I brushed past him, leaving the door to the bathroom wide open as I turned on the shower.
He didn’t follow me in, but I heard him grumble, impossible woman, before I stepped into the water.
“Are you sure you want to take another shot?” Harper asked from her seat to my left. “You know what happened the last time you were this drunk,” she teased.
Langley laughed from my right, Delaney on her opposite side, and Echo hiss-chuckled from behind the bar. Annabelle and Faith were on the other side of Harper, sipping their own drinks.
“One,” I said, holding up said shot. “I wasn’t drunk when I married my own personal Hades.” A warm flutter shuddered through me at the thought of him. “Two,” I continued, throwing back the shot. “You’d be so lucky if we ended up married tonight.” I nudged Harper’s shoulder playfully.
“Touché.” Harper held up her shot, as did Langley, and threw them back at the same time.
“Like this one is ever going to set a date,” Faith joked, her hand covering Harper’s engagement ring.
“Nothing wrong with a long engagement!” Harper fired back.
“I agree,” Annabelle said, eying her own ring.
“It’s been too long,” I said, lightly smacking the bar. “I needed this girls’ night.”
Langley grinned. “Well, we hadn’t officially gotten to initiate you into the Queens of Reaper Village club yet. You’ve been married over two months! It was high time.”
Two months?
Had it really been that long? The time with Cannon had been a blur—one big blissful blur and after last night? God, I wasn’t sure I ever wanted it to end.
A sizzling chill zinged down the center of me, and I had to shift myself on the barstool to relieve the pressure. It didn’t work, and I knew there was only one thing that could satisfy this driving need.
Cannon.
That is if he ever decided to touch me again.
“Another shot!” I waved to Echo. “Please,” I added with my best smile.
Echo laughed. “You’re a mess,” she said, but poured the shot. “What’s going on up there?” She pointed to my forehead.
“Nope,” I said, shaking my head. “Don’t use your super-cool-understanding-bartender-voodoo on me. Not tonight. Tonight is about fun. About spending time with you girls.” I sighed. “You’re all just so damn wonderful, and I’m happy you’ve accepted me into your tight-knit circle.”
My statement was met with a collective aww and followed by a massive girl-group-hug that had me feeling the love so much it hurt. There was something about having a proper group of girlfriends—women who wanted nothing more than to build you up, have your back when shit went down, and smack some sense into you when you needed it. I’d never known true girl-friendship until I’d met these wonderful women. My girlfriends prior were all social climbers, more using my status and name to advance themselves than to be my actual friend. They never had my best interests at heart, not like these women.
Once the love-fest retreated back to a drink-fest, we drank and laughed and swapped stories for an hour—or was it two? Delaney was as new to the hockey love as I was, so we both hung on the words of veterans like Faith, Harper, and Langley. In the end, though, it all came down to love. Pure, unfiltered, complicated, chaotic, beautiful love.
And something pulsed in my heart, deep in a locked box I wouldn’t dare touch. Something I understood with a clarity that shouldn’t be possible after this many drinks. I ignored the sensation and focused on the fun—the whole reason for this night in the first place.
Slowly, Reaper men filed into Scythe to collect their inebriated wives, fiancées, or girlfriends, but not before having a drink at their table across the way. Mine, of course, had yet to show.
“Come on!” Harper teased. “You have to tell us.”
I laughed so hard my sides split.
“Yes, we’ve told you,” Faith chimed in.
“Is he truly terrifying in every aspect?” Harper asked again, waggling her eyebrows. “Or is it a good sort of terror?”
I shook my head. “He’s never scared me.”
Another round of awws.
I motioned to Langley. “I mean her’s on the other hand…”
Langley rolled her eyes. “Axel is nothing but a giant teddy bear.”
“Giant being the optimum word,” I teased.
“Can’t argue that,” Langley said, raising her glass.
“I think it’s safe to say all our men are large and terrifying in their own way,” Delaney said. “I mean, they’re like sharks on the ice for god’s sake. Watching them? And the fights sometimes?” She shuddered.
I swallowed hard, knowing my husband was the most frequent of the fighters—that short fuse of his was twice as short on the ice. Something I was closer to understanding because of the surprise visit by that vile man who was his biological father, but I didn’t have the full picture yet.
My heart expanded and broke at the same time remembering the shower—his explanation of some of the scars and the tattoos that covered them up. He’d let me in a little, but not all the way.
I have time.
But not much. The cold fact of that made something heavy sink on my chest. I wanted to know Cannon, inside and out. It went beyond the insatiable craving, the primal need—I wanted to uncover what he kept hidden in that soul that made him feel so damn unworthy all the time. I wanted to know him fully, so I could show him how incredible he was and have him actually believe it.
“You know what?” I scooted off my barstool, standing—if not a bit wobbly on my pumps—as I raised my last shot. “I’m so damn lucky!” I said, slightly louder than necessary. “To have you,” I said, eyeing the women surrounding me. “And to have Cannon.” I closed my eyes, my smile unstoppable as I breathed deep. “He’s the best man I’ve ever known. And I truly don’t know what I did to deserve him.” I opened my eyes, which were covered in water. “Thank you, Reapers!” I tossed back the shot, the sweet liquor burning all the way down. The girls mimicked my last statement and did the same with their drinks.
“Now look who’s making a scene.” Cannon’s voice vibrated along my skin, his lips at my ear, the heat of his body at my back.
I spun to face him and tilted slightly, but Cannon steadied me with a gentle hand on my hip.
“You’re here,” I said, my words slightly slurred. Then I remembered my speech and cringed. “How long have you been here?”
The smile he reserved for me and me alone played along his lips. “Long enough to know you’re wasted.”
I stomped my pump against the hardwood floor. “I am no such thing!” I grinned. “Persephone VanDoren doesn’t get wasted,” I said. “I’m merely, slightly inebriated.”
“Mmmhmm,” Cannon said, placing his other hand on my hip.
“Take me home?” I asked, my head spinning.
Cannon nodded, waving to Connell and Logan and Lukas and Axel, who had joined their girls at the bar.
I said my goodbyes and thankyous and allowed Cannon to guide me out of the bar, only to pause when the cool summer night air hit me. I breathed deep, glancing up at the clear night sky. “Beautiful,” I sighed.