Grinder (Seattle Sharks Book 1) (13 page)

“It was a clean hit,” Gage said after a few moments of silence.

“I didn’t see. I was…”

“What?”

“It’s not important.” I sighed, thinking about Helen was the last thing he needed right now. “You mean to say this hit wasn’t intentional?”

He shook his head and hissed. “Intentional, sure. But not dirty. Still love to beat his ass, though.”

“Me too.” I chuckled softly, slipping the cloth along his spine. “Don’t worry, Gage. Everything will be fine. It doesn’t even look that bad.” I swallowed the lie that tasted bitter in my mouth.

“Hey,” he said, and I dropped the cloth, returning my focus to his face. “You know you can’t lie to me, Bailey.” He took my chin in his good hand.

I shrugged. “I’ve seen worse. You’ll be fine. I know it.”

He pressed his lips together, the doubt in his eyes creeping to the surface.

“Don’t,” I said, and then touched my lips to his with a soft pressure, trailing the tip of my tongue along the edges of his mouth. I slipped my fingers into his sweaty hair, touching him as much as I dared without jarring him. His tongue met mine and he groaned as I traced the ridges of his abs lightly with my fingertips, stopping only when they rested above the outline of his hard cock. “See?” I pulled back from him a few inches, looking from his heated gaze and down. “You couldn’t manage
that
if it was anything serious.”

He laughed, but a wince cut it short. “God, Bailey. You are one hell of a woman. A tease, but damn, I’m glad you’re here.”

I bit my bottom lip, letting my eyes linger hungrily as I trailed his body up and down. “It’s only a tease if I have no intention of delivering.” I leaned closer to him, just close enough for my breasts to brush his chest. “And I have every intention of delivering…once you’re up to it.”

“Well, if that isn’t the best motivation to suck it up, I don’t know what is.” Gage smiled, and though it wasn’t the full-blast one I was used to, it was more than I could’ve asked for given the terrifying situation.

Still, he was sitting on his own, without writhing in pain, and he had the capability to make my panties wet with that damn mouth of his. These facts made hope pulse in my chest—this would not break him, not again.

“Ambulance is here,” Denning said, re-entering the room. I stepped a few feet away from Gage, my cheeks flushing.

“I’ll go check on Lettie. You want us to meet you at the hospital?” I asked.

“No,” Gage said so instantly that I flinched. “Shit. I mean, I don’t want her there, okay? No need to worry her before we know anything, right?”

I nodded. “Right. I’ll just take her home.”

He reached out with his good hand, and I took it. “
Our
home.”

My heart swelled in my chest, beating hard at his declaration, but it quickly frosted over when the paramedics brought the gurney in.

“Seriously assholes? I can walk,” Gage said, swinging his legs over the table and standing up.

“Please get on the gurney, Mr. McPherson. We don’t want any sudden movements to aggravate the injury.”

Gage looked like Lettie when I forced her to brush her teeth when she didn’t want to. I half expected him to stomp his foot, but instead, he climbed onto the gurney and settled against it.

“What’s the score?” He asked as they wheeled him out of the room.

I collapsed on one of the wooden benches next to me the second the doors swung closed. The fear I’d barely held back took full advantage of me now and I allowed myself these few moments of weakness before I had to return to Lettie.

I wasn’t scared of Gage being benched for another season because hockey was only a tiny part of the reason why I loved him. I would love him if he dug ditches or flipped burgers for a living. What terrified me is how he would take it if he lost this shot—this second chance we weren’t even sure he was going to get in the first place. Because hockey—outside of Lettie—was his
life
. It’s all he’d known; all he’d ever wanted to do since we were kids.

Without it? I didn’t know who it would turn Gage into, and I prayed I’d be strong enough to help heal him if he was forced to plan a life where hockey wasn’t on the menu.

“
A
re
you sure you’re okay?” Bailey asked me as Lettie explored the inner workings of Minnie Mouse’s kitchen. Hey, there had to be some perks to traveling with the team, and as far as perks went, Disneyland was a pretty good one. We’d spent all day here, and it showed on Lettie. Her pigtails were slightly disheveled under her Mickey’s sorcerer's hat, her cheeks were flushed, and there was still chocolate ice cream on the corners of her constant smile.

“Gage?” Bailey prompted.

“I’m fine,” I promised her for the tenth time, lightly rolling my shoulder. There was a hell of a bruise along my upper arm—the pads had taken most of the impact—but the joint wasn’t as tender as it had been a few days ago.

“I just worry,” she said, leaning her head onto my good shoulder.

I kissed her hairline. “I know, and I’m not playing tonight.”

The rookie was starting in my place tonight, and though it chapped my ass, I knew it was for the best. One week of rest was exactly what the joint needed. The rest of me wasn’t too happy, though.

“I can keep you busy,” she said, leaning up on her tiptoes to brush her lips against my jaw.

I wrapped my arm around her waist and grinned down at her, wishing we weren’t in public, or so close to Lettie. “You can bet that I’ll take you up on that later,” I promised.

