Page 1 of Any Second Now
Finally
ATTICUS
New Year’s Eve
Before she arrived at my apartment a few days ago to visit my sister, I hadn’t seen Raleigh Hayes in almost a decade.
And now, with the ink fresh on her second divorce, Raleigh’s here and looking absolutely gorgeous in a maroon wrap dress with a dangerously low neckline.
“Sorry, Luce!” I call to my sister. My hockey teammate walks her out of the ballroom where the Fort Collins Blizzard NHL team is having their big New Year’s Eve celebration. I just accidentally knocked into our team captain, who was holding two full glasses of champagne, both now all over Lucy.
And while I didn’t do it on purpose, there’s a bright side: I’m now standing alone with Raleigh.
“Are you going to vomit in a bush next?” Raleigh tilts her head and presses her lips together, her fine blonde hair shifting around her face.
“Will I never live down my first semester of college?” I groan dramatically and squeeze my eyes shut for a beat. “Even though it was twelve years ago and I was a sweet and lonely freshman?”
Raleigh laughs, her dark chocolate-brown eyes sparkling, and the sound warms me from the inside.
“First of all,” she says when her chuckles die down. “You were never lonely—there werealwaysgirls following you around—and second, I’m pretty sure you weren’t sweet.”
“Hmm. You might be right.” I rub my hand on my chin and pretend to look thoughtful. “But all I wanted to do was hang out with my big sister’s friends. Was that so bad?”
They laughed at me back then for tagging along all the time. But at the first party I went to with the trio of my sister and her two best friends, I stumbled upon a football player who had Raleigh looking very uncomfortable cornered in a dark hallway. Or maybe I was jealous. I interrupted with the excuse that I was looking for Lucy. I had a few inches on the football player, but he probably had fifty pounds on me, so I was lucky that he only glared at me before walking away. After that, I invited myself out with them all the time.
Maybe they didn’t technically need me to protect them, but I needed to know they were safe.
And okay, maybe they also made sure I got home in one piece after a long night of partying, although I often curled up on the couch in their apartment so I didn’t have to drag myself back to my dorm on campus.
A server in all black approaches us with a tray of champagne, so I ditch the empty flutes and grab a pair of fresh ones.
“I promise I won’t spill this on you.” I hand Raleigh a glass and our fingers brush with a sharp tingle as she accepts it.
“Thanks.” She takes a sip and seems to assess me, then shakes her head. “I truly don’t know how you hook up with all the women that Lucy says you do. You have, like, zero charm.” I mock shock as Raleigh downs half her champagne, but she’s holding back a smile.
She’s flirting with me. Thank god. Because right now, Idofeel like I have zero charm, even though I’ve never had a problemgetting women to take an interest in me. In fact, I hardly ever have to try. It just happens. I think briefly about the woman I hooked up with on the road a few weeks ago in Chicago, then the one a month before that in Dallas. It’s not who I want to be, but it’s who I am.
“Ouch. Zero charm?” My eyes flit down to her lips, my gaze lingering on how plump and inviting they are. I look back up and her cheeks are turning rosy.
Oops. Didn’t mean to be so obvious in my ogling.
“Yeah, when we were in college?—”
“Raleigh.” I step toward her, shrinking the gap between us. “I am not the same person I was in college.”
“You’re not?” She bites her bottom lip and stares up at me, big brown eyes so wide. I force myself not to stare at her mouth.
“Well, areyou?” I don’t know. Maybe I kind of am.
I’ve apparently still got this thing for Raleigh. I would’ve thought that a decade playing professional hockey and getting the money and attention that comes with that would’ve cured me of this unrequited college crush.
I guess I thought wrong.
“No.” She shakes her head, some of the flirtatiousness falling off her face, and her gaze lowers to the ground. “I’m much less optimistic about life.”
Shit. I guess two divorces can destroy someone’s optimism. How can two fucking men have let her get away? And now she’s got that damn hurt look on her face… I reach over and gently touch the underside of her chin, letting my finger linger. Raleigh looks up at me.
“Well, some things are the same,” I say.
