Page 6 of Breakaway (Nashville Knights Hockey #3)
Chapter Six
DAX
T hat was a really bad idea. A very bad idea. In the whole universe of bad ideas, skinny-dipping with my best friend that I’m secretly in love with? That’s at the top of the list.
Fuck. I really shouldn’t have done that.
Picking up my bag, I toss it over my shoulder and head toward my truck.
After our dip in the lake, we had a quiet few days.
Playing games. Watching movies. Cooking dinner together.
The weather turned to rain again, so there wasn’t much we could do besides stay inside. It’s one of the things I love most about being around Chloe. The easy silences.
We’re never straining to fill them.
Throwing my duffel into the car and standing next to the driver’s door, I remind myself to switch my focus to the team’s upcoming training and offseason practices.
It’ll be the distraction I need to keep from thinking about Chloe.
But it’s hard not to think about that little sliver of skin I saw on the side of her chest as I went into the water. Because even that tiny inch of skin has me thinking of everything I want to do to her. Things that I can’t do to her.
Even though she’s officially done with my brother—and sworn off all men—she’ll always be Duncan’s ex.
Which makes me hate my brother even more because I’ll never get Chloe that way.
“You ready?”
Chloe’s jogging down the front steps of my cabin, bag in hand. In a pair of overalls, with her hair swept into a messy contraption on top of her head, she looks better than I’ve seen her in days.
“Waiting on you, Sunshine.”
Chloe smiles at me, dark sunglasses hiding her eyes.
“I’m not ready to go back to the real world.” She sighs, shaking her head. “I wish we could stay here forever.”
“If only I didn’t have to go back for hockey.”
“Hey.” Chloe nudges me and throws her bag into the back of the SUV. “You have to win the cup. I’ve been waiting too long to see you lift it.”
I beam back at her. “I’m planning on it.”
“Good. You can focus on that. I’ll have to find an apartment.”
Firing the truck up, I point it in the direction of the main road. “You know, you can stay with me as long as you need.”
“I can’t. You know I can’t.”
I peek one eye over at her, and she’s picking at her nail.
“Says who?”
She drops her hands into her lap. “I have to move on, Dax.”
“Move on from me?” There’s a panic in my voice as the car swerves a little too hard around the corner.
“No. God, no.” She reaches over and squeezes my arm resting on the center console. “But if I keep mooching off you, it’s just going to delay me moving on from your brother.”
I blow out a breath as the sunlight peeks into the cab from the passing trees. “Good. But you know the offer is always there.”
“You’re the best, Dax. Truly. I don’t know if I would have survived these last few days without you.”
“You would have. You’re stronger than you think.”
“I probably would have gone back and married him.” She shudders.
“Well, now you get to find a new place to live and start over.”
“Care to help me look?” Chloe asks.
“Of course.”
That earns me a genuine smile from her. It’s one of the smiles she saves just for me. It has my heart flailing around in my chest. God, why couldn’t I feel this way about someone else? But no matter how hard I tried to move on from Chloe, it was always her. All the way back to high school.
Until I asked my dick of a brother for advice on how to ask her out and he did it instead. It’s around that time I started hating my brother for getting what I wanted. He didn’t deserve her then and he still doesn’t deserve her now.
“Whatever I find won’t be anything fancy. I don’t have much of a budget.”
“And what is your budget?”
“Cheap.”
Chloe plugs in her phone, tapping a few things before the first few notes of an old pop song come on.
“Our playlist?”
She nods, starting to sing along. “I had to recreate it. ”
Chloe cranks the volume, bopping along to the song and singing—terribly, I might add.
“I forgot how bad you are.” I laugh.
That only makes her sing louder, dancing in the seat.
“C’mon, Dax.” She pokes me in the side. “You know you want to sing along.”
“I’m the worst singer in the world.”
“I don’t care.” She pokes me again. “C’mon.”
I wait a beat before busting out with the chorus. It has Chloe holding out a pretend microphone to me as I focus on the road and the song.
God, this is what I love about being with her. How it’s always been. Things are light and fun. Right now, it’s just the two of us. There’s no worrying about what’s to come. And I know Chloe has a lot of those concerns right now.
