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Childhood PEZ collection, eh? Ben laughed as he stuffed his feet into his shoes.
“C’mon, Ben, stay a bit!” Piper grinned.
“Cheers, but I’ve got stuff to do.” If only. Ben backed up toward the door. “Thanks for everything, Riles, really.”
Her grin lingered. “Anytime.”
I hope so. “Nice meeting you, Piper.”
“Be seeing ya, Ben!” Piper waved as he closed the door behind him.
• • •
“He called you ‘Riles’! Kill me now!” Piper grabbed a box of Swedish Fish from her haul. “AND he’s a total smoke show. If you’re ditching Josh for him—”
“I’m not ditching Josh. Ben’s just a new friend.”
“Then why did you keep him secret?”
“I didn’t. We met on the airport bus two weeks ago and I haven’t seen him since.”
“Until you got an eyeful last night.”
Yeah, FCUK…
Piper bit her lip. “Mmmm, stripping, huh?”
“If you could call it that,” said Riley. “He got fired and needed a place to crash, so I let him sleep on the loveseat—and before you ask, nothing happened.”
“Well, if you’re not interested—”
“Why would I be interested?”
“Duh! His socks, Rye! Funny socks on a hot guy? You LOVE that—or at least you said you did.” Piper’s eyes lit up. “And he knows Mark Keegan!”
“I guess…”
Piper abandoned the candy and grabbed Riley’s phone from the milk crate, entering the security code.
“What are you doing?”
Piper scrolled until she found what she was looking for. “Texting myself Benjamuffin’s number…oh! He sent you a Facebook friend request.” She handed the phone back and flipped a page in the binder, scowling. “Okay, let’s get this over with.”
“Wait, I need to text Josh, confirm details for later.”
“I can’t believe you’re flying to Minnesota for twenty-four hours. Why isn’t the game in North Dakota?”
“The final is in a different city every year.” Riley typed and hit send.
See you afterward outside the arena’s restaurant. Lots of luck!
“Done with PuckHead?” Piper raised an eyebrow.
“Pip!”
“At least with you going there, you can’t drag me to a noisy sports bar where I’d probably get a migraine.”
Riley’s phone lit up with a text.
