Chapter Nineteen

Zoey

I wake up again this morning in his arms but not as rested as the morning before since we didn't let up until the early hours. My body between my thighs is tender but in a good way, reminding me that Brent was down there giving me more orgasms in one night than I ever imagined possible.

I don't have to shy away from the morning wood behind me this time because I had it a few times last night.

I press my ass against him, and he groans.

"If you keep that up, we'll be a no-show for the wedding," his gruff morning voice says against the back of my neck where his head rests against the pillow.

I giggle. "Late for the wedding?"

Oh shit!

The wedding!

I toss the blankets off my body.

How could I have forgotten that the whole reason I'm even in this bed in San Diego is because of my sister's wedding?

I look at the time on the clock perched on my nightstand and shriek when I see that I was supposed to be in her suite two minutes ago.

"Oh my God. Phoebe is going to kill me!" I say, practically jumping off the bed to rush over to my bag and grab a pair of yoga pants and a T-shirt to slip on. My dress hangs in the bridal suite with everyone else's things, so I just need my camera bag and myself. Thank God.

"Two minutes is all I need," he says from the bed in that sexy voice he has. "Your body is very responsive to my tongue."

I glance over at the bed to find Brent lying in it, his erection tenting the comforter. I wouldn't mind one more eyeful of his impressive cock before I go, but I guess that six-pack that flexed every time he plunged inside me last night will have to do.

A cascade of goosebumps runs down my body. I remember all too well how my body responds to his tongue, and even though that sounds heavenly, I have to go, or I won't live long enough to ever try that again.

I pull on my yoga pants and T-shirt and then whip into the bathroom, grabbing my toothbrush and toothpaste for later. I don't want to kiss him with morning breath, but I'm left with no other option except not to kiss him at all, but that's not a real option because I'm a terrible sister and wish I could blow off my own sister's wedding to play hooky in bed with Brent.

"I'm sorry I have to go," I say, running out of the bathroom with my toothbrush in hand.

I rush over to the bed and lean in. Making the move to lean in and kiss him first is braver than I've ever been, but I've never had to be. Most of my life was spent with one man, and this is the first time in fourteen years that I think I spent them with the wrong hockey player.

Brent leans in over the bed to meet me halfway since the bed is tall, and I can't reach him without him coming a little closer.

"I'll see you in a bit?" I ask.

He wraps his hand around the back of my head and presses his mouth against mine.

Morning breath panic sets in, but he doesn't deepen the kiss, so I pull out of his embrace as soon as the kiss is over.

I want to do so much more, but maybe this was the last night with him?

"Yeah, see you in a bit," he says, staring into my eyes.

I nod and then turn on my heels and head for my camera bag.

We didn't discuss anything, and there's a slight pang of fear that the spell will be broken when I walk out of this hotel room.

Either way, it doesn't matter. If I'm not in the bridal suite in one minute, Phoebe will be calling the fire department to come in for a search and rescue operation.

I toss the black camera bag strap over my shoulder, shove my toothbrush into the bag as well, and make a mad dash for the hotel room door.

I jog to the elevator, take it four floors down to the hotel lobby where the bridal suites are located, and then run the rest of the way down a private hallway where the bridal party will all be getting ready in different rooms.

I burst through the door, startling Phoebe, Sarah, Christine, and Abigail.

"Where have you been?" my sister demands.

I look down at my phone.

"I'm only three minutes late," I object to her making it sound like I almost missed it. Little does she know, I almost did.

She gets up from the chair where the makeup artist is doing her makeup.

"Wait a minute… something looks different," she says, walking over to me.

"What?" I say, not looking at her as I busy myself rifling through my camera bag to pull out my gear to snap her "getting ready" photos. "Nothing is different," I lie.

After one night with Brent, everything feels different. The knot in my stomach of Liam being with someone else is gone, and the sadness that I missed out on having this wedding experience a year ago feels more like a relief.

