Page 25 of Secret Pucking Unicorn

“Good morning.” Her Irish lilt is strong, making me smile. That’s my Miranda.

“You sound like a leprechaun,” Carter says.

“Bite me,” she says.

“Would you be magically delicious?” he asks.

A growl rises in my throat and I cough to try to disguise it.

Brick and Miranda make identical “ew” faces and laugh when they make eye contact.

“Hey, Miranda,” Brick says. “Stone is making French toast for breakfast, and we have bacon. Do you want to eat with us?”

“That would be great, thanks.” Miranda’s lilt disappears the more she wakes up. I miss her genuine voice. The one I know is the real her, not what she adopts to fit in here. “Do we have cinnamon?”

I don’t try to hide my smirk as I prepare the pot of tea I’m hoping to share with Miranda. Now it’s Carter trying to suppress a growl. Good.

“Mac, is Miranda your date for the New Year’s Eve party, or did you ask someone else?”

Fuck.

“What New Year’s Eve party?” Miranda asks.

Carter gives me a shit-eating grin and turns to answer her.

“Oh, you don’t know about it? The team is having a party at Devil’s Den. Drinking, dancing, a kiss at midnight. Wanna be my date? Want to be sure I have someone pretty to kiss to ring in the new year.”

There’s no holding back my growl this time.

“What am I? Chopped liver?” Stone asks to break the tension. “I’ve been using lip balm and everything.”

Miranda laughs and her questioning gray eyes flick to mine.

“I forgot about the party,” I say.

“Are you going?” she asks.

“Hello,” Carter shouts, waving his hand. “I asked first.”

Brick lays a hand on Miranda’s arm. “Most of us are going stag, hang out with us.”

“Yeah, okay,” Miranda says.

“Come on and make breakfast with us,” Brick suggests, “before these two whip out their dicks and pee on your leg to mark their territory.”

Miranda nods and wrinkles her nose before turning to walk out of the apartment.

Stone looks over his shoulder to make sure she’s out of earshot.

“Get your shit together.” He’s usually happy-go-lucky. For him to be stern is startling. “If either of you are serious in your feelings for her, then do something about it. If you’re just trying to piss the other one off, then grow the fuck up. She’s a nice person and doesn’t deserve to be toyed with. We need to be cohesive as a team and not distracted by petty bullshit.”

“So, what’s the problem?” I ask Carter after Stone shuts the apartment door behind him. “Should I be looking for somewhere else for me and Miranda to live?”

“What do you mean ‘me and Miranda’? You two aren’t a couple. She’s here because she’s my best friend. She didn’t even know you were on the team. How close are you if neither of you knew the connection to the team?”

Okay. Score one for him. If I had my way, I’d have been talking with Miranda every single day for years, be with her every night. But I’m her best friend’s brother and her friend. Not her boyfriend, not her mate, not her future. We send each other memes or listings of farms for sale with ideas of what we’d do if it was our farm, but nothing personal between our calls. We hadn’t spoken since before training camp for the Devil Birds. I never had the chance to tell her about my move here and playing for the team.

“Well, I’m not leaving her behind,” I say.

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