Page 77 of Need You to Choose Me

I flinch. “It isn’t like that with Belle. She’s the captain’s stepsister and she feels bad about what happened. That’s it.”

Olive doesn’t say anything.

“Her and Clarkson have a thing that everybody seems to know but never really addresses.”

Olive makes a noise. “Wait. So they’re stepsiblings who…?” She grows quiet. “Wow. It’s like the porn I used to watch.”

I choke on the water I take a sip of, spraying it all over myself. “Christ. Warn a guy before you start talking about porn.”

I can picture her rolling her eyes. “I’ll be sure to do that. But seriously, that’s…interesting. But whatever. People love who they love, I guess.”

Setting my cup down on the coffee table, I brush off the wet spots from my shirt. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Wetting my lips, I clear my throat. “So how have things been?”

“Better than they’ve been for you, I suppose.”

I crack a smile. “I’d imagine.” There’s another pause between us. “What about you, Olive? You got anybodyinterestingin your life?”

“I’ve got a lot of interesting people in my life,” she answers, knowing damn well that isn’t what I mean. “You’ll have to be more specific.”

She wants me to say it? “Do I need to drop names?”

“Do you?” she challenges.

“Shoot me straight and give an injured guy a break,” I all but plead. “Is there something going on with you and Bodhi Hoffman? A friend of a friend heard you and him went to the Rangers preseason party together in the city and left for a while. And we both know I saw the photo at Dave and Busters.”

Nelson’s cousin was one of the caterers at the event they attended. Apparently, she’s lived in the city for a couple of years and always gets gigs with sports teams because she knows how to be discreet. I’d heard her talking to the defenseman about Hoffman and Olive leaving together and coming back a few hours later. According to her, she thinks they’re “cute” together.

Anger bubbles under my skin.

I told her I wasn’t mad for her sleeping with him, but it makes me fucking angry thinking that it was more than once.

“A friend of a friend, huh?” she muses. “I didn’t think you cared that much.”

She’s mistaken. “I told you that I was willing to give you space, but that I didn’t want to mess this up. It’s just a question, so I know where you stand. One you haven’t answered.”

She sighs. “Bodhi and I are friends. In fact, he seemed upset with me when I cut our conversation short when I heard you’d been hurt. Is that enough for your ego, or do you need another stroke?”

My lips tilts up slowly at the corners in victory. “I’m always down for a good stroke, especially if you’re doing it.”

“Alex.”

“Olive.”

We’re quiet.

Then I say, “Come see me. I’m required to rest for another week before I can even go to practice. I’m not allowed to play anytime soon. I’ve got time to kill, and the silence is fucking killing me. And I’d rather you suffocate me than Belle. She’s nice, but she’s getting on my last nerves.”

She only pauses for a moment. “And I won’t?”

“You never have before.”

When her silence greets me, doubt creeps into my gut. Does she really not want to come? It’s the end of summer, but Lindon isn’t supposed to start classes for another couple of weeks.

When she speaks, there’s a heaviness in her voice. “I guess you forgot about that last night we spent together then.”

Dragging my tongue along the seam of my lips to wet them, I drop my head. “It shouldn’t have happened.”

“Doesn’t change that it did,” she points out.

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