Low Blow (Shots On Goal Standalone Series Book 4)

by Kristen Hope Mazzola

  “Yeah, yeah. I know but if it happens, oh well.” Shaw brushed it off and I let it go.

  “Invite them over. Who knows, you might have just found the love of your life.” I teased but Shaw was already taking a few steps over to the guys.

  “Hey, would you guys want to play two on two?” Shaw called over.

  The men looked at each other and then back at us, shrugging. “Sure, why not?”

  “Twenty bucks a game?” I asked, batting my eyelashes at them.

  The one Shaw had his eye on snickered. “Sure, little lady. We’ll even let you break.”

  Wrong move.

  I giggled a little. “Oh, gosh. That’s so nice of you.”

  It was so funny to me when men thought that since I was small and somewhat pretty, I was a delicate little flower. I was rough around the edges, and probably tougher than they were at the end of the day.

  I broke, sending the seven right into the corner pocket.

  “I guess we’re solids.” Shaw smiled over at me as I leaned against the high-top behind me.

  “That we are, sir.” I waved over to Rhonda, signaling for another drink.

  Shaw was sneakily eyeing his crush as he lined up a shot like an amateur. “When shooting over another ball, you have to jack up your cue,” Shaw advised as I laughed a little.

  The other guy came over to me. “Y’all from around here?”

  I cocked my head to the side. “Guessing from your drawl, you’re not.”

  He dug his hand into his pocket to get his pack of cigarettes out. “Gave it away that easy, did it? I’m Willie.”

  “I’m Olive. Everyone calls me Liv, and I’ve been coming here since I can remember. So, to answer your question, yes, we grew up here.” Otis got right in between my legs. He didn’t like it when strangers, especially men, got close to me.

  Willie took a step back. “Gorgeous Cane!” He kneeled down to try to pet Otis, but the dog was not having it. With teeth showing and nostrils flaring, Otis was not a happy camper.

  “He’s a little protective. Give him a bit to warm up to you.”

  I glanced over and saw a sight I hadn’t seen in ages: Shaw was lip-locked with Willie’s friend at the other end of the table.

  “Well, I guess our friends are having a good time.” Willie put his hand on my arm.

  I giggled, taking a step back. “That they are.” Otis was still on alert, and I was thankful for his cock-blocking skills.

  Rhonda brought over my drink. “Here you go, Liv. Can I get you boys anything else?” she asked, grabbing a bucket of empty beer bottles from the table.

  “Another round please, and this little lady’s number.” He winked at me and I threw up a little in my mouth. It wasn’t that Willie wasn’t decently attractive—he was about six-foot and had a full head of hair, a decent smile, and all of his teeth—it was the fact that he assumed I wanted to jump his bones just because I had a vagina and he had a penis.

  Rhonda scoffed. “Nice try slick.” She turned to me. “You good?”

  I nodded, petting Otis on the head. “I’m covered, Rhonda.”

  “I’ll be right back with another bucket of Bud for you guys.”

  Willie got up to take his shot. “A little protective?” he asked over his shoulder as he lined up.

  “She’s like my second mother.”

  He missed, sighing. “Dammit.”

  I ran the table for the next few minutes and banked the eight ball in with ease.

  “Well, shit, girl!” Shaw’s wide eyes snapped to me.

  “Someone has to take care of business while you’re over there sucking face.”

  I could feel all eyes blaring at Shaw and his new friend, but if there was a time to not give a fuck, it was now. He was out, and who gave a shit?

  “Double or nothing?” Willie shot me a crooked smile.

  “I’m calling it a night. Shaw, you sticking around?”

  Shaw gave me a thumbs-up as I chugged the last of my drink. “Nice to meet you, Willie. Have fun with those two.”

  Chapter 5

  Griffin

  “Fuck, baby,” Amy whispered as I kissed down her neck. “I missed you.”

  I pulled at her shirt, lifting it up over her head. A week apart was far too long for me to go without feeling her smooth skin against mine.