Seeing Shelby with my ring broke some kind of spell. How could I love someone who would treat me like that?

And how could Brent do so much in so little time?

"Nothing gets past me. David said that Brent went looking for you after you left. What happened last night? Were you sick?"

I keep busying myself with my bag and camera equipment, not looking up at her, but she catches the wide smile I can't hide.

"Oh my God! Zoey, what happened?" she says, putting her hands on my shoulders and trying to pull my attention up to her.

I don't need to tell her anything, though. My sister knows by my smile and silence that something happened. She knows when I'm trying to hide something. She knows me too well.

"Did you and Brent…" She doesn't finish her sentence as she plasters her right hand over her mouth when I let a snicker escape.

I've been caught.

There's no way out of this.

My sister missed her calling as a true crime detective. She can sniff out any secret.

Sarah starts giggling in the corner. "Shit, finally. Brent's been eye fucking you since high school."

I snap a look up at her. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, come on, Zoey," Phoebe says. "You knew how he felt about you. And then you went out with Liam."

"Yeah, I couldn't believe it," Sarah says. "Brent's always been way hotter than Liam. Plus, Brent was always so sweet on you."

How did everyone know this but me?

"Brent could have had any girl in school. He was NHL-bound. He didn't want some girl from his hometown holding him back, and Liam showed interest. Brent never…"

Now knowing about the Spanish clown incident, I can't trust that I know anything about how Brent felt about me.

I pull out the lens of my camera to get everything assembled and ready to start taking shots when a Ziplock baggie rolls to the bottom of the bag when I lift the lens out.

I pick it up, and the second I do, Phoebe's smile lights up.

It's a bag of trail mix; cranberries, white chocolate chips, and cashews.

"Did you know that David caught Brent mixing up bags of chocolate chips, cranberries, and cashews one day after practice? That's not a trail mix they package in-store. You think Brent didn't have any interest? He never made personal trail mix bags for any other girl in school. Also, did you know he's allergic to cashews? He had a reaction one day at practice after forgetting to wash his hands after. He broke out in hives and was itching for hours. David told me all about it after he and I started dating in college," she says, shifting to one hip and crossing her arms over her chest with a smirk.

A ripped piece of hotel stationery is inside the bag with Brent's handwriting on it. It's funny how, after all these years of sharing notes in Spanish class, I still recognize his handwriting.

"Here's some other nuts for you to hold on to until later tonight. ; )"

I chuckle at his sexual innuendo, and my heart does a double skip.

"He's a man, Zoey. They're not always great at communicating things verbally. Trail mix was him asking you to go steady," Sarah says.

All the girls laugh.

I grip the sandwich bag in my hand. He must have picked up the items when he went to get cigars. Even with the silence between us, he was still thinking of me.

How could I have missed all of this?

What else have I missed between us?

Brent

It's been hours since I've seen Zoey.

Waking up this morning with her in my arms, asleep but with a satisfied smile on her face from last night has me looking forward to seeing where this might go after we leave San Diego.

We were too busy last night making up for lost time to discuss what would happen after the wedding.

Do we go home together and keep this going?

I can't accept the idea that we follow through with this being temporary and that my first taste of Zoey is my last.

I thought we'd get a minute to talk before the events for today started, but she woke in a panic that she had slept in. She grabbed the few things she had to have for the day, scurried out of our suite, and headed for the bridal suite for hair and makeup.

A kiss goodbye and a giggle when I squeezed her ass was all I got, but for a man who's been waiting for her for fourteen years, I'll take the kiss and be happy about it. After the ceremony and reception, she'll be mine again, and I can ask everything I need to.

I take a quick shower and hang around the room, watching the sports channel for a bit before heading down to the room where the guys are all getting ready.

"Hey man, what's the score?" David asks of the football game that's on today.

Ben and Liam are already here, starting to pull on their dress shirts and tuxedo pants.

"It was tied when I left," I tell him, looking around to find there isn't a TV in this suite.

