Page 59 of Dangle

Trying and probably failing miserably, I watched as Slone stood, stretched out the kinks… Heat filled my face, and laughter bubbled up my throat. Kink! I snickered and snorted when I tried to cover the sound.

“Dude,” Isaiah asked. “Are you high?”

Slone’s head whirled until his eyes landed on me. Those gorgeous brown eyes narrowed as they gave me an up-down, then another.

“I’m not freaking high, asshole. I’m not a fucking idiot,” I said, my voice just shy of yelling.

Isaac, along with Ethan and Ryan, all looked at me, then at Isaiah before looking back at me.

“Fuck all of you. We get tested all the time. Plus, New York could call me up at any moment, and if I’m high when they do, bye-bye to any chance of playing professionally.”

“Alright, Cap, settle down. How do we know you didn’t get roofied last night when you went off with Aiden?” Ethan asked, with the twins nodding in agreement.

Only Riordy seemed to see just how stupid the questions were.

Sighing, I looked at Slone before replying, his gaze already on my face. “I love you guys, but you’re all assholes, and no, I didn’t get roofied. I got plastered all on my own. The place we hightailed it to was pretty swanky.”

He and Ewen smirked as they waited for us to be allowed to deplane.

“Where’d y’all go, anyway?” Isaac asked.

The flight crew saved me from answering. “Right this way, gentlemen. Drive safe.”

I held back, waiting for everyone else to duck through the door, before I pulled out my wallet. “I have very little in the way of cash to tip?—”

“Mr. Malachek. There’s no need. The family compensates us very well.”

“Do you have lodging? I don’t mind arranging it, if not.”

The attendant smiled. “Yes, sir. Mr. Bauer arranged our stay when he asked us to get you home.”

I pulled out a card and handed it over. “Alright, then. Here’s my cell number. Use it if you ever need to. Thank you so much. And if you could relay the message to the pilot and copilot?”

The man smiled, thanked me, and ushered me off the plane. I bent forward, ducking my chin as I slogged through the downpour of snow to the terminal. The automatic doors opened with a swoosh, and a gust of wind and snow rushed in with me before the doors closed, blocking out the blustery weather.

“Took you long enough. Were you hooking up?” Isaiah asked.

Jesus, how had I fucked him and his brother for so long without realizing just how shitty they could be? On the ice, they were fabulous. They had my back, and I had theirs. But outside of hockey, outside of getting our rocks off together, they could be complete dicks.

“No, asshole, I stopped to make sure the flight crew was taken care of since they flew through what looks like a fucking blizzard to get us home,” I said as I dusted off what snow I could. None of us was carrying winter gear. It was nearly freaking spring, and we were in Nashville. Either way, I couldn’t afford the hoodie I borrowed getting overly wet.

“Speaking of home, we should get going,” Ryan said.

We all nodded. I triggered the remote start and headed out of the terminal to my truck. I was thankful I hadn’t traded the four-wheel drive for the sports car yet.

The roads, once we all got in and took off toward campus, were a nightmare. Some roads hadn’t been plowed yet, and the interstate was an utter nightmare according to social media, so we decided on a side road that led right to our dorm. The usually twenty-minute drive took nearly an hour. By the time I parked outside the dorm, my hands hurt from white-knuckling the steering wheel, and my back and neck hurt from hunching over. We were all half frozen because Ryan and I rolled our windowsdown and he had his head stuck out the passenger window to make sure I didn’t run off the damn road.

We hurried through the increasingly heavy snow to the dorm, stomping and dusting our stupid selves off because we weren’t wearing coats while we waited for the elevator.

“So, can we address the elephant in the lobby now?” Ethan asked.

I looked around, then looked at him. “What the hell are you talking about?”

They cracked up. Yeah, I was an idiot for checking the lobby for an elephant, but I thought he meant something nutty was actually going on in the lobby. It definitely wouldn’t have been the first time.

“Leave Cap be. He just drove us through a damn blizzard,” Ryan said as he laughed his ass off.

“I need better friends,” I muttered as I stepped into the elevator.