  I grazed her hardening nipple as she wiggled out of her tight jeans. “I missed you, too,” I groaned.

  My body went into autopilot.

  Strip.

  Throw her on the bed.

  Get in between her legs.

  She panted as I sucked on her clit, and her nails dug into my shoulder as I plunged my tongue into her sweet wetness.

  Right as her body started to shake, I stopped to get on top of her after rolling a rubber onto my cock. Amy’s body was perfect—she was a damn model, for crying out loud, so it had to be perfect. My fingers laced into her hair as she moaned and my dick filled her tight cunt.

  Wrapping her legs around mine, she pulled me deeper into her.

  “Fuck, babe.” I growled, letting my teeth sink into her neck gently.

  She sharply pulled away. “Griff, I have a shoot in the morning. No marks.”

  I rolled off of her. “I know the rules, Amy,” I complained as I struggled to keep my hard-on. We had been over and over this for months. I wasn’t going to leave marks, but I was going to have fun while I fucked her. She was so consumed by being careful that she took most of the fun out of sex.

  “I’m sorry, baby. I’m just paranoid.” Straddling me, she started to rub her throbbing clit with the head of my dick, bringing him back to life just in the nick of time.

  I thrust into her, grabbing her hips. “It’s fine.”

  She grinded her hips into mine as she cried out my name and her walls convulsed around my dick. Just as quickly as our fuck-fest had started, it was over.

  Amy pulled my shirt on over her head and curled up on her side of the bed. “You’re incredible,” she said breathily, but I didn’t feel incredible.

  Amy and I had been seeing each other the better part of a year, and I felt nothing. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy her company or that she wasn’t gorgeous, there just was no substance. We went out and fought paparazzi or we stayed in, had a quickie, and she was asleep within minutes. We never had deep, meaningful conversations, and we didn’t even know that much about each other.

  “So, my birthday is tomorrow.” I curled up behind her, pulling her back into my chest.

  “Yeah, about that…” Her voice faded a bit.

  Tucking her into my side more, I kissed her cheek. “What’s up, babe?” I asked softly, trying to be as romantic as possible.

  “I think we should start seeing other people.” Her words came out sharp as she pulled away from me.

  “What the fuck?”

  There was no way I’d heard her right.

  What in the ever-loving fuck?

  She rolled over to look at me. “I have felt this way for a while, and I think it’s time to part ways, Griff.” Her eyes were cold, and she blinked blankly as my brain registered the fact that she was dumping me in the middle of the night right after riding my dick and telling me she’d missed me.

  “Fuck you,” I bellowed, bolting out of the bed. “You’re such a heartless cunt.”

  “And you’re a worthless boxer that can barely satisfy me.”

  Talk about kicking a man while he’s down.

  “Get out of my apartment.” I ripped the covers off of her. Taking a few breaths, I did my best to not freak out. My temper was raging, and all I wanted to do was throw her over my shoulder and cart her ass out of my place.

  Easy.

  Don’t give her a reason to slap you with a lawsuit.

  Count to ten. Repeat.

  Deep breaths.

  I stood like a statue in the middle of my room, trying to cool my temper as she started to gather her things. A faint sniffle started and I about lost my damn mind.

  “Oh, now
you have feelings?” I yelled while yanking my jeans back on. I poured myself a glass of scotch and sank down onto my bed.

  “Of course, I have feelings, you jerk! We just broke up!” She threw her bag on my bed, pouting.

  “Don’t act like this is my fault.” There was no way I was going to play into her crazy-ass game and beg her to stay. “There’s the door to a whole world of other people for you to go see.”

  “I’m pregnant.” She dropped the biggest bomb ever and I laughed, throwing the used condom at her.

  “If you are actually pregnant, it sure as shit is not mine.”

  Throwing her hands over her face, she started to cry harder. “I know that. That’s why I was breaking up with you.”

  “So you tried to take the easy way out and just never tell me you’re a cheating whore? Fan-fucking-tastic. See you never, and don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

  “Holy shit! You and your brother have the worst freaking luck ever.” Jordan put my drink down as I deleted Amy’s contact out of my phone.

