Lucky Score (The Hawkeyes Hockey Series Book 6)
Chapter 23

I wake to the feeling of a warm hand sliding off my belly and the feeling of the bed moving as Seven flips over onto his back.

My eyes flicker open to replace that I’m still in Seven’s bed. The alarm clock on the side table next to me says it’s just before six am and the sun is just barely up for the morning.

This is the first time that I’ve fallen asleep with him and woken up in the same place.

Why didn’t he move me back into the guest bedroom last night?

‘Good morning,’ I hear him say.

I turn towards the side of the bed where he’s lying.

‘How are you feeling this morning? Are you sore?’ he asks.

Last night we barely got any sleep. Seven proved his impressive stamina yet again and made good on his promise to beat out our personal best.

‘A little… yeah. But it’s a good sore. It’s nothing a long hot shower can’t fix.’

‘Any chance you can wait on that shower for about an hour? Silas is headed this way to hit the gym down the street with me. I forgot that we had these plans. If you wait for me, we can shower together, and I promise you that it will be worth the wait and then I’ll make you breakfast before I take you back to the apartment to write.’

I can’t stop from grinning. Morning sex and then breakfast sounds perfect. And with the last chapter, I need to write being the ending, the inspiration he gave me all night last night should help me to put the finishing touches on this manuscript.

‘If you’re offering morning sex and bribing me with breakfast, I don’t see how I could turn it down.’

‘That’s the spirit,’ he smirks.

He slides an arm around my back and pulls me close, leaning down to kiss me. I wrap my arms around his neck and bring him even closer, taking his kiss deeper—morning breath be damned.

Seven’s phone rings and he reaches over to pull it off the charger.

‘That’s him. He’s probably checking to make sure I’m still coming to meet him.’

‘Then you’d better go.’

Seven leans over one more time for a quick kiss and then he flips his blankets off of him.

I watch as his perfectly sculpted glutes push out of bed and walk to his closest.

‘Hey,’ he says, still inside his walk-in closet. Then, he appears in a pair of gym shorts, his perfect abs still on display. ‘I need to spend some time with Cammy today, but would you want to go on a date with me tomorrow?’

‘A date?’ I ask, my eyebrows stitched together. ‘When’s the last time you went on a date?’ I tease.

‘It’s been a while. A couple of decades, I guess. Admittedly, I might not be very good at it, but would you want to go on a first date with me anyway?’

First date?

How much did Cammy tell him?

‘Oh my God, did Cammy tell you everything that was on my list?’ I ask, and then cover my face at the thought of how juvenile some of them probably sounded to him.

‘She might have given me a few items that I could help you check off your list.’

‘You want to help me? I thought you hated my bucket list items.’

‘I don’t hate the list. I just don’t like the person behind why you started it.’

‘Is the list the only reason why you’re asking?’

‘No, it’s not. I want to take you on a first date… if you want to go, that is.’

I bite down on my lower lip to keep myself from smiling ear to ear.

I would have never guessed that Seven can be this sweet but here he is, surprising me yet again.

‘OK, what will we do on our date?’

‘How do you feel about making sandwiches and then driving down to the beach to watch the turtles hatching? I can’t guarantee we’ll see any, but I’ve heard some researchers have been down there over the last couple of days waiting for the last few nests before the season is over.’

‘You want to take me for a picnic to watch baby turtles?’

My heart squeezes so hard I crutch the blanket to my chest and remind myself to breathe.

I couldn’t plan a better date even if I tried.

‘Is that stupid? Would you rather go out to dinner? Silas knows the manager at one of the most exclusive restaurants in Cancun. He can get us a table if you want.’

‘No!’ I say quickly. ‘I’m sorry if I made you think I didn’t want to go, I just wasn’t expecting you to suggest that for a date. I can’t think of anything I’d rather do. It’s perfect… I can’t wait.’

He smiles and then disappears back into his closet for a minute and then reappears a second time in a gym shirt, covering up his body so I can’t see all my favorite parts.

‘Then it’s a date,’ he says, bending down to pick up a pair of running shoes off the ground before heading for the door.

I nod, trying to not giggle like a schoolgirl with a crush.

‘Stay naked and don’t leave this bed until I get back. Got it?’ he asks playfully, pointing his finger at me.

He opens the bedroom door and lifts an eyebrow at me as if he’s waiting for the answer.

‘I’ll be here. As naked as you left me,’ I say.

‘Good girl.’

He dips out of the room, closing the bedroom door behind him as he goes.

I listen for the garage door to open and the Jeep to rev up to life. Seven doesn’t take long to back the Jeep out and take off towards the gym.

I decide to keep my word and stay in bed. After all, who knows how he might reward me if I do what he says.

I pull up my phone to see if Sheridan has responded to the last chapters I sent her, but I haven’t seen anything yet.

Instead, I see a text from my mom.

Mom: How’s the weather there? Are the beaches still intact?

Brynn: It’s a little worse in Cancun but it’s fine here. The beaches are still in good shape.

Mom: Do you think your father would like it there? He’s so picking about vacations.

Would he like it here? It’s hard to imagine anyone would hate it here.

Brynn: Yeah, I bet he would.

I hear a knock on the front door, and though I told Seven that I wouldn’t move, I doubt he meant in this situation. For all I know, it could be Cammy at the door and she got locked out and needs help to get back in.

I flip the sheets off and grab a shirt out of his closet, pulling the large shirt over my head.

I’m not exactly trying to prove to Cammy that we slept together last night, but she’s the one showing up bright and early in the morning after she tricked us into sleeping under the same roof.

If it grosses her out to see me in her uncle’s shirt, then maybe that’s the hard truth of her actions