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My eyebrows rise as I survey her packed back seat and imagine the rest of her things in the trunk. “Are you asking me or telling me?”
“Asking,” she says with a timid demeanor that’s so unlike her.
I open her back door and start pulling things into my arms. “Let’s take it all up, and you can sort through it and decide what you need now and what you don’t. We can throw the rest into a storage closet on my porch. It’s only half full.”
“Okay,” she agrees, slinging a messenger bag over her shoulder and grabbing an overnight duffel with her hands. Her long blonde hair sways along her back.
In three trips, the two of us transport all her belongings into my apartment. We pile it into the corner of the living room, and I have flashbacks of when Oakley and Mads moved into my place over Christmas break for a week. But everything about this time feels different. My sister isn’t here as a buffer.
Mads stands before her bags with her hands on her hips and her lower lip stuck between her teeth.
“Not sure where to start?” I ask.
“No, I know where to start. I just don’t want to.”
I chuckle at her honesty. “The Bruins are playing in thirty minutes. I’m gonna jump in the shower.”
She scrunches up her pretty face like she just smelled something rotten. “Take your time in there. And use plenty of soap. I probably need to run out to the car and crack the windows so my car can air out the stench.”
McMann and I worked out hard earlier. I’m covered in sweat and probably smell like a dirty sock right now.
“That’s the smell of hard work, baby,” I scoff.
I move closer, but she shuffles to the other side of the room before I can trap her and rub my sweaty skin all over her body.
“If you say so …” There’s a gleam in her light-blue eyes.
I tip my chin at her mess. “Get to work.”
She salutes me as I disappear into my bedroom to lose my shoes and socks before walking into the bathroom. I shower quickly. I towel-dry my short hair and wrap the cloth around my waist. When I open the door, the steam escapes into the living room like vapor. Madison is sitting between two piles of her stuff on the floor.
“My keys are on the counter,” I say, nodding in the direction of my open-concept kitchen. It’s separated from the living room by a modest stretch of granite.
Madison glances over at me. Her eyes trail my exposed chest and dip to where the edge of the towel is knotted at my waist. I freeze. The feel of her gaze on my skin is warm, like a touch. She swallows. My body starts to stir down south from the heat in her eyes, forcing me to move before we have a situation.
“Are you checking me out, Mads?” I smirk, taking a few slow steps toward my bedroom.
Maybe if I call her out on the ogling, it will make this moment feel less weighted and remind both of us that we’re just friends, sharing a space. I’ll probably need several reminders of that over the next few weeks. Because right now, it feels more like I’m a man, standing half naked in an apartment, alone with a smoking hot blonde, who’s devouring me with her eyes. And I like it a little more than a friend should.
“The keys,” I say again, “to unlock the storage closet on the porch.”
It takes some effort, but she pulls her gaze away to glance at the small porch right off the living room. The space isn’t big. It barely fits two chairs, but there’s a closet off to the side with extra storage.
“Okay,” she says.
“I’m gonna get dressed,” I announce as I slip into my bedroom. Right before I close the door between us, I add, “So you can concentrate on something other than my naked body.”
This seems to snap her out of the daze she was in. She rolls her big eyes. “You wish I were checking you out, Burnham. Plus, what do you expect when you parade around half naked?”
“The nerve of me,” I say with my head still poked out of the doorway. “Showering and walking around in a towel in my own house …”
She snorts as I shut the door.
I lean against it for a moment and rest the back of my head on the wood. My mind pictures the smoldering in Madison’s eyes when she was looking at me. I’m not blind; I know women find me attractive. And I train hard and work out so much that my body stays toned and chiseled. It’s only natural that she’d notice.
And I’d be lying if I said I’ve never checked out my little sister’s best friend. I’m only human, and Mads has always been hot. But it’s just been in the past couple of years that she’s turned into a real stunner. She’s all woman now. Any trace of the little girl I grew up with is long gone. McMann and Sims have both noticed, along with the rest of the hockey team, annoyingly.
But I need to keep my thoughts in check if she’s going to be staying here. It would be too easy to cross a line that the two of us could never come back from. Madison isn’t going anywhere. Oakley and she have been tight for years. The last thing I want to do is hook up with her and create an awkwardness between all of us that wasn’t there before.