"Where the hell is the—" I start.

"They don't put TVs in the groom's suite," David says, almost sagging his shoulders.

"What? They're afraid you're going to miss your own wedding?" I ask with a chuckle.

Ben snickers to himself as he buttons up his shirt. Liam stays dead silent as he continues to dress himself, acting as if I'm not even in the room.

"I guess it's happened enough times that they yanked the TV years ago," David says.

Surprising? No… but it's a shame since we still have time before the ceremony.

Good thing I have a cell phone and good service.

I whip out my phone and livestream the game. I perch it up on the faux fireplace mantel so we can at least listen while we get ready.

After a half hour of bullshitting, again with Liam ignoring my existence, the wedding coordinator knocks on the door.

"You gentlemen ready?" she asks on the other side.

"Yep, let's do this," David yells back, with a huge smile across his face.

I'm glad to see my buddy happy.

David heads for the door, and we all follow him to the door.

As we each exit, David, then Ben, then me, and lastly Liam, I feel a hand wrap around my bicep to stop me.

I look back over my shoulder to see Liam's straight face. His narrowed eyes demand I stay put. I want to reach around and give him the damn beatdown he deserves, but this isn't the time or place for it.

"What?" I ask, an edge to my voice.

"I need to talk to you," he says, keeping his expression unreadable, but his straight-lipped facial expression says this isn't going to be him congratulating me for finally getting the girl he weaseled out from underneath me.

I look back over my shoulder to see David just now seeing us not behind him.

I hold up a finger.

"One minute," I say.

He nods, but his downturned eyebrows show the concern he has about leaving Liam and me alone in a hallway.

He's not wrong to be concerned if this were any other circumstance. But not today.

I won't hit the motherfucker today.

It's moments like this that I really wish he'd been good enough to play in the NHL, just so that I could serve him up on the ice and only get penalty box time for it.

"Make it quick. This is Phoebe's day, and I won't let you fuck it up like you did Zoey's."

He pulls his hand off me and clenches it into a fist at his side.

Yeah… he'd like to hit me. That makes two of us. And if he takes the first swing, I'll be happy to return the favor.

"I'm getting her back, Brent."

"The fuck you are. She's with me, asshole. Like she always should have been," I tell him. My eyes narrow at him, and he does the same back.

"She chose me over you years ago, and she'll do it again," he counters.

I can't argue that… she might. He certainly made sure she hated me enough over the years to put doubt in her mind.

"That's because you tricked her into thinking you wanted her when it was all really a fucking competition, wasn't it? A competition between you and me," I say, my eyebrow lifted. "Only… I didn't know about it. I was stupid enough to think we were friends."

"Jesus Christ, Brent! You had everything. The Blue Devils were scouting you freshman year. You could have any girl you wanted. Your life was charmed."

Charmed. I knew this is what it was about. He was jealous.

"My parents died, you asshole."

What a fucking piece of work. I would give up everything to have them back.

"So, you had some bad luck."

I shove him back, but only hard enough for him to take half a step back.

"Watch your mouth," I warn.

I should lay him out. David wouldn't blame me for that, but Phoebe will never forgive me for giving one of her groomsmen a black eye for her pictures that she'll have forever.

He shrugs his shoulders like that was nothing. "The rest of your life's been easy for you. I deserved one thing."

He deserved one thing?

His family is loaded, and he got whatever he threw a fit for. His dad got him into a college that he couldn't have gotten into without connections. He has a job that pays him better than he deserves, and he never had to work for it.

He wanted Zoey, so I couldn't have her.

She was a consolation prize since he wasn't good enough for the NHL?

I knew that this was never really about Zoey. I couldn't prove it, but I fucking knew it. And in the end, the person who paid the biggest price for his jealousy is Zoey.

"Fuck you. You have a fucking fiancée… not that having a fiancée seems to mean jack shit to you," I say.

"I broke it off, and she left this morning," he says quickly, his hands clamping down on his hips.

