Page 86 of Wrong Pucking Jersey

Why the fuck am I stuttering?

“Go piss,” he encourages but dares to take just a step closer that has him right in my space.

His lips barely touching mine.

“I’ll be on the balcony.”

With a few seconds of stillness, he retreats and heads to the left toward the glass doors.

Shit man.

I’ll die if this man pushes my heart to the brink of beating mayhem.

“Wait, you still smoke?”

He stops at the doors to glance over his shoulder at me.

“Occasionally,” he admits with a shrug. “Not as heavy as I used to.”

“So you’re not doing it to seem cool, right?”

I want to make sure.

He better not have started back up because of a certain gatekeeping douche.

“You think we’re in high school again?” He tosses with a teasing grin. “I’m not trying to impress Winchester, Wolfgang. Chill.”

Good.

“He only grew up to be a bigger douche,” I grumble and notice the way Maddox’s eyes cloud over for a moment. “Maddox?”

He blinks and looks back at me over his shoulder.

“Hmm?”

“Mishka knows you smoke, right?”

“She’s aware.” He looks away. “Told me to cut it out or switch to vaping.”

“Are you?”

He stalls in answering.

“O’Riley,” my voice is a lot sterner, and he knows why.

Smoking can lead to cancer.

“This is my last pack,” he finally answers. “Weed may be better for me, anyway. At least being high doesn’t destroy your lungs.”

I could deal with him being high.

“There’s a lot of good use for cannabis,” I voice like some sort of doctor. It would be almost cringeworthy if my voice wasn’t so serious. “May help reduce the stress this season gonna bring us. There’s a shop in the next town since Strattonville doesn’t support it.”

“Not surprised. Old school as fuck.”

“Why don’t we grab some this weekend? Can invite Mishka, too.”

That would give her some peace of mind to see Maddox take the initiative to stop smoking by replacing it with another option. Sure, Cannabis wasn’t a complete solution and had its own baggage, but it was a lot better than cigarettes.

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