Page 6 of On Thin Ice (Calgary Mounties #1)

Chapter Six

BOUNDARIES

Lincoln

I drive through the busy Calgary streets towards Seth and Kylie’s house, nestled away at the back of one of the exclusive gated communities where a few of our other teammates live.

I’ve been considering looking for a place here as well, but with the cloud of uncertainty hanging over my position with the team, I’ve been holding off.

Even though I really want to put down roots here.

Now, it looks like I was wise in that decision.

Because I have no idea how I’m going to convince the team to keep me after this.

I park in the driveway, ignoring the little flip my stomach does when I spy Adele’s car parked out the front. I hadn’t realized she was back from her latest tour.

Seems like I’m getting pretty good at making sex related mistakes these days.

The reporter that I’d had to get a restraining order against wasn’t great.

The threesome that is coming back to haunt me…

Well, that’s clearly bad. Sleeping with Adele, though?

That’s a whole different level of stupid, and that particular poor decision has been haunting me for months.

We’ve avoided each other as much as possible, but that is n’t easy when she practically lives at Seth and Kylie’s house… Just like me.

And now that she’s here, I’ll have to wait until I can get Seth alone to tell him what’s going on, cause the last thing I want to do is admit any of this in front of her.

I let myself in with my key and am immediately set upon by furry, golden retriever goodness. My dog, Milo, comes bounding around the corner from the kitchen and lets out a series of excited barks, his entire body shaking when he sees me.

At eighteen months old, he’s technically still a puppy, but at full size, it can be dangerous when he runs at you at full speed.

“Hey buddy,” I say, crouching down while he wriggles all over the place.

He woofs at me before jumping up to lick me on the face, knocking me backwards.

“Ack, down. Come on, we’ve talked about boundaries,” I remind him.

He sits back on his haunches, his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth while he gives me his big, doggy grin. As shitty as my afternoon has been, I feel a little lighter now that Milo is nearby. Not a whole lot lighter, but still, at least I can breathe again.

“Boundaries, huh? Seems like that’s an interesting lesson for you to try to teach him,” Kylie says as she comes out of the kitchen herself.

“Hey, I respect boundaries,” I protest, looking up at her from where I’m lying on the ground next to my dog.

She raises an eyebrow. “Really? And who was it that stole my face cream last week?”

“Adele,” I reply.

“No, it wasn’t!” The woman in question hollers from the kitchen.

“Look,” I say to Kylie, ignoring Adele. “I can’t help it if I ran out and you use the same stuff as I do. I need to look pretty too, you know.”

“No point, babe,” Seth cuts in before Kylie can respond, coming down the hall from the media room and bending to kiss her. “He’s going to replace the face cream though, isn’t he?” He shoots me a look over her shoulder, raising an eyebrow.

Ever the peacemaker. No wonder he’s been the team captain for five years now.

“Yes, sir.” I salute him before getting up off the ground and dusting myself off.

Kylie’s orange cat, Simba, rounds the corner and freezes, staring at Milo with wide eyes. Milo loves the cat, but the cat does not love Milo. He tolerates my fur child being here during the day but will take a swipe at him any chance he can get to remind him who the real boss of the household is.

This is another reason I wanted to buy a house nearby.

Milo needs his own yard. But at least here, he’s got Kylie or Adele for company when I’m not around.

And he’s happy in the apartment the rest of the time, provided I take him for regular walks.

I’d toyed with getting a dog walker for when I’m not around, but after the whole stalker reporter debacle, I’m wary of letting a stranger have access to my apartment.

So, Kylie and Adele are my dog sitters during the hockey season.

So far, it’s worked for us. But that was before I slept with Adele, and things got super fucking awkward.

Following Seth and Kylie into the kitchen, I pause briefly when I see Adele sitting at the table surrounded by a sea of papers.

She’s got her hair piled up on top of her head in a messy bun, with several pens shoved through it.

Her face is make-up free, and she’s dressed in an oversized white sweater which is hanging off one shoulder.

