Just One of the Groomsmen

by Cindi Madsen

  He gave her a crooked grin. “I’ll make good on my promise, but I need a few more days.”

  “What kind of bull-crap win is that?” She threw a whole lot of mocking into her tone. “Oh, I’ll pay up when I’m good and ready, and you have to deal with it, regardless of how I clearly lost the bet.”

  “Come on, you know I’m good for it.” He added eye-batting and prayer hands. “Just give me seven little days before you send your goons after me.”

  She put a fist on her hip. “You have five.”

  “Deal.” He thanked her family for the food and company and then turned to Addie. “Now, why don’t you walk me to my car like a gentleman?”

  “I swear. You and the gang are always telling me I’m a dude, and now Nonna wants to set me up with girls. I’m about to get a complex.” She shoved him in the direction of the door.

  Their footsteps echoed against the porch, and she bounded down the stairs, two at a time, freezing when she noticed the big truck in their driveway.

  “I also wanted to show you my truck so you’d stop mocking me,” Tucker said.

  “That was overly optimistic on your part.” She laughed at his flabbergasted expression, but her laughter died as he put his hand on the small of her back and nudged her toward the vehicle. “Does this have something to do with your new job?”

  He clucked his tongue at her. “Patience is a virtue, Addison Murphy.”

  Using her full name like that? “Them’s fightin’ words.” Anyway, they should be. For some reason, her traitorous heart liked the way it’d sounded coming from his lips, something she so couldn’t focus on right now. “And you know patience isn’t a virtue I have.”

  “Oh, I know.” He opened the door to the truck, showing off the interior before leaning against the side. “So? What do you think?”

  “It’s real fancy. In other words, a good truck for a city boy.”

  He jabbed a finger to her ribs, making her let loose a squeal. He covered a yawn with his hand. “Man, I feel like I’m about to pass out.”

  “Yeah, that pie and ice cream was the hard stuff—I should’ve warned you.”

  He rolled his eyes. Then, without warning, he grabbed hold of her hips and swiveled her in the other direction.

  “Look.” His arm stretched past her head; his finger pointed to the sky. “See it?”

  The falling star flickered out in an instant, but she’d caught the tail end.

  “Make a wish,” he whispered, and she closed her eyes and made a wish about being in a wedding.

  And while she was making unlikely wishes, she also made one that involved the guy standing behind her.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Addie crammed into the huddle with the rest of the guys. It was uncommon to have a huddle pre–choosing teams and with only half the players, but Shep had motioned them in, and they’d formed a tight circle.

  Always aware now, Addie had made sure Tucker was between her and Shep—she doubted his fiancée would thaw while Addie had her arm around Shep’s shoulders.

  “Okay, so full disclosure,” today’s ringleader said. “I have ulterior motives for calling for this football game.”

  “If you’re trying to impress your fiancée, maybe you should’ve brought in some guys who don’t know how to play,” Ford said, because he never could help himself.

  “You’re gonna be on the opposite team, and I’m gonna make you regret those words.”

  Ford grinned, glee the best way to describe his expression. He basically ran on challenges, the crazier the better.

  “Anyway, I had this idea that if Lexi saw Murph in her natural habitat, it’d ease her worries.”

  Addie scrunched up her forehead, confusion stepping to the forefront. “Not following.”

  “Football. Doing the sports thing.”

  He gestured at the field like that explained it all.

  “You think tackling me will help her forget that we used to date?”

  “No, I’m not going anywhere near that landmine. Tuck’ll cover you. You two don’t have a problem tackling each other, do you?”

  Addie glanced at Tucker. Tackling? Nope.

  Thinking about his hard body while it was underneath or on top of her…?

  That was another story, one starting at the very moment, considering the wall of muscle heating her side, his fresh-cut-wood scent making her think of Sunday night when she’d leaned back against him.

  When his hands had been gripping her hips and he’d whispered in her ear about making wishes.

  “Leave Addie to me,” Tucker said. “I’ll take her down, no problem.”

  “Oh, really? Just like that? If you’ll recall, the last time you talked trash to me, you ended up eating your words.”

  “Doesn’t sound familiar,” he said with a smirk.

  With their mini powwow over, they gathered everyone else who’d shown up for their pickup game and split into two teams.

  Addie, Ford, and Easton were on one side, along with Easton’s cop buddy and partner, a skinny teenager who had no idea what he was getting into, and a couple of their former classmates.

  The other team consisted of Shep, Tucker, one of Ford’s firefighter friends, along with David’s brother, whose name had slipped her mind.

  Kind of like how her name and the fact that she existed had clearly slipped David’s mind.

  Not like I don’t have enough complications to deal with.

  Addie caught sight of Lexi as they lined up. She wasn’t sure watching a football game would change her mind about the past or future. Hope called to her, though, so she tried to convince herself it would, and added a friendly wave for good measure.

  The tight smile in return didn’t exactly instill her with confidence and, considering there’d been no text or call and the wedding was in a month, it wasn’t looking good.

