Wheeler, page 17
part #8 of Seattle Sharks Series
“Shhh. It’s getting good.”
Eric’s face twisted. “What do you mean he’s stopped sleeping around? He brought not one, but two girls up to the retreat! While she was there!” he pointed to Faith.
“Darling, that was a year ago. Do the math. A year. And she was with her boyfriend! Did you see him with anyone after that?” she questioned.
His forehead puckered, and his eyes darted back and forth. “I…”
“You don’t know because you weren’t paying attention. You were busy being happy and didn’t see that your best friend has been utterly miserable, just waiting for your sister to realize he’d been cooling his heels until she was ready.”
His gaze shot to mine. “Is that true?”
“Yep,” Faith answered.
“You…” He shook his head. “She didn’t leave her boyfriend until January.”
“Yep,” Faith repeated. “And even then, when I threw myself at him, he wouldn’t touch me. I mean, he touched me, but it didn’t—”
“I don’t need to know that,” Eric exclaimed, his face the portrait of disgust.
“Maybe a little less detail, Älskling,” I said softly.
“Oh. Right. Sorry.”
Eric and I stared at each other for a couple of tense, silent moments.
Finally, he nodded toward the back deck. “You and me, outside.”
Faith squeezed my hand.
“It’ll be alright,” I promised her, lifting her hand to brush a kiss across her knuckles.
“Where was that gallantry earlier when you had your hand up her—” His voice was instantly muffled by Pepper’s hand.
“Sorry. He’s still in training.” She gave us a wry smile before turning her glare on him.
“Outside,” I agreed, and let go of Faith’s hand.
Pepper dropped her hand from Eric’s mouth and gave him a warning glance.
“Fine, I’ll be fine,” he assured her.
“Remember what I said,” she cautioned but gave him a pat on his arm.
“If you so much as put a finger on him, I’ll—” Faith started.
“You’ll what, baby sister?” Eric challenged, cutting her off.
She marched forward until she was right in his face. “I’ll. Call. Mom.”
He blanched. “For fuck’s sake. Fine.”
“Outside?” I offered, thinking it might be the safest option for him.
“Outside,” he agreed.
We walked out onto the deck, both of us leaning on the thick wooden railing that looked over my strip of private beach.
“How serious—”
“I love her,” I cut him off. “She’s not just a fling, or a conquest, or a Saturday night special. I fucking love her.” My words were at odds with my tone.
“Damn it,” he groaned, hanging his head.
“You’d rather I was just using her?” I questioned.
He sighed, then looked over at me. “I heard every word Pepper said. I know she’s right. But that’s my little sister in there, Lukas. You...you leave a path of destruction in your wake, and a string of broken hearts up and down the coast of Puget Sound. So yeah, part of me wishes this wasn’t serious.”
I swallowed. “I know I’m not good enough for her. I’ve always known that. Why do you think I never pursued her?”
“Because she was my little sister and you wanted to respect our friendship?” he suggested.
“That, too. Really and truly. I wanted to tell you as soon as we got together, but Faith wanted to do it together, and you haven’t exactly been answering your calls.” The accusation hung between us.
“Shit. Okay, you’re right on that. I’ve been a little consumed helping Sawyer. I should have been a little more aware—scratch that—way more aware. I just liked feeling useful.”
“I get that. And we really were going to tell you tonight.”
He nodded. “I don’t like it, but she’s a grown woman, or at least as grown as a senior in college can be. And I know you.” He looked over at me. “I know your heart, and I know how loyal you are to your friends, how you show up when you’re needed.”
“That sounds almost like a recommendation,” I joked, my throat thick with emotion.
He sighed. “It is. I just need a minute to wrap my head around it, that’s all. You really love her?”
“More than my own life,” I responded. “More than hockey, or the clothing line, or...anything. I’d give it all up to make her happy. Oh, and she doesn’t know I’m in love with her, so could we keep that between us?”
He blinked. “You haven’t told her?”
“No. She’s not ready to hear that. It’s a lot of pressure for someone who’s still figuring out her life, and I don’t want my feelings to weigh her down or trap her.” I looked out over the sound, where the clouds had cleared enough to let a sliver of moonlight reflect on the waves in a long streak.
“Damn, you really do love her.” He laughed. “Never thought I’d see the day.”
“So you’re done beating the shit out of me?” I clarified.
He nodded. “I love both of you in very different ways, and you’ve grown so damn much in the last couple of years. If you guys want to be together, then that’s your business. I’ll support it and cheer you on because I would have killed anyone who got between Pepper and me.” He turned around and leaned back against the railing.
I did the same, watching Pepper and Faith snack on chocolate cake in the kitchen.
My heart swelled with the simple rightness of it.
“You should tell her,” Eric said, his voice low and his eyes on his wife. “Love isn’t a burden, Lukas. It’s a gift. If you keep it to yourself, it’s not worth anything, but when you share it…” His mouth formed a slight smile. “When you share it, then it’s priceless.”
“Noted,” I choked out over the lump in my throat.
“Oh, one more thing,” he said without taking his eyes from Pepper.
“What?”
