Page 35 of Game Changer (Hidden Attractions #2)

Maya

After another closing shift at Happy Endings, I’m exhausted.

My head hurts from five hours of straight bass rattling my brain, and my clothes are sticking to my body because two girls crashed into me and spilled their drinks all over my uniform.

I’m a sweaty mess who reeks of vodka, and my only desire is to go home and pretend tonight never happened.

“That was a shit shift,” Tabi mutters. It’s the first time we’ve spoken all night because of how busy it was.

We should’ve known the fair downtown would drive more customers than usual to the bar, and we were tremendously outnumbered tonight because of it.

I didn’t have a second to breathe , let alone take a break.

“I think I have four new blisters on my feet. I shouldn’t have worn these new sneakers without breaking them in first.”

“Tell me about it. It feels like someone dumped an entire bottle of maple syrup on me.”

Tabi snorts. “Those girls were plastered. I’m surprised they weren’t thrown out after the first hour.”

We make quick work of wiping down the tables and flipping the chairs.

Tabi’s curly red hair is frizzy and untamed in a messy bun, and she frustratingly pushes the falling pieces behind her ears as we grab our purses and coats from the office.

“I would talk more before I leave, but honestly, I’m beat,” she admits.

“Annie comes home tomorrow from her dad’s, so I need all the sleep I can get. ”

I arch a brow. “He’s watching her for an entire night?”

“Trust me, he’s not watching her long. I dropped her off before my shift started, and I won’t be surprised if he shows up with her before ten tomorrow morning.

He can’t watch her for more than three hours when she’s awake because that would mean he’d have to put in effort.

” She rolls her eyes. “He’s the laziest fucker I know. ”

We head down the hallway together, only to stop dead in our tracks when we see Mark and Ethan standing outside the front door.

Tabi goes rigid beside me before balling her fists at her sides. “I don’t have time for his bullshit today,” she sneers. She flips the lock and throws the door open. “What the hell, Mark? I told you I don’t need anyone walking me home at night. I can handle myself for Christ’s sake.”

Mark pulls a pink lamb from behind his back, and the object looks so tiny compared to his massive body that I would have laughed if it wasn’t for Tabi’s face paling.

“Annie left this in my car this morning. I know the Asshole has her tonight, so I wanted to talk to you first to figure out what you want me to do with it.”

“What do you mean?” she asks, her eyes darting to the lamb again.

“Do you want me to drive it over to his house? You and I both know she can’t fall asleep without it. He’s likely losing his fucking mind. If she doesn’t have Lamby tonight, he’ll probably drive her back to your house before sunrise.”

“Why didn’t you text me earlier about this?”

Mark sticks a thumb over his shoulder at Ethan. “I found it about an hour ago after convincing this one to go out to shoot some pool. You never answer your texts at work, so we drove here to meet you after your shift.”

Tabi, who is usually so witty and quick with comebacks, has no words. She stares motionless at the lamb for a solid ten seconds before she says, “You’d drive it over there for her? He lives across town.”

Mark shrugs as if he’s not doing her a huge favor. “I had a nap earlier. You didn’t. Go home and get some sleep.”

“She can probably manage for one night without it.”

“But she shouldn’t have to. It was my fault for not checking the car when we came back from getting ice cream. She’s probably crying as we speak, and—” He clears his throat. “She needs it.”

I’m so caught up in their conversation that I haven’t even had time to process Ethan coming along with Mark.

Was he just getting a ride home from playing pool?

No. That can’t be all when his gaze roams from my head to my toes.

His stare produces an electric current that zaps me awake. I’m suddenly not tired at all.

“I need the Asshole’s address,” Mark continues.

“He has a name, you know.”

“And he doesn’t deserve to be called it.

He’ll always be the Asshole to me. Now, can you give me the address so I can put your child out of her misery, please?

Lamby needs to be returned to his owner.

” A sound short of a gasp works its way from his throat.

“Well, I’ll be damned. Did you just smile , Tabi cat? ”

Her lips, which had slightly twitched at the sides turn into an immediate frown. “You’re seeing things. Add hallucinations to the list of injuries football has caused you.”

“I know what I saw.”

“Mmm,” she hums. “I’ll give you his address, but this changes nothing. You’re still . . .”

He arches a brow, awaiting her answer.

“ . . . a pain in my ass,” she finishes.

He throws his head back and laughs. “Hey, I’ll take that over something that crawled out of the pits of hell. You called me that yesterday, in case you forgot.”

She smiles wickedly now, nothing short of devious. “Trust me, I didn’t.”