  “Yeah, I guess so. At least Gavin’s turned around though.” I chugged down more than half of my scotch, trying to decide if I should call Gavin or not. “I mean, he’s been with Myla forever now. He just needed to wait for the right person.”

  She put her hand on my forearm as I stared down at my blackened phone screen. “You know he’d understand. After Marsheila left your brother at the altar, he was a wreck for a really long time, and Myla was the only thing that brought him out of that dark cloud. At least Amy dumped you in private.”

  Jordan was my big brother’s best friend and had been since we were kids. She had watched me grow up and was the perfect bartender to help me drown out my sorrows for the night.

  “No matter what, he’ll find out tomorrow night,” I muttered.

  “Oh shit! Happy birthday!” Her cheeks flushed as she ran around the bar. She threw her arms around my neck, and I hugged her tiny body to mine.

  “Thanks.”

  “What a twat cake for breaking up with you the night before your twenty-sixth birthday!” Jordan hopped onto the barstool next to me. We were the only two people in the entire bar since it was so close to closing time.

  “It’s probably for the better. We weren’t going anywhere.” I sighed.

  “Well then, congratulations for losing so much dead weight.” Jordan started typing on her phone and within minutes, my brother and his other best friend, Sean, were walking into the bar.

  “Jordan, what did you do?” I whispered at her as she hopped off her chair.

  “You need to talk to Gavin and you weren’t going to do it at your parents’ house tomorrow, so I made the executive decision to text your brother. We all have five years’ experience on you, and drinking alone is not the answer.”

  “Hey Griff.” Sean took the seat next to me and I did a double-take when I saw his left hand.

  “Dude, you got married?”

  Gavin slapped me on the shoulder before asking Jordan for a Manhattan.

  “Yep, at the courthouse last week.” Sean’s face broke into a smile that was larger than life.

  “Yeah, those two fuckers didn’t even call me and Myla to be their witnesses.” The bitterness that emanated from my brother made me laugh a bit.

  “Get over it, bro. Jess didn’t want anyone to know, so I agreed. Happy wife, happy life, dude.”

  Gavin raised his glass. “I cannot argue with that.”

  “Y’all are coming tomorrow night, right? We’re going to need all the buffers we can get with our folks.” I glanced from Sean to Jordan.

  Gavin answered for them. “Of course, they’re coming. Free expensive booze and a kick ass meal?”

  Sean threw his hands in the air. “I mean, I’m not complaining. Jessica is planning on coming too.”

  “It’s your birthday. I wouldn’t miss it.” Jordan put gloves on and started to clean bar glasses as the attention went back to my crappy night.

  Gavin turned to me. “So, what happened?”

  I gave them the play-by-play and by the end, they were both hysterically laughing.

  “So, let me get this straight: she’s a limp noodle in bed and then dumps you because she got knocked up by some other poor shmuck, and you’re upset about it? Sounds to me like you dodged a damn bullet.” Sean was snickering as he tried to wrap his head around it.

  “I’m more pissed than anything else. I mention my birthday and the next second we’re breaking up and she’s a crying mess in my room.”

  “Talk about a low blow.” Gavin jabbed me in the side.

  “Ha! Very funny.” I rolled my eyes and glared at Jordan. “See, this is why I didn’t want to call them.”

  She shrugged, wiping down liquor bottles as she started to get ready to close the bar. “Sorry not sorry.” She stuck her tongue out at me playfully while she continued to do her side work.

  “Look, little brother.” Gavin hooked his arm around my neck. “You need to go out there and find substance. It’s rare, it’s hard to fucking find, but you’re just treading water right now. You’re at the top of your game as far as fighting is concerned, but that is not going to last forever. Look at me, for fuck’s sake—I am an old dude when it comes to hockey, and I know that sooner rather than later I am going to have to hang up my skates and figure out my next game plan. That’s all well and good, but if I didn’t have my friends and Myla, I would be a bitter asshole like our old man. Don’t let boxing be the only thing you have in your life because once it is gone, what do you have left to keep you going?”

