Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 34804 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 174(@200wpm)___ 139(@250wpm)___ 116(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34804 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 174(@200wpm)___ 139(@250wpm)___ 116(@300wpm)
“Calliope Colleen Ramirez,” Danielle exclaims, clearly mortified by her daughter’s outburst.
I turn my gaze slowly to Calliope, giving her a death glare. She reaches out and pats her dad’s arm. “It’s fine, Papa. Your little girl—who is, in fact, a woman now and doesn’t need protecting—knows exactly what she wants. Oh, and Rafe was also telling the truth…we are indeed friends, and I’m here to support him in any way I can.”
God, the way she supported me last night with my balls heavy in her hands—
I shake my head, clearing those thoughts because I’m apparently way more transparent than I gave myself credit for this evening.
“Well, I for one think it’s lovely that the two of you have”—my mom struggles to find the right words and then brightens—“rekindled your friendship. You two have a lot of years of history between you, and it makes me happy.”
“Me, too,” my dad says with a firm nod. “I’m glad Rafe will have someone to lean on when I’m gone.”
And just like that, the mood turns from awkward and weird to somber. The silence around the table is heavy, thick with a gravity that’s hard to dispel.
But, to my surprise, it’s Mateo who saves the day. Who takes the gentleman’s way out when he could have easily throttled me. He holds up his wine glass. “I propose a toast.”
No one moves for a second, and then slowly, other wine glasses are raised.
Mateo looks straight at me. “Here’s to friendship. Among all of us. To my extended neighborhood family—and in particular, to Calliope and Rafe—may they find exactly what they’re looking for while on this new path.”
I nod at Mateo and reach my glass to the middle of the table, where we all clink in acknowledgment of the toast.
My eyes move to Calliope, her gaze shimmering with mischief as she stares back at me. Well, at least it’s all out in the open now.
I guess there’s that.
CHAPTER 10
Calliope
I’ve been to Houlihan’s numerous times over my life, many times with my family, a few times when Rafe and I were dating, but never on a game night. Since the Cold Fury franchise came to Raleigh in 1997 when I was just four years old, they set up Houlihan’s as their hangout since it’s right across the street from the arena.
There is a large segment of fans that don’t bother going to the games but instead come to Houlihan’s where they camp out at the bar and dinner tables, knowing that many of the players come to hang out after the game.
Over the years, it’s become a tradition, and the players rub elbows and mix with the commoners. It’s supposedly quite a treat, but it’s also a packed madhouse, so you need to be prepared to wait forever to get a table, and if you’re lucky enough to land that, then you have to wait forever to be served your food and drink.
Mostly, it’s just people elbow to elbow, standing around, drinking beers and munching on chicken wings, waiting for the team to come in after a glorious five-to-two victory over the Boston Eagles to take game two of the second round of the playoffs. The atmosphere is electric, the mood jubilant.
I check my phone and see a text from Rafe. Be there in five minutes.
I have to wonder what I’m doing here. Not just in Houlihan’s, waiting to meet Rafe after he played an amazing game, racking up two assists. But here in general, at Rafe’s request to watch the game and then join him after at Houlihan’s so he can, as he put it, “introduce me to the team.”
That smacks of relationship to me. Says he wants me to be at the game to cheer him on, and he wants his new mates to get to know me. It goes far beyond the boundaries I laid out regarding how this would be a relationship focused foremost on sex and would not move into any questionable type of intimacy.
In fact, I had mentioned that to Rafe when he handed me the ticket he’d bought for me and said, “I’d really love for you to come to the game.”
“But why?” I asked, actually confused. It happened to be my day off, and he’d stayed all night. When the subject came up, he was in the process of pulling on his pants, wanting to get home to have breakfast with his mom and dad before he headed off to the arena for a light morning skate.
“Because,” he said simply, “I want you there.”
“This is just sex,” I pointed out, sitting in bed and bringing the sheets up over my naked breasts. He’d just finished thoroughly wrecking my body with a morning quickie.
Rafe spun on me, his eyes flashing with…something. Anger? Amusement?
I couldn’t tell because he was back on me, and I was under him, pinned to the mattress. His face hovered, blocking out everything as he leveled me with a feral smile. “That’s not true, Poppy.”