  No thinking about that.

  Exhaling a long breath, she decided to channel her frustrations and worries into the game.

  After this past month of bottling up her emotions, it’d be nice to unleash them in an arena she was comfortable with.

  The ball was hiked, everyone sprang into motion, and Addie ran straight for Tucker. With the guys being significantly bigger, they never full-on tackled her, but they didn’t take it easy, either.

  Luckily speed was on her side.

  A few plays later, she faked one way and cut another, gaining a few seconds on her defender. She snatched the perfect spiral out of the air, and with some nice coverage from Easton, ran the ball in for the first touchdown of the game.

  Of course that only spurred the other team to play that much harder.

  They made play after play, going back and forth. A nice pass to Tucker that resulted in a touchdown and the firefighter caught another.

  And right when Addie was out of breath and second-guessing how good of shape she was in, Tucker peeled off his shirt and shot it toward the sidelines.

  You’ve gotta be kidding me.

  She thought she’d been breathless already.

  Every ounce of oxygen escaped as she raked her gaze over his shirtless torso, the sweat highlighting every perfect inch, from the corded arms, to the pecs, and holy crap, he had a six-pack.

  Apparently lawyering burned a lot of calories.

  His stripping set off a chain reaction among the guys—one she refrained from following, despite the sweltering sun—and all of a sudden they had an even bigger crowd gathering.

  Women changed course, carrying their groceries or pushing their strollers toward the park. The moms who’d been sitting on the park benches, only lackadaisically paying attention to the game, turned for a better view.

  Sure, there were a few guys in the spectator mix—damn it, was that David who’d come out of the dentist office with his staff?

  Anyway, her point wa
s they’d definitely snagged the female portion of the crowd’s interest the second the shirts came off.

  Tucker set up opposite her, and she worked to act unaffected.

  He raised an eyebrow. “You okay?”

  Her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth, so she simply nodded.

  Then he winked, and the play had been live for several seconds before she realized she needed to be moving instead of staring.

  …

  That firefighter prick had tackled Addie—Tucker understood that she was quick, racking up points, and they needed to stop her in order to win, but he didn’t have to hit her so damn hard.

  Tucker sprinted over, grabbed the guy’s arm, and yanked him off her.

  “What’s wrong with you? This is supposed to be a fun game, not NFL-wannabe hour. The goal isn’t to injure someone, you moron.”

  Addie pushed to her feet—slower than usual, too, which made his blood boil—and brushed the grass off her knees. “I’m fine, Crawford. He didn’t hit me that hard.”

  He glared at the guy. “Do it again and I’ll show you how hard I can hit.”

  The smack on his arm drew his attention back to Addie. “Dude. Take a chill pill.”

  “You got one?”

  She tilted her head. “I don’t know. Do you have a plastic bubble I could play in? ’Cause that sounds real fun.”

  “I get that Shep has some master plan, and this is supposed to be your natural habitat and shit, but these guys are a lot bigger than you. You know that, right?”

  That set her off, fire flashing in her eyes as she advanced. “I know someone who’s being a bigger jackass than anyone else right now. Spoiler alert: it’s you.”

  Shep came over and put a hand on each of their shoulders. “You two good here? The rest of us would like to play, so why don’t you take out your aggression during the next down, mmm-kay?”

  Addie glanced at Lexi, stiffened, and swiveled out of Shep’s reach. “No touching, remember? I think this is making it worse.”

  Shep swore and ran a hand through his hair. Then he put on his carefree happy facade, blew a kiss at his fiancée, and jogged back to set up on defense.

  Tucker stopped Addie with a hand on her arm. “You sure you’re okay?”

  “I’m fine.” She hitched up her chin and flashed him a haughty smile. “And I’ll be beyond fine in a minute when I score on you. Do try to keep up.”

  His blood heated, half challenge, half want.

  He’d better stifle thoughts of Addie’s body underneath his before everyone could see where his mind was headed.

  Still, he needed to get to her faster next time. Her stubborn nature meant she’d take hit after hit without saying anything, and that rookie firefighter had barreled into her as if he had something to prove.

  For a moment, Tucker wished to be on the other team so he could set her up to score on the guy. Then maybe his ego would take a side seat.

  Or more likely he’d only hit harder the next time.

  Easton cocked his arm to throw, and Tucker knew it was going to Ford or Addie. He ran toward his man—or woman, in this case.

  She saw him coming, pivoted, and Easton launched the ball. She reached for it, brought it down, and ran.

  Tucker caught up to her, and instead of tackling her, he scooped her into his arms, lifting her off her feet and stopping her forward progress.

  “Seriously? You get mad over a tackle, when you’re full-on picking me up?”

  “It’s called lift football. You haven’t heard of it?” He slowly lowered her to the ground.

  She spun, her chest bumping his, and the anger coating her features made it clear she didn’t find it funny.

  “You don’t have to treat me differently than everyone else.”

  “Well, I’m gonna, so deal with it.”

