Page 23 of The Girlfriend Card (Vegas Sin #4)

“What uh, whatever happened to that girl I recommended to you?” I stammered. “She never showed up, did she?”

“Oooh. Okay, I get what’s happening now.” He grinned. “You’ve got a thing for Ottavia. ”

I shoved him. “Shh. Don’t say her name so loud. I don’t want anyone to hear.”

“Why not?”

“Because.” My voice lowered to a paranoid whisper. “Do you have any idea who she is?”

“Yeah. Do you? ” he countered. “Because I believe you said she was an acting student named Olivia, and you had plans to bring her as your date, ‘Jane,’ to dinner at Mr. Capuano’s.” A shit-eating grin spread across his cheeks. “Man, that dinner must’ve been a hoot.”

I grumbled. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”

He chuckled. “Well, anyway, you can imagine my surprise when my front-of-house manager starts texting me, asking if I knew why Ottavia Capuano showed up to my brewery to start working as a hostess.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“I was on vacay, bro. And the internet’s real spotty out in the wilderness.” Brett shrugged. “You want to tell me why Mr. Capuano’s daughter wanted a job at my brewery? Should I be worried? Is she a spy for The Godfather or something?”

“She’s not a spy.”

“So what’s her deal?”

“She’s …” I trailed off. “She’s weird. I dunno.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, the BarDown crew absolutely loves her.”

“Wait, so she’s actually working there?” I asked, my voice rising with interest.

“Yeah, dude. She’s killing it.”

“No kidding?” I asked, fighting to keep my smile from spreading. I couldn’t help it; hearing that made me stupidly happy.

“She’s a hard worker. Picking up shifts left and right, covering for people when they call out—and that’s how you win the hearts and minds of any staff.

” He laughed. “Dude, get this. Yesterday, McKayla had an employee call out sick at Good Vibes Only. Ottavia had just finished her shift at BarDown, so she offered to cover.”

“Did she?!” I asked, surprised.

“Yup. She worked the closing shift. And it went so well, McKayla basically told Ottavia she can get hours there anytime she wants.”

“Dude. You had a billionaire hotel heiress selling people sex toys?”

“Crazy, right? But she was a natural, or so I’m told.

” He snickered. “So, after their shift ended, McKayla took Ottavia out, and they ended up hanging out for hours. McKayla loves her now. She said Ottavia is totally down to earth and doesn’t come off like a snooty billionaire or anything—she didn’t talk about it, or mention money at all. ”

“What else did they talk about?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I don’t know, man. I wasn’t there. All I heard was that McKayla had made a new friend.”

“Yeah, but …”

Brett, reading my mind, cut right to the chase. “No, she didn’t mention you. Or if she did, McKayla didn’t say.”

“Oh.”

“Actually, there was one thing,” Brett said. “McKayla mentioned that she’d asked Ottavia if she was seeing anybody. She said Ottavia gave a weird answer; like McKayla couldn’t tell if it was a yes or a no.”

I tutted. “That sounds about right.”

“McKayla didn’t press the issue, but she was wondering—and she wanted me to ask you this—didn’t you say she had experience pretending to be someone’s girlfriend? And do you think that’s why her answer was so weird?”

Time slowed to a crawl after Brett set that nuke off in my mind.

Holy shit, I thought, my eyes darting left and right as I began to piece everything back together again.

Was that why, when Leo “caught” us, their argument felt so bizarre, so devoid of an actual real emotion?

Was that why Ottavia insisted Leo wasn’t truly her boyfriend, while also admitting that he was, in some way, her boyfriend?

And was that what she meant when she said it was really obvious if I’d just stopped and thought about it for a minute?

I slammed my fist on top of the boards, pissed at myself for not figuring it out earlier—and even more pissed about the rotten things I’d said to her.

Fuck me.

She’s Leo’s fake girlfriend!

But why?

“Change it up!” Seeking a line change, the forwards on the ice sprayed snow, stopping at the bench.

“Ope! That’s us!” Brett shouted, pulling me over the boards with him.

We took the ice. But after the revelation Brett just dropped on me, I was determined to get the hell out of there ASAP and talk to Ottavia.

Next goal wins, eh? I thought, tapping my stick on the ice to call for the puck.

Brett sent me a crisp, tape-to-tape pass. Determined to end this thing, I flew down the left side of the ice—but Tank, hungry for revenge, swooped to intercept me at the blue line. He’d lined me up to paste me into the boards.

Old habits die hard, and I felt muscles twitch as neurons fired, every cell in my body screaming at me to try to pull off some slick toe-drag deke to dangle around Tank and make him look like a fool.

But I managed to resist the temptation and do what Rust had suggested instead: I dug my skates into the ice and leaned my shoulder into Tank to absorb the hit.

Oof, we both groaned, our shoulder pads slamming together with a resounding plastic crack.

But we both stayed on our feet, and the battle continued as Tank wrapped his arms around me.

He tried to haul me down to the ice—if a ref was on the ice, that’d be an easy penalty—but I didn’t let up or complain.

I put my head down and skated hard at the net, hauling Tank’s dead weight behind me like a drag parachute.

“Dak!” Brett shouted, sensing opportunity.

He’d found a soft spot in the defensive coverage and sneakily arrived at the back door, unguarded.

With one arm holding back Tank, I used my other arm to flip a little backhand saucer over to Brett.

Showtime didn’t waste any time; he hammered the puck over the goaltender’s glove and into the net.

“Woooooo!” my teammates cheered, as we gathered for a hug.

“Dude, what was that?!” Brett shouted. “You looked like fucking Forsberg there, bro!”

“I just wanted to end this thing,” I said as I broke away from the group hug and raced off the ice.

I made a beeline to the locker room, rifled through my locker for my cell phone, and pulled my text with Ottavia.

But the words didn’t come, and I was still staring at my phone when my teammates joined me in the room a minute later.

What the hell am I supposed to say?