“Can’t believe Dax brought her out with us.” Legend grumbles, his eyes going back to Dax and Pepper.
I laugh and shake my head. “Dude…let it go. You’re getting worked up over nothing.”
To my surprise, Legend gives a sigh and then rolls his neck as if to stretch out the tension. “I know. It’s fucking stupid, letting someone have that type of effect on me.”
“Not someone,” I correct him, my focus on Blue as she cheers Billy on from beside his chair. “A woman.”
“Guess you know a little bit about that, huh?” Legend remarks.
“I guess I do,” I admit.
“It was really nice for you to do this for Billy. You’re really good with him too.”
Now that is probably one of the nicest compliments anyone has paid me, and it’s critically important too. I turn to him and ask, “Do you really think so?”
“Yeah,” he says with a chuckle. “He responds really well to you and it’s clear you guys hit it off. Oh, and if the way Blue looks at you when you’re interacting with her brother is any indication, you’re doing a fucking fantastic job.”
The relief that sweeps through me is not surprising. I know how important Billy is to Blue so he has to be important to me too. I didn’t want her to think I’m just about show today.
And truth be told, I fucking like hanging with him. When we first got here about an hour ago, I immediately took him around the arcade to find something he wanted to play. I didn’t find communication all that difficult either. He clearly understands everything, and I was surprisingly adept at figuring out what he was trying to say with just a little patience. If I couldn’t, Blue was there to help interpret the sign language he’d use.
What made it easy though was that Billy is an extraordinarily happy person. The guy fucking doesn’t stop smiling.
Like ever.
And he’s so easily pleased. Just a hug from Blue makes his smile go from merely bright to starlight brilliant. It’s humbling that someone confined in such a broken body can have that much pure joy in his life.
“Blue had to put him in a more affordable group home,” I tell Legend as we both turn back to watch Tacker and Billy take turns at Galaga. “Her father’s life insurance got hung up but I’ve got my attorney on it.”
“That can’t be easy for Blue.”
There’s no holding back my growl of frustration. “And on top of that, she has to work a shitty part-time job serving sleazy old men on private charters.”
“Money that tight for her?” Legend asks.
I nod before taking a sip of the beer I’d been nursing. “I’ve got an email into Christian Rutherford to help out.”
“What do you mean?”
I give my attention to Legend for a moment, leaning in slightly as if I’m divulging trade secrets. Lowering my voice, I tell him, “I’ve asked him to consider giving the flight attendants a raise.”
Legend eyebrows shoot up. “Come again?”
“They need a raise,” I point out.
With a distinct twitch of his lips, Legend drawls, “They do, do they?”
Shrugging, I admit, “Well, Blue does. That crappy part-time job isn’t worth the time away from Billy she has to take. If she gets paid more from Rutherford, she can give it up and I don’t have to be fucking pissed about old geezers grabbing her ass. So yeah…they need a raise.”
I get a smirk that makes it more than clear I’ve amused him today. “What do they make now?”
“No fucking clue,” I chuckle. “I just know Blue needs a raise and so I asked Rutherford for it.”
There’s a long low whistle that comes from Legend as he shakes his head, still with that amused expression on his face that tells me I’m charming the fucking pants off him. “You are absolutely fucking whipped, aren’t you?”
My gaze goes back to Blue. She laughs at something Tacker says to Billy and it fucking hits me in the chest and groin at the same tie. My voice is droll when I admit, “Guess that’s one way of putting it.”
I turn and set my unfinished beer on the bar. “Which makes me wonder why I’m sitting here talking to your ugly ass when I could be hanging out with Blue.”
“You love my ugly ass,” he says as he points his beer at me.
I don’t respond to that directly, but yeah…I kind of do. Legend’s my closest friend on the team. Instead, I nod over to the robots where Brooke and Bishop are now having a go at them with Dax and Pepper cheering them on. “You should go over there. Challenge Pepper to a duel for ruler of the neighborhood rights.”
“Fuck off,” he mutters as he looks over at her, his brow furrowing. He truly doesn’t need the robots. Those two just need to battle it out in bed, but that’s not going to happen. Dax has already made his move for her and once he taps that, if he hasn’t already, she’ll be off limits to Legend.
I stroll across the arcade to the Galaga machine. Billy’s currently playing while Tacker stands to the side of the game, his hand perched up on the top. His gaze is intent as he gives Billy encouragement.
Sliding in next to Blue, I put my arm around her waist. She tips her head to look up at me and well…those lips just need to be kissed.
So I do.
When I lean back, she turns slightly to rest her hand on my stomach and my muscles involuntarily contract from her touch. She goes to her tiptoes, putting her mouth near my ear. “Thank you for all of this.”
I pull my head back slightly to look into her eyes. With my arm sweeping out, I tell her, “This is nothing but a fun afternoon for everyone involved.”
“Yeah,” she replies with a laugh. “But I’m sure you and the guys had better things to do.”
I shake my head and give her a pointed look. “No. We didn’t.”
“So getting lucky tonight,” she murmurs and then turns her attention back to the game.
After Billy soundly thrashes Tacker, I step around the chair to face Billy. “All right, buddy…I challenge you to a game. Are you up for it?”
