Page 59 of On the Line
“Fuck yeah it is,” he said, face splitting into a grin so large his eyes became mere slits. Picking her up, he tossed her onto the bed and crawled up next to her, planting kisses along her impossibly soft and warm skin until they were eye-to-eye. “And I’m your boyfriend.”
She rolled her eyes, and Mitch studied her face as she fought a smile. Finally, she gave in, her grin growing steadily until it matched his own.
Then she flipped onto her stomach and screamed into the pillow.
Mitch settled a hand on her back, rubbing soothing circles over the bare skin and ends of her hair despite the fact that he was laughing.
His girlfriend. Lexie Monroe was hisgirlfriend.
Lexie lifted her head then and said, “We can’t tell anyone. Not yet.”
All his mirth left him instantly. “And why the fuck not?”
“Are you forgetting that Brent and Berkjustbroke up? Like a few hours ago? I’m not going to shove my happiness in her face right now, and you are not going to shoveyoursin Brent’s.”
“Okay, okay, fair.” He turned onto his side and pulled her flush against him. “Happiness, huh?”
Lexie rolled her eyes. “That would be the part you latch onto. But yes, happiness. A foreign concept for me, I realize. But for you…I’m willing to try it on for size.”
Mitch grinned and leaned forward to kiss her, unable to help his elation, despite knowing that across the city, two hearts were breaking, hearts of people he cared about very much.
But with Lexie in his arms, finallyofficiallyhis, he was the happiest man alive.
Now...
Lexiehadcometosee him. And like the little bitch he was, he turned her away.
The boys were going to kill him.
Berkleywas going to kill him.
In his defense, he wasn’t ready. When Denise called to tell him he had a visitor, he assumed it was one of the boys. Due to the fact that he was currently on bed rest until the most recent surgery to his back healed, guests had to be admitted to his room; they couldn’t walk in without permission.
So when Denise told him it was Lexie waiting for him at the desk, his heart nearly gave out. Knowing she was in the same building as him, a few hundred feet away, sent goosebumps across his skin. He had waited for this moment for so long—over a year, to be exact—and he couldn’t wait to see her.
And then he glanced down at his body, currently prone on a motorized bed, clad in a pale green hospital gown and nothing else, and the excitement from a moment before was doused by cold reality.
He couldn’t let her see him like this. He refused.
So he did the only thing he could think of to get her to leave.
“Tell her I don’t want to see her. Do whatever you have to do, just please make sure she leaves.”
The words were shards of glass lodged in his throat, cutting him from the inside as he spoke them.
“Okay. Yes, I understand,” Denise said, then hung up.
Mitch pictured Lexie’s face then, knowing exactly how she would react when Denise relayed his message. A flinch of embarrassment, cheeks heating against her will. Then she’d set her jaw, murmur a thank you to Denise, and hightail it out of the building.
It appeared he couldn’t stop hurting this girl.
While he recuperated, Mitch had a lot of time to think. And figure out what was next for him.
After Brent and Cole approached him about consulting for the Warriors, and endless hours spent with only his mind for company, he had a solid plan.
One evening a few days after his latest surgery, his mom stopped by to visit and sneak him a piping hot bowl of her classic chicken and dumpling soup. His mother, the southern woman she was, believed good food was the way to cure all sorts of ailments. Mitch wasn’t about to argue; he loved his mom’s cooking.
“So,” he started. “I think I figured out what I want to do with my life now that I can’t play hockey anymore.”
