Page 32 of The Husband Game

“W-A-P …” Matty chortled. “Sweet. Nice one.”

He held out a fist and Charlie bumped it, humoring him.

“I believe PAWs was thrown out there at one point,” Dustin said. “Partners and Wives. Same idea but with a more family-friendly acronym.”

“Yeah, but neither of them work for Charlie. He’s a husband,” Matty argued.

“Why exactly are we talking about this in bed?” Charlie asked, fussing with his hair.

He hated meeting new people without his face on, and this was weird.

Matty seemed nice and all, but this was not normal behavior. Who crawled in bed with a newly married couple?

“Oh.” Matty looked sheepish. “Sorry. I was really excited to meet you. Dustin has been talking about you since you met and now you guys are married and you didn’t invite me!”

“Oh, has he?” Charlie asked with an amused grin.

“Well, we didn’t invite anyone,” Dustin said, clearly ignoring him. “It was spur of the moment.”

“Rude.” Matty crossed his arms, frowning.

Charlie looked Matty over and decided he had big Daddy vibes going on. He was big all over. Built like a pro football player rather than a skater. He had a thick neck and close-cropped brown hair and beard.

He was cute, if you were into that type.

“So tell me more about Dustin talking about me,” Charlie teased. He hadn’t considered that making friends with Dustin’s teammates would lead to them dishing the dirt.

Matty’s face lit up. “So after that party at Walsh’s place for his little girl last March, Dustin got on the plane back to Toronto and was talking all about it. It was ‘Charlie this and Charlie that’ and the guys chirped him so hard for it cause we could tell he was totally into you.”

“Fascinating,” Charlie said, leaning forward a little.

“Aww, you don’t want to hear about that,” Dustin protested. He wrapped an arm around Charlie’s waist, and he squealed a little as Dustin pulled him close.

Charlie almost fought off the embrace before he remembered they were supposed to be selling this marriage thing, so he forced himself to relax against his chest.

“Oh, but I do,” Charlie said, his tone saccharine, threading his fingers through Dustin’s. “I absolutely do, sweet cheeks.”

“Aww, that’s a cute nickname,” Matty said.

“I dunno. It really seems like it suits you more,” Dustin teased. “We all know Matty has the best ass in the NHL.”

Matty’s face turned pink. “I don’t know about that.”

“Well, c’mon, show Charlie. He can decide.”

Matty laughed and got up on his knees, walking on them in a little half circle until his back was to them. He wiggled a little and Dustin smacked his butt. “What do you think, Charlie?”

“That is, uh, quite impressive,” Charlie admitted. Matty sure knew how to fill out a pair of shorts. He wasn’t just thick.

He was thicc.

But God, hockey players were weird. Was this seriously a normal thing, to crawl into bed with your teammate and their new spouse and show off your ass?

Clearly, he’d gotten into the wrong sport.

“Thanks.” Matty smacked the butt in question too, beaming as he turned and settled back down, facing them. “So, what are we doing today?”

“We?” Dustin asked.

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