He dumped the fiancée to get Zoey back.

She's going to see through this, right?

But isn't this what she wanted? She wanted Liam to see what he lost, and with me as the man playing the part, it worked better than even I thought it would. I wasn't expecting him to dump Shelby at the wedding.

I thought he'd try to keep them both, cheating on one with the other for as long as he could keep it up.

"Stay the fuck away from her, Liam… I'm not fucking playing with you this time," I say, taking a step closer, my chest brushing up against his as I get in his face.

"It's not your goddamn decision. Leave Zoey alone and go fuck some puck bunny," he says, pushing his chest back against mine.

I step in, bringing my fist up, about ready to knock out every last tooth in his fucking mouth, when a woman's voice stops me.

"Guys! Guys!" Christine says, running down the hall toward us.

She rushes in, trying to insert herself between us, with no luck.

"What are you two doing?!" she asks, her eyes flared at us both. "David told me to come find you. The wedding is starting. You're going to be late!"

Her statement deflates us both a little, and we remember why we're here.

David and Phoebe.

Liam and I glare at each other for a beat but know that we'll have to table this conversation until after the wedding. David and Phoebe don't deserve this shitstorm on their wedding day, and I won't be a part of it. After that, though? All bets are off, and I will do anything I have to in order to keep Zoey.

Christine pulls at Liam's arm to start moving in front of her, and he does as she asks. She grabs my wrist and then pulls me behind her, and we form a human chain, walking down the corridor as Phoebe's cousin marches us down to the wedding hall.

We take the corridor down a little farther until we get to the waiting area outside of the double doors of the wedding hall.

David's eyes flare at us the second he sees the look of murder on both of our faces.

"Pull it the fuck together. If you ruin Phoebe's wedding, I'll end you both," he threatens.

But he doesn't have to. I can put on a fake smile for the cameras. I do every after-game media interview, and I like to think I do a pretty damn good job.

Christine gets into line behind David as they wait for the music to start and the doors to open.

David turns his neck to Liam and gives him a narrowed warning look.

I get in line with Sarah, and the silence drags on in our row behind the wedding hall's doors. I stare back at Liam's blond head and wish I could get away with sucker-punching him right about now, but I keep my hands busy in my pockets.

The music starts inside the room, and the double doors open.

It's showtime.

David straightens his spine, and although I can't see his face, the skip in his step says he's smiling as he makes it down the aisle.

Next is Liam and Christine.

I can see camera flashes coming from the other side of the door. I know there can only be one person behind that lens, and my feet inch to step closer to the edge of the doorway to see her tucked on the other side while she takes pictures of the wedding party.

I watch as Liam looks to his left, where I have a blind spot due to the walls blocking my view, and give Zoey a dumb-ass grin. I'd give up my five-year contract with the Hawkeyes to trip up his ass so he face-plants in the middle of the aisle.

I wait my turn… impatiently to see Zoey on the other side.

"Nervous?" Sarah asks.

"Not about walking down the aisle," I tell her but don't feel like divulging any more information about the pit in my stomach regarding the girl whose ex just told me he's going to make a play for her again.

The second Sarah and I step into the doorframe, I finally get my first sight of Zoey in a long blush dress. Her hair flows down her back in curls. She looks like a goddamn angel when her eyes lock on mine, and her lips pull up into an almost giddy smile.

She pulls the camera up to her face as if to hide behind it while she snaps photos, and I know she probably just snapped one of me with a dopey grin on my face as well.

Fuck, what is she doing to me?

She's doing what she always does to me.

Flashbacks of what we did last night play on a carousel rotation. Pushing her up against the shower wall while I took her against it, her legs wrapped around my shoulders while she lay on her back in the bed as I ate her, her on top again, straddling me on the bed while I fuck her from below for a second time. But my favorite part was the feel of her wet hair against my cheek as she slept in my arms all night.

She could have pulled away. She could have thanked me for taking her mind off Liam for those few hours, and that was all she wanted from me, but she didn't. She let me hold her.

