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“Can we have just a minute?” Carter says to the driver, who nods and shuts the door.
“You don’t have to do this.” Carter says. He forces me to meet his eyes. “Davey, you don’t have anything to prove to me. We don’t have to do this. I can walk in alone, hell I can go home.” He smiles at that idea, clearly his favorite.
I swallow and look down at our fingers threaded together. “Yes, I do have to do this,” I breathe and let go of his hand, nudging him to the door. “I want to do this.”
Besides, it’s ridiculously egotistical of me to think the world gives a damn about who I am sleeping with. Carter steps out of the car, and I follow. We gaze at the doors leading into the hotel. I button my tux jacket and tug my overcoat around me against the February wind. Carter takes a few steps ahead and I watch his body move. Even shrouded in clothing, I smile. I smile because I know what every muscle in his body looks like when he moves. Damn, he is sexy. And mine. I grab his hand, thread my fingers through his again and hold tight. “This,” I squeeze his hand harder and press my body against his. “This is a statement about how I feel about you.”
“I hear I’m no longer your favorite redhead,” Devyn says as she reaches up to kiss my cheek, before turning to Carter, who quickly confirms it.
“Dev, darling, you should have seen the way he was looking at her tonight. I was jealous.”
I smack him on the shoulder.
Devyn steps back and drinks in this all-dressed up Carter.
“Wow,” she says.
He does a small bow and then looks off into the distance, trying his best to look aloof. Then he looks back at his sister-in-law. “You look pretty good, too,” he winks.
Devyn groans at him. She looks as stunning as she always does at these things. Though tonight’s black evening gown is quite a bit more understated than the red dress of a few years ago. I often forget how long Devyn has known Carter. She met him just before he transferred to school in Boston.
“Well, now I take back all of the bragging I have been doing about you tonight,” she scoffs.
“Me?”
“Yes, you. Don’t act so shocked. The compound is amazing and I want everyone to know!”
I smile, but Carter’s look of surprise remains. He’s allowed himself to be proud for just a few private moments with me, but he gives Levi the credit for the complex and he shouldn’t. Levi’s own wife is giving Carter more credit than he is.
“Come on,” she tugs him away from me. “I want you to meet some people.”
My phone buzzes in my pocket. I reached for it as Steve and Jess make their way to me. Crystal must have sent the photo to her mom too because Jess turns her phone to show me while I am opening the same one on my screen. Crystal is sprawled out across the length of the couch, with Madison tucked in next to her, her head on Crystal’s chest, a book splayed open along her belly.
All good here!
“Thank you so much for letting her do this for us,” I say to Jess.
“Are you kidding me? She’s been working so hard to finish this semester and head to the Springs. This might be the only time she has left the house for anything other than school or hockey. So it’s me who should be thanking you. My daughter has an admirable work ethic, but I wish she would allow herself to relax and be young on occasion.”
Crystal has been skating for Devyn for years now and she’s a natural. Her first year at the University of Denver is wrapping up and she is headed off to spend the summer with the US Women’s National Team with an eye to the Olympics. Looking at Jess all dressed up, I can see that Crystal has inherited her mom’s gorgeous Mexican-Cuban skin tone, not to mention that infectious smile. She will be a media darling.
“Hey man,” I reach out and shake Steve Rogers’s hand—our center and resident Capitan America who has graciously indulged all of Devyn’s whims through his years here. I’m not really sure when he and Jess hooked up. It all happened very under the radar. Steve is a very quiet guy and keeps to himself when he isn’t wearing the Captain America shield.
Sammie, the now-former owner of the bar, had some health issues crop up and just when his were resolved, his wife took ill. Sammie took that as a sign they needed to slow down. A franchise started sniffing around with plans to buy the bar and convert it into a typical sports bar. Steve swooped in and bought the place and very few people even knew there was ever a threat to our little oasis.
I glance around the room and say hello to a few more people as I make my way to the bar. Everyone is carrying on as they had before we entered. The world had not come to a screeching halt. People had not stopped what they were doing to stare at us. There were smiles, greetings, back slaps, all the usual stuff but nothing more. And again, I’m reminded it’s my damn ego, and fear, that had me thinking my world as I know it would cease to exist when I walked into this room holding Carter’s hand.
My world indeed shifted on its axis. Hell, I think it fell right off. And thank fuck for that. I look over to where Devyn is introducing Carter to a couple I’ve never seen before. I make my way up to the bar to get us something to drink. I wonder how hard situations like this are for him. Has he ever been in a situation like this sober?
“Two club sodas please,” I ask the bartender.
“Lime?”
I nod and turn to watch the room while I wait. The peace and calm I’d just been feeling, falls by the wayside when I find myself caught in Brady’s stare. I don’t read his moods as well as I used to. Maybe I never did because it seemed he only had two of them before he and Levi got together.
“Hey,” he says.
“Hey.”
