Offside (The Barker Triplets 1)

Logan shrugged. “She’ll get over it.”

“Sure,” Shane nodded. “After she kicks your ass.”

The fuse that had been sizzling all week burned hot inside him. Logan had had enough and he wasn’t in the mood for anyone other than Jack Daniels. “What the hell do you want, Gallagher?”

“I talked to Bobbi last night.”

“Like I care.”

“She’s worried about Billie.”

Logan arched a brow. “Like I care.”

Shane grinned at that. “Well, here’s the thing, Forest. You’re full of shit, and that’s not all.”

“Don’t you have a game to get to?”

“Yep,” Shane nodded, “and if you had your head screwed on properly you’d come with me. The team needs you on D. You’re like a fucking wall in front of the net and this team we’re playing? They want Billie’s ass but good.”

“You’ve made it to the finals without me, so I’m thinking you guys are doing fine and Billie…”

“Billie needs you.”

Logan stared at his friend, took in the leather jacket, punched up jeans, week old stubble and hair that hadn’t seen a barber in months. What the hell was he up to?

“Since when did you become Billie’s personal cheerleader?”

“Since you broke her heart.”

His head snapped up at that. “Since I…” Gallagher was on drugs. He had to be. “Since I broke her heart? Christ, Shane what the hell have you been smoking? You more than anyone knows the Barker girls aren’t good for guys in general. Have you forgotten what Bobbi did to you?”

Shane’s face hardened. “We’re not talking about Bobbi.”

“No, we’re not.” The anger inside him was hot and fierce. “We’re talking about the other Barker. The one who pretended to be her sister so she could have sex with me. I had hot, dirty, sex with Billie in Brad Cole’s bedroom and the entire time I thought I was screwing her sister. She was a fucking virgin for Christ sake. I can’t wrap my head around that.”

He grabbed the whiskey bottle off his desk, swore when he realized it was empty and tossed it in the garbage. “Did they plan it together? Was it all a game to them? What kind of woman does that and then doesn’t say anything?”

“The kind of woman you never would have noticed. Billie was never wild like Bobbi and she sure as hell wasn’t as easy as Betty pretended to be.”

Logan scowled and shoved his hands into the front pocket of his jeans.

“She’s the woman that you’re in love with.”

Logan stared at his friend as if he had lost his mind.

He opened his mouth to protest—how the hell could he be in love with a woman who not only had tricked him years ago, but in his current world, drove him crazy and to the point where he couldn’t concentrate because all he did do was…

[i]Think about her[i].

He thought about the way her eyes lit up when she smiled. Or the way she tapped her foot aggressively when she was thinking. He thought of her excitement when she’d told him about her new hockey school, and of the way her brow furrowed when she was skating full steam ahead with two hulking men between her and the net. He thought of how the color of her eyes changed when she kissed him and how that little noise she made in the back of her throat made his insides feel like liquid heat.

What it felt like to hold her and listen to her heart slow down.

Logan sat down in his chair and exhaled a long, ragged breath.

“Look,” Shane sighed. “I don’t know much. I’ve screwed up a lot, done a lot of things I’m not proud of including the way I handled the whole Bobbi mess.”

Logan glanced up at his friend.