Billy’s broad grin goes bigger as he jabs his arm at me. His voice is thick and the word is drawled out with long vowels, but I understand him clearly when he says, “Yeah.”
I put my monetized card you have to use to play the games into the machine and set up two players. I tell myself that I’ll go easy on Billy since it gives him such joy to win.
Except…he’s really damn good with his coordination. Far better than I am and he beats my ass soundly. Tacker merely slaps me on the back in commiseration before looking down at his watch.
He looks to me briefly and then bends down slightly to Billy. “Look…I got to go, but it was great hanging with you, Billy. Can we do it again sometime?”
This prospect pleases Billy so much he has a hard time getting the word out, so he just nods his head exuberantly. Tacker grins at him and holds a fist out to which Billy bumps his to it.
Tacker straightens and turns to Blue. To my surprise, he leans in and kisses her on the cheek. I wait for a flash of jealousy but it doesn’t come. Instead, it makes me happy to see Tacker finally interacting on a personal level with someone. “Had a great time, Blue. See you on the next trip.”
After Tacker leaves, I ask Billy if he wants to play Galaga again. He shakes his head.
I let my gaze sweep around the arcade, looking for something new for us to play. “All right then…let’s go find something else.”
Billy instead shakes his head again and looks at Blue. He tilts his head and puts the back of one hand to the side of it and taps it there. Blue smiles at Billy and ruffles his hair.
Turning to me, she says, “He’s tired. It’s been a long day for him, so I think we better get him back to the Cresson.”
“That was a sign for tired?” I ask, to make sure I start to understand his language.
“Sleep,” she te
lls me with a smile, and I can see it touches her I want to know those details.
“All right,” I tell her. “Let’s say our goodbyes and skedaddle out of here.”
It’s as we’re loading Billy up in the back of the van with the motorized lift that I realize this may actually be the most fun I’ve had after a game in a long time. It certainly beat out the Sneaky Saguaro, and it certainly alleviated some of the sting of the loss today. I definitely foresee a lot more trips like this with Blue and Billy in my future.
Chapter 17
Erik
“I won’t be long,” Blue says as she starts to open the door to my Vette to exit.
“I’ll come in,” I tell her, also reaching for my handle.
“You don’t have to,” she replies quickly, and starts to push out of the car.
We’d just taken Billy back to the Cresson in the rented van. After we got him settled in, we Ubered back to the arena to get my car from the players’ parking lot and from there we came to her house so she could pack some clothes.
She’s coming to stay at my place for a few days.
Four to be exact, which is when we leave for the next away game.
Four nights with Blue in my house, whereby I don’t plan on leaving the bed except for practice, a home game we have on Monday, and perhaps to accompany Blue to visit Billy.
I reach out to grab her arm before she can escape the car. She turns to look at me over her shoulder. “Don’t you want me to come in?”
She grins at me. “Of course you can come in, but my place is a dump and the interior of your car is far nicer. I just thought you might want to stay out—”
I put my hand over her mouth to shut her up. “Don’t do that.”
She mumbles something under my hand so I move it. She repeats, “Do what?”
“Belittle anything that is you,” I tell her. “Your home in this specific example. I don’t give a shit what your house looks like, and in fact, we can stay here for the next four days if you want.”
Blue’s eyes turn warm as she crawls back into the car, right across the console to kiss me. “You’re sweet. And I appreciate you saying that. But we’re staying at your house because you have a pool and a fancy coffee maker.”
“That makes sense.” I grab her behind the neck and pull her to me for another kiss.
After a few moments of making out, we make our way into her house. I follow her back to her bedroom, plopping down on her bed while she packs up.
“You won’t need much in the way of clothes,” I tell her as she roots around in her closet. “But feel free to bring as much sexy lingerie as you want.”
Blue snorts and comes out of the closet holding a few pairs of jeans and some shirts in one hand, a rolling overnight suitcase in another. She places it on the bed and folds the clothes in there. She moves to a dresser drawer and I’m pleased to see her pulling out scraps of lace in midnight blue, pale pink, white, and yellow.
She tosses a handful of bras and panties at me and nods at the suitcase.
I refold them and place them in gently, the yellow actually being my favorite.
Blue returns to the closet as she says, “It was really nice of your friends to come to Dave & Buster’s with us today. Billy had such a great time.”
“I was glad to see Tacker come with us,” I tell her, my eyes pinned to her ass as she bends over to nab some shoes. “He’s sort of antisocial outside of the locker room. But he was really good with Billy, wasn’t he?”
Turning to face me, Blue smiles knowingly. “He’s got experience. His fiancée’s older brother had muscular dystrophy.”
“He told you that?” I ask in surprise.
“Yeah. I found him easy to talk to.”
“Huh,” I mutter as I consider this. Tacker is easy to talk to as long as you’re talking hockey. But the few times I’ve tried to engage him, he’s been pretty closed off.