We stood there, smiling at each other like idiots, and I loved every second of it. Being with Bailey was easy. Not easy in the, hey-she’s-already-here-why-not, but easy in a way that I felt content for the first time that I could remember.

Maybe that’s what happened when you started to fall for your best friend...everything just clicked.

We made our way out of Minnie’s very girlie house and into Toon Town, each of us taking one of Lettie’s hands.

“Did you have a good day, Lettie-Lou?” Bailey asked.

My chest tightened at her use of my nickname for Lettie, at the perfection that this day was.

“It’s been the best day ever!” Lettie exclaimed.

And she was right. I looked to my left, where my girls talked in excited, happy tones, and the simple rightness of the moment was so complete that it was almost frightening. Crazy right. A forever kind of right.

A diamond ring right.

Whoa. It was too soon to even have that thought—absolutely. But it was just that—a thought. But a damn good one. What if this was what a real relationship was? What if this was what the rest of our life could look like? Partners, friends, lovers, working together to raise Lettie?

What if Bailey was the one who didn’t leave?

It should have been scary. I should have run the other direction screaming from the crazy, committed thoughts that were going through my head. Hell, we’d only been together a couple of weeks.

But we’d been friends all of our lives. All the relationship aspect had added was the hottest sex of my life and the promise that she was the only one I’d see naked. Hell, she was the only one I
wanted
to see naked. That, itself, said something.

“Daddy?” Lettie asked, getting my attention.

“Yes?” I asked, looking down at her delighted, exhausted little face.

“We were wondering what you thought about grabbing pizza and eating at the hotel?” Bailey asked. “I think we’re all a little exhausted.”

I checked my watch. I wasn’t playing tonight, but I was still going to support my guys. “Yeah, we have time for that.”

When Lettie’s feet started to stumble, I picked her up and put her on my shoulders. Hell, I was tired from walking all around this place and my legs were a bit bigger than my four-year-old’s.

“So have you given any thought to those art programs you were talking about?” I asked Bailey as we walked to the parking lot.

She shook her head. “Not really. I mean, I’d love to get into a local gallery, but maybe that’s a pipe dream.”

“I remember telling you once that I thought hockey was a pipe dream.”

“Yeah, well, you have a God-given talent, Gage. It would have been a waste for you not to use it.”

“The same goes for you,” I said, helping her off a steep curb onto the sun-soaked pavement.

She shrugged. “Maybe we only get one massively great thing in our life. Not everyone is meant for the spotlight.”

I lowered Lettie off my shoulders as we reached the rental car. “I don’t believe that. You’re extraordinary, Bailey.”

She rolled my compliment off like she always did, with a tight smile and a change of subject. “Thanks. So, I was thinking that maybe we could have both of our mothers over for Thanksgiving? Unless you think that’s too much. I don’t want—”

I leaned down and kissed her, just a quick brush of our lips. “I think that would be great. I don’t want to have Thanksgiving without you.” Or Christmas. Or New Years.

God, I had it bad.

She lead Lettie to the back seat and strapped her in.

As I rounded the back of the rental car, I saw a woman struggling with her double stroller, an unruly toddler who apparently didn’t want to leave, and two squalling infants.

Some of Lettie’s early days played back through my mind, and my heart went out to the woman. “Ma’am?” I called out and crossed the blacktop to her minivan. “I promise I’m not a creep or anything—my girlfriend is right there with my little girl—can I give you a hand?”

Her shoulders sagged in relief as she wrestled the little boy. “Would you mind?”

“Not at all,” I said. “Why don’t you get him strapped in and I’ll keep these girls happy for a second? Is it okay if I hold them?”

She looked me up and down as the screaming intensified. Her eyes prickled with tears, and I knew that on any other day she would have told me to take a hike.

“My name is Gage McPherson,” I said softly. “I’m an NHL player for the Seattle Sharks. You can google me and everything.”

The boy screamed again, heading into full-on meltdown, and she nodded, clearly at her wit’s end. While she buckled the boy into the car, I unbuckled the girls, who looked to be about six months if my memory from Lettie was right.

I carefully lifted them one at a time into my arms, thankful that Lettie hadn’t been twins. Then again, I wasn’t sure the world could have handled two of her.

Or how I could have cared for two babies when Helen walked out.

The two girls tucked their little heads against my chest as I swayed, murmuring just how precious they were. They quieted, and I felt that little bit of peace that only calming a baby can give. I glanced over to our car, where Bailey leaned against the frame near Lettie’s open door, watching me.

The yearning on her face broke me down like nothing else could have. I knew that this had always been her dream—holding babies of her own. Hell, she’d been playing house since we were kids, mothering everyone around her, babysitting just for fun. Her impeccable maternal instinct had been one of the reasons I’d trusted her with Lettie when she’d come home from Cornell. That, and there was no one in this world who knew me better.

One of the babies yawned against my chest, and I smiled.

I got it, why Bailey wanted this so badly.

I just hoped I could love her enough that she wouldn’t feel like I’d cheated her out of it—that Lettie and I would be enough to content her need for family.

