“Oh come on.” Candy gives an almost maniacal laugh. “Look at you and look at me. If you had an open relationship, why would he have turned me down last week?”
“Hey,” Lindsay begins, but I cut her off.
“Probably because I can give him what you can’t.”
She stares at me for a moment, her mouth opening and closing, a sound catching in her throat as her friends all glare at me, incredulous. Apparently, no one talks back to Candy. My phone takes that moment to ping and I glance at it. “Now if you’ll excuse me, that’s my fiancée calling.”
I turn my back to Candy and she storms off with her friends. I swallow down the anxiety bubbling into my throat and flip my phone over to see that it’s Nancy from the hospital.
“What the hell was that all about?” Lindsay asks.
“That was Candy. According to Rider, she’s a puck bunny and well known. She asked Rider out the night you met Kane and he told her I was his fiancée to get rid of her.”
She taps her nails on the table. Clickity click. Clickity click. “Interesting.”
“Why is that so interesting?” I ask, my insides still as shaky as my hands. I reach for my glass and take a much-needed sip.
“No reason,” she says. “Was that him?” She nods toward my phone.
“No, work. My colleague was checking to make sure I can still cover for her tomorrow.”
“Don’t sound so disappointed.”
“A long-ass shift on the Saturday I’m supposed to be off.” I push back in my chair. “Hard not to be disappointed.”
“Oh, is that the reason you’re pouting?”
“Yup, and I should call it a night. I have an early morning. Share an Uber?”
“Sure.”
As Lindsay finishes her drink, I pull up the app and order a car. Lindsay is walking distance from my place, so I just give my address. We make our way outside and Lindsay’s phone buzzes.
I glance at the star-studded night, and work to quell the disappointment—the jealousy—welling up inside. Rider never said he’d call so I have no reason to be upset and the g
reen-eyed monster belongs nowhere in my range of emotions. We are friends with benefits, and if he wants to go celebrate the team’s win with a bunny, so be it. Heck, maybe tomorrow I’ll go celebrate with a hospital hound.
Hospital hound.
That makes me laugh.
“Something funny?” Lindsay asks.
“Nope.” She glances back at her screen. “Everything okay?”
Her smile is wide and genuine. “Yeah, it’s just Kane,” she says almost apologetically. “He was just asking if I saw the game.”
“Oh, nice.” I look up and down the street. “You two are really hitting it off, huh?”
“I guess so. I mean, it’s early.”
“So um…” God how do I ask without sounding like I really am into Rider.
“The guys are all going out to celebrate.” She frowns, but her astute eyes are observing me carefully. “He said Rider bailed.”
“Oh.” I turn from her. I guess Candy was right, and he was heading back to his room with a bunny. I really don’t care.
Much.