Page 44 of Unmasking Love (D.C. Renegades #1)

Harper

Oh, THAT Jared

I wake to an empty bed. I glance over at the clock and see that it is just after six in the morning. Aiden is likely up and riding the stationary bike in the hotel gym which he likes to do when they’re on the road.

He says he hasn’t developed a strict routine but I’d beg to differ. When he’s home it’s a morning ride followed by breakfast, practice, meetings, dinner.

On game day it’s a ride, breakfast, easy workout or skate, meetings, nap, dinner number one, game, dinner number two.

So whether there is a game or not he sticks to the same schedule. And I do my best to work around it.

I get into the shower to wash off my body quickly, spending a few extra minutes around each wrist remembering how Aiden used the handcuffs last night. I’m wrapping myself in a towel when the hotel room door opens.

“Harper?” Aiden calls.

“I’m in here,” I report like I did last night.

Aiden steps into the bathroom and rips the dry fit shirt off and tosses it to the ground.

The heat in his eyes is unmistakable and my knees tremble a little bit.

Aiden is this perfect blend of contradictions.

He’s powerful and gentle, caring and demanding.

His hands grip my middle and he tugs at the towel but I keep it tucked up tight under my arms.

I want to be there for him and make sure he’s getting everything he needs. Especially now as the starter for the foreseeable future.

“ Will you have any different practices or meetings now that you’re starting?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Because, we can make sure that breakfasts are prepped the night before so you can just grab them and go. Lunch too I suppose. Or maybe you’ll want to eat at the facility more?

Either way, we can make it work.” I ramble quickly as he leans in and starts to nibble at my shoulder.

“Aiden! I’m trying to talk to you about hockey. ”

“I don’t want to talk about hockey.” He says as he kisses up my neck. I can’t help the way my head tilts to the side, giving him more access.

“What do you want to talk about?” I ask as his hands successfully free me of the towel.

“Getting back into the shower with you. I think you missed a spot.” He whispers as he backs me towards the shower.

“What time is the team leaving?”

“Seven thirty. Wheels up at eight forty five. We’ve got plenty of time.”

And we spend it pouring our emotions into each other through the way our bodies connect and rely on the other.

***

Caroline decided we would drive together to Ft. Lauderdale. It isn’t a terrible drive, a few hours, but I don’t get to put my phone on airplane mode and use that as an excuse for not contacting my mother.

Instead I use the excuse that I’m in a car full of new friends that I don’t want to burden with my drama.

Ivanna fell asleep in the very back row about thirty minutes ago and Caroline climbed up to join Danielle and I in the middle row. Caroline is tellin g us all about the wedding plans and she goes right into sharing details about her wedding party.

About how one of the bridesmaids, a friend of hers from college, slept with Johnny’s cousin after the engagement party but hasn’t returned his calls.

And how Johnny’s brother is interested in a different bridesmaid, a friend of hers from work but he won’t ask her out he just tries to devise ways to be near her.

“Who are your friends that are getting in on all this action?” Danielle jokes.

“Right? As if I don’t have anything else to plan!” Caroline laughs.

“Unfortunately this feels pretty standard.” Danielle says with a sigh. “We had a bridesmaid break her foot two days before the wedding so she was on crutches and in a boot.” Danielle turns to me. “What’s the craziest wedding drama you’ve been in?”

The only weddings I’ve been in have been my mother’s. Sometimes as a flower girl. Sometimes a bridesmaid.

But the one thing she always did before walking down the aisle towards a new man was to take five minutes with me before the ceremony. She’d grasp me by the shoulders, get on my eye level, and deliver her sage advice.

“Remember never tie yourself to someone without a way to untie the knot if you need to.”

She’d wink, squeeze my shoulders, and we’d make our way to her new groom.

Somehow that doesn’t feel like a good story to share. It will invite more questions than provide answers. More pity than entertainment. So I just shake my head and smile.

“I haven’t been in a lot of weddings.” I say instead.

“Well I have a feeling you will be. This group is hitting the age where they’re all going to want to get hitched.

My bet would be in the next three years our core group is all paired off.

