Page 165 of Never In My Wildest Dreams

“The staying. The fighting for a relationship.”

“Not with him. He’s got a history of doing this.” When he’d thought his friends didn’t care about him, he’d slammed the door and moved on. When his mom explained the adoption papers, he’d walked away from her. When he found out his boss’s true nature, he’d quit and never spoke to the man again.

“Yeah, but you said you’re broken. So’s he. We’ve all got baggage.” Jude watched her. “Is what you have worth fighting for?”

He’d punched right through her walls.

She’d been lying to herself, thinking she’d be happy to get back to her routine, being content with the life she’d built.

Who am I kidding?

Her heart needed Slick to be healed.

Her life needed Slick to be whole.

Her family needed Slick to be complete.

“Yes,” she said.

“You want him to heal your broken pieces?” Jude asked.

She nodded.

“Maybe you can do the same for him.”

* * *

Booker was waiting for his connecting flight when the call came in.

He smiled when he saw the three faces on his screen and got out of his seat before hitting Accept. “Hang on. Let me go somewhere private. I never know what’s going to come out of your filthy mouths.”

“Hey, man, we’re dads now,” Cole said. “We don’t talk like that anymore.”

“We sure the fuck don’t,” Jaime said.

“Watch it. There might be children around me.” Booker headed toward a remote section of the gate. He loved that they called. It was like their friendship hadn’t skipped a beat. “So, what’s up? Let me guess. Which one of you needs an agent? Who needs a contract reviewed?”

“Fuck off,” Cole said. “You’re lucky I wasn’t around when you said that.”

“Why, because you’d hurt me with your movie star smile?” Booker asked.

“I’m trying to remember which one of us has won a Cup,” Cole said. “Oh, right. That would have to be me. You never did get on the ice, did you?”

Jaime’s eyebrows shot up, and Declan said, “Low blow, brother. Real low.”

“What do you want?” Booker asked, pretending to be annoyed. “I’m about to board a plane.”

“You seemed off last night,” Declan said. “We wanted to see what’s up.”

“Shit.” He hoped he hadn’t ruined Ginty’s wedding.

But Jaime held up a hand. “You were fine.”

“No one noticed a thing,” Declan said.

“Except us.” Cole lost his smile. “Something happened between you and Lorelei. You went from lovey-dovey to steering clear of each other.”

Down below, on the tarmac, people in reflective vests loaded the luggage, but all Booker could see was the look in Lorelei’s eyes when she’d told him they’d gotten carried away. “Things fell apart.”

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