Rebound (Seattle Steelheads #1)(35)

“Oh,” I said again. How the hell was I supposed to respond to that?

“For what it’s worth, I’m not saying no,” he went on. “I’m just saying not yet. I don’t want you putting your life on hold for me, or waiting around for me to make up my mind, just… I’m not closing the door. If you want to, that’s fine, but—”

“No, I don’t.” I shook my head. “If you’re not ready, you’re not ready.”

Geoff searched my eyes. “You sure?”

“Yeah, of course. I mean, maybe it’s not a bad idea to cool it. For both of us.” What am I saying? Of course it’s a bad idea. Don’t you know how much I want you? But I tamped that down. “I think we’ve both spent enough time stressing over our exes. Why add to it?”

He nodded, and he sounded relieved as he said, “Yeah. Exactly. And I mean, maybe I could have called or texted, but it just seemed like something I should say face to face.”

“I appreciate it,” I said quietly, and I meant it. It was so easy to misread a text or imagine a facial expression over the phone, and Geoff didn’t need to know how much I could tie myself in knots wondering if I’d read something the wrong way. Face to face meant fewer mixed signals.

It also meant he’d come to Mercer Island in the middle of Seattle’s merciless commute instead of going in nearly the opposite direction toward Lake City.

I cleared my throat. “Listen, um. You came all the way out here. Even if we’re not sleeping together, I, um… You’re already here, and I wouldn’t mind the company.”

Geoff’s brow pinched. “Really?”

“Sure. I’ve got a pool table, or we can just put in a movie or something.” I paused, mentally flailing for something to entice him to stay. “There’s a pizza place up the road that is amazing. And they deliver.”

That brought a smile out of Geoff that both reassured me he would stay and renewed my disappointment that we couldn’t touch. Oh well.

“That sounds good,” he said. “But the pizza’s going to have to work at it to impress me.”

“Yeah?”

He nodded. “There’s a place up on Lake City Way near my apartment, and it’s unreal.”

“Challenge accepted. Guarantee this place will blow that other one out of the water.”

“All right.” Geoff’s smile turned to a grin. “Bring it on.”

We headed into the living room, and I took out my phone to order the pizza. As we figured out what we wanted and how we were going to spend the evening, I was relieved as hell that he was still here. Yeah, I still wished things had played out differently. The sex we’d had so far had been amazing, and not just because it was better than the nightmare that had been my sex life with whatshisname. No shit, I wanted more.

But if that wasn’t an option, I was okay with this being the alternative. I hadn’t been allowed to hang out with friends. Sometimes I’d go out with my teammates, but I’d always hear about it afterward. If the guys came over while Nathan wasn’t there—or worse, when he was—I’d hear about that too. Eventually, I’d pretty much stopped because it wasn’t worth the aftermath.

So having someone over for a relaxed evening with a couple of beers, a pizza, and some pool or a movie? And no nasty consequences afterward? That was a novelty for reasons I didn’t have the energy to explain to Geoff.

No sex? Fine. I was perfectly content to spend the evening with a friend.





Chapter 9


Geoff



“Hey.” Laura waved a hand in front of my face. “Earth to Geoff?”

I shook myself and wondered how long I’d been staring out the cruiser’s windshield. Fortunately, we were still in the coffee shop parking lot, so I wasn’t lingering at a green light or something.

I turned to her. “Sorry. Did you say something?”

“Aside from asking you—twice—why you were spacing out?” She shook her head. There was a hint of wry amusement in her eyes, but it quickly faded. “What’s going on, anyway? Is this about that hockey player?”

I arched an eyebrow. “You sure you’re not going to take the detective’s exam?”

She wagged a finger. “Don’t change the subject, bub. He’s the only thing that’s been distracting you like this for the last week.” Bringing her coffee to her lips, she added, “A cadet at the academy could put those pieces together.”

“Okay. Okay. Fair.”

“So, what happened?”

“Um, well. We…kinda started…”

“You fucked.” She nonchalantly sipped her coffee as if she’d just made some superficial comment about the weather.

“Uh.” I cleared my throat. “We…”

“Did you, or didn’t you?”

Okay, my partner didn’t need to know the details about what we had and hadn’t done in Asher’s bed. The question boiled down to whether or not we’d gotten naked and gotten each other off, and we had definitely done that.

I coughed again. “Yeah. We did.”

“And now you’re…what? Regretting it?”

“That’s where things get complicated.”