” Danielle says. “I’ve seen it before. Especi ally when Mike was an assistant coach in Vancouver.

Once the first one falls the rest follow.

” She tips her eyes towards Caroline indicating she and Johnny are the domino that are going to send us all down the aisle.

“How long did you and Johnny date before getting engaged?” I ask because it’s only been a few months with Aiden and they’re already thinking we’re going to get married. I want to know the average timeline.

“It took him for-ev-er!” Caroline rolls her eyes. “We started dating over the summer and he didn’t propose until Valentine’s Day last year!”

“So just under two years from meeting to marriage?” I ask because I haven’t had a relationship last longer than four months so I didn’t know if six or thirty-six was quick.

“Yes. The hockey season slows everything down. They’re gone half the time and so focused. Then things pick up in the off season and slow down again in September. That’s part of why I kept my teaching job. I was off the summers too so we got to be together.”

Danielle and Caroline continue chatting about the wedding while I drift off. Aiden and I got together at Halloween. It’s now February 1st which is the start of our fourth month together.

I hadn’t thought about the timeline until just now. I can’t believe I moved in with him after only two months together.

But then again, I can. I went home with him after our first kiss. Which was before our first date. I was running on instinct.

Have I not been relying on my intuition in relationships in the past?

Is that what feels so different with Aiden?

Like I’ve summoned him my phone buzzes with a text.

Hey Harp, we landed. Quick skate but then we have the afternoon off. I’ve got plans so don’ t make any.

I smile at my phone and reply “OK.” When I look up, Danielle and Caroline are looking at me.

“So besides dating Aiden and selling homes we don’t know much about you Harper,” Caroline says. “What do you do for fun?”

“Sell homes mostly,” I reply dryly and then slowly let a smile spread. They both huff out a laugh and then I continue. “I really love to bake. In fact my oven is named after Jared Padalacki.”

“From Gilmore Girls?” Caroline says surprised.

“No, from Supernatural.” I tell them.

“Oooh, that’s so much better. Dean is such a dweeb.” Danielle says. “But Sam Winchester was hot.”

“I agree. I’d watch Supernatural every week, religiously.” I tell them.

“So good.” Danielle nods.

“I never saw it,” Caroline says and we both gasp at her. “Oh, c’mon I’m not a scary movie or dystopian fantasy type of girl. I’m a sunshine and rainbows and princesses and pink girl and I’m just fine with that.”

“We love that you bring the bright to our dark.” Danielle says with a pat on her knee. “Do you read?”

“Yeah, a few books a year. I love the Fifth Flame series.”

“Me too!” Danielle agrees and we spend the next length of the drive talking about our theories for the fourth book in the series since we both devoured the third one as soon as it was released.

When traffic slows Ivanna wakes up and Caroline moves back to the third row. I learn that they plan to spend the day at the beach with their guys. Danielle is also going to the beach but she promised to keep coach far away from where they plan to be so the players can relax.

I shrug when Caroline asks if we’ll be joining them.

I don’t know what Aiden has up his sleeve.

***

“ Aiden! This was your idea!” I try not to laugh at my poor manfriend who is barfing off the side of a boat. Aiden booked a snorkeling trip for us this afternoon but the man had no idea he got severely sea sick.

“I know, I’m sorry.” He groans as he slides down to rest against the seat.

“Don’t be sorry babe, let’s just get back.” He nods to the captain of the boat and he takes off, going as fast as he can towards the dock we departed from.

The wind bites against my skin as spray hits us with each crash along the waves. The bumps cause Aiden to grip his stomach but he manages to keep things together. I help him off the boat and back up to the room. Aiden tells me to call Luke, the assistant equipment manager, to come and help.

“Dude, what happened?” Luke asks as soon as he steps into our room.

“Aiden doesn’t have sea legs it turns out.” I offer. “Do you have access to a car?”

“Yeah, there’s the smaller team shuttle. I can get Jerry to take us somewhere, what are you thinking?”

“He’s going to stay but we’d love some saltines, ginger ale, bananas and apple sauce. A coconut water and some tart cherry juice would be great too.”

Luke’s eyes go wide as Aiden moans and rolls to his side. “Is he going to be alright?”

