Page 25

Twenty-Five

Aiden

Luna and her sexy lingerie make it back home days before I do.

But that was always the plan—Luna needed to get back to her job at the non-profit, and she needed to speak with her attorney, get the ball rolling on the shares of Smythe before time runs out.

And not that it’s a surprise to me or Doc, but my CT turns out fine, and I clear the concussion protocol without issue.

Which means I play against Denver and Utah—of course, I do it wearing a full cage which is annoying because while it protects those puny five stitches, it also blocks my vision and makes me feel like that youth hockey player who first fell for Luna all those years before.

Luna.

Who worried about me in adorable fashion, calling to check on me more often than my mom, texting and FaceTiming and just genuinely… worrying .

Honestly, if it was any other woman, I would have lost my shit and told her to back off.

This is my job—blood and bruises, stitches and broken bones, they’re all par for the course.

But…it was Luns calling me.

Her worry touches and amuses me in equal measure.

I’ll be happy when the stitches are out, though.

Because even through FaceTime her gaze catches on my injury, those gray eyes clouding over.

She had quite a welcome to having a professional hockey-playing husband.

Blood and a hospital visit barely twenty-four hours after tying the knot is a lot.

Poor thing.

I’ll have to make it up to her with orgasms.

Mouth kicking up, I toss my bag over my shoulder, then follow my teammates off the bus. The Grizzlies’ plane is parked all of forty feet away and I hurry across the tarmac, the autumn wind whipping through my clothing, slicing against my skin.

Damn.

Too much time in California means that my blood has thinned again.

Before I know it, I’ll be thinking that sixty degrees is cold.

“Damn, man, that expression looks good on you.”

I jerk, realize that Smitty is watching me over his shoulder, beard twitching. “What nonsense are you talking now?”

He clamps a hand to his chest. “I send you gifts, celebrate your milestones, and this is the gift I get in return?”

I just glower at him, keep walking.

“Just saying,” he booms. “Happily fucking married looks good on you.”

Sighing, I glance back at him over my shoulder. “I’m going to sic Kailey on you,” I say of his wife, who may appear quiet and shy, but has a stubborn streak a mile wide. “She won’t like that you’re giving me a hard time.”

“Nice try, A-man,” Smitty says as he starts pounding up the stairs beside me. “I filled her in, and she’s just as curious as I am about your Luna—especially since she seems to have come out of nowhere.”

I follow him onto the plane. “I told you?—”

“That you and Luna were childhood sweethearts until you broke. Yeah, yeah all that’s great.” He turns down the aisle. “But there’s more to the story. I can feel it in my bones.”

God, the man is just fucking?—

“Give it a rest, Smitty, yeah?” Gray says, coming up behind us. “It’s late. We’re all ready to be home. Interrogate Aiden another time.”

Smitty sinks down in his seat with a scowl, and I take advantage of his momentary distraction to take a different spot a few rows back.

But my teammate…well, he isn’t one to let go of a thread of gossip.

Hasn’t ever been.

Won’t start tonight.

He just lets Gray pass then stands, spinning to face me, resting his arms on the top of the seat, his eyes locking onto mine as he says, “I’ll get to the bottom of this, A-man. I always do.”

“Great,” I mutter. “Threats.”

“Cool it, Smitty,” Joel says, sinking down beside me. “Or I’ll tell Aiden which store I visited in Vegas.”

For a second, I frown, not getting it.

Then I do.

The wombat.

The only thing that seems to keep Smitty in check.

And, thankfully, it works for me today too.

He shudders and turns back around, dropping into his chair.

I exhale. Joel bumps his shoulder against mine. “It’ll pass.”

“Says who?” I grumble.

“Says the man who’s in his crosshairs.”

I lift my brows in question.

“Since Smitty’s focused on the rest of us”—Joel makes air quotes—“single fuckers.”

There is that.

If I’m off the market, I should eventually be off his radar.

“That’s actually a really good point.” I bump his shoulder this time. “But in the meantime, maybe I should remind him again that you’re single. Get some of the heat off me.”

Joel’s meets my gaze, challenge written all over his expression. “You do that and I’ll join him in figuring out why this Luna of yours has appeared seemingly out of nowhere, after you not mentioning her”—his lifts his eyebrows—“ ever and now you’re suddenly married.”

Fuck.

“It’s complicated.”

“No shit,” he deadpans, but then his mouth curves the slightest bit. “Is she as gorgeous as Smitty says?”

“Even more so,” I tell him. “He only saw the outside package that is my Luns. He didn’t even get to see the beauty she has inside her.”

Joel’s expression clears, going completely blank for one long second.

The next, he’s back to the Joel I’ve learned over the last months—quiet and slightly removed from the rest of us, but so easily slipping under the radar that it’s hard to catch a glimpse of the storm he’s hiding beneath that calm, unconcerned exterior.

Or so I’ve thought.

Because tonight he gives me more than a glimpse.

Tonight, his quiet words reach my ears just as the fasten seatbelt sign dings on overhead.

“If you find a woman who lets you in deep enough to see the beauty inside her, to know the soft underbelly of her, to understand the puzzle pieces that make up the bigger picture of her soul…” He sighs, yanks his headphones out of his bag.

“Don’t let that go—no matter how hard she tries to push you away. ”

“I—”

But he doesn’t give me any more than that.

Just puts in his earbuds and closes his eyes.

Leaving me to know…he’s unequivocally right.

Which is why I have no plans of letting Luna go.