texts so I thought I’d come see the newlyweds for myself.”

“Did you ever think maybe there was a reason why I didn’t answer?” Dustin shot back at his teammate, but he was grinning.

Charlie pulled the covers a little more tightly around himself as Matty advanced toward the bed, clambering up on it like he owned it.

The bed creaked a little ominously under his weight.

“Welcome home, guys.” He held out a hand, still grinning. “You must be Charlie.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Charlie stared, wide-eyed, at the strange man in bed with them. He wore black, green, and white Toronto Fisher Cats branded shorts and a T-shirt that strained across his broad barrel chest and biceps.

Charlie held out a tentative hand and Matt shook it, his giant hand completely engulfing Charlie’s.

God this was so weird.

He and Taylor had a pretty open friendship, but there were rules about barging in on people when they were in bed with someone else …

Charlie stifled a groan.

Oh, no, this was totally some kind of cosmic payback for the time last year when he’d walked in on Taylor and Jamie after sex, wasn’t it?

Although in Charlie’s defense, he hadn’t known Taylor had anyone over.

Clearly this guy knew and Dustin seemed totally unconcerned about the whole thing, so maybe this was normal for them?

Last night, Dustin had said his teammates let themselves in on a regular basis. Apparently, he hadn’t been kidding.

“Uh. Hi. You’re Matt?” Charlie managed.

“Oh, you can call me Matty. Since you’re one of us now.” Matty shifted, crossing his legs and beaming, looking for all the world like a little kid. A giant, slightly hairy, little kid.

Seriously, what the fuck was going on here?

“One of you?” Charlie asked a little weakly.

“One of the Fisher Cats. I mean, not a player, obviously but a WAG—” He froze. “Oooh, no, we can’t use WAGs anymore, can we?”

“I’m no one’s wife,” Charlie said, tone very dry. “I might be prettier than most of the population, but I am definitely all man.”

“Dustin would know all about that.” Matty leered, waggling his eyebrows in a way that should have been utterly comical or creepy but Charlie found weirdly cute.

“When my friend Taylor started dating Jamie Walsh, I wanted to call them Wives and Partners,” Charlie admitted.

---