“Of course. He just needs a little time to recalibrate and recover.” I paste on a smile and send Luke on his way with the list.

Slowly, over the next thirty minutes Aiden’s world stops spinning.

I use a cold compress on his head and apply pressure to the insides of his wrists to help.

He actually asks for something to drink so I give him the ginger ale I was able to get from the bar.

He takes a sip and then rests his head back on the headboard.

“That was terrible.” He says gruffly. His throat sore from getting sick.

“ Some of the worst I’ve seen in fact.” I tell him with a pat to his thigh. “But, I’ll get you up and running again in no time. It’s nothing I haven’t seen before.”

“So you have experience nursing people back from sea sickness?”

“I do.” I tell him. Hoping I can leave it at that.

But when has Aiden ever really let me off the hook easily?

“How? Or, I guess, when did you learn?” He asks after another sip.

“Mom and I stayed on a boat for a while.” I say.

Not wanting to get into the details. Truth is, Mom had cheated on her then husband who kicked us out.

We had nowhere to go so Mom broke into his yacht on the Intracoastal.

We stayed there for two months and Mom didn’t have sea legs either so we learned how to manage her motion sickness.

The worst was when a tropical storm blew through.

“Like a house boat?” Aiden asks with a shiver.

“Yeah, a large yacht.”

“Did you make plans with your mom for this trip?” I blink away and look down at my hands when his question lands on me.

“No, I umm, never did.”

“Why not?” His hand reaches forward and brushes gently on top of mine.

“I dunno Aiden, it’s tricky with her. I don’t want her to ruin what we have.

I don’t know how she’d do it but she would.

She’d say something to you and you’d be uncomfortable.

Or she’d tell you something about me and it would change your opinion of me.

” I ramble a bit and need to move because the nervous energy is coursing through my veins.

I slide off the bed and start to pace. “She’s had a tough life but she’s gotten through it.

She was sixteen when she had me and her parents kicked her out.

She moved to Florida with me and spent the first year in some drug lord’s harem.

She ran away from that when I started to walk and she was afraid I’d get into the merchandise.

Then she was almost eighteen so she hobbled things togeth er until she could get legally married to some fifty year old guy.

She was with him for a few years before the next.

And then another. And we moved from house to house together until I left for college.

” I pause when I realize that I just made her sound terrible.

She is, but she isn’t. “She also taught me how to bake. And always had me in her weddings when I was little. She’d get me the prettiest dresses and sparkly jewelry. ”

“It sounds complicated.” Aiden says and I stop and look at him. I’ve never, never , opened up about this to a boyfriend. No one got close enough.

The other reason I haven’t even told Wes everything I just blurted out is that I can see pity in Aiden’s eyes. And now I’m a wounded bird. He’ll look at me now and see the girl who had to fight for herself, not the woman who did and came out better for it.

“Were you ever unsafe? Besides the first place when you were a baby?” He asks as he sits taller.

I blink at him, still frozen halfway across the room. Vertigo takes hold and the room starts to spin a little. I wobble and Aiden stands quickly and is at my side. Guiding me to the end of the bed. He sits next to me and brushes my cheek with his thumb. “Were you?”

“I was safe.” I tell him. It’s the truth. For the most part, I was completely safe and unaffected by her path through life. When I was old enough to start taking care of myself, I did. Still do. “I am safe.” I whisper because behind my closed eyes that’s what I feel.

“You’re safe.” He confirms and he guides me higher on the bed and tucks me under the covers.

I close my eyes and breathe slowly as Aiden washes his face.

I keep my eyes closed, keep my breath even, as Luke returns with the sundries.

I listen to Aiden move about the room and eat a little bit.

I feel the bed dip as he climbs in behind me.

And I drift off for a nap with his arm around me, his chest against my back.

Sunshine and safety washing over me. Soothing the parts of me that w ere fried by my frazzled confession.

The vulnerability that crashed through when I saw Aiden softened by motion sickness.

I realize, as sleep takes over, that I was able to be open with him because he wasn’t completely in control either.

That I needed to confirm the crack in his armor before I could show mine.