Blue grabs the suitcase from the bed and I follow her out of her room. She crosses the hall into the bathroom and puts it on the sink. She then starts throwing in stuff from underneath like lotions and shampoo. She bags up her makeup and tosses it in. Pulling out a drawer, she nabs her toothbrush and toothpaste. She starts to shut the drawer but I reach out and grab at it, pulling it back out.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I say as I grab a silk pouch. “What’s this?”
Blue rolls her eyes at me as I open it up, and as I suspected find an impressively large vibrator with a small appendage on the front. I flick the switch and it hums nicely.
“I doubt we’ll need that,” she says dryly as she starts to zip up her case.
My hand flies out and grabs the zipper out of her hand, opening the top back up. I turn the vibrator off, put it back in the silk pouch and lay it gently on top of the other items. “We will so need this.”
Blue cocks an eyebrow at me, crossing her arms over her chest. “Need help getting me there, huh?”
“Not the first few times,” I reply with a wink. “But after that, that vibrator will come in handy.”
I’m pleased to see her eyes dilate a little as a tiny breath wafts out of her mouth. “Oh. Well, okay.”
Laughing, I close the suitcase and carry it out of the bathroom. Blue heads into the kitchen and grabs a small watering can from under the sink. “Let me just water my plants really quick.”
She hits one in the kitchen window and then heads into the living room. I lean on her counter, my eyes catching on a massive pile of mail, some of which has been opened and some of which hasn’t.
“Um…have a little procrastination problem with your mail?” I ask her as I poke at the stack which promptly tips over.
Blue looks over her shoulder briefly while she pours water into a plant in front of the living room window. “Sort of. I have all my bills on auto draft so most of that’s junk. I get through it when I can.”
“Well come get through it now,” I tell her as she heads back into the kitchen. “You’re messing with my slight OCD nature.”
“You don’t have an OCD bone in your body,” she retorts.
“True,” I agree with a shrug and use my finger to drag out an interesting-looking invitation which is sitting atop an envelope that had been ripped open at the top. I see the postmark was from two weeks ago. She’s such a procrastinator.
My curiosity is piqued by the fancy gold lettering on the front that says “You’ve Been Formally Invited to.”
I figure a wedding so I open it up.
Blue glances at me, doesn’t seem to be irritated I’m nosing around and walks to the sink to pour the rest of the water out of the can.
The inside lists information for a gathering of her high school classmates at a local country club here. I hold it up and wave it. “High school reunion?”
“Not really,” she says dismissively. “I graduated eight years ago and we’ll have an official reunion at ten years. But one of my classmates has a yearly gathering.”
“Are you going to go?” I ask as I look at the information again. It’s next Saturday.
“No way,” she replies with a grimace, and a little bit of bitterness.
“Why not?”
“Because the woman putting that party on—Christina Hodgins—is the leader of the mean girls, and she’s just as unpleasant to be around now as she was then. She only throws this party every year to look down her nose at those of us that weren’t popular enough to run with her crowd and to brag how well she married up.”
“Wait a minute,” I ask as I lean my elbows on the counter. “You weren’t in the popular crowd in high school? I just find that really hard to believe.”
I mean…Blue is gorgeous, outgoing, kind, smart, funny. She should be the most popular girl ever.
Blue laughs and leans on the opposite side of the counter from me. She takes the invitation from my hand
and looks at it a moment before lifting her eyes to me. “Remind me to find some old photos of me in high school. I didn’t quite look the same and was an easy mark for Christina and her bullies.”
“How so?”
“Well,” she drawls with shrug. “I was ugly.”
“Doubt it,” I cut in dryly.
“Gangly, bad teeth covered in braces and a distinctly nerdy love for the chess club,” she replies.
“Really?” I ask, wrinkling my nose and trying to imagine Blue looking like that. I just can’t.
She laughs again, seemingly comfortable with her awkward phase. “I sort of transformed at the end of my senior year. I sprouted big boobs, the braces came off, and my skin cleared up. But that didn’t make me popular. In fact, it made it worse because boys became interested in me and that threatened Christina and her crew. They turned even meaner. It was not a fun time in high school.”
It’s a hard concept for me to understand. I was popular in high school and a jock. I didn’t overtly bully anyone but I was a cocky son of a bitch and I’m sure I wasn’t nice to everyone. Still, I never tried to hurt someone over something as stupid as looks or social standing, and neither did my friends.
“It’s one of the reasons I went to LA,” Blue adds on. “I sort of wanted to prove that I was worthy enough to hang with the beautiful people. Shallow and vain, right?”
“You were fucking eighteen years old, Blue,” I admonish her. “I’d say that speaks to your immaturity more than anything. And you are one of the least vain women I’ve ever met. You don’t even wear makeup unless you’re working.”
She just stares at me, and I think this might be the first time she’s been validated—in a way—over some early life choices. She has to realize we all do stupid shit when we’re younger.
“Thanks for saying that.” Her smile is small, but grateful.
“We’re going,” I tell her as I snatch the invitation back from her hand and tap it on the counter.
“No way,” she exclaims and tries to snatch it back.
“Yes way,” I counter. “And you’re going to walk in there with a famous hockey player on your arm, looking more beautiful than any creature in the world, and you’re going to look down your nose at this Christina woman.”
Erik Page 13
