Steele (Arizona Vengeance #9) - Sawyer Bennett Page 0,61

the most affinity with since her fall into love with Aaron was apparently filled with fear and mistrust. We have that in common.

A waitress appears and makes her way around the table, taking drink orders. The one mimosa was enough. I ask for coffee, as do most of the women except the very pregnant Blue, who requests water.

We all pick up our menus, perusing them while talking. Mollie, who will soon be marrying Kane and sits almost opposite, says, “I don’t know how you girls put up with the constant barrage of women who want a crack at your man. Especially when you’re out together somewhere. They just come right up and start fawning and sometimes even pawing. It’s outrageous.”

Mollie is the newest one in this group to fall in love with a professional hockey player, and puck bunnies can be a problem. Some of the ladies start offering advice. Pepper says she turns threatening if a woman doesn’t get the hint, while Regan says she doesn’t like confrontation, but Dax is good at putting them off.

“What about you, Ella?” Blue asks from my left.

My eyebrows rise, and my cheeks turn a bit pink to be in the spotlight of this new group of friends. “What about me?”

“You’re the veteran wife here,” she replies breezily. “You’ve been married the longest. You came into the league with Jim. You should know more about how to deal with this than we do.”

I laugh lightly, now understanding why they are all looking at me eagerly as if I’m about to dispense the most important piece of advice.

“Well,” I drawl, pulling my coffee cup a little nearer to me. “You first need to discuss it with your guy. How does it make you feel? If it’s a bother, he’s your first line of protection when you’re out and about. He has to set the tone according to your needs.”

Clarke nods her head effusively. “I didn’t even have the talk with Aaron, but damn if he didn’t get downright nasty with some women who interrupted one of our dates.”

“Bet that was hot…” Pepper sighs, and all the ladies laugh while Clarke blushes.

“You and Jim were high school sweethearts?” Brooke asks.

I take a sip of coffee, smiling fondly as I return it to the table. “Yeah… started dating when we were sixteen. I followed him to his first team when he was drafted at eighteen. Got married after we got pregnant with Lucy when we were both twenty.”

“So young,” Nora murmurs beside me. “It’s a testament to how strong your marriage must be because getting married and having a baby at that age is hard.”

“It was hard, but we made it through,” I say, and then, without any warning or hint I’m going to blab—and perhaps because Nora warned me not to even try to keep secrets—I admit to the group. “Or at least I think we’re going to make it through.”

“I think it’s fabulous the two of you are trying,” Willow commends me.

“It’s all Jim,” I confess. “He came after me… declared his intentions.”

“That’s hot, too.” Pepper sighs again.

Yes, it’s hot. But it’s also lovely, sweet, and romantic. And without any further prompting, my mouth opens and a waterfall of information comes pouring out.

I start at the beginning—why I asked for a separation. I get plenty of sympathetic nods and a few, “I’d ask him to leave, too, girl.”

I recount how he stalked David and me at the food festival, and pretty much threw his hat into the competition ring against him. That prompted another, “That’s hot,” from Pepper.

Him showing up at odd times in my gazebo, coupled with the story of the promise ring, has them all sighing.

I tell every bit of it, including that we have reconnected strongly in the bedroom without giving details. I’m interrupted frequently with questions, but everyone seems transfixed to learn about the process we’re going through on how to fix a marriage.

“And just yesterday, he showed up at my house. We were supposed to go spend the day doing things he loves because he’s just been doing so much for me. Instead, he insisted on staying home and watching movies, eating bad food, and…”

My cheeks turn red, and Willow fills in the blanks. “Having lots of sex, right?”

Laughing, I nod.

Except, we didn’t stay in bed all day. We stayed the morning there, had sex again, and then showered. But Jim suggested we go to a local animal shelter to get the lay of the land on what types