Page 109 of Against The Boards

I shook my head.

“My grandfather told me to come back to Philly and woo you. So did my sister. And my sister-in-law. And my grandmother.”

“What?”

He grimaced. “Apparently, my entire family had a pool on when we would finally get together.”

I gave him a sly grin. “You’ve talked about me with your family?”

“Yeah, about how you crawled up from hell to annoy me.”

“Jerk!”

“You love me.”

I grinned at him. “I do.”

He ran a hand through his hair and smoothed it down. “Truth be told, my grandfather told me not to ask for a trade. I’m sure I’ll get an earful about that.”

“I’m sorry for being a raging bitch about this, but I’m glad you fought for me today and made me listen. I don’t deserve you.”

He shook his head. “No, Rox, you deserve everything I can give you. I told you, I’ll never stop fighting for you, and that wasn’t a lie. I love you, angel, so much.”

“I love you too. But get out of here before Riley asks if I chained you to the bed.”

He waggled his eyebrows at me. “I wouldn’t be opposed to that if you wanted to try it out later.”

I laughed. “Get out of here, ya horndog!”

He gave me a cheeky grin, and I kissed him goodbye.

Michael Bennett was such a good person, and I didn’t understand why he put up with my asshole behavior. The way he fought for me and for our relationship made me love him even more. I had to be prepared for the possibility that he could get traded to a different city, though. That was one reason why I’d never been interested in dating a hockey player—their lives were too unpredictable. But now I was in too deep with Benny. When I thought about it, if he got traded, the idea of going with him wherever he went didn’t scare me.

Eventually, I crawled out of bed, showered, and worked on unpacking the rest of my things. I was interrupted by a knock on the door and was surprised when I opened it to reveal my twin brother behind it with a six-pack of beer in his hand.

“Um, hi?” I asked.

“You weren’t responding to my texts,” he said and muscled his way into my apartment.

I locked the door behind him, then walked back into the kitchen and looked at my phone sitting on the kitchen table. I hadn’t heard the texts over the music I had been playing.

He popped open two beers and put them in glasses before handing me one of them. “I came to make sure you were okay,” he said.

“About…” I trailed off, still lost at what he was talking about.

He stared at me. “I knew how you’d react to the report about Benny.”

“Oh!”

Tristan furrowed his brow. “You seem okay about this. I thought you would have tossed him out and sabotaged this relationship.”

I sighed and took a swig of my beer. “I tried. He wouldn’t let me.”

My brother tipped back his head with a laugh. “Damn, Benny’s too good for you.”

“I know! I don’t think I deserve him,” I admitted.

“Shit, I came over here thinking you were freaking out and needed me.”