“If you break her heart, I’ll remove your balls.”
“Seems fair.”
He shook his head and sighed. “Shit. Okay, welcome to the family.”
“You’re not going to hug me are you?” I shot him a glance.
“Shut up and enjoy the damned moment.”
So we did, both of us watching the incredible women we loved.
Chapter 16
Faith
ME: You have me for 24 more hours
ME: Any special requests?
I grinned at the cell in my hand, my knees tucked under me as I sat on my couch. It was before eight a.m., but I’d barely slept. I’d wanted to stay at Lukas’s last night, but there was so much to do to get ready for classes that would start back up again tomorrow—like buy books and clean my laptop and have dinner with Sawyer and Harper. It had become our thing before the start of each new semester—stuffing ourselves with burgers and beers and playing shuffleboard half the night.
Tomorrow.
I’d enter my final year in college.
A nervous thrill rushed through me, twisting my nerves like wringing out a rag.
After this year, I’d have to take my company idea and make it something real, tangible. I’d have to approach potential clients and get an office space and be a real adult.
Not that I didn’t already feel like one, because I did.
I already had a hefty investment piled in my savings account—thanks to Lukas’s summer job—and I had one final payment pending, too.
It would make the difference between launching a real company, and running it out of the townhouse I shared with two of my closest friends.
“Morning,” Harper groaned as she came around the corner, her flannel PJs with donuts on the pants swishing as she plopped down on the couch beside me. She leaned her head against my arm, sighing. “Why are mornings so early?”
I laughed. “Why did we stay out so late?”
“For. Real.” She sat up, rubbing her face with her palms. “It was fun though,” she said. “I needed it. I need to focus this year.”
“Like you haven’t for the past…decade?” I teased. “Our last year.”
She nodded before tilting her head. “Maybe we should make the dinner thing a weekly obligation?”
“I’m in,” I said, and I meant it. I knew we’d have to go our separate ways after we graduated—Sawyer hopefully to the Sharks, or at least their farm team, and Harper to her own lab wherever she could get funded.
A peppy whistle sounded from the top of the stairs and grew increasingly loud as Sawyer descended. He was dressed in his athletic pants and a workout shirt, his gear bag over his shoulder.
“Morning ladies,” he said, dropping his bag by the door and then whistling all the way to the kitchen.
“Ugh,” Harper said, groaning again. “You can’t possibly be that cheerful. You drank more than both of us last night.”
Sawyer came back from the kitchen, an already peeled banana in his mouth. He took a monstrous bite, filling one side of his cheek like a chipmunk, and grinned at Harper. “I feel great,” he said, and he looked it too. He’d been so much happier lately, not that he’d ever been unpleasant, but there was a sense of excitement in his eyes that had been missing in months before.
“Heading to meet Eric?” I asked.
He nodded, finishing his banana. “I’m getting into a groove,” he said. “He’s shown me techniques my coach doesn’t even know. I owe you and him everything.”
I smiled. “Sounds like love. You do know he’s married, right?”
“Ha. Ha.” He rolled his eyes. “I did meet Pepper last week. She’s super cool for a nerd.”
“I resent that statement!” Harper arched a brow at him.
“She’s the coolest, actually,” I said, loving my sister-in-law. I’d always wanted a sister, and she and Ivy had filled those roles quickly and effortlessly.
“You two want a banana?” Sawyer asked, motioning over his shoulder. “I’m going to grab another one before I head out.”
“Kill me now,” Harper said, but there was nothing but teasing in her voice.
“No, thanks,” I said, glancing down at my cell as Sawyer practically skipped to the kitchen.
Lukas hadn’t texted me back, yet.
In fact, he hadn’t texted me back after I’d told him I got home safe last night…and that I missed him.
The text had been a moment of buzzed desperation and vulnerability and truth. I had missed him. I hated the fact that this was my last official day in his professional life. Living in his world, doing the job I was born to do…it had unleashed something inside me. Hope. And confidence. I definitely hadn’t enjoyed going over the applications for his new PA. Funny how I’d selected all the men.
“You going over to Lukas’s?” Harper asked, nudging me when I had stared at my cell for a few moments too long.
“I don’t know.”
“Isn’t it your last day?”
“It is.” Something churned in my stomach—a cold dread I’d kept at bay the last six weeks.
“I’m sure he’ll have something planned for you,” Harper said. “Like color coding his closet or shining all his shoes,” she teased.
“That was my first week on the job,” I said, and we laughed. “Summer flew by,” I said, reeling it in.
“It did.”
We sat in silence for a while longer, until it was time for both of us to do regular things, like eat and shower and prepare for the day.
After I’d showered, had second breakfast, and cleaned my entire room—including my closet—and I still hadn’t heard from Lukas, I started to worry.
He was normally so quick to respond to my texts. Hell, there were nights before we’d slept together that we texted for hours.
It was our thing.
I chewed on my lip, sitting on my now immaculate bed. Had he gone out last night? It’d been two weeks since Eric had punched Lukas before, thankfully, welcoming him to the family. Had they gone out for some bro-bonding? Was he sleeping off his own hangover? I know the guys had mentioned a night at Club Thirty-Five soon, I had just assumed Lukas would invite me as well.
