Page 97 of Stick With Me
“I was bored, so I figured I’d see what you were up to.”
“Not used to being left behind when the team travels?”
He frowns. “This isn’t my first time on injured reserve, but being alone in that big house is… lonely.”
I nod in understanding, but I’m unable to ignore the elephant in the room any longer. “Uh, what’s that on your face?”
“Huh?”
“Ya know, this.” I gesture to my upper lip.
“Oh, it’s a mustache. You’ve never seen one?” he asks genuinely.
The last time I saw him, he had a full beard, but now it’s trimmed back to a couple of days’ stubble, leaving a thicker mustache. “I know what a mustache is, Dominic, but why do you have one? You kind of look like an 80s porn star.”
“You watch a lot of 80s porn, Hannah? Kinky.” He waggles his eyebrows. “Does Logan know?”
“Ugh, you’re impossible.” I shove his shoulder and then hide my face in my palms.Not because I’m watching lots of 80s porn.
“I’ve heard worse.” He shrugs.
“Are you going to tell me why you’re rocking a stache?” I ask again, returning to my task of wiping down the counters.
“We aren’t going to the playoffs, so I had to shave off the start of my playoff beard. I’ll admit, starting a playoff beard at all was probably overly ambitious.”
That answers absolutely nothing. “Okay…”
“So, I figured I’d try a mustache. Maybe it will bring good luck for next season, like a warm-up to the playoff beard. A… season stache.”
Hockey players and their flawed logic.
I eye him suspiciously, but nope, he’s serious. He walks over to the hall mirror, turning his head from side to side to check himself out from all angles. “I kind of like it. What do you think?” he muses.
I give him two thumbs-up, resisting the urge to tell him he looks absolutely ridiculous. Holding up the glass container of leftovers, I ask, “Did you eat? I made chicken marsala and have leftovers. Want some?”
“Yes.” He pumps an arm in the air. “Having girl friends has its perks. Lo never makes me dinner.”
“I didn’t make you dinner.”
He dismisses it with a wave. “Semantics.”
I prepare a plate for him and pop it into the microwave. Once it’s heated, I place it on the kitchen island, where he’s made himself comfortable. It doesn’t take long for him to scarf the whole thing down. “Thanks, that was good. Want to hang and watch something?”
This is unfamiliar territory for me; I’ve only been around Dom when Ryan is around, but I have nothing better to do. After watching the Saints’ pitiful loss last night, I’m glad they aren’t playing tonight. Hopefully, the day off will give them a chance to regroup for their second away game tomorrow. Honestly, though, I’m more interested in counting down the days until Ryan is home than in his hockey record.
“Yeah, sure,” I tell Dom.
We head to the couch, taking up separate corners. Dom grabs the remote and stops on a channel playing this week’s episode ofYou’re The One.
“Pause it! We can’t watch this without Ryan,” I shout.
“What? Why not?”
“It’s like the first rule of relationships… Okay maybe not the first one, but pretty high on the list… You can’t watch the show you watch together, alone. It’s practically cheating.”
“Ahh, you said relationship. Logan hasn’t told me about this development. How dare he keep something like this from me after all I’ve done to help make this happen.”
I guess technically we aren’t in a relationship, at least not officially. I’m pretty sure we’re on the same page though, regarding cheating via TV showsandother people. But I’m not sure how Dominic plays into all that. So, I’m still not tracking his “after all I’ve done” comment. “Umm, excuse me? But what have you done?”
