Defending the Reaper: A Standalone Steamy Sports Romance (The Playmakers Series Hockey Romances Book 5)

by G. K. Brady

  “I hear ya. Same with watching dogs all day. I think Lily’s got the right idea with social media management. Those nails can tippy-tap away and stay perfect all day.”

  Lily protested from a styling chair. “Are you kidding? Between my seven-year-old hockey player slash ballerina daughter, my broken-jawed hockey player husband, and lugging this melon in my belly around, I don’t have time to keep up my nails!”

  “Okay, Lil. You get a pass,” Sarah declared. “Nat, how many dogs are you watching now?”

  “Since adding Dave Grimson’s dog, I have five.”

  Ellie swiveled her head toward Natalie. “He got a dog? What dog?” Her heart did a little tap dance. Had he actually cashed in her certificate? God, she hoped so.

  “The same one he had before. Cute black-and-white pup named Benny. Did you ever meet him when you guys were dating, El?”

  Ellie swallowed the hard knot wedged in her throat. Dave’s back with Nicole. “Yeah. Um, he’s super sweet.”

  “What?” Katie piped up. “You guys aren’t dating anymore? No one ever tells me anything!”

  “Are you seeing anyone else right now, Ellie?” Paige asked sweetly.

  “Why? Does Beckett have any brothers?” Ellie tried to make it sound light, she really did.

  “He does, but he’s taken.”

  The manicurist added her own two cents. “All the good ones are. Even some of the bad ones.”

  Natalie got a wild gleam in her eyes. “Not all of the good ones are. My brother, Drew, is available. You should let me set you up with him, Ellie. Sarah dated him. Ask her what he’s like.”

  I need to corral these matchmakers. “Guys, thanks, but I really don’t—”

  “I only dated him the one time,” Sarah added helpfully. “He’s super smart, a gentleman, and really, really hot. But don’t tell Quinn I said that!”

  “How about it, El?” Natalie wiggled her freshly waxed eyebrows.

  “No, I, um, I just started seeing someone.”

  “You did?” Lily didn’t mask her surprise. “What does he do?”

  “He’s in law enforcement.” Ellie wasn’t really lying. She was seeing Rick—every time he sauntered into her office—and he was in law enforcement.

  The girls began discussing the merits of dating law-enforcement officers versus hockey players. The thought of Dave and Nicole back together made Ellie’s heart and head hurt, so she faded into the background while the conversation ping-ponged around her. Suddenly, she couldn’t wait for what had been a pleasant spa day to be over.

  Chapter 39

  Can’t See the Ice for the Hockey Sticks

  Sonoma bounced up and down, clasping her hands together. “Guess what? Finn and I are moving in together!”

  Dave glanced at her from where he sat in her chair, trying to muster excitement. “You sure that’s a good idea, Nome?”

  Her scowl made him backpedal—he really needed to watch his mouth when she held sharp instruments.

  “I mean, you haven’t known each other that long,” he added lamely.

  “Just because you fell off Mount Dumbass doesn’t mean I can’t recognize a good thing when I see it. In fact, I noticed your good thing long before you did. I just never thought you’d—”

  “Fall off Mount Dumbass. Haha. I get it, Nome.” God, she was irritating!

  He sat in stony silence. It had been several days since Nelson had schooled Travis at the rink, and the guys—minus Dave—were back on the road. Even Nelson. Sonoma was way too happy to be a good drinking buddy—she was her own damn Hallmark Channel—which left Dave with no one to drown his troubles with. Not that he was drowning his troubles anymore. No, he was owning that bad habit too.

  But why the hell was he here getting trimmed? It wasn’t like he had anyone to impress. As if she’d read his mind, Mandy breezed by and tossed him a wink. “That was fun the other day, huh?”

  He replied with a quick head bob.

  Sonoma’s eyebrows knotted together, and she hissed under her breath. “Is that what you want? Another shiny bauble?”

  “It’s not what you think.”

  “Talked to Ellie lately?” Sonoma practically growled.

  “No.” But he wished he had so he could return her latest check. The damn woman was still trying to pay him back for the damn van.

  Quiet minutes ticked by, and he couldn’t take it. “Is she doing all right?”

