Wild Zone (Rough Riders Hockey 4)

“No. I’m here.” Jax kicked the sheet off his legs and sat up on the edge of the bed. “What did you say?”

Wes gave an exasperated sigh. “Do you remember the conversation we had on the way to the airport, or are you missing too many brain cells?”

Jax winced. The airport. What did they talk about?

When he didn’t answer, Wes prodded, “About finding you a girl like my Kayla?”

Wes’s question temporarily rendered him completely dumb. What in the hell—?

Oh…that. Oh…shit.

“Uh, yeah,” he said, “I remember.” Fuck. “Listen, Wes, I don’t think that’s—”

“We found the perfect girl,” Wes said. “She’s absolutely fantastic. And, dude, I know your taste. You’re going to like her. She’s super pretty and really smart. And she’s got a sweet streak that makes you want to eat her up.”

Jax winced. This was so not the time to talk about another woman, because there was only one he wanted to eat up. “Hey, Wes, listen—”

“I know what you’re going to say—if she’s so great, why isn’t she with someone? Well, she was, which, honestly is why I’m not dating her. Not now, I mean, ’cause I’m crazy about Kayla, but I met Tawna before I knew Kayla and would have totally gone for her, but she was in this long-term thing then.

“She’s been out of it about six months now, lying low to make sure the guy was out of her system before she dates again, which I think is really smart, you know, balanced. And when Kayla and I told her about you, she was game.

“So what do you say? We’ll double when we get back from this gig next week?”

Jax was staring at the beige carpet, Lexi’s panties crushed in his hand. “Are you done?”

r /> “Yeah, sorry. I was excited to find out Tawna was free. I really think you two are a good match.”

“Thing is, bud, I hooked up with someone here.”

A beat of silence filled the line, then, “What? I just left you at the airport. You flew six hours, hauled your ass to the set for twelve, and should have been too tired to do anything but sleep for the rest. When did you have any time to hook up with someone?”

Jax rubbed his eyes. Dropped back to the bed. “I’m not really awake yet, Wes—”

“I imagine not, considering what you’ve been doing. Fuck, Jax, this is so you. You know, if you want to keep making the same goddamned mistakes, fine. Just don’t bitch about the fallout. You pick up women so fast, you don’t take the time to even get to know them. Then they screw you over and—oh shit, look at that, what a fucking surprise.”

Jax sighed. “Why are you yelling at me like a mother hen?”

“Because you’re my friend, asshole, and I’m sick of watching you let women walk all the fuck over you.”

Guilt layered on top of his misery over losing Lexi. Wes was right. And Lexi was gone. She’d made the word no very clear in a dozen different ways.

“Look,” Jax said. “You’re right. It was a fluke thing. We started talking, hit it off. But it’s…it’s nothing. Just a one-night. I just…really liked her.”

“Dude, you really like them all at the beginning.”

“You really should let me have coffee before you gut me. Give me a fucking break. I haven’t had any in over a month, she was hot as hell and offered. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t have done the same.”

He needed to get Wes off his back, and that seemed to make the guy at least think a minute.

“So you flipped one, no big deal, right? You’re not going to see her again, right?”

Jax hated that term. Wes applied the term flipped, as in flipping houses—getting hold of one, working it over, then getting rid of it—to one-night stands.

Jax looked at the ceiling and forced himself to say the words, hoping they’d sink in and he’d get over…whatever this was. “No, Wes, I’m not going to see her again.”

“Okay, then, no big deal. You can still meet Tawna. Right?”

“Right,” Jax said. He’d deal with this later. “Sure, why not, right?”