She gave me an adoring smile, and I mirrored it.

“Thank you,” the woman said, reaching for the first little girl. “Their dad is deployed and I just wanted to get them out of the house for the day.”

“He at Pendleton?” I asked as I handed the little bundle over.

She nodded, her eyes proud, but sad.

As she clicked one of the girls in, I gently bounced the other and took my wallet out of my back pocket, retrieving my card.

“Here you go,” I said to her as she took the second baby.

“Thank you, so much,” she said with a relieved sigh.

“Can I put your stroller in?”

She nodded gratefully and I collapsed the stroller and tucked it away in the back of her minivan, fondly remembering the first time I’d nearly thrown Lettie’s because I couldn’t get the damn thing to collapse. Strollers defied all common sense and logic.

As she came back around, I handed her my card. “I live in Seattle, but if there’s anything you need, just call this number. My dad was in the service, and I know it’s tough to handle everything on your own.”

Her eyes widened, and she took the card with a nod. “Thank you.”

“No, thank you.”

I said goodbye to the woman and headed back to my own little family. I opened Bailey’s door and she  kissed me lightly before sliding into her seat.

She was laughing as I got into the driver’s seat.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

“I’m just hoping there were no photographers catching that little exchange.”

“What? It’s not like I did anything bad.”

“Oh, no, quite the opposite. It was drop dead sexy, and gallant, and every girl’s dream. That pic gets out and you’ll have every woman in America pregnant from just looking at it,” she said, running her hand down the back of my neck.

Every woman but you.

* * *

I
couldn’t get
her comment out of my head all evening. Even when I was at the game, watching that fucking rookie play my position, and cheering the win, Bailey was on my brain.

Lettie had been exhausted from Disney, so I’d left the girls at the hotel to rest while I came to the game. Besides, I knew I wasn’t much fun to be around while I was in game-mode.

Now, as I slid the key through the lock of our suite at the hotel, my mind was on overdrive. What if the kids thing really was a deal-breaker for Bailey? What if she was the one woman who would have stayed, but my actions drove her away?

What if I was the cause of all of my own unhappiness?

“Girls?” I asked as I walked into the quiet suite. Huh. I peeked into Lettie’s bedroom and found her sprawled across the bed, dead to the world. Her little torso rose and fell with her breaths, and her hair smelled like the strawberry shampoo she loved so much. I put her under the covers and pressed a kiss to her forehead, then left her to sleep, closing the door behind me as I left.

Bailey wasn’t in the living room, or in our bedroom, but I heard the soft sound of splashing coming from the bathroom, and I smiled. The bathroom was the room furthest from Lettie—no chance of waking her up—and pretty perfect for what I had in mind. Fuck, just the sound of that water, knowing it was sloshing against Bailey’s naked skin was enough to get me hard.

“Bailey?” I said, knocking lightly on the door that connected to the master bedroom.

“Come on in.” Her voice was muffled through the door.

I slid it open and closed it behind me quickly so the steamy air didn’t escape. Holy shit, she was a vision. Her hair was piled on top of her head and she was covered from breast to toe in bubbles, but I’d never seen a more erotic sight than her knee peeking just above the waterline in the giant jacuzzi tub.

I’d splurged on the bigger suite, and it was
so
worth it.

“How was the game?” she asked, looking up at me with those amazing, fuck-me eyes.

“We won,” I said, pulling my jersey over my head and throwing it to the marble floor.

“Did you?” she said, licking her bottom lip as my t-shirt joined the jersey. Her eyes trailed down my stomach, and I was instantly glad that I kept my body toned and tight.

“We did.” I unbuckled my pants and let them hit the floor, getting harder by the second as she watched.

“Were you thinking about… celebrating?” she asked, her eyes still on my steadily-growing cock.

“I was thinking about putting my mouth on you until you come, if that’s what you mean by celebrating,” I answered.

She swallowed. “Yes, please?”

God, she was so fucking hot. How had I missed that while we were growing up?

She moved forward and I stepped in behind her, grateful the tub was deep enough that we didn’t send water spilling over the sides. She turned, and I moved her knees around me so that she straddled me in the water.

Hell yes to huge bathtubs.

I cupped her perfect ass in my hands as she slid over me, my cock stroking through the folds of her pussy. Had there ever been a woman made more perfectly for me?

“You’re phenomenal,” I said to her.

She arched a little, bringing her tight nipples against my chest. “You’re not so bad yourself,” she answered.

My fingers traced her spine as they danced up her back, and once I had one of my hands buried in the dark silk of her hair, I brought her mouth to mine. Fuck, she kissed like she did everything else in life—with every bit of passion in her body and nothing held back.

Our tongues tangled, dueled, rubbed against each other the same way our lower bodies couldn’t help but grind under water. I felt like a powder keg, and Bailey held the match—hell, she was the match. She set me off like no one I’d ever met—and maybe it wasn’t because she was made for me, but that I was made for her.

Her whimpers grew louder as I kissed her, pouring everything of myself into her, and praying that it was enough—enough to give her everything she needed even though I knew I’d always come up short.