“I really needed to kiss my wife and know what it felt like,” I said.
“Good.” She huffed a laugh. “It felt good. Really good.”
“Yeah.” I kissed her softly, slid my hands from her throat and grasped both her hands in mine. “Really good.”
Gabby curled next to me on the couch and I draped my arm over her shoulder. From the moment the interview started, I wanted us to present a united front. A picture of a couple newly married, in love, and not ridiculously trashed and making a rash decision like the blogs had questioned, and the social media videos had portrayed. I wouldn’t confirm Gabby’s worst fears of being seen that way. Not after that kiss.
Not after how good it felt to be around her.
She might be going along with this marriage reluctantly but that didn’t make her any less mine to protect.
Alicia started with easy questions. She asked about the team. The playoffs. She asked me about the hat trick I had that won the game and final series for us. She asked us about the excitement over the parade the next day. All of the standard questions meant to get the focus back on my team and all the success we’d had together. While I answered her questions with the confidence of a man who’d sat in similar seats over the years and played this game, Gabby relaxed next to me. Eventually, her hand had settled on my thigh, a calm touch, but I’d still flexed my muscle beneath her.
I feel you. I want you. It’d scrambled my brain for a moment so when Alicia asked her next lead-in, it took me by surprise.
“But that’s not all you’re celebrating this week, is it?”
“No. No, it’s definitely not.” I entwined my hand with Gabby’s and brought it to my lips, kissing the back of hers as she smiled softly at me. Gone was the terrified, deer in the headlights look she had. If she was still high from the kiss, I’d take it.
I sure as hell was.
I didn’t know if I’d ever get over the way my body so hotly responded to the feel of her.
“So, from my understanding, you two have known each other a long time. Was there—feelings back then?”
“No. Absolutely not.”
I’d been married for crying out loud. Although I could see how people would think that too. My divorce hadn’t exactly been public fodder, but it did just happen less than a year ago. I could see how that looked to some people.
“No?” Alicia tilted her head. “So you haven’t known each other for years?”
“I was married—” I started, but Gabby’s hand gave me a gentle squeeze and she cut me off.
Whether she noticed my sudden pulse of irritation spiking at the insinuation I was the cheater, didn’t matter.
“We’ve crossed paths,” Gabby said, speaking directly to Alicia for the first time. “As most people probably know, my brother plays goalie for the Vipers, and one of his oldest friends is Joey’s older brother.”
“That’s right. Jude Taylor, correct? He’s with the Ice Kings out in North Carolina.”
“Correct. They played together in Chicago in college and are still great friends,” Gabby said again before I could speak. If she was now comfortable, I’d let her run this show. Save the slight tremble in her fingers, her face or posture showed no nerves. “And yes, like I said, we’ve crossed paths over the years. There have been times my family was invited to celebrate holidays with the Taylors, but like Joey said, he was married. And I was also younger. There was never anything going on, not even a small crush on my part, until recently, anyway.”
She blushed at the admission.
I wanted to turn the cameras off, tug her chin so she had to face me and demand when. When did that crush appear?
Alicia beat me to it.
“A crush?” she asked, with all the leading of a sly fox.
“The hospital, earlier this spring.”
“Yeah?”
I hadn’t expected it. Hadn’t expected she’d cut in, with her voice, lilted in a way I hadn’t yet heard from her.
“Hospital?” Alicia asked, and Gabby bit her bottom lip, realizing what she’d said. Lizzie’s scare hadn’t been publicized at all, so no one knew and I realized the trap Gabby had fallen into.
“We had mutual friends who were in the hospital one night,” I said, keeping Lizzie and Garrett’s name out of it. The news of her pregnancy had broken since they’d posted on their social media months ago. “Gabby had helped them, and I stayed with her while they’d had some tests done.”
It wasn’t exactly a lie. Not a full truth, but it was enough to make sense.
Gabby smiled at me, a tentative, soft smile that was so damn sweet my teeth ached. “Yeah, that was when it started anyway, for me. You were great that night. So kind and patient. You comforted me when I needed it the most and, well, it was perfect. That was when I started falling for you.”
That night.
The night I’d wanted to lean in and kiss her. She’d pulled away, breaking that moment and I was worried I’d gone too far. Read something that wasn’t there.
Was it possible I’d been right, though?
I brushed hair off her shoulder, revealing that collar, the slim throat of hers as she swallowed, lips parting at my touch. “That was the first time I realized how beautiful you were.”
“Well,” Alicia said, breaking the moment between us. “That is absolutely lovely. Isn’t it? So, your wedding then… it’s been being talked about as just another athlete doing something insanely stupid while drunk after a massive win. What can you say about that given what we now know?”
For shit’s sake. It wasn’t like I’d thrown a trophy over an open body of water. People had seen me carrying a woman in a bridal gown. For all they knew it could have all been an act. The double-edged sword of being known, especially considering the family I came from, was that every stranger assumed they knew my life better than I did.
I pushed down the frustration and flashed Alicia and the cameras a winning smile.
“What can I say, Alicia? Except that when you know it’s right, it’s right. What’s the point in waiting when I could begin my forever immediately?”
Cheesy as fuck. But based on her satisfied gleam and the nods of Miles and Brandon behind her, it was perfect.
“And I think that’s all I have for you.” She grinned at us as the recording lights on the camera were cut. “Perfect. That was perfect and you two are absolutely adorable together. I wish you the best.”
Me too, Alicia.
Me fucking too.
13
Gabby
My hand was firmly clasped in Joey’s. Behind us, Garrett’s rumble of disapproval was unmistakable. I glared at him over my shoulder. He’d been insufferable since he and Lizzie had picked us up on their way to the arena.
The team and their families along with the coaches were scheduled to meet up early due to road closures happening around the city but even then, hours before the parade would begin, there were packed crowds of fans swarming the streets, creating a forest of green and gold.
“It’s seven in the morning,” I mumbled as a group of three men well behind the barriers set up to keep the team safe bent over at their waists and shotgunned a beer. “They’ll be passed out before the parade begins.”