  “But, Dad has a family, lots of money, and a second career, and he still is a miserable prick.” I shook my head. Gavin was just feeding me some bullshit to try to sound like a big brother should, but it was all a load of crap as far as I could tell.

  “He was always a dick, yes, but do you want to be like him?” Gavin’s eyes narrowed.

  I shrugged. “No. That’s the last thing I want.”

  “Let me ask you this, who is your best friend?” Gavin pointed to Jordan and Sean. “My two are here, and then I have the entire group of guys on my team that I would kill for, not to mention Myla, Brayden, Karla, and McBee. I would fucking do anything for them—they’re all practically family.”

  I didn’t know what to say. The only people that came to mind were my coach and my cutman, but they weren’t actually my friends. They were just the people I spent the most time with.

  “All right, I see your point,” I grumbled under my breath.

  “I just want you to be happy, bro.” Gavin pulled me into him. “You’ve been through too much to not truly live life.”

  I stared down at my hands wrapped around my empty rocks glass. “Yeah, I need to figure something out.”

  “You will. Tomorrow is a new day.”

  “When the hell did you get so good at giving advice?” I glanced up at my big brother, who was—really for the first time in our lives—being the big brother I had always needed him to be.

  Sean chuckled. “He’s become very wise since Myla got him reading and shit.”

  Gavin threw his hands in the air. “What can I say? That chick has made a better man out of me.”

  Chapter 6

  Griffin

  “Happy birthday, bro.” Gavin slapped my shoulder as he walked into our parents’ foyer with a shit-eating grin on his face. His wife was in tow, beaming at me and holding a huge gift-wrapped box with a blue bow on the top. Sean, Jessica, and Jordan were already sitting awkwardly with my folks in the living room.

  Myla shoved the gift into my hands before hooking her arms around my middle. “Happy birthday, Griff.”

  Myla and I were not the closest of in-laws, but she always knew how to light up a room. Her bubbling personality was truly refreshing in the dank melancholy that usually festered in my parents’ home. There was so much bad blood and frustration that dripped from the walls, it had stained the family long ago. Mostly it was because my father was a pretentious asshat tha
t treated my brother like a second-class citizen and resented me for getting sick at such a young age.

  Gideon Hayes had grand dreams for his boys, and you would think we were both injecting heroine into our eyeballs from the way he treated us, but we were everything he had ever wanted for us. Gavin had been the captain of the New York Otters hockey team for years, was married to another hockey player’s sister, and had a gorgeous penthouse on the Upper East Side—he was living the fucking dream. I was fighting my way into the big time, winning title after title, but nothing would ever be good enough for the crotchety old man my father had become.

  My mother waltzed into the foyer, daintily kissing my cheek. “Happy birthday, baby.” I could smell the gin on her from a mile away.

  “Thanks, Ma. What’s for dinner? It smells amazing in here.” We all hung up our coats and followed my folks into the living room where our friends were waiting.

  After saying hello to everyone, Gavin and I bee-lined it straight for the wet bar while mom answered my question. “Braised beef tenderloin with a kale salad, roasted beets, and Brussels sprouts with bacon, just the way you like it.” The look of satisfaction on my mother’s face was hysterical—she’d planned Gavin’s favorite meal for my birthday. Fucking perfect.

  Gavin tried to stifle his laughter. “That sounds fantastic, Ma! Can’t wait.”

  “Helga should have it ready promptly at seven.” She looked down at her watch. “Excuse me, I need to make sure we’re on schedule.”

  “I’m going to get some air,” I mumbled to no one in particular.

  I started to pace around the back patio. I couldn’t put a finger on exactly how I felt. I wasn’t upset that my mom had messed up and gotten Gavin’s and my food preferences confused; it was an honest mistake. I couldn’t have cared less about Amy and knew I was better off without her. Grabbing my wallet from my back pocket, I pulled out a laminated newspaper clipping and reread the words I had read over and over for the better part of the last ten years.