Unbreakable(15)

Temptation or not, I’m doing this.

*

“Well hello there.”

A short, petite blonde in a teeny-tiny skirt stands in the doorway, looking me up and down.

“Hey. I’m Will. Emmy’s friend. She invited me over.”

She wrinkles her little nose and inhales, pushing her huge boobs forward until they’re practically touching me. “Um, sorry. Who?”

“Emmy Sullinger? I saw you hanging out with her at the lake earlier today.”

She gives me a flirty smile. “You saw me at the lake, huh?”

I stifle a sigh. “Yeah. Is she here?”

“Who?”

Good Lord.

“Emmy,” I repeat patiently. “Is Emmy here?”

“Oh. You mean Sunshine. Yep, she’s here.”

I raise an eyebrow as she steps aside. To my knowledge, I’m the only person who calls Emmy by that name. “Sunshine?”

“Yeah. She goes by Sunshine Sullinger on her ZeeTube channel, where she does all those video makeup tutorials and stuff. I knew who she was from her channel before Jackson even introduced us.”

Huh. This is all news to me.

“Everyone’s out back,” she says. “Beer is in the kitchen, and there’s more in the coolers outside. I’m going to use the little girl’s room.” She gives me a flirty wink and heads upstairs. “I’ll see you soon, Will. That’s a promise.”

Wonderful. I roll my eyes and walk through the cottage, stopping to grab a beer from the fridge in the kitchen.

Outside, the party is jumping. Chicken and hot dogs sizzle on a big grill, and twenty or so people mill around the large deck, eating and drinking.

Emmy stands near the grill, holding a plate with a hot dog and potato chips. She sees me and lifts her hand in a greeting. She whispers something to Crew Cut, who puts down the grill tongs and follows her as she walks toward me.

“Will, you made it.”

Emmy looks tipsy, and that’s not good. She can’t hold her alcohol for shit. I glance down at her red-colored drink, which has real cherries floating around in the glass. Punch, maybe.

“Will, this is my new friend, Jackson Bailey. Jackson, my old friend, Will Maverick. Will plays professional hockey for the Toronto Smoke.”

Jackson sizes me up, and I do the same right back. Finally, he nods and slings an arm around Emmy’s shoulders. I don’t miss the possessiveness of the gesture.

“So you’re a hockey player, eh?”

I pop the top on my beer. “Yep.”

“What position do you play?”

“Left -wing.” I take a swig of the beer and give him another scrutinizing glance. “What do you do?”

“I go to University in B.C. Electrical Engineering major.”

“You’re from British Columbia?”

“Yeah, I’m just here visiting my old man for a few weeks.”

If Em does hook up with this douche nozzle, which I pray doesn’t happen, at least I know their relationship isn’t going anywhere permanent. I can’t see her doing the long-distance thing with him if she lives in New York City. Then again, I can’t see her with this guy, period.

The blonde I met earlier comes up behind me and wraps her arm around my waist. “Sunshine, why didn’t you tell us about your smoking hot friend here?”

Emmy pauses. “I did earlier, remember? I told you he was working on the cottage while we were swimming. Brooke, this is Will. And vice-versa.”

“Oh, we’ve met. Sunshine, you didn’t say he was a total babe.” She grins up at me and places her hand right above my ass. She’s about as subtle as a tornado.

“And guess what, Brooke? He plays hockey,” Jackson adds.

Brooke lets out a low sound of approval, and I do my best not to cringe.

“She really likes athletes,” Jackson confides. “Especially hockey players.”

Lucky me.

“Catch you later,” Jackson says dismissively. He leads Emmy away to talk to another group of his friends.

I manage to extract myself from Brooke’s iron grip and take a seat at an empty patio chair, but she snags another chair nearby and drags it over.

There’s going to be no escaping this girl. If I want to stay here and keep an eye on Em, Brooke’s part of that package.

For the next hour and a half, I eat a few hot dogs and listen to Brooke ramble on endlessly. She’s gorgeous and totally stacked, but all she does is talk about places she wants to go and stores she wants to shop at whenever she visits Toronto. It’s clear she wants me to be her tour guide, too.

When she introduces me as a professional hockey player to some of the other people at the party, her eyes light up like she’s hit the jackpot. It’s not long before I’m surrounded by more of her attractive friends, and they keep trying to outdo each other by flirting with me. Brooke, however, keeps one hand on my arm like she’s staking a claim.

My patience begins to run thin. I’m sure most guys love being surrounded by gorgeous girls who are all competing for their attention, but in a situation like this, I’m not one of them. They’re not interested in me. They don’t see me as a person; they just see me as an athlete. And I’ve never been interested in women who reduce me down to what I do for a living.