to Mia after she’d inhaled two croissants and was eying a third. “You ready?”
“Sure, I should visit the little girl’s room but first let me clear up here.”
Bethany wouldn’t hear of it, so Mia visited the restroom, kept it classy (barely) by avoiding a medicine cabinet snoop, and came out to find Bobby O waiting for her.
She bent down to rub behind his ears, missing her own puppy terribly. Poop progress updates didn’t cut it. “Hey, fella. Who’s a good boy?”
Heading into the living room, she had to pass by the kitchen, where Bethany and Cal were talking in low voices. Phrases like “too young” and “Petrov” from Bethany made her feelings clear on the matter. Mia bristled. This woman had no say in whatever was happening here.
Not that anything was happening.
Except …
… Mia was hanging with Cal Foreman, training mentor, brother’s bestie, eight years her senior, expert deflowerer, Boston Red Sox-loving hockey player. Something was happening all right, and she was trying to assure herself that she was cool enough to handle it.
She strained her ear, listening for Cal’s reaction. All she heard was that low, sexy rumble of a voice that did things to her. Bobby O barked, announcing their presence, so Mia rounded the corner trying not to look like a dirty eavesdropper.
“You ready?” Cal looked her up and down, and there was something appreciative in it, though next to Brittany, she resembled a tree trunk.
“Yep.”
Bethany laid a hand on his arm. “Oh, Cal, could you take him out for a quick poop n’ scoop?”
“Not a problem.”
“And Mia can help me with the dishes.”
Cal cocked his head. “Bets, not subtle at all.”
Bets shooed him away. “Just leave us girls for a bit so I can warn Mia about all your bad habits.”
Cal grabbed the leash off a hook in the kitchen, some plastic bags from a cupboard—his familiarity with Bethany’s kitchen rankled—and turned to Mia. “You okay here for a few minutes? If Bethany gets too personal, tell her to shut it.”
Bethany didn’t intimidate Mia, no matter how great the two got along. “I’ll be fine, Foreman. Go spend a little boys’ time with your buddy.”
With one last quelling look at his ex, Cal headed out.
Bethany leaned against the kitchen sink and took Mia’s measure. “He’s a nice guy, isn’t he?”
“Sure is.”
“You probably think this is a pretty strange setup.”
“Sort of. I don’t know how I could be friends with someone after they’d betrayed me like that.”
“Ah, so he told you. That says something.”
“Does it?”
Bethany rinsed a coffee cup and placed it in the dishwasher. “No other guy would have kept that to himself. Cal was such a gentleman—such a decent guy—in covering for me. My parents are kind of conservative and it would have killed them. He did that for me.”
Mia didn’t want to hear about their special relationship or the reasons why this woman had stomped all over Cal’s heart. She suddenly felt hot and itchy. “And now you share a dog.”
Bethany gave a secret smile that Mia hated. “We’re better friends now than when we dated. The thing about Cal is that he’s not one for making a fuss. He didn’t even get truly mad at what I did.”
Mia hated wanting to know. “Why do you think that is?”
“He’s conflict-averse,” Bethany said definitively. “Always has been. Some psychologist would say it’s because his parents argued a lot, then used him as a pawn during and after their divorce. He won’t fight for something if he knows ahead of time he’ll lose. He’s good at making those calculations—it’s what makes him a great forward. Amazing hockey IQ. But in his life, he’s not going to put himself out there if there’s even the slightest chance he won’t get the result he wants.”
Mia considered that and Bethany’s underlying agenda—if any.
“It’s okay to pick your battles.” Mia spoke from experience. “Which hills you’re willing to die on. People do that all the time.”
Bethany cocked an eyebrow. “So I wasn’t worth the effort?”
“You think he should have fought to win you after what you did? Wow, I’d love to have an ego as inflated as yours.”
The woman laughed, seeming incapable of taking offense. “I suppose I wanted my cake and ice cream, too. I’d like to see him with someone who would make him happy.” Her eyes turned troubled. “I worry that I might have broken him.”
Mia worried about that, too. But she worried more about how much she wanted to be the person who made him see