  Sonoma gave a nonchalant shrug. “She’s fine. Just lots going on with that girl right now.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like she’s selling part of her business to Finn.”

  What? “Why?”

  “So she can take more time off.”

  “Why does she need more time off?” he near-barked. Not that he disagreed, but Jesus Christ, he hated that Sonoma knew what Ellie was doing while he was relegated to fishing for info.

  Another shrug and a snip. “Who knows? Maybe she needs to clear her calendar so she can keep up with the demands on her social life,” Sonoma chortled. “Finn says that ICE guy’s been hanging around—or is he FBI? Anyway, I guess he’s been trying to get her to go out with him, and Finn says he’s wearing her down. Oh. And some guy from her Habitat project. Even a few guys from your team are sniffing around.” Sonoma whacked his shoulder with her comb. “Don’t you guys have some sort of bro code about women you date?”

  “What?” Was it fucking Viktor or fucking Wyatt? Nothing but horndogs, both of them. All of him wanted to bellow, then go find the assholes and have a few words with them. Those douchebags were only after one thing. That he felt protective wasn’t new—just the degree to which he felt it. The ferocity was on a completely different scale, and he had to rein himself in. Ellie wasn’t his to protect.

  Sonoma smirked at him in the mirror—of course she did because, with his little outburst, he’d just spoken volumes. “I liked you better with her,” she said to his reflection.

  “And now you like me less?”

  Her expression softened. “Honestly? Yes. Plus, I think you like you less.”

  Nope, he wasn’t going to dignify her armchair psychology with so much as a huff. He went for the deflect instead. “So what makes Finn so ‘special’?” Air quotes on the last word.

  She spoke while she snipped. “He’s cut from the same cloth as Ellie, which makes him different from the clueless guys I usually meet. He put himself through the school of hard knocks, and now he knows what he wants and has a plan to go after it. He doesn’t give a shit if people like him; he’s unapologetic about who he is.” A dreamy look drifted over her. “And who he is is pretty terrific.”

  Dave faked a retch. “More than just a pretty face?”

  “Way more.” She crouched down to eyeball Dave’s ear. “His looks sort of put me off at first—he was a little too perfect—but he’s really smart, takes care of those he loves, and he makes me laugh. Which is amazing, considering what he’s gone through.”

  Dave’s interest sharpened. Maybe now he’d finally get the skinny on Finn. “Such as?”

  Sonoma lifted the hair on his crown with a comb and trimmed. “Years ago, Finn got himself into a bunch of trouble doing drugs.”

  Say what? “Did he get caught?”

  “Oh yeah. With his pants down.”

  Dave turned partway in the chair, and Sonoma smacked him over the head with her comb. “Ow! And this is a guy you want to live with?”

  She shot him a few daggers. “Some of us make bigger mistakes than others, but it doesn’t make us irredeemable. Would you agree?”

  Touché. He put his hands up in surrender. “My bad.”

  “Yes, it is. Anyway, he got caught not once, but several times. And who do you suppose he turned to each time?”

  “Ellie?”

  “She was front and center, bailing out his ass, no questions asked. She’d bring him home, give him a place to sleep, try to get him squared away. I guess it caused problems in her marriage.”

  Dave slid Sonoma a look
. “Nome, I think her marriage had bigger problems than her stepbrother’s drug use.”

  “True. According to Finn, Ellie tried to be all things to her ex, but for obvious reasons, she couldn’t be the one thing he needed. Finn thought the guy was a bit of a douchebag, and he was glad when they broke up.”

  “Well, duh. If he hadn’t been a douchebag, he wouldn’t have fucked their employee in their office and he wouldn’t have trashed their business and dumped the mess in her lap.” Overwhelming protectiveness surged in Dave—again. He could be the guy to make sure crap like that never happened to Ellie again; he wanted to be that guy. But she wouldn’t let him. He was also struck with the uncharitable thought that he was happy Ellie’s ex came out, or she might still be with him, trying to fix everything because she was loyal to the extreme. She deserved way better. She deserved to be treated like a queen. Her loyalty, though, was one of the things he loved best about her.

  Oh shit. The L word again.

