Page 39 of Rebel Secrets (Devils Hockey #3)
And the way he’d looked at me before we’d left had made me want to skip down the stairs. Probably would’ve tripped in the heels.
He’d managed a little small talk in the car with my dad, who actually seemed to make an effort to be engaged.
He told me I looked pretty and kissed my mom’s hand before helping her out of the car.
My mom didn’t even look surprised at the show of affection.
Had I been way so long that I’d stepped back into an alternate reality?
Then his phone rang, just as we got to the church, and he stepped aside to answer, while my mom, discreetly rolled her eyes and told us he’d catch up.
The wedding was staged perfectly. My cousin made a truly beautiful bride and her husband looked totally in love with her.
But the reception…
So many people. So many cliques and former acquaintances from boarding school—of course my cousin had gone to the same school. We were Wright heirs, after all.
Everyone wanted to meet Rebel. Of course they did. He was gorgeous. And mysterious. And he wasn’t one of them, so they all wanted a piece of him.
My face hurt from fake smiling. But through it all, Rebel held my hand. And I don’t mean figuratively. I mean, he never stopped touching me. And not in a creepy way. If he wasn’t holding my hand, he had his hand low on my back. It felt possessive. I liked it. It felt right.
But when Meredith Huntebrinker approached me as I made my way to the restroom after dinner, I had the momentary urge to flee back to him.
The smirk on her face let me know she’d read me as clearly as a billboard.
She’d always been a bitch, the mean girl in high school who loved to pick on the younger girls and the less confident ones.
Like me. She hadn’t made it her mission in life to make mine miserable, but I hadn’t been her only target.
She’d had four grades of girls to torment.
But I wasn’t that same insecure girl anymore.
“You turned into the dark horse, didn’t you, Erin? You disappear off the face of the earth after your fiancé dumps you and reappear with the hottest piece of ass in the room. Where’d you find him? And how much did you pay him to come with you?”
We’d stopped in the darkened hallway outside the restrooms. I considered ignoring her. She didn’t really deserve an answer. As a teenager, I would’ve put my head down and scurried away in the opposite direction.
Screw that. According to Meredith, I’d won the prize for the hottest date at the wedding, so yay me. Which meant I had something she wanted. And would never have.
I turned to face her, which she hadn’t been expecting. Her brows rose in surprise, and she actually took a step back.
“Did you need something, Meredith? Perhaps a personality that isn’t stuck in high school?”
Now, she looked impressed, her smile still as sharp as a knife.
“Ooh, the stray kitten grew claws. Good for you. I’d still like to know where you found that one. He’s yummy.”
Shock stuck my feet to the floor as she continued into the restroom. I followed a few feet behind and found her reapplying her lipstick in front of the mirror.
“Do you make it your mission in life to be a bitch?”
The words flew out of my mouth before I could even think about them, but Meredith just shrugged as she looked at me in the mirror.
“It works for me. But seriously, where’d you find him?”
It took me a second to realize she was dead serious and not at all ashamed of it. She was who she was and made no excuses. I could almost respect that if she hadn’t made me and so many other girls’ lives such hell in school.
Then again, I didn’t really care what she thought anymore.
“St. David, Pennsylvania. Where I live now.”
She mock-shuddered as she snapped her lipstick closed and stuck it back in her tiny bag. “Sounds horrid. Maybe I’ll take a shot at him, anyway.”
Then she walked out.
After I used the facilities, washed my hands and reapplied my makeup, I looked at my reflection in the mirror.
Oh hell, no, she would not take her shot.
He was mine.
I headed back to the dance floor, saw Meredith standing with Rebel. She looked sexy and flirty, and he looked like he wished the floor would swallow.
Meredith didn’t stand a chance.
My gaze connected with his across the room, and his eyes lit up. He straightened a little and, when I started across the floor, he barely looked at Meredith as he said something and started walking toward me.
We met on the dance floor, the band mid-song. We came together like we’d been dancing together for years, and not just a couple of times.
“That’s a viper. Thanks for saving me.”
I threw back my head and laughed, drawing the attention of a few of the couples around us. Not one of them mattered more than him.
“I don’t think you would’ve had any trouble brushing her off. You do grumpy so well.”
“And yet here you are, in my arms.”
“I am.”
Come on, Rebel. Don’t let me down.
It took him a couple of seconds, but he finally said, “Is this really where you want to be?”
Moment of truth. “Do you want me here?”
“Isn’t it obvious? I want you, Erin. And I’ll still want you when we get back to St. David.”
“And when you leave?”
He went silent for a couple of seconds, and my heart began to squeeze painfully.
Then he reached up to cup my cheek with one hand. He’d never done anything like this in public, and it gave me hope.
“I had to spend some time away from St. David to realize that what I want is there. My family. My home. My friends. You.”
Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes. “But you never liked me. What changed?”
“It wasn’t you I didn’t like. I was looking for something I couldn’t find. I kept telling myself it wasn’t there. And when I got the call from the Redtails, I thought, okay, this is it. This is what I’ve been looking for.”
“Validation.”
He shrugged. “Maybe. Or just the chance to prove to myself that I could do something more. Be something more. Rowdy and Rain were always going to run the team when Pop retired. I knew that. And I didn’t think I wanted that.
I just wanted to play. Then I got it in my head that I had to prove that hockey was all I needed.
That contract with the Redtails… I wanted it.
I did. But that’s not home to me. Those guys…
they’re great, but they’re not Bonesaw and Kat and Denny and Kookoo and Cudgel.
They’re not the guys I’ve grown up with and played with for years. ”
I smiled. “They could be your guys, if you gave them a chance.”
“A quarter of them have already signed with another team. Another quarter’ll be gone before midseason. That’s not how I want to spend my career, moving from team to team. I know what I want.”
“And what’s that?”
“I want to be home. St. David is home.” He paused, lifting a hand to brush a finger down my cheek to my throat, his gaze falling to my lips. “Home is where you are.”
My smile was so wide, it practically hurt.
My hands rose to cup his face, his beard soft against my palms. “I love you, Rebel. You know that, right? I mean, I knew a couple of weeks ago, but I took one look at you when I first moved to St. David and fell a little bit then. I think that’s why I used to babble around you so much.
But you didn’t want anything to do with me back then.
And I’d just been dumped by my fiancé, and I’d moved to this little town where everyone knew each other, and I was outsider with all these plans to disrupt the peace. ”
He snorted, shaking his head. “But you won everyone over. Including me.” He held me closer, my body pressed tightly against his, continued to hold my gaze.
“I love you, Erin. All of you. I love the way you smile and the sound of your laugh. I love the way you see all my faults and still want me. And I really,” he moved his lips closer to my ear, “really love those cherry almond scones.”
My head tipped back, my laughter ringing out across the room, not completely covered by the sound of the band. When I brought my gaze level with his again, I smiled, so damn, happy, I thought I might be glowing. And I don’t mean figuratively.
“I will bake them for you every day if you promise to dedicate your goal dance to me.”
His smile melted certain parts of my body that shouldn’t be melting in public.
“Every single one, babe. Every single one.”
Then he kissed me. And it was amazing.