She actually wouldn’t call Bella bold as much as…well…spoiled but in a way that wasn’t annoying, if that was even a thing.
“You and Alex have always been great friends. I’ve never admitted it, but sometimes I was jealous of your relationship. The two of you had a lot more in common than we do. There were times when I thought he would have preferred you as a little sister.”
She shook her head. “Trust me. He never thought of me as a sister.”
Bella’s brow creased and Charley knew Bella had misinterpreted her comment, so she clarified. “A kid brother, maybe. But never a sister.”
Bella laughed.
“You were good for him. You kept him humble. Always kicking his ass at hockey and punching him on the arm whenever he said something douche-y.”
“It didn’t make him less douche-y.”
Alex and Charley had been hockey teammates for most of their childhood, starting way back with 8U.
Long enough that he and the other guys forgot she was a girl. That meant she was privy to way too much of their locker room chatter.
“True,” Bella said, giggling.
Alex had been a cocky manwhore in high school and given the fact Charley had never seen him pictured with the same woman in the tabloids, it didn’t look like that fact had changed.
Neither had his taste in women.
He tended to go for the Barbie doll type, with long blonde hair, huge tits, and legs that stretched forever.
Brains optional.
“Has the guy ever had a girlfriend?”
Bella shook her head. “No, but his career doesn’t exactly lend itself to seriously dating someone, does it? I mean, he’s on the road with the team twenty-four weeks of the year, not counting playoffs and preseason and all the charity stuff he does.”
“Spoken like the perfect enabling sister.”
She gave Charley a shit-eating grin but didn’t deny it. “I’ve accepted the fact that Alex will never get married. I’m pretty sure he’ll never even have a long-term relationship. Bachelorhood is his shtick and he’s devoted to that and that alone. He told me once he’d never even have a dog because he didn’t want that kind of commitment. A dog! Seriously? Who doesn’t love dogs?”
Bella would set up a cot in the back of the SPCA and move in if they’d let her.
“We couldn’t get one because Ben was allergic.” Though now that Charley was single again…the idea of adopting a dog sounded very appealing.
Bella gave Charley a look that said that should have been her first red flag in regards to Ben.
“Besides, you and I both know, tomorrow isn’t a real date,” Bella said. “It’s called payback. Can you imagine Ben’s face when you walk in with Alex?”
Charley could.
And she liked it.
But real date or not, going to the wedding with Alex would break a streak she was secretly proud of.
Because she figured she was the only girl in high school who hadn’t fallen under Alex’s spell. The rest had squandered countless hours—and sheets of paper writing Mrs. Alex Stone in hearts—either dreaming of him, dating him, sleeping with him, or crying over him because he didn’t invite them to prom.
“You know, I’ve done a lot of things in my life that I’m proud of—graduating top of my class at Northwestern, publishing my first book, buying a new car with cash, but top of that list—without a doubt—is the fact that I never made a jackass of myself over your hot brother.”
Bella crinkled her nose. “You think he’s hot?”
Charley rolled her eyes and ignored her friend’s question.
Any woman with eyes knew Alex was sex-on-a stick hot, but that didn’t mean Charley was going to add her notch to his bedpost. “It’s bad enough I let Ben make a fool of me.”
Bella sobered. “Aw, babe. He fooled everybody. Don’t kick yourself about that for a second longer.”
“To be honest, I think I’d be smarter to take a break from dating for a little while. I need to take a long, hard look at myself, figure out who I am, and how I can make sure I never let another guy try to change me into his version of ideal. I really miss my pickup truck.”
Bella reached over for a piece of Charley’s salami.
Charley slapped her hand away.
“That’s a smart thing to do, although, honestly, I think you already know who you are.”
Charley shrugged. “Maybe so, but I should probably wait until Ben gets the rest of his shit out of my apartment at least.”
“You can kick start your new life tomorrow with Alex…as friends,” Bella quickly added for clarification. “So you can still hold your head up high about not getting trapped in his sex web. Besides, the poor guy is taking the loss hard. I’m counting on you to help him.”
Charley appreciated her friend’s attempts at cheering her up, even if they were misguided. “You’re not going to let me or Alex off the hook, are you?”
“Nope. I consider my actions a public service. You and Alex are both down in the dumps. Better you commiserate alone in some quiet corner of the reception crying in your beer together rather than bring us all down. I don’t want to spend my night cheering you both up. It’s Vegas, baby. And I plan on getting drunk and dancing my ass off.”
Charley snorted at that, perfectly aware the sound wasn’t very ladylike. Ben used to give her shit for it.
God, how had she let herself become such a pushover?
Never again.
Those days were over.
Charley raised her right hand, in true I-swear-before-the-court style, as she considered her perfect man. “Hear me now. I will not marry a guy who doesn’t love me for myself, who hates the way I snort, who thinks my nickname is silly, who can’t hold his liquor, who is offended by my cursing, who won’t fly to Vegas on a moment’s notice to elope, who doesn’t love hockey as much as me…and who refuses to adopt a dog, allergies or not.”
Bella raised the wine bottle in a silent cheers, then took a big chug. “Operation Perfect Guy has commenced.”
Charley laughed as she took the wine bottle back, took her own long drink, and realized she actually felt better.
“Now do me a favor and infuse some of that newly recovered confidence back into my big brother tomorrow.”
“I seriously doubt Alex needs help in that area. He’s a smug son of a bitch even on down days.”
Bella didn’t bother to disagree. “Good point. So let him teach you how to strut around like you’re God’s gift to the planet.”
She snorted again, embracing the laugh.
Then she actually considered asking Alex for those lessons. The man was cockiness personified.
Something that was probably justified considering his talent on the ice.
His off-the-chain sense of humor.
His smoldering good looks.
His…shit.
That was the moment Charley realized two things.
Her heart hadn’t been broken by Ben.
And she wasn’t as immune to Alex Stone as she liked to pretend.
Chapter Three
Alex had regretted agreeing to take Charley to the wedding about three minutes after he had hung up the phone with his sister. So now he was trudging down the long hotel hallway like a man walking toward death row.