Page 62 of Puck My Stepbrother

“Hey, Quinn, what are you doing here?”

I nearly jumped right out of my seat. If I had, I might’ve landed in Levi’s arms, which wouldn’t have helped a single thing.

When I tried to respond, I realized I’d lost my breath. Definitely not how I wanted to react in front of Jeff.

Once I settled myself, I found Levi sitting across from me, making himself right at home. I wanted to scream. No, I wanted to freak out completely. I honestly felt like I couldn’t accomplish a single fucking thing with Jeff without Levi interrupting. Worse, I had to hide my frustration.

“What areyoudoing here, Levi?” I asked.

“I wanted some place to chill out after practice, so here I am.”

He smiled at me. I didn’t smile back. Why the hell should I have? My stepbrother-to-be knew he was full of shit. He would get away with it too, which made it all the more maddening. Masking my frustration wasn’t enough. I couldn’t tell him that I didn’t want him to sit with us, because then I’d have to explain why to Jeff.

Besides, he already was sitting next to us, and we both knew I couldn’t do a damn thing about it.

God, what the hell was I supposed to do?

Levi didn’t even look at my boyfriend-to-be, my future husband, the guy of my dreams. And I knew damn well why.

Jealousy. Plain and simple. Jeff presented competition, which Levi thrived on, even if it created a nightmare for me.

“You remember Jeff, don’t you?” I asked.

He glanced at Jeff for the first time.

“I sure do.” Levi looked like he wanted to shake Jeff’s hand way too hard again, but he only smiled at him. But that smile had an edge.

We sat there silently for a moment. This was more than just an awkward silence—it felt downright painful.

“So what’s on the agenda?” Levi asked.

“We were just talking about the wedding,” Jeff said.

“Oh, right. That’s coming up pretty fast, isn’t it?”

“We were saying that, too,” I said.

I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t incredibly frustrating. I knew why Levi was here. Coincidences didn’t exist in his world. He wanted to sabotage another coffee date between me and Jeff. He wanted to be the only guy in my life. Part of me thought he suspected I was planning to ask Jeff to be my wedding date, so he’d come here to get in the way.

That would have seemed paranoid to anyone else, but my experience with Levi Dunn said that he’d do anything and everything to stop someone else from having me.

“Well,” Jeff said, “I think I’m going to have to go now.”

“So soon?”

“Yeah, I’ve got a night class to prepare for.”

Jeff leaned across the table and kissed me in front of Levi. I wanted to enjoy the kiss, but I was too busy feeling nervous. I knew just what Levi would think.

And when Jeff left, I couldn’t mistake the expression on Levi’s face. He wanted the guy of my dreams out of the picture.

24

LEVI

We lost. Losing left a bad taste under any circumstances, and would eat away at me for days. But this loss felt different. When the clock hit all zeroes and the buzzer sounded, I didn’t give a shit that we’d wound up with the short end of the stick. It was just a game, so it didn’t mean anything.

I should’ve known something was wrong from the moment my skates hit the ice. My head hung low. I felt sluggish. The fire that burned inside me refused to ignite. I wasn’t the Levi Dunn that everyone knew, to say the least.