Hard Checked (Ice Kings #4) - Stacey Lynn Page 0,37

was barely the tip of the iceberg. Seeing Madison looking so completely distraught and destroyed was the worst.

I have no doubt she means what she says about us being over.

Now, I’m not sure how to proceed with that. How do you let go of the only woman you’ve ever loved, who truly, disappeared before your eyes years ago? I meant what I said to her. Marriage was a commitment. Through the worst of times. And we certainly had our unfair share of those.

But don’t I also deserve to have the best?

Even if it’s without the woman I thought and wanted to be my forever?

It’s not something I’ve ever pictured, ever imagined, but it’s not like I can truthfully admit our marriage was a good one for years.

“I wish you would have said something earlier,” Jason says when I take a break, but really, I’m done.

What else is there to say?

“Why? So the whole team would have hated her less?”

“We didn’t—”

I lift a hand to stop him. I don’t have the energy for any more lies. Intentional or otherwise.

“You did. At least some of you did, and I get it. She changed. I changed. It’s just such a huge goddamn mess I can’t describe, and she wanted it to stay private… but it’s over. The divorce papers say sixty days.”

I met with the attorney, and since there wasn’t anything to fight because she asked for nothing, it could end faster. I just have to sign everything.

Another lingering taste of vomit pools in my throat and I drain the last of my second beer.

“I’m sorry, man. It sucks all around. I just wish we could have had all been there for y’all. Or at least known so we could protect Madison from all the babies and shit. I mean, now I feel like a dick.”

“You weren’t. And I got it. Just didn’t make it easier.”

Another set of drinks arrive at our table, served by a pair of small hands, with a tiny little broken heart tattoo on a ring finger and dark purple nail polish.

“Thanks, Gigi,” I say, lifting my head and grinning at her.

She smirks at me. “No problem, hotshot. Dad wanted me to give you these but says it’s last call.”

“Damn,” Jason groans. “I didn’t realize it was so late.”

“You can take off. I’m good.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”

He turns to Gigi who’s taken our empties and is starting to walk away.

I try. I try really hard to not let my gaze drop to her short, cut-off sweat shorts, to the length of her legs beneath them. The shape of her calves or to notice the dark red polish on her toenails.

I fail.

Miserably.

There’s something so damn attractive about her petite size.

I grip my new beer bottle harder and take a healthy swig.

“Hey Gigi,” Jason calls out. “Keep this loser company for me so he doesn’t get shitfaced before practice tomorrow?”

“Me?” She’s turned, gaze bouncing from me to Jason and she frowns. “You need my help?”

“No—”

“Yes—” Jason says at the exact time I disagree.

She smirks at Jason. “Seems to me he doesn’t need it.”

“Sometimes this asshole doesn’t know what he needs.” He slaps the table and slides out, holding out his arm in a gesture for Gigi to take his spot.

“Jason—”

He shrugs and holds out his fist. “I’ll pay the tab. You get home safely, yeah?”

“Yeah,” I grumble and return his fist pump.

“And you’ll thank me for this someday, too.”

I watch him go, frowning.

What the fuck does that mean?

“I can pretend to sit here until he leaves if you want to be alone.”

Her voice does something to me. Like a bug is happily leaping in my gut when she looks down at me, all that teal hair and new nose ring and tattoo peeking out from the wide collar of her sweatshirt.

It’s the collar I’m noticing. And the tattoo.

Not the thin, white strap of her bra.

Shit.

“You can sit. Please. You want Jason’s last beer?”

“Nah.” Her nose crinkles and the soft light above the bar flints on her nose ring. I quickly look away as she slides in. “I’ve never acquired the taste for beer. No matter what kind it is, it always tastes like wet cardboard.”

“You know what cardboard tastes like?”

“Yeah. Like beer.” She grins.

I grin back.

This girl is funny. Well-traveled.

Divorced. Cute. And fun.

The exact kind of temptation I do not need in my life right now. Yet as I sit across from her, taking in every little nuance about her like the freckle on the back of her hand, that broken heart tattoo…