For whatever reason, I feel like I’m invading an intimate moment, judging from how these two stare each other down. Ethan must think the same because he steps around Mark’s body and jerks his head for the door. “Are you done for the night? I was going to walk you home.”

Butterflies erupt everywhere in my stomach. “You were?”

“Is that all right with you?”

“Yeah. I was going to ride with Tabi, but . . .”

“Please.” Tabi scoffs, ending whatever stare down she was having with Mark. “I’m three sheets to the wind. I won’t be offended if you walk home with him instead. We’ll have time to catch up on girl talk another day.” Her eyes linger on mine as if to say, We’ll have a lot to talk about .

“Cool. Thanks, Tabi. I’ll see you next weekend?”

With a subtle nod from her, I follow Ethan into the chilly November air.

Goose bumps pepper my skin, so I slip on the puffer jacket I brought and stay close to his side.

Ethan’s hand brushes mine, tentatively seeking to see if I’ll hold it.

It’s ridiculous since we’ve already slept together, but something so simple seems to hold more intimacy than him being inside of me.

I intertwine my fingers with his, loving the red that stains his cheeks in response.

“I should have had Mark drop me off at the dorm so I could grab my car,” he admits. “It’s cold out here tonight.”

I press my side fully against his and rest my head on his shoulder. “It’s okay. You’re doing a great job at being warm.” But as soon as the sentence leaves my lips, water droplets from the night sky above slowly hit my skin. I blink at the stars, cursing when the few plops become a drizzle.

“Damn,” Ethan mutters. “We can go back to Happy Endings. I’m sure Tabi and Mark haven’t left yet.”

“No, it’s fine. Annie needs her lamb or whatever. I don’t want to get in the way of that.” This damn jacket doesn’t have a hood on it, but hoods aren’t a necessity in Arizona. It hardly ever rains.

“You hate the rain,” he says.

“I do not.”

“You do, or are you forgetting when you wailed like a child during lunch in the courtyard when there was a downpour? When was that, your sophomore year?”

I swing my head to give him an open-mouthed stare. “You saw that?”

“More like I heard that. It was impossible not to hear you scream.”

I huff and cross my arms over my chest. “Well, maybe I love it now.”

“Do you?”

I cringe when the water trails down my scalp.

Although it’s not a downpour, it’s a steady trickle that has me breaking down and forgetting the front I put up.

“Okay, I hate it, but in my defense, I have a thick head of hair! It takes hours to straighten it. By the time we get back to the dorm, it’ll be a frizzy, disgusting mess. ”

Ethan chuckles, and I’m speechless when he strips off his jacket and passes it over to me.

The rain is picking up its intensity, so Ethan pulls me under an awning on a side street to prevent me from getting drenched.

The action makes my heart pound, and all I want to do is make the rom-com movies I love come to life and kiss him stupid in the middle of a rare downpour in Arizona.

“You’re going to catch a cold in this weather if you don’t wear your jacket,” I tell him. “It’s freezing, Ethan.”

“It’s a good thing I’ll have my girlfriend to nurse me back to health, then, huh?”

The sigh I give makes his brows furrow. “What?”

“Nothing.” I laugh at the absurdity of the weather and the perfect man standing before me.

“You just surpass my wildest expectations. If I could have curated the ideal guy for me, you’d meet the criteria and then some.

” I smile softly when he drapes his jacket over my head to cover my hair, ever the gentleman.

“I used to think my standards were too high, but—”

He cuts me off before I can finish. “Your standards were never too high, Maya. You were just asking the wrong person.”

Dammit to hell. I don’t care if it’s the corniest move in existence, but I kiss him senseless beneath this awning with rain crashing down around us.

He cradles the back of my head before pressing me against the brick wall of some random shop.

I’m clutching his jacket over my head while trying to keep up with his lips, which leave a burning path from my mouth to my jaw and then to the column of my throat.

Ethan has embedded himself in my heart, and I’m afraid he’s staying there for good.

I’ve never been in love, but if I had to take a wild guess, I imagine I am with him.

It’s the only explanation for my frantic need to get his clothes off and show him how much I appreciate him.

It’s the only reason I feel completely myself with him in a way I don’t with anyone else.

We’re both panting when we rip our mouths apart. Ethan stares out at the rain bordering on a monsoon before he grabs my hand with both eyebrows raised and says, “Well? Are we doing this or what?”

I nod, clutching his jacket over my head for dear life.

“All right, ready? Three, two, one, go !” He pulls me into the storm, and with us laughing like lunatics and our shoes getting soaked, I realize I didn’t put up a front after all.

I’m learning to love the rain.