Erik (Arizona Vengeance 2)

“He talk to you about it?” I ask Bishop curiously.

No one is really close to Tacker on this team, even though he’s our captain. He’s a great leader on the ice but he’s totally withdrawn off it. If there’s one person on this team he might possibly talk to, it would be Bishop and that’s because they room together when on the road. He spends the most downtime with Tacker.

“Just told me he was going to go visit her parents back in Dallas,” he replies in a low voice.

“Poor bastard,” Legend mumbles and turns back to tackle the next cactus.

The four of us work in silence for a bit more, taking small breaks here and there to drink some beer or grumble about getting cut on something.

“Are you going out with Blue tonight?” Dax asks me.

“She’s in Chicago,” I tell him, trying to keep the slight tinge of longing from my voice. “She works charter flights part time for some extra money. She’ll be back tomorrow.”

I hate that Blue has to work a second job. She doesn’t do it often but we’re going to be home in Phoenix for almost a week and she couldn’t pass up the money. She’s getting five hundred dollars just for an overnight trip and less than seven hours of actual flight time. It’s a lot of money to Blue whereas I’d drop five hundred dollars on a new pair of shoes if the fancy struck me.

Of course I get why she does it, but I’m already hating that it interferes with my time with her. We got back from Dallas at about one A.M. this morning and poor Blue had to get right back on a plane again at eight. I wanted nothing more than to bring her home with me from the airport, but she needed some sleep and to get packed. We’re going to go out tomorrow night, though, and I’ll have to be satisfied with that.

“So is this thing serious with Blue?” Bishop asks. It’s not a question Legend or Dax would ask, because they can’t really see past the fact that Blue is a gorgeous woman who I’ve been lusting after. But Bishop has recently fallen hard for Brooke, so I get he’d be more curious about this sort of thing.

Before I can answer, though, Dax is doing it for me. “Hell yeah, it’s serious. You see the way he moons over her on the plane?”

“Or smiles like a big fool every time he sees her,” Legend adds on.

“He’s besotted.”

“Pussy-whipped.”

“Hey,” I cut in with a warning. “I am not that quite yet.”

All the men stop and turn to me with raised eyebrows.

“Wait a minute,” Legend says. “You haven’t tapped that yet? What the fuck, dude? I had Valerie come to my room in Houston just to give you the opportunity.”

I’m at a crossroads. Ordinarily, I would not hesitate to tell all about the dirty details with my bros. Had it been an anonymous one-night stand, I’d be telling them all about the amazing blow job I got that night.

But this is Blue and I just inherently sense that those things should remain personal to us. I have no past experience upon which to call for the right answer, so I go with my gut. “None of your fucking business.”

“Whoa,” Legend says with a laugh. “You really are totally head over heels for this girl, aren’t you?”

I don’t answer him right away because he already knows I am. But I do decide to give up something so they understand just how important Blue is becoming to me.

“Blue and I met about five years ago,” I tell them.

“What?” Dax asks, his eyebrows knitting over confusion-filled eyes.

“I don’t remember much of it but let’s just say I was a douche to her.”

“That’s why she was so pissy with you in the beginning,” Bishop reasons out loud.

“Partly,” I admit. “But also because I was hitting on her and she just wasn’t interested. She’s pretty focused on her brother.”

“And she’s giving you a second chance,” Legend unnecessarily points out. “So you better not fuck it up.”

“I won’t,” I say confidently. This thing with Blue is going to go the distance. I just know it.

“If you do fuck it up, I’ve got first crack at her,” Dax says with a salacious grin. I don’t think twice before grabbing the spine of a small cactus and whipping the entire thing at Dax. It hits him in the forearm, several of the spines sinking into his skin.

He yelps and then curses as he attempts to shake it free. “You fucking asshole.”

“Talk about Blue again, and you’ll get worse,” I warn him.

Legend and Bishop just howl with laughter as Dax gingerly pulls the little spine-covered plant from his arm and chucks it into the wheelbarrow.

I turn back to my work when loud music starts blaring from the backyard next door. It takes me a moment to recognize it but I grimace as the opening bars of Cindi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” fills the air.