She’s always been beautiful, but ever since the night that shall not be named, images of her sexy, naked body keep entering my mind at the most inopportune moments. Like right now.

Cause the reality is, she is so gorgeous that it’s almost painful to look at her these days.

Stupid drunk Lincoln. Why did you have to sleep with the one woman who needs to be off limits? And why did she have to be so fucking good with her mouth… and various other body parts?

She raises an eyebrow as she looks at me, and I realize I’ve been staring at her for far too long.

“Hey,” I say, going for casual.

“Hey,” she replies warily.

“How are you?” I move towards the fridge, figuring it's safest not to look directly at her and therefore risk my brain exploding.

“Fine.” She gets up and stretches her arms above her head.

And of course, she’s wearing tiny shorts that show every inch of those long, tanned dancers’ legs.

Seriously, this woman is going to be the death of me.

“How was practice?” Kylie asks, pulling me from my impure thoughts about those legs and how good they’d felt wrapped around my waist.

And thrown over my shoulders.

While I thrust deep inside her.

Head in the game, Lincoln. You’ve got way bigger issues to deal with right now.

“It was fine. The team is looking good this year,” Seth replies, taking a mouthful of water from the glass Kylie hands him.

“You guys fly out tomorrow for the first pre-season game, right?” Adele asks, her gaze stopping just to the right of my face.

Good to see things aren’t awkward anymore.

“Yeah, the first game is against Vancouver. Should be a good one.”

Adele is quiet for a moment, before turning to look at Seth. “Will you guys be seeing Ben?”

And there it is. The elephant that’s in every room when Adele and I are near one another.

Since we’ve been home, she’s done a pretty good job of acting like she’s fine with everything. But I’ve caught her crying twice, although neither of us acknowledged it, remembering what happened the last time I comforted her.

No repeat performances. Regardless of how good it was.

“I haven’t spoken to him, to be honest. Linc?” Seth glances my way, and I shake my head as I open the can of diet pop I’d just snagged from the fridge.

“Nope. Not a peep.”

“Has anyone heard from him since Tahiti?” Kylie asks, looking concerned.

“Well… I mean, I saw him when I had to give him back the ring and pack up the last of my stuff at his place… But no, not since then.”

I wish I could do something to take away the sadness on Adele’s face as she stares at her ringless left hand. But that would just lead to things being even weirder.

“I’ll check on him,” I say, immediately regretting my words when Adele gives me a sharp look.

I probably should have left that up to Seth, but it’s not like anyone knows what happened between Adele and I, so it would probably look worse if I didn’t offer.

Thankfully, the conversation moves on as Seth starts pulling food out of the fridge. Jacob was apparently here earlier, stocking up the fridge for the next few days, so we’ve got a good selection of choices for dinner.

My phone starts lighting up with a series of messages as I take a seat at the table, and Kylie raises an eyebrow.

“Someone’s popular. ”

I let out a bitter little “ha” but don’t reply, and Seth gives me a curious look as he plates up the food.

A moment later, his phone starts doing the same thing. Sighing, I know my chances of keeping all the shit to myself are slim when he pulls it out and starts reading, his gaze snapping up to meet mine.

“What the hell?” he asks.

My shoulders drop and I stare down at the tabletop in front of me, unable to hold his gaze as shame floods through me.

“What’s going on?” Kylie asks, moving closer to her husband and reading the message herself. “Holy shit.”

“What? What am I missing?” Adele asks, her gaze flicking between the three of us.

“So… I may be one of the stars in a sex tape,” I say, figuring there’s no point in trying to dance around it all now.

Her eyes widen, and I look away again.

“Wait. Did you know it was filmed?” Seth asks.

“I knew some of it was, but I figured I was safe because there was no way they’d want the video out there either.

But it looks like his business partner got a hold of it and released the earlier part - not the actual sex, thank god.

It was enough to get him stood down as the CEO and piss off management, though.

” Exhaustion sets in, and I let my head fall back to stare up at the ceiling.

