Page 39 of The Husband Game

“I’ve been dying for a new name for this group since I started dating Anton,” Elena Makarov said with a smile. Her accent was much lighter than her husband’s.

“Yeah?” Charlie asked, smiling back, wondering if she’d give him makeup tips. He was dying to know what shade of eye shadow she wore.

“It’s rather dismissive, isn’t it?” one of the blondes said. She looked like she was a few years younger than Charlie, which would make her twenty-one or so. She had a pretty heart-shaped face, blue eyes, and platinum-blonde hair cut in a shoulder-length bob.

“Exactly,” another woman said. She was a little older, with long wavy golden hair, a narrow nose, and a confident air to the way she carried herself. “It’s like we have no lives outside the guys.”

Charlie bit his lip. “So, this is going to make me sound terrible, but can you introduce yourselves again? I’m struggling to stay on top of who everyone is and who they’re with and I don’t want to start referring to you as Blonde Number One and Blonde Number Two. Talk about dismissive.”

The younger one smiled. “Oh, no worries, sweetie. This can be totally overwhelming to come into. I’m Birdie Pope. I’m with Colton Yates.”

“And he’s the cute one with the freckles, yeah?” Charlie glanced over at the pool where Yates and Matty were horsing around with the kids.

“Yeah.” Birdie smiled. “We’ve been together since like, middle school. Ridiculous, but I love him.”

“So, what do you do outside of cheer for your man?” Charlie asked.

“I’m in school. Finishing up a marketing degree.”

“Oh, fabulous.” Charlie grinned. “I have to do some marketing for my job. Well, I hope I still have a job.” He laughed awkwardly. “I emailed my boss this morning to drop the ‘I got married and moved to Toronto, do you think you could swing a transfer to the office there?’ bomb on her. Whoopsies! We’ll see what she says.”

“Yikes. This was spontaneous then, huh?” the second blonde said.

That did seem to be the theme they were going with.

“Yeah, totally was,” Charlie said brightly. “But Dustin is rather charming. Who could resist?”

That much was completely true. Charlie had tried extremely hard not to succumb to Dustin’s charms and look where he’d ended up.

“He is,” she agreed with a smile as she held out a hand. “I’m Natasha Brandt, by the way. Dating Jordan. The one in the green shorts. We’ve only been together about six months so I know what it’s like to be the newbie around here.”

Charlie glanced over. Jordan was seated by the pool, feet dangling in the water as he talked intently to someone on the team whose name was escaping Charlie. His medium brown skin gleamed in the summer sun and Charlie had quietly drooled over his pretty hazel eyes when they’d been introduced earlier. He’d been quiet and soft-spoken and now, he glanced over at Natasha with a small, sweet smile.

Charlie shook his head. “A: your man is hot as hell. And B: what do you do?”

She laughed softly. “I’m a sports journalist. Not hockey. I’m actually a beat reporter for the pro baseball team here, but Jordan and I crossed paths at an event and hit it off.”

“Nice. What about you, Elena?”

She sighed, crossing her long tan legs and tossing her dark hair over her shoulders. “I’m a Mommy Blogger. It’s hard to do anything outside the home once you have five children running around.”

“I don’t know how you manage that,” Birdie said with a smile. “I told Colton three max. And not until my career is established.”

“That’s what they all say,” Elena joked. “But every November they get horned up and you find yourself giving birth in the off-season.”

Charlie let out a small laugh. “Thankfully, I don’t think Dustin and I will have to worry about that.”

Natasha laughed too. “What do you do, Charlie?”

He rattled off a bit about his interior design degree and Natasha nodded. “I might need to talk to you about that. I have had zero time to decorate the place Jordan and I got recently and I would love to work with you.”

“Hell yes,” Charlie said. “Let’s do that.”

“So, confession time,” Birdie said, leaning forward. “I’ve been following you on Insta forever, Charlie. Love your decorating and makeup tips.”

“Really?” Charlie asked, delighted. He had a decent following but it wasn’t massive. Although he’d snuck a peek at his numbers earlier and his number of followers had exploded in the past few hours since he posted the wedding announcement.

Maybe there were some perks to this marriage after all.

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