  She spiked the ball at the ground hard enough that if they had a ref, he would’ve called her for unsportsmanlike conduct.

  He was tempted to blow his mock whistle and call her out, but retaliation would most likely come in the form of her knee to his balls. While he could block it, that’d only piss her off more, and regardless of what she obviously thought, that wasn’t his goal.

  Easton gave a low whistle and clapped him on the back. “Waving a red flag at the bull. Interesting tactic.”

  He wondered if his friends could see through him. If they’d noticed the struggle to keep his feelings in check, especially today.

  “In fact, I’m seeing a few interesting things this afternoon,” Easton added, and the narrowed eyes made him suspect that at least one of his friends was onto him…

  And not a fan.

  He didn’t need to hear it—he knew it’d throw off the group dynamic if he and Addie tried to cross into more.

  After all, Shep and Addie had hardly been a thing, yet their breakup had still thrown things off for a while. This was a much bigger scale.

  This was every one of his longest friendships, and every one of them intertwined. If something affected one of them, it affected them all.

  He needed to remember that.

  Besides, it didn’t matter how he felt if she didn’t feel the same.

  When she’d been on the phone with Lexi during the football game, he could tell Addie was upset, and he’d wanted to help however he could. The way she’d leaned into him when he’d wrapped his hands around her shoulders, actually allowing him to comfort her, made him think that maybe she felt the connection between them, too.

  Then she’d told Lexi that Shep was like her brother. That all the guys were, and they knew way too much about each other.

  It was the reality check he needed if not totally wanted.

  As he lined up across from her for what Shep announced would be the last play of the game, Tucker wanted to forget reality and get caught up in the dream for a moment.

  Unfortunately for him, it looked more like she wanted to tackle him to the ground and rip him limb from limb.

  He and Shep pulled out an old play from high school, one most people didn’t see coming. Addie knew the plays as well as they did, though, and she launched herself at him a fraction of a second after the pigskin hit his hands.

  They fell to the grass, a tangle of arms and legs, and he managed to hold on to the ball. She sat up, her legs on either side of him, her palms braced on the ground next to his head. The smug expression, view of her breasts, mere inches from his nose, and friction spread the want firing through his body and drove him right to the edge.

  This woman aimed to kill him.

  This probably wasn’t the way she’d originally planned to do so, but several cases came down to intent, so in his opinion, that was all that mattered.

  He tried to think of non-sexy things like football stats and pond scum as he sat up.

  But his hand went rogue on him and dragged up her thigh, and then pond scum wasn’t enough. He was growing harder by the second, and if she hadn’t already felt it, she would momentarily.

  “That’s game!” Ford called. “Losers buy beer at the Firehouse!”

  Addie rolled off him. Were her cheeks that pink before?

  And was it from the exertion, or had she noticed his reaction to her being on top of him?

  She pushed to her feet and extended a hand, and he let her pull him up—well, with help, because as he’d pointed out, he weighed a lot more than she did.

  She let go but he held fast, curling his fingers around her wrist and tugging her to him.

  “Addes.”

  She tipped her face up to his. “Yes?”

  “You still mad?” he asked, even though her clipped tone implied it.

  “Depends. Are you gonna admit that I can take care of myself?”

  “I’ll admit that you’re amazing out here on the field, and that you talk trash with the best of them. Playing ag
ainst you is always a challenge, and next time, I wanna be on your team so we can see how much ass we can kick together. Would it be so bad if, in spite of knowing all that, I took care of you a little anyway?”

  Some kind of internal struggle played out, her features creasing and smoothing. “In my experience, relying on yourself and what you can control is the best way to avoid getting hurt.”

  “Did somebody hurt you?”

  He’d kill them. First them, then the firefighter who’d hit her too hard—he’d just take out everyone.

  He’d always felt semiprotective of her, but the impulse nearly consumed him now.

  “Not on purpose.”

  He frowned.

  “Are you two heading to the Old Firehouse, or what?” Ford asked.

  While Easton might be onto him, Ford obviously didn’t have a clue. Maybe he should recruit the guys’ help.

  Because that wouldn’t be weird or ruin the dynamic in their group at all.

  Addie pulled away, and he fought the urge to tug her back to him one more time.

  Crossing lines might be complicated, but holding back was causing complications right and left, too.

  The only thing he knew for sure was it wasn’t worth risking their friendship.

  That thought didn’t do much to cool the jealousy that flooded him when he saw the dentist making a beeline for Addie.

  If he so much as laid a hand on her, Tucker would happily remove it for him.

  …

  Football with shirtless boys was obviously a bad idea, especially if one of those boys was giving confusing signals. He wanted to take care of her? Why? In, like, a sisterly way, or did he…?

  No. She was projecting.

  Was she projecting? This would be where having more experience with dating and flirting would come in handy.

  Did somebody hurt you? he’d asked, his tone conveying that he would hunt them down and make them pay, which would be quite the feat, considering he was the reason she’d hesitated to get too close to anyone else since he’d left.