Hard Checked (Ice Kings #4) - Stacey Lynn Page 0,71
It does not make sense to me,” Mikah slurs.
He’s only lived in the States a few years. Lots of things don’t make sense to him, especially American slang. If he was more sober, I’d spend time explaining the joke.
“How is Angelo?” He has a baby that has to be getting close to a year old or something now. It was dropped off at his doorstep, a one-night stand producing lifelong consequences.
He’s loved him from the minute he showed up. I’m pretty sure that threw Madison over the edge for months. It might have been the final downfall of us before the final final downfall.
Whichever. I kick the thought out of my mind.
He grins up at me drunkenly and stupidly. Mikah doesn’t drink much or very often. Which is part of what made tonight so fun. I probably shouldn’t have bought him the last shot. But every man needs a slippery nipple every once in a while.
“You and Paisley are getting married soon, aren’t you?” I don’t pay that much attention to other guys’ relationships, but when Mikah fell for his neighbor in his building, he fell hard and fast. And Paisley is sweet. They’d planned on waiting until she was done with graduate school but then decided not to.
Mostly, I’m just trying to keep Mikah from passing out in my arm so I’m trying to keep him talking.
His brows pull together and he shoves off me. “Yeah.”
“Hey. I’m happy for you.”
By now, the entire team knows what’s been going on with me. Only took Jason running his mouth and definitely after I took off for Minnesota months back. I get strange looks sometimes, when the guys talk about their wives or girlfriends.
They don’t bother me anymore. Not because I’m drunk.
Because I have Gigi. At least…I think? Shit. I need to sober up so I can call her. All night long at the bar we’ve been hanging out, chilling, drinking way too much and eating probably all the food they have in the kitchen. While the time with the guys is a blast, so much like it used to be before I became a grumpy asshole, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her.
“Thank you,” Mikah says. We stop at his door, and I wait for him to dig out his keycard. It takes longer than it should.
I prop myself on the doorframe while he fumbles with his wallet.
“When’s the wedding?”
“August? I think? She is planning everything, and I am too drunk to think straight.”
“You’re too drunk to walk straight,” I remind him. I take the keycard out of his hands. He’s now tried to open the door at least three times and keeps getting the pesky red light. It takes me two times and when the light turns green, I open the door for him. “There you go, kid.”
“I am not a kid,” he mumbles, but he’s already walking into his room, stripping off his shirt before it closes behind him.
“Drink water!” The door slams in my face and my vision blurs in front of me. Hopefully, he heard me.
Getting Mikah to his room took longer than I expected. Duke will be back to our room at some point. I left the bar early so I can have time alone with Gigi. The last thing I want is my FaceTime call going the way I want it to when Duke stumbles back into the room.
It takes me almost as long to open my door as it did Mikah and I pull a repeat of him when I walk through, stripping out of my dress shirt before the door is fully closed behind me.
Even though I quit drinking a while ago, I grab a bottle of water from the mini-bar and settle down into my bed.
It’s one o’clock in the morning and we’re two hours behind North Carolina. Hopefully she’s awake.
Lucky for me, my phone only rings once before it’s connecting, and then Gigi’s sweet, but tired face is blurred on the screen. She has her makeup washed off, hair piled on top of her head so chunks of her teal tips fly out in every which direction.
She’s covering a yawn as her photo clears and we have a decent connection.
“Hey. Did I wake you?”
“No.” She moves a bit and I catch the hanging behind her bed, and my groin notices. She’s in her bed. Probably wearing one of those skintight tanks of hers. Barely there shorts. Possibly no panties. Definitely no bra. “I was waiting up for you. Congratulations.”