Sex isn't going to clinch it for me, though. She can get that from any guy who takes one look at her and sees how beautiful she is. Our past is tainted with Liam getting to her first and from prom night. If I want to keep Zoey, it has to be because of who we are now. I'm no longer that young kid who only has hockey on the brain and thinks that I can wait out my time until I'm brave enough to tell her how I feel.

It has to be now.

I have to tell her now before she goes back to Liam.

Fourteen years have flown by in the blink of an eye, and I can't wait another fourteen years for another shot.

I know what I want, but she hasn't made it clear yet if she wants the same thing. After all, I found her crying over another guy when I came up to our suite last night.

She pulls the lens down after she gets her shots and smiles back at me.

"You look good," she mouths to me.

My lips twist at the corner.

There are no words to describe how stunning she looks.

There's no compliment I could give her that would be adequate.

"You look beautiful," I mouth back.

I suck in my lower lip and wet it. Her eyes follow my motion, and I swear I can see her eyes dilate from here.

There's my girl from last night.

When her eyes reach back up to mine, a little pinkness radiates from her cheeks. She's blushing.

Fuck I'm in love with her, aren't I?

Her eyes glance quickly to the couple behind us, and I know that's my cue to stop stalling and move down the aisle.

The faster we get through these vows, the sooner I can pull Zoey into my arms for a dance and try to measure the pulse on this thing between us.

No offense to David and Phoebe, but I hope they planned on having a quickie ceremony.

I release Sarah's arm as we get to the end of the aisle, and she and I part ways, taking my spot right next to Liam. I wish Phoebe would have made me switch spots with Ben, but David wanted to keep it all the same. No changes this late in the game.

I'm grateful to be getting to stand here with David. Playing professional sports sometimes means I miss a shit ton of moments like this with friends. So watching my best friend since pee wee football marry the woman who friend-zoned him until college is an honor. And I'm glad, for her sake, that she let him in. I've known almost no better friend than David in my life besides my Hawkeye teammates.

Once the wedding party is up the aisle, the music changes, and Phoebe and her dad appear in the doorway.

I watch, and Zoey starts snapping photos wildly. I can see the joy in Phoebe's and Zoey's eyes.

This was taken from Zoey. This moment that she had planned for years with Liam. Even though I'm relieved she didn't marry the fucker, I can't be happy at what he stole from her.

If given the chance, I'll right this wrong…

Someday.

That suddenly reminds me of the reason Zoey didn't make it down the aisle.

I scour the crowd to find Shelby, but I don't spot her anywhere.

Shit… he did break it off.

My eyes do land on someone I know…Gran.

She smiles and winks up at me for her seat five rows back and on the groom's side. She's flanked by a bunch of friends from high school who all love my Gran too. She's a magnet, that woman.

Everyone who meets her loves her.

Once the ceremony starts, I listen to every word that the minister says.

I watch as David and Phoebe exchange vows and rings.

When they announce them as man and wife, I look for Zoey immediately.

Her face is hidden behind the camera, and she snaps photos, but the second she pulls back after getting the shots she needs, her eyes meet mine, and she smiles.

The wedding goes off without a hitch, and the bridal party all stay behind to get group photos.

"Fifteen minutes, Phoebe, then our guests need to eat," David says and then points at Zoey, as if she'll make sure to keep Phoebe in line.

Right, sure, good luck with that.

Zoey's professionalism shows, and she gets us through photos in less than ten, sending us all to the reception to eat.

The wedding coordinator has David and Phoebe moving from one end of the venue to the other as Zoey follows closely. From the first dance, to cutting the cake, to toasts and everything in between.

I circulate as best I can, thanking people for coming and helping old friends and family members of the bride and groom find their assigned seats for dinner. No matter where I am in the reception hall, Zoey is never out of my sight for very long.

But when my sights snag on Liam at the bar, I notice he hasn't taken his eyes off her either.