Page 26 of Triple Threat
I flinched, once again reminded of my old reputation. There was a time I would have hit on Ollie; the girl was gorgeous, after all. Plus, it was always fun to mess with Parker’s rules about her. He’d given us the speech when she first showed up: no messing with her. She wasn’t even his, but he imposed a strict no-touching policy, not wanting to deal with any awkwardness when things fell apart.
But I no longer had that itch to piss off Parker, and, honestly, Ollie could have been the most beautiful woman in the world, and it wouldn’t have mattered. My bed had been ice cold for years. At first, I told myself it was because of my focus on my recovery, that the warnings about not dating during your first year of sobriety had gotten to me. But in the dead of night, the truth always came back to me.
I’d already met the woman of my dreams.
Kinsley’s face flashed through my mind, and my hands tightened until my knuckles whitened. For two years, she’d been a ghost—haunting my dreams, always out of reach. One night spawned a hundred sleepless ones, stuck remembering how her body lit up under my touch, wishing for one more taste of her sweetness. After she fled my bed, I searched for her for months, but, without a last name or any other information, every step led to a dead end. A smart man would have let it go, forgotten about her, and moved on.
But I never claimed to be a smart man.
Cam and Parker continued their conversation without me, and I turned back to my locker, shuffling to find my phone.Dozens of text messages filled the screen—all from my dad. I tossed it right back into the bottom of my bag. Even though I’d fired him as my agent, he still acted like it. Not dealing with that right now. He could save his play-by-play analysis for another day.
“Hey, Lyons?” I turned to find Cam. “Sunday, I’m going to have some of the guys over after the game. Keeping it small, chill, but I’d like it if you came out. At least for a bit.”
I paused, searching for any hint of a lie, but his offer seemed sincere. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I asked, “Sure you want me there?”
Cam ran his hand over his face. “Yeah, I do, Lyons. You’re a part of this team, and I want to start fresh. Leave the past in the past and win this fucking year.”
I nodded, trying to swallow the lump in my throat. When I played in Portland, my game had never been better. Despite all the wins, though, something was missing between the team and me, and now that I was back with the Hawks, that unease settled in my chest.
I’d missed this—missed my team, missed the family that rallied around each other during our highs and lows. And I’d contributed my fair share of the lows. Glancing around the clubhouse, at the place I’d spend most of my days for the next five months, I nodded my head. “Yeah, man. I’d like that.”
SIXTEEN
“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this.”
Shaking my head, I hit the blinker, taking the turn off the highway. Chelsea sat at my side in the passenger seat, scrolling through the bar’s social media feed. She just giggled as my fingers tapped on the steering wheel. “I can’t believe I talked you into it either. When was the last time we had an adult girls’ night?”
Over three years ago. In the rearview mirror, Anna’s empty car seat made my heart hurt, and I chewed on my lower lip. “And you’re sure Mark doesn’t mind taking care of Anna for a little bit?”
“Mind?” Chelsea shook her head. “He’s been looking forward to it all weekend. Got her those little headphones so he can play guitar with her and everything.” She pulled out her phone, showing me a photo he’d already sent. “He promised to check in every twenty minutes; if anything even slightly out of the ordinary happens, he’ll tell us to come back.”
“Good,” I sighed, trying to keep my voice steady. I wasn’t winning any mothering awards this week—first, Anna had her first full week of daycare, and while she loved it, the morningdrop-offs were the worst. The sound of Anna crying as I gave her over to someone else stuck with me throughout the workday.
My GPS chirped about an approaching turn, and Chelsea frowned at the windshield. “You didn’t tell me Victoria lived on this side of town.”
“She doesn’t.” I peeked over the steering wheel to get a better view of the street sign. “It’s her business partner’s house. They’re best friends and own the daycare together.”
Chelsea beamed over at me. “Getting any ideas, Kins? Want to start a business?”
“Not even a little,” I laughed. “Besides, you loved working with Mark too much to ever walk away from the bar, even for me.”
“True,” she sighed, and her phone chirped in her lap. She grinned and held it up for me to see. Anna was clapping her hands along with Mark playing the guitar. Good. At least she looked happy. Chelsea shook her head, putting her phone in her pocket. “He’s doing this on purpose. Trying to give me baby fever.”
“Is it working?”
She shrugged. “It’s notnotworking, but the bar’s my baby right now. It’s still growing, and I can’t imagine not being there most nights. Maybe in another year or so.”
Another turn, another shift into an unfamiliar neighborhood. Just the gleam of the pristine lawns and perfectly manicured landscaping made my hackles rise. I pulled down the sleeve of my sweater, hoping to cover the hole I’d noticed too late. Not that I had much else to wear.
As I tugged on the sleeve again, Chelsea reached out and covered my hand. “It’s going to be great, Kins. Victoria wouldn’t have invited you to the party if she didn’t like you.”
I nodded, trying to believe her. Since Anna started daycare, Victoria and I had formed an easy friendship, commiseratingover our mom fails and trying to find a work-life balance. Nothing more than idle chit-chat, something she probably did with all the parents as they dropped off their kids in the morning. It didn’t cross my mind until Thursday afternoon, when I got a text from her asking us to come to a barbecue at her business partner’s home. When I got home that night, I’d already drafted a message, telling her thanks, but we couldn’t make it. Going to a stranger’s place wasn’t high on my to-do list, especially when work had been draining me.
But as I went to send the message, I couldn’t press send. It was true—there were thousands of other things I should do tonight. My LSAT study guides had gathered so much dust, they were more decorative than anything else. What would another night hurt?
I needed this, needed a night out that didn’t revolve around helping my friends or my daughter. It had been years since I’d gone out just for the sake of it, and, with all the stress in my life, I deserved to laugh and have some drinks.
“This is like real estate porn,” Chelsea muttered. “I would give anything to live out here.”
