Rebound (Seattle Steelheads #1)(26)

If he thought it had made him seem like less of a man in my eyes, it didn’t. Men could cry. Even the tough ones. Especially the battered ones. He wasn’t weak. Christ, knowing what he’d been through and for how long? He was tougher than he realized.

I kept thumbing through the tweets, lingering whenever there was an image of him. It was so weird to look at his familiar face now. He wasn’t just a celebrity icon anymore. He was human, and I’d been closer to his human side than I’d ever imagined I would be. Amazing how different a larger-than-life hockey player looked after he’d cried on your shoulder.

Asher would probably be mortified if he knew I thought about him this way. Maybe he wouldn’t be bothered by me having a crush on him—God knew half the population of Seattle had one—but I didn’t imagine someone in the hypermasculine world of sports would understand how that moment of vulnerability had endeared him to me. It had, though. It hadn’t made him hotter. Just more human, and that did make him hotter.

Shame he was half my age and way out of my league. We were both on the rebound, and I’d bet money we could make each other forget about our respective exes for a little while.

The thought made me laugh. Yeah. Half my age. Way out of my league.

But a guy could certainly dream.





Chapter 6


Asher



Today was the day. Mercer Island PD was coming. Geoff was coming. Coach had grudgingly let me bail on practice on the condition that I busted my ass between now and game day.

And Nathan was moving the fuck out of my house.

To my great relief, Geoff arrived first. We’d pretty much planned it that way, but it was still a relief and I didn’t argue with it. He must have just come from work too, since he was still in uniform. That was fine by me. Rational or not, I thought he looked more imposing like that, and I’d take everything I could get to keep Nathan from doing something stupid.

Plus now I have something to look at while Nathan moves out, I thought, watching Geoff’s ass on the way into the house, because goddamn.

Maybe that meant I was getting over my ex. Or maybe it meant I was looking for the nearest distraction. Either way, I had a nice view, so I didn’t bitch. With the way things had been going these days, I was going to take anything pleasant that came along and enjoy the hell out of it without apologizing. Including every possible opportunity to ogle the way his dark pants and bulky police belt framed his—

“Has he had any further contact with you?” Geoff turned to face me in the kitchen.

“Um.” I cleared my throat, wondering if I was as red-faced as I felt, and quickly broke eye contact. “No. No. Just… Mercer PD handled everything, so I haven’t seen or heard from him.”

“Good.” Geoff smiled. Okay, that was something else I could stare at when I couldn’t see his butt. Especially when I was waiting for my ex to show up and collect all his crap.

Except then I’d probably stare too much and weird Geoff out, so I tore my gaze away. “I could use some coffee. You?”

“You know I’ll never say no to coffee.”

“Oh right. I forgot.” I chuckled and started pulling cups down. We’d made some jokes about that last time, hadn’t we? About cops, coffee, doughnuts. That had been fun. It had also been the same night…

Annnd there went my slightly brighter mood. My stomach knotted as I tried to focus on pouring coffee. God, that had been a horrible night. And I hated that Geoff had been here to see the worst of it. The worst of me.

I handed him his cup, and after we’d drunk in silence for a few minutes, I said, “By the way, I’m, uh, sorry about the other night.”

“What about it?”

“You know.” I shrugged. “Breaking down like that.”

“Are you kidding?” Geoff looked right in my eyes. “I’ve been to war. I’ve seen the toughest, baddest Marines you can imagine cry.” His lips tightened into a slight grimace. “I still think one of the most heartbreaking things I ever saw was a SEAL sobbing on his buddy’s shoulder.”

I blinked. “A SEAL? Really?”

“Really. He hit his limit. Lost one too many buddies, saw one too many horrible things, and he just…” Geoff exhaled, shaking his head. “That guy was a six-foot rock wall and probably knew three hundred ways to kill someone before they ever knew he was there. But SEALs are human. Marines are human.” He inclined his head. “Hockey players trying to get out of abusive relationships are human.”

I wasn’t sure how to respond to that.

“For that matter,” Geoff went on, “if you’re afraid of people thinking less of you because you’re a man and you were battered by your partner…” He shook his head again. “Anyone who does isn’t worth your time. You’re not the first, and you won’t be the last.”

I sipped my cooling coffee for lack of something better to do. I probably shouldn’t have been surprised he’d seen this kind of shit before. In fact that was probably why he was here—because he knew more than most people how bad situations like mine could get, especially at the end. No wonder he was willing to show up during his off-time to make sure I stayed safe.

Ha. And here I thought I might be special.

The coffee turned bitter on my tongue, but I forced it down. “I guess I get all that. But thanks for showing up. Having some backup helps a lot.”