Blue Lines(59)
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I’m tired.”
He never liked that answer.
“No, there is something, tell me,” he said as the doors opened. Before she could step out, Erik took hold of her arm. She turned, giving him an annoyed look.
“You called me sweetheart,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders. “I told you about that.”
He rolled his eyes as he let out a long breath. “Listen, you are going to have to get used to that. It’s what I call you.”
“And how many other girls?”
“None,” he said honestly. “You are the only one, so deal with it.”
Since he didn’t like the look she was giving him, that shocked, oh my God, really? look, he turned and headed down the hall. After unlocking the door, he waited for her to enter before walking in and closing the door behind them. “Are you sure you don’t want to go?”
She shook her head as she slid her heels off. “No, I’m supertired.”
“Oh, okay.”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow. I’ll be late.”
“Okay, have fun,” she muttered as she unzipped her dress. She looked mad, or maybe disappointed. As if she didn’t want him to go. A part of him wanted to stay. They could watch a movie or maybe get naked and have sex. Since that would be a bad idea, he muttered another awkward goodbye and left.
He felt like a complete jerk, and dammit, he shouldn’t be feeling things about her.
* * *
The club was insane.
That was the only way Erik could put it. The booze was flowing, the music was glass-shattering, and girls were everywhere. Boy, were they hot, and oddly enough Erik didn’t care. All he cared about was getting more drunk, which he was accomplishing fairly well. Phillip sat with three females surrounding him straight across from Erik, while Shea nursed a beer beside him. Shea looked as if he was about to pass out, and Erik fully expected him to be leaving at any time soon, with Elli having already gone up to the room. It had been a while since Erik had been in a club, and he was sure that Koey would have a fit when he heard about it tomorrow, but it would be obvious he was just hanging with his team, celebrating Shea’s win.
Erik tapped Shea’s beer. “Great honor tonight, bro, you are the best defenseman out there. The Norris Trophy was all yours.”
Shea smiled as he nodded. “I have a great team, but thank you, you know that means a lot to me.”
“I know, that’s why I said it. I need brownie points when it comes to your wife.”
Shea laughed. “Ah, my Elli. I love her, but I don’t agree with this probation shit she has you on.”
Erik nodded. “Neither do I. Hopefully it will all go away in a month or so.”
“Let’s hope so,” Shea agreed, nodding his head. “So how is married life treating you?”
Erik shrugged his shoulders. “It’s different. It’s good that I have you, Jakob, and Cooper as examples to follow.”
Shea laughed. “More brownie points?”
He laughed as he nodded. “Hell yeah, I’m on probation, for fuck sakes!”
Both men shared a good long laugh before tapping their beer bottles together again and then downing them with one long swallow. When Shea finished his beer, he announced he was heading up to the room, which was no surprise. Erik wasn’t sure how many times he heard Shea say something about Elli, but he was pretty sure if he heard anything else about her, he was going to scream. He didn’t understand how men could love women so unconditionally without more of a guarantee. What if she left? Then what would he do?
He had watched it happen to his father almost every other month and he’d be damned if he was going to let it happen to him. That was one of the things he didn’t understand with the way he had been feeling lately about Piper. He knew what could happen to a man when he loved a woman too much, so why was he considering it?
Phillip dropped down beside him with a goofy grin on his face, shoving another beer at Erik.
“I’m going to be leaving soon with these three fine ladies,” he said, giving a nod to the three brunettes who sat in front of them.
Erik was shocked. “All three?”
“Yes, I have to make up for the fact that you aren’t in the game anymore.”
Erik laughed. “You’re insane. What will the third one do?”
“I don’t know. Cup my balls? Suck her tits? Shit, I don’t know. We’ll work it out, don’t you worry.”
“Believe me, I am not worried about your sex life.”
“Good, you should be worried about yours,” Phillip pointed out.