Page 98 of Stick With Me
He brushes me off with a wave and chuckles. “Couples are weird, man.”
He’s saved from interrogation when my phone vibrates with an incoming FaceTime call, and I smile. “Hey, Ry.”
“Is it okay for her to cheat on you, Logan?” Dom yells in the background.
“What’s going on there?” Ryan’s brows pull together.
I flip the screen around to the television, where bachelor Matt’s smiling face is frozen. “He’s talking about watching it without you.”
“That wasn’t funny.” Ryan lets out a long exhale, and Dom cracks up.
“Sorry, he’s your friend… I told him it’s practically cheating if we watch it without you.”
“Damn straight.”
“Hey! We’re friends now, too,” Dom reminds me, lounging back on the couch.
“Why’s he there anyway?” Ryan asks.
“I love it when you talk about me like I’m not here,” Dom chirps.
“I don’t know, he just showed up. I nearly stabbed him with a kitchen knife.” I fill Ryan in on his friend’s lack of boundaries.
He scrubs his hand over his face, his hair and skin look wet with perspiration. “I’m going to have to take back his key.”
“You will not!” Dom shouts.God, he’s loud.
“What’re you up to?” I ask Ryan.
“I was cycling in the hotel gym, trying to flush out my sore legs, but heading back to my room now. I’ll call you back after I shower. I just wanted to see your face first.” He winks, much smoother than I’m ever able to accomplish.
“Okay, I…” I clear my throat, my eyes darting to Dominic, a reminder that I’m not alone. “Have a good shower. Bye!” I say in a rush.
I direct my attention back to the television, where Dom is playing the show I told him not to. “Hey!”
“Okay, okay.” He shuts it off and scrolls through apps for something else to watch.
“It’s kind of funny how dramatically your opinion of the show has changed,” I say.
“I admit, it is entertaining.”
“I should submit you for the season filming this summer. You’d be the perfect bachelor.”
“Pfft. Don’t you think the first step would be dating one woman? It seems a bit intimidating to go from no girlfriends to twenty-four.”
“I don’t know. It might be good for you, you know, being a commitment-phobe. Plus, I’m sure most of it is scripted. No one really falls in love on shows like this.”
His head tilts side to side as he considers. “Thanks, but no thanks.”
“Suit yourself.”
Dom eventually lands on another team’s hockey game, and I don’t complain. The sound of the commentators is punctuated by Dom’s occasional voiceover. I glance at him, sprawled out on the couch like he belongs here, and realize how much I appreciate the company. How much I’ve grown to love this little family of crazy hockey players and even crazier women, in the best possible way. The thought of Ryan playing somewhere else next season and losing this tugs at my chest. But then I think about the five days until he’s home and realize that, as much as I’d miss this, I could never handle missinghim.
When Dominic shows up again the next day, I’m not even surprised. At least this time, he knocks.
“Come to watch the game?” I ask, letting him in.
“Don’t sound so excited, geez.”