“Seriously?” Kylie looks over at me with a sigh. “Mate, that’s not fucking right. You were the victim if you didn’t have anything to do with the video being released.”

Sometimes I forget she’s Australian, and then she cracks out a ‘mate’ and a few curse words, and it all comes flooding back.

“I don’t think management really cares about that. Not when it could damage the teams ‘family friendly’ reputation,” I say, my tone bitter as I use air quotes.

“Why the hell did you let them film it?” Adele asks.

I raise an eyebrow slowly. “I don’t know, Adele. Clearly, I make shitty decisions.”

She clamps her mouth shut.

“What’d Mikayla say?” Seth asks, leaning back against the bench and crossing his arms.

I sigh. “She said that they won’t discuss re-signing me until they know how bad the damage is. And I need to find a way to rescue my reputation, before this gets out even more than it already has.”

Kylie grimaces. “How the hell are you meant to do that?”

“I kind of stopped listening after she dropped the whole ‘might not re-sign me’ news, but I think she said something about finding a nice, wholesome girlfriend. Which I doubt would work, even if anyone actually believed I’d settled down.”

It’s very common knowledge that I don’t date. So, I doubt it would work, anyway.

“Maybe you could find someone to play along, even if it’s just for a few months?” Kylie asks.

“I don’t date,” I say quickly.

“Yeah. Lincoln doesn’t date. It’s a known fact,” Adele adds.

There’s something off about her tone, and I study her for a moment. She looks away, leaving me wondering if maybe I’m not the only one still having flashbacks to that night.

“All the more reason why he should find someone. Throw everyone right off.” Kylie turns to look at her cousin. “Why don’t you guys try being seen together a bit?”

Her question is met with silence.

“Um… Why?” I ask after I pick my jaw up off the floor.

“Because it wouldn’t be entirely outside of the realm of possibility if you two were dating, seeing as you both practically live here?

And then you won’t have to worry about things being weird with someone else.

Cause it’s not like the two of you are actually together.

That would just be silly. But if you do it for a while, management will see you’re dating a nice, wholesome, hometown girl, and maybe they’ll ease up? ” She looks over at Seth.

My traitorous best friend shrugs, looking thoughtful. “I mean, it might work.”

I miss the days when Seth barely spoke and never got involved in other people’s lives.

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Adele pipes up, once again avoiding looking directly at me.

I don’t know why, but her agreeing with my thoughts makes me feel shitty.

“Would it be so bad, going on a few dates with me?” I ask.

Finally, she meets my gaze, her eyes wide. “Uh… What?”

Abort! Abort! Abort!

My mouth has taken over now, though. “We could totally make this work.”

“Can I talk to you for a moment, please? Alone.” She jerks her head towards the hall.

Seth and Kylie exchange a confused look while I follow her out of the room.

“What the hell are you doing?” Adele hisses at me once we’re safely out of earshot.

“Nothing.”

“Why are you going along with this harebrained scheme?”

“I’m not. I’m just saying, it’s not that bad of an idea. And it’s not like anything is going to happen between us,” I reply, crossing my arms and leaning against the wall.

Milo pushes his way between us and shoves his nose into Adele’s hand, looking for pats.

“Something already did happen between us, idiot.” Honestly, if looks could kill, I’d be dead right now, cause lasers are practically shooting from her eyes.

“We don’t talk about that, Adele,” I say, returning the look .

“It’s burned into my brain, Lincoln.”

I smirk. “How horrible for you. I never even think about it.”

Despite everything I’ve got going on right now, the anger flashing in her eyes is still a little fun to watch.

“Liar,” she hisses. “I’ve seen the looks you’ve given me.”

“No idea what you’re talking about.” Perhaps sensing the tension between two of his favourite people, Milo paws my leg, and I reach down to scratch him behind the ear, sighing. “Look, it was just a suggestion. Forget it. I’ll work something else out.”

“Good,” she snaps, stomping back into the kitchen.

I sigh and look down at Milo. “It’s okay, Buddy. That was all aimed at me.”