  Sonoma tilted his head. “Finn’s kinda bullheaded, like you, so he didn’t learn his lesson.”

  Dave snorted. “Gee, thanks, Nome. But let me guess. He got busted again.”

  “Yep, but for dealing this time, and the charges were way more serious. Again, it was Ellie to the rescue.”

  “Where was the rest of the family while this was going on? Why didn’t one of them step up to the plate and help out?”

  “No one else in the family knew. They still don’t know. She kept his secret. Long story short, he helped send away the guy higher up the food chain, and in exchange they reduced his felony charges to misdemeanors. He did jail time, and it was rough. If it hadn’t been for Ellie coming to visit him and making sure he was okay, he might not have made it.

  “She also gave him a job when he got out—being employed was one of the conditions of his probation. Who else was gonna give the guy a chance?”

  “Ellie,” Dave muttered. Because she’s also forgiving.

  “You might say she’s her stepbrother’s keeper. Or was.”

  A little stunned, Dave met Sonoma’s gaze in the mirror. “She never said a word to me.” Why didn’t she trust me? Because I didn’t earn it. Why does she have to shoulder this stuff on her own? Because she may be soft and delicately beautiful on the outside, but she’s tough as nails inside. And damn stubborn.

  “Of course not, numbnuts. It wasn’t her secret to tell. Apparently, you haven’t figured this out yet—though I’ve said it over and over—but Ellie’s one of a kind. I thought you were wise enough to realize this and finally break your old patterns.” She leaned to his ear and whispered, “You know, the Mandys of the world.” Then she straightened and sighed. “I hoped you’d finally graduated to an Ellie-grade person.”

  “What else did you think?”

  “You really want to know?”

  In the past, he would have been affronted by her comments. Instead, he said, “Yeah, I do,” then shut his mouth.

  “I look at how you acted around Ellie compared to other girlfriends. Even though you weren’t together long, you were … I don’t know, different.”

  “How was I different?”

  She plugged in the clippers, and her eyes traveled to the ceiling. “You were relaxed. You acted like the Dave I know, the one you keep from the rest of the world. I compare that to how you were with Nicky. You were always uptight around her, like you walked on eggshells. You knocked yourself out trying to please her, but it was never enough, and I think it made you feel like you weren’t enough. And that broke my heart. She was the one who was inadequate. I never saw her go out of her way to make you happy. And honestly? I don’t think you could’ve made her happy. She just kept raising the bar.”

  The clippers whined at his nape, and he turned over Sonoma’s words. She was right about one thing: Ellie came from a completely different end of the spectrum than Dave had expected. And the part about Nicky? Sonoma wasn’t wrong about that either. With Ellie, all he had to do was show up, and she gave him a look that told him that was all she needed to make her happy. Correction: all he had had to do. Past tense.

  Sonoma dusted off his neck and turned his chair so he faced her. “Ellie’s not into all the glitz and glitter, like Nicole was.” Sonoma paused to laugh. “I mean, Ellie’s box dinner sums it up, don’t you think? It’s so quintessentially Ellie. Substantial yet simple and incredibly beautiful at the same time. She’s … understated. Also, she’s more like you than you realize. She doesn’t size people up from the standpoint of ‘What’s in it for me?’ She takes them at face value. She likes to do for those she cares about, and she doesn’t mind wading in and getting dirty to do it.

  “I’ve thought about why you went for her, even though she’s not your ‘type.’ Unlike the others, where you were attracted to their looks, you got to know Ellie first—who she is, what’s in her heart. You were attracted to her, not her face or her body or her hair. Although …” Sonoma wiggled her hands in the air. “Bonus! She’s the prettiest of the bunch, in my opinion, and it’s all natural.”

  Can’t argue that. He could get lost in those Delta Blue eyes for days, never get tired of plunging his fingers in those spirals of silky golden hair, and kiss that plump, strawberry mouth of hers for the rest of his life. Physically, she was perfection. She was also a craving he couldn’t satisfy. God, he was practically addicted to her. He’d never felt that way before, and he couldn’t see himself feeling that way about anyone else. He didn’t want to even try with anyone else. And it wasn’t about the sex, although it had been off the charts from the beginning. He couldn’t have imagined it going higher from there, but it had. Rockets and fireworks. Every. Single. Time. She’d brought out desires and emotions in him beyond anything he’d ever experienced, touching him on so many levels he never knew existed; he’d nearly overflowed with it.

