I Want You Back (Want You #1)(106)

Lucky me.

Tuesday I showed up at the ice rink after work to support Jax when he spoke to the staff. I’d almost made it to Jax’s new office at the end of the hallway, when I heard someone call out, “Lucy?” behind me. I wheeled around and faced Gabi.

“What’s up, Coach Welk?”

“Can I talk to you about something?”

“Sure.”

She jammed her hands in her back pockets. Then she blurted out, “I want you to know I’m not looking to screw around with Jax. I’d never do that. I’m not like that.” She paused to breathe. “I know it must seem like we’ve spent a lot of time together, but it’s all been business related . . . well, except for when he took me to Snow Village so maybe I could jump the line on the waiting list for an apartment. Besides that, even when we played hockey Saturday night, Jax has been one hundred percent professional with me. In fact, he’s the one who insisted that everyone stop calling me Gabi and start referring to me as Coach Welk. I have no interest in him romantically, okay? If he and I end up spending work time together, it’ll only be about work. You have my word.”

I tried to keep my face blank. Where was this coming from? I couldn’t imagine that Jax had suggested she state her intentions to me. Had someone else brought it up with her? Because it seemed too specific to be a random convo. “I appreciate your honesty, Gabi, but can I ask why you’re telling me this?”

Confusion distorted her expression, followed by disgust. “Because Jax’s brother was a real dickhead about it Saturday night. He said I’d better figure out where I stand, because the last place he’d ever let me stand was between you and Jax. Then he spewed a bunch of other stuff, but I was so mad I didn’t hear it all. But his warning about me getting too cozy with Stonewall was loud and clear.”

That dumbass. I’m sure he had good intentions, but he’d gone about it the wrong way. Nolan had no business trying to circumvent a problem that wasn’t there. Not only that, it made Jax look like he needed help keeping his pants zipped. I guessed that Gabi hadn’t said anything to Jax, because she and I wouldn’t be having this discussion if she had.

I smiled at her, which freaked her out, because she took a step back, and I couldn’t help but laugh. “Sorry. This is just a bizarre conversation, so bear with me, okay?”

She nodded.

“First of all, it takes guts to be proactive instead of reactive, and I appreciate that. Just from the little I know of your history at Lakeside, I understand why you’d want to deal with any issues right away. I’m happy and relieved that Jax has a person like you on his team and on his side through the upcoming changes. Maybe I should be jealous because you and Jax have hockey in common. But there’s no question in my mind that you and Jax are friends. And I’m grateful that he has a colleague who understands that part of his life.

“That said . . . Jax and I have waded through some rough waters to get to this point, so he won’t do anything to screw this up. Neither will I. We are a solid unit.” I smiled at her again. “I appreciate your candor. Between us? Feel free to tell Nolan to mind his own business next time he decides to tell you what to do.”

Gabi grinned. “Oh, I will, believe me. I wasn’t sure how my boss would react to me giving his brother a piece of my mind.”

“Better that than giving him a piece of your stick.”

She blinked at me. “What?”

“Umm . . . isn’t that a hockey saying? Something to do with part of your hockey stick getting in on the action?”

“You mean the phrase ‘he got a piece of that’? That’s from baseball.”

I sighed. “I suck at hockey lingo.”

“You ever want a crash course on it, hit me up.”

“Thanks. I may need to do that if Mimi sticks with it.” I bumped her with my shoulder. “Sticks with it? Get it?”

Gabi rolled her eyes.

“Come on, that has to be a hockey pun.”

“It was, it just wasn’t a good pun. Later, Mrs. L.”

She walked off before I could correct her that Jax and I weren’t married.

I walked through Jax’s open office door and saw him leaning over his desk. “You’re looking all official and owner-like.”

“Shut. The. Door.”

Terse words. That’s when I noticed Jax wore his brooding face. “What’s the matter?”

“Shut the damn door, Lucy.”

Fine, Mr. Crabby.

Turning, I pushed it closed, rather than slamming it, and found myself pressed chest first against the door, watching Jax’s hand as he twisted the lock.

He’d twined his other hand in my hair and pulled slightly in a lover’s signal to expose my neck to him, which I did without hesitation.

His mouth brushed my ear. “That hallway has great acoustics,” he murmured, “which means I can hear everything.” He nuzzled my neck and repeated, “Everything.”

Why was he telling me this . . . Oh. Crap. He’d heard me talking to Gabi.

“You don’t have any idea, do you, what it meant for me to overhear that I have your full trust, when you didn’t have a clue I was listening? To hear you tell Gabi that she’d never be a threat to our relationship because you are that fucking confident in us and in me? Christ. I’ve never been so relieved. So humbled.” He kept rubbing his lips back and forth across that same section of skin until gooseflesh broke out. “And so turned on. Fuck, woman. I need to show you that I’ll never take that trust for granted.” He planted soft kisses from below my ear across the underside of my jaw. “I need to feel you, soft and wet and warm all around me.”