Page 29

Twenty-Nine

Dash

For a random Thursday night, The Sapphire Room is hopping. The parking lot is full and when we walk in, there are two bartenders handling the crowd—including Aspen. She’s taken a huge step back because of her pregnancy, but apparently she’s helping out tonight.

I frown a little, because I know Banks won’t be happy about it, but he’s at the end of the bar drinking a beer and talking to a couple of his teammates from the Vipers, West McGregor and Magnus Forsberg.

“This is your club?” Willow asks, leaning into my side.

“Welcome to The Sapphire Room.” I grin at her as we make our way over to Banks.

“Hey!” He looks up with a smile and reaches out to shake my hand. “What are you guys doing here?”

“We needed to get out of the house,” I reply.

“ I needed to get out of the house,” Willow adds dryly.

“Welcome.” Banks motions to his friends. “This is West McGregor and Magnus Karlsson. Guys, you know Dash—and this is his girlfriend, Willow.”

I see West’s brows rise just a tiny bit but then he seems to catch himself and smiles. “Nice to meet you. My mom is a huge fan.”

“Tell her thank you,” Willow says graciously. “I’m a big fan of yours as well.”

Great.

I keep forgetting she’s a Vipers fan, and the way she smiles at West makes me want to hit things.

“Fan of what?” Magnus interrupts in confusion.

“This is Willow St. Claire ,” I say, thinking that will clear things up, but the Swedish winger only seems more confused.

“I’m an actress,” Willow stage whispers. “But don’t tell anyone.”

“Oh!” That makes him smile and he shakes her hand. “Then probably my mother is a fan also—she loves American TV.”

They start talking about television shows and hockey, Willow completely at ease with two guys she doesn’t even know, and I feel a twinge of guilt. I know it’s for her safety while we sort out the Dylan mess, but I’ve basically kept her locked in a gilded cage.

And Willow is a beautiful bird who needs to fly free.

“...you don’t look like you’re in the middle of a nervous breakdown.”

I whirl, ready to tell West to shut his mouth but my beautiful exotic bird seems ready, willing, and able to take care of herself.

“Well, you know how it is with exes who don’t want to let go.” She shrugs. “I’ve hired an attorney, and she’s working on getting him to leave me alone. And to stop talking shit about me. It’s getting really old .”

West nods. “Just let me know if you need a few of us to rough him up.”

I snort but cover my mouth and pretend it was a cough.

I definitely don’t need guys from the Vipers protecting my girl, but I also don’t need her to think I’m some overprotective Neanderthal. She had enough of that with Dylan.

And apparently, she’s perfectly capable of handling herself because she barely misses a beat as she disarms West and redirects the conversation.

I love watching her come out of her shell.

“It looks like Aspen is feeling better,” I say to Banks, forcing myself to allow Willow the freedom to do her own thing, no matter how hard it is to let go.

I’m not the kind of man who’s generally overly possessive, but my need to protect her reared its head the moment I saw her in that hospital bed and now that she’s mine, I can’t seem to let go.

Not that anyone will hurt her here .

Certainly not our friends from the Vipers.

“She is,” Banks agrees, following my gaze as I watch Willow talking and laughing with West and Magnus. “And we got slammed tonight, so of course she jumped in to help. It’s good, though, because she was starting to go stir crazy at home.”

“I know how that is. Willow’s the same way. I just don’t know how to protect her until we get past this bullshit with Dylan.”

He nods. “Yeah. He needs to fuck all the way off.”

Willow throws back her head and laughs at something West says and I feel a tug of jealousy in my gut that I can’t tamp down.

Dammit.

“Relax,” Banks says quietly. “She’s not interested in him .”

“I. Know.” I grind out the words even though I don’t quite believe them.

Well, my brain does but my heart is an insecure, immature jerk.

“What can I get you guys?” Aspen comes over to us with a smile.

Her belly seems to have doubled in size since I last saw her, and I can’t believe Banks isn’t losing his mind with her behind the bar, but he’s smiling.

“Gamebreaker for me,” I say.

“Me too!” Willow calls out, grinning at me. I’ve told her all about the drink that Colt came up with in college and I know she’s anxious to try it.

The ladies chat while Aspen whips up our drinks.

“There you go.” She wipes her hands. “And now I’m going to take a break.”