  And he wanted that back.

  Sonoma released him from the cape, and he stood and kissed her cheek. “Thanks, Nome.”

  He’d parked in back, and when he headed out, his eyes immediately strafed the alley. The burgundy van sat outside Ellie’s door, and his insides rippled. Unfortunately, Mandy followed him out, a huge grin plastered on her face.

  Shit. What does she want? I knew I shouldn’t have winked at her the other day. He crossed his arms. “So how do you know Travis?”

  She shrugged. “A friend of mine met him at a club and invited me along for some fun.”

  As she talked, Dave blanked out what she said because he was too busy realizing everything Sonoma uttered was true. Mandy was a brunette version of Nicky. This, my friend, is the type of woman you’ll end up with if you continue being an idiot. Was this what he wanted for the rest of his life? A revolving door of high maintenance, shallow women? No. He wanted a woman he could build a home with. A life with. A family with. A woman he could make smile. And there was only one for him, but she happened to be unobtainable.

  “Unobtainable?” Yoda chortled inside his head. “If true you believe it to be, then true it is.”

  I have so much to lose.

  “But to gain, much more,” Yoda hmphed. “Stopped you before, this has not.” Okay, so Yoda had his good points.

  “Dave?” Mandy was smiling and frowning at the same time, and he shook himself back to the present. What had she been saying? Her eyes darted over his shoulder. “Oh, someone’s dog is loose.”

  He turned. Casper was streaking toward him like a bolt of lightning. He dropped into a crouch to wrangle her, and when he looked up, Ellie stood by her back door, dressed in slacks and a sweater that showed off her slim lines and mouthwatering curves. His pulse launched into hyperspeed. She started toward him, stopped, and started again, her eyes furtively sliding between him and her door. Yeah, she wanted nothing to do with him. The girl was stupid-stubborn, but so was he. Could he out-stubborn her? In that moment, determination crystallized. If she was willing to give Finn chance after chance, then why not him? All he needed was one more shot. No waffling. He. Would. Not. Screw. It.
Up.

  “You know Ellie?” Mandy was asking.

  “Yeah, I know her,” he said absentmindedly, his eyes locked on his prize. Leaving Mandy behind, he scooped Casper up and loped toward Ellie, who grew more frantic the closer he got. “This your dog, miss? I think she’s in love with me.” And I want her owner to be too. Casper wiggled and licked, trying to reach any part of him she could.

  Ellie hung her head with a defeated sigh, her loose hair folding around her face like a golden curtain. He dropped Casper at his feet, stuffing his good hand in his front pocket, while the dog snuffled the scent from his shoes.

  “How have you been, Ellie?”

  She lifted her face, her skin creamy and smooth as ivory, her big blue eyes flickering. God, he missed looking at her!

  “I’ve been”—she swiped the back of her hand across her forehead—“a little out of it lately. Probably the weather.”

  Tingles riffled through him, and his heart swelled. “Are you pregnant?” he blurted.

  First her mouth dropped open. Then her eyes got about as wide as a pair of headlights. Finally, her nose and her eyebrows scrunched together, and she took a step back, looking at him as if he’d lost his ever-loving mind.

  “Pregnant?” she squeaked. “Where did you get that idea? Why would I be pregnant?”

  He shrugged. “I’ve been thinking about those couple of times we, you know, and I didn’t, you know, and I wondered. You can get pregnant that way.”

  “No, I am most definitely not pregnant.”

  An odd disappointment sliced through him. “You sure?” Would you like to be?

  One corner of her mouth twitched. “Yes, Dave, I’m sure.” Thoughts streamed behind her eyes as she surveyed his face, but he couldn’t read her. “I need to be somewhere, and I’m late.” In a reverse déjà vu, her eyes lifted and zeroed in on something over his shoulder. “I think Mandy’s waiting for you.”

  He didn’t bother to turn around. Just jabbed his thumb over his shoulder. “You know her?”