Offside (The Barker Triplets 1)

He walked around the car and gazed down at the hood. ‘[i]Pussy[i].’

Logan’s mouth thinned and he whipped his head around, gazing back to where he’d come from. Ed had been alone but that figure he’d seen…

He jogged back to his still running truck and peeled out of the parking lot. Less than two minutes later he turned onto Duncan Street and as he slowed to a crawl, spied none other than Billie-Joe Barker, trudging along the sidewalk, with her hockey bag and two sticks in her hands.

Automatically, his gaze swung to that sweet butt—he was a guy after all, and couldn’t help it—and he realized she was wearing the same clothes she’d worn the night before.

Immediately his eyes narrowed. Had she spent the night with Gallagher? What the hell was going on?

Logan pulled just ahead of her and hopped out of his truck. She’d already walked a few miles from his shop and he knew she still had a ways to go, with the bag it would be heavy going.

“Hey,” she said haltingly, her eyes huge in a face that was something else. She really was striking.

“Hey,” he answered back. “I see someone did a number on your car last night.”

She nodded, but didn’t answer and he thought that maybe her eyes were real shiny, like they were filled with tears.

Shit. Not again. He wasn’t real good with tears. Just ask Sabrina.

“You want a lift?” he asked gently, nodding toward his truck.

At first he thought she was going to refuse, but then something seemed to break inside her and without uttering another word, Billie hauled her bag into the back of his truck and slipped inside.

Chapter Seven

Billie kept her eyes averted the entire five minutes it took to get home. She was raw inside and hated that Logan had caught her when she was so vulnerable.

The damage to her car had been bad enough. Almost causing a brawl in The Grill had been bad enough—that’s what an intentionally spilled beer would get you, but shit Seth had totally deserved it.

Hearing the taunts from some of the guys, words meant to hurt, to humiliate and put her in her place…[i]that[i] had been bad enough.

But the smug look on Ed’s face when he’d pulled up to tow her car had set the tone, and his snotty attitude stung. Ed refusing to give her a ride home had just been the icing on the cake.

She sighed softly as her house came into view, and ran fingers along the side of her temple. A nasty headache was on the horizon—not because she’d drank too much at The Grill. Heck, she’d barely downed a beer before the shit started flying. After Longwood had gotten in her face for the second or third time, and her second beer had ended up in his lap, she’d pulled Shane away, afraid he’d get into a fight. The guy was on parole and there was no way she was going to be responsible for him getting into trouble.

“So,” Logan’s voice drew her attention and she shifted in her seat, though she kept her eyes trained on the house. She was tired, sad, and on a good day Logan Forest had her tied up in knots. She didn’t think she could handle him right now.

“Yeah,” she answered softly—not so much a question, but a statement. A confirmation that things were that bad.

“Do you know who keyed your car?”

She shook her head and swallowed, not trusting an answer because all the hurt and anger inside, pressed something fierce.

“I’ll see if I can find out.”

“Don’t bother,” she managed to say and opened the door. Logan met her around back and she moved out of the way as he grabbed her hockey bag and sticks and set them on the ground.

She watched the muscles stretch beneath his T-shirt and the way his jeans cupped his butt as he bent forward. When he straightened, Billie exhaled a shaky breath, suddenly so weak she thought there was a good possibility she’d slide to the ground like a limp noodle.

Her blood sugar must be low or something. When was the last time she’d eaten?

“Are you all right?” he asked gruffly and he [i]so[i] didn’t deserve the ‘I’m fine’ she snapped back at him, but she couldn’t seem to help herself.

For a moment there was silence. Nothing but the gentle whistle of wind in the trees and the scatter of leaves to the ground. A shiver rolled over her and she wanted to look away from him, but she couldn’t. It was that damn superpower thing he had going on.

Her mouth went dry. It had to be.

His eyes were intense, their depths shiny, like liquid chocolate and that flutter in her belly began all over again. Sweat broke out along her forehead and for a moment she didn’t know whether to leave or stay or leave or…