Page 56 of Thrown Off Balance

“Oh, it’s cute you think I won't get into trouble with you around.” Emma trails a finger down his chest with a devilish grin on her face. Movement at the door catches her eye and her grin spreads impossibly wider. “Pauly’s here? He’s so hot!”

She squeals as she runs over to him and hugs him like he’s her favorite person in the world. Leo mutters something under his breath and shakes his head. She drives him crazy and always has.

“Oh, stop it. She doesn’t have a thing for Pauly.” Bella pats Leo on the back.

“It doesn’t matter to me who she has a thing for,” Leo grumbles.

“Sure, it doesn’t.” Bella rolls her eyes. “You can keep telling everyone that until we believe it, but I don’t think that will ever happen.”

“She’s still trying to make you jealous?” I arch a brow.

“It’s like it’s her sole mission in life,” Leo sighs.

Bella and I share a look. We both know Emma’s just trying to get Leo to make a move, but it hasn’t happened yet. Sooner or later, she’s going to give up on him and move on to another man. Leo will be crushed and he’ll only have himself to blame.

We settle into our seats as the buzzer sounds and the guys take the ice. I watch them carefully, keeping my attention on anything out of the ordinary. Everything seems fine… until the first period ends.

Jax and Cody glance to the section I sat with Jude the first time I came to one of the games. I swallow hard when I spot someone waving like a crazy man.

“Mason, he’s here,” I whisper pointing towards where the man is.

Mason pulls out a pair of binoculars and curses under his breath. No one saw Jude enter the stadium. They have no clue when he got here or how he got in.

The sounds around me fade away as I stare down at the ice unfocused. If he can get in here without anyone seeing him, what will he be able to do if I'm out in public? Eventually I’ll have to go back to work. I’ll have to return to my apartment and go out. I’ll need to get groceries or fill up my car with gas. How will I be able to escape him?

“Take a deep breath,” Mason murmurs as he takes the seat beside me and places a hand on my back.

“I can’t,” I whisper, sounding nothing like myself.

“You can. Take a deep breath in and blow it out slowly. It’s going to be ok.”

I squeeze my eyes shut and try to listen to Mason. I focus on his voice and nothing else. I slowly feel the panic leave my body.

“The boys are safe if they’re on the ice. Jude can’t get to them.”

The tension melts even more with his words. I care about Jax and Cody more than myself. I'm the one that brought the crazy person into their lives. If anyone deserves to get hurt in this situation, it’s me.

Chapter 33

Cody

Sloan’s been a ball of tension since Jude showed up at the game last week. She’s constantly staring out the windows, trying to look for anything being out of place.

The three of us went back to my house with Pauly joining us. We figured there’s no point of staying with Mom and Dad for who knows how long when Jude wasn’t making a move.

“I want you to go get ready for a date,” I murmur in Sloan’s ear as I wrap my arms around her waist from behind and rest my chin on her shoulder.

“What? We can’t go on a date.”

“Sure, we can.”

“No! We can’t leave the house.” She spins around to face me with her brows furrowed.

“We’re not leaving the house, babe. I have it all handled, just get all dolled up and pretend we’re going out. Ok?” I duck down to meet her gaze and a soft smile ghosts over her lips.

It’s been killing me that I haven’t been able to take Sloan out on a real date. She deserves it more than anyone else after how our lives have been lately. When we dated in high school, we didn’t do a lot of dates. It had everything to do with our age and I don’t want to get into a habit of us not going on dates now.

Dad always told me that even after you get married, dates should never stop. You should treat your wife the same way you treated her when you first started dating. It makes sense to me and I want to make sure she knows how special she is to me.