Banks immediately reaches for her hand, and I slide an arm around Willow’s waist. “Do you want to sit with the others?” I motion to where Briar, Atlas, Royal, and Jade are sitting.

“Of course. Do you want to join us?” she asks West and Magnus before I can stop her.

“Sure.” They follow us to our table and pull up extra chairs.

My teeth are on edge as West sinks down next to Willow, but I’m surprised when she turns and presses her lips to mine.

“Jealous much?” she whispers in a teasing voice.

Good thing I’m not obvious .

I grunt. “Maybe.”

“Don’t be. From a romantic perspective, all I see is you. But I’m allowed to have friends, right?”

Well, that takes the wind right out of my sails.

“Absolutely.” I stroke her cheek. “Don’t mind me. It’s been a minute since I had a girlfriend, and after everything Dylan has done, my knee-jerk reaction to everything and everyone is to protect you.”

“I know.” She smiles, her eyes soft and loving. “And I love it ninety-nine percent of the time. But please let me be who I am, because at my core, I’m social.”

“Do your thing, baby.”

She winks and turns back to West. “I need to know exactly what you were thinking when you scored that goal against Toronto last week…”

They’re back to talking hockey, and suddenly I’m not jealous anymore.

She needs this to be happy, and knowing she’s happy is pretty much all I need.

I drop my arm over the back of her chair and watch as she talks and laughs with everyone. She’s one of us now, and it’s a beautiful thing.

I honestly didn’t believe the woman of my dreams existed, much less that she would be in the form of a beautiful and delicate movie star with a troubled past. Yet here she is, filling my life and giving me new reasons to wake up every morning.

After we lost Colt, one of the things that got me out of bed was knowing Frankie was on the way.

Once she was born, she breathed new life into all of us, and while we still missed him, it started to get easier knowing there was this innocent little girl who needed us to focus our love and attention on her.

There’s going to be another baby in the mix soon, along with Aspen, Jade, and now Willow. It almost feels like we’re complete, like we’ve almost moved on from the trauma of losing Colt.

Almost .

Atlas won’t be an easy nut to crack.

I wasn’t sure there was a woman out there that was right for me, but I can’t imagine the type of woman who’ll put up with Atlas’s bullshit. If it wasn’t for us—our family—he would probably have no one in his life.

He has a ton of business associates, acquaintances, and women who want to sleep with him, but he doesn’t have…

friends . It’s been like that since college.

We had to drag him into our group kicking and screaming, but hockey forges bonds that would otherwise seem impossible.

In retrospect, I can see how he needed us to adopt him, even though he would probably die before admitting it.

And very little has changed over the years.

He’s richer and more successful than the rest of us, but he’s lonelier than we are too.

Again, something he’ll never admit, but I worry about him.

Especially now that we’re all pairing up.

I can’t help but wonder if there’s something between him and Briar.

As her brother, that freaks me out, but as someone who cares about her, I’m not so selfish that I want her to be alone.

She needs someone to love her, be a full-time dad to Frankie, and give her the family she’s always dreamed of.

Yes, we’re family, and that will never change, but I want her to have what Willow and I have.

What Banks and Aspen have. And I worry that if there is something between Briar and Atlas, they’re afraid to act on it because of some misplaced fear that I—and the rest of the guys—will be upset.

In the past, I would have threatened him within an inch of his life, but Briar isn’t a child. She’s a grown woman with a daughter, a career, and a home. If Atlas is the man for her, I don’t want them to hide it because of me. That would be selfish as fuck.

As far as I know, Briar doesn’t date. And as much as I don’t want to think about my sister having sex, I know it’s not healthy for a beautiful twenty-six-year-old woman to have zero male companionship that isn’t her brother or his friends.

I need to have this talk with her at some point, but I’ll have to broach the subject carefully. Maybe Willow will have some ideas.

“I think I’ve been recognized,” Willow whispers to me, snapping me out of my reverie.

I follow her gaze and see a few people looking at her, surreptitiously snapping pictures.

But that’s a good thing.

She’s not doing anything wrong, and if they want to post photos of her living her best life, I’m all for it.

“Are you okay with this?” I ask her.

She nods. “I’m great. I’m with my sexy boyfriend, hanging out with friends and making new ones. What else could anyone ask for?”

And just because I know people are watching, I lean over and press my lips to hers.

“Not a damn thing.”

Dylan Durand can suck a bag of dicks.