“I forgot how bad we sound together.” Chloe reaches over and turns the volume down. “Remind me that we should never go on tour.”
“Done.” I laugh. “I’m not giving up my day job anytime soon.”
“Meanwhile, I’m trying to find one.”
“No luck with that boutique you tried calling?”
She shakes her head. “She already filled the position. I called a few other places, but if nothing pans out, I might be going all in on Charms by Chloe.”
“Is that what you’re calling it?” I sneak a quick peek at her, grinning.
“Is it too kitschy? I mean, I’ve been toying around with some ideas.”
Pulling out her notebook, she flips a few pages. Idea after idea is scrawled on the page. Some circled, others crossed out.
“I like Chloe’s Creations, but I don’t know. Charms by Chloe sounds better to me. ”
“A certain charm if you will.” I wink at her.
“Well, I might already have a logo in mind too. I just need to find someone to help me design it.”
I wince, thinking about how much that is going to cost. “Can I ask you the question you might not want to hear?”
“How am I going to pay for it?”
I nod. “Sorry. I know it’s expensive to start your own business.”
She picks at a loose thread in a rip in her overalls. “I figure if I sell my engagement ring, that’ll help cover my costs for a few months. Maybe start designing and creating and selling everything online.”
“I think that’s a great idea. And you know…”
Chloe swats me on the arm. “I am not living with you to save money. If I get desperate, maybe.”
“I’ll see if Marcus’s wife or Bode’s girlfriend might have any contacts you could start selling with.”
“Doesn’t Marcus’s wife work at a school?”
“Yeah, but don’t moms love stuff like that? Charms for their kids’ birthdays? I know my mom always had one.”
“Not a bad idea.” The sound of her pen against the paper fills the cab of the truck. “You’ll have to send me their numbers. If they wouldn’t mind.”
“I don’t think they would,” I say.
“You sure? I know I’m not officially a part of the WAGS crew.”
“Maybe you can start a BFs crew.”
“Really?” She laughs. “Best friends crew?”
“What? It can be a thing.”
“Considering I’ll never be a WAG, that’s for sure.”
I keep my reaction to myself. “No WAG. Got it.”
“All men, for that matter right now. Never a hockey player again. After Duncan, I don’t want to take that chance. ”
“Hey, we’re not all bad.”
“You’re different, Dax. You’re one of the kindest people on the planet. Your brother? Not so much. He always had excuses as to why we were partly exclusive.”
“Partly exclusive?” I question. That’s the first I’m hearing of this.
“Yeah. Always exclusive when he was in town. But if he was gone training with other teams or when he was in Europe that one summer before he joined Colorado, we weren’t exclusive.”
“I could murder him,” I grumble.
“I guess it was his excuse to sleep with whoever he wanted.” She smacks herself on the head. “I seriously can’t believe how na?ve I was.”
“He knows just what to say to keep you on the hook. Trust me, I always thought he was going to help me become a better skater and he never did.”
She scoffs. “That’s because you’re already a better player.”
“Nice try.”
The truck grows silent as the farmlands around the city pass us by. I wish I was the better player, but I’ve always been in my big brother’s shadow.
Since I started playing in the NHL, I’ve always been compared to him.
He had a natural talent that he never had to work at.
Me? It was a grind every day to get where I am now.
I wish I had that same skill, but I don’t.
In high school, I wanted to be just like my big brother.
The way he carried himself on the ice and how easily it came to him.
Now? All I want is to stop being compared to him.
“Does it help that you’re a better person?” Chloe pulls me from my thoughts.
“A little.” I hold up my thumb and forefinger a few centimeters apart. “Wouldn’t hurt if I could have a cup to show for it.”
“You’ll get one. I know.”
Chloe squeezes my forearm before going back to her notebook. The same notebook that her damn list is in.
My focus this season needs to be on the team and improving where I am to help us actually finish in the playoffs. I don’t need to be worrying about her swearing off all men.
I’ll never have Chloe. I need to accept that. Having her as my best friend is all I’ll ever get.
And that needs to be good enough for me.