Maybe he didn’t because he knew I’d been out last night with my friends.
Maybe he had gone out and then something happened to him.
Visions of a car wreck flashed in my head, paranoia rushing in like the bitch it was.
Great, now I’d turned into my mother.
The odds of anything actually happening to him were wicked low, but I couldn’t get the idea out of my head now that it’d cropped up there.
I could swing by.
The thought came easily enough. It wouldn’t make me a clingy-girlfriend-type…no. I was his personal assistant. There were tasks to wrap up, and I still needed to organize his digital planner so he didn’t botch all my hard work after I went back to school.
I nodded to myself, slipped on my shoes, and hurried out the door.
The closer I got to his house, the more my stomach twisted.
The uncertainty hit me like a defenseman, and I absolutely hated it.
Not only was this my job, he was my…my…
Boyfriend?
No, that didn’t sound right. We weren’t dating, were we? Not with the way he told me I was the only one he wanted, the one he wanted to share a life with, but…he continuously told me he didn’t want to hold me back.
So, not my boyfriend?
He’d risked the wrath of my brother though.
And sure, our Netflix and chill nights had been just as amazing as our many shared meals together. We’d laughed and toured his home town, and we’d had more than our fair share of steamy nights. But…boyfriend?
Boss.
Ugh.
What a tangled mess.
I shoved my thoughts down as I walked up his long drive, stopping in front of his massive door. I clenched my fingers together to stop the trembling. What was it about the man that set me so on edge? How did he have the ability to make feel totally confident and insanely unsure at the same time? Why did he have to be so incredible and so infuriating?
Erring on the side of confidence, I slipped my key into the lock and let myself in.
“Faith?” his voice sounded from where he rested on the couch, a book draped over his chest. “What are you doing here?”
I pocketed his house keys, the door shutting behind me. There was something about the way he looked at me, unmoving from that couch, that made chills race down my spine. Maybe it was the purple beneath his eyes, like he hadn’t slept well, either. Or it could be the fact that I’d been standing there for over a minute now, eyes on him, and he hadn’t come to greet me—which for him usually meant a breath-stealing kiss.
Okay, then. Fair enough.
“I have work to do,” I said, shrugging like I wasn’t dying on the inside because he hadn’t responded to my texts or to me showing up. It wasn’t like him, and pairing that with the random times he went cold on me since we’d been back from Sweden…God, was he trying to distance himself now that I was going back to college? I hurried past the couch, turning down the hall, and seeking refuge in his office.
I did have work to do.
So, I would bury myself in it.
Hide behind it.
It was so much easier than admitting the truth.
The idea of Lukas pushing me away hurt more than I ever imagined.
I’d barely entered the password on his desktop before he was leaning against the entryway.
“Even on your last day, you work harder than I do on a normal one.”
I spared him a glance, hating that my body heated at the sight of him. All long and lean and chiseled, his black pajama pants hugging his waist, the white T-shirt tight over his chest. And an old, leather-bound book in his hand, draped at his side.
Fucking Nordic god of drive Faith crazy.
“Someone has to stay on top of things,” I said, returning my eyes to the screen. If he wanted to pretend like all was normal and not tell me what was going on with him, then fine.
“Oh,” he said, stepping further into the room. “I quite like it when you’re on top.”
The normal tease directly contrasted his demeanor—the way he kept his distance, how he looked plagued by something he refused to talk about.
My fingers paused on the keyboard, and I sighed.
“You can’t say things like that if you’re content to shove me away.”
There. I said it. No going back now.
He furrowed his brow, but he didn’t look at all shocked by my statement.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
I arched a brow at him. “You know what I mean.”
He shook his head, ripping his gaze from mine and focusing on the shelves near him. Slowly, with a calculative grace, he returned the book he’d been holding to its proper spot, his hand lingering on the spine, his back to me.
Something tight wrenched in the center of my chest.
I could feel it coming…the inevitable we need to talk.
My stomach dropped despite sitting down, my breath quickening. No, this wasn’t supposed to hurt this much—
“I’m not pushing you away,” he finally said, his voice soft as he turned around to face me. “I’m…” he shrugged, clamping his lips shut.
I eyed him, swallowing down the hurt fueled by fear.
“You’re off,” I said, not moving from my seat despite wanting to rush to him. To feel his body against mine. To communicate in the one way I knew where we had no miscommunication—skin to skin.
“I know.”
“Talk to me,” I said, a plea in my tone. “I’ll understand. Whatever it is. You know I will.”
A muscle in his jaw ticked, but he quickly smoothed his features. “It has nothing to do with you.” His voice was low, an underlying current of anger there, but not at me, that much I knew…but it didn’t stop the adrenaline in my veins.
I stood, closing the distance between us in a few strides.
“Nothing to do with me?” I hissed. “If it’s bothering you? If it’s causing this…” I grazed my thumb over the purple under his eyes. “Then it has to do with me.”
He captured my wrist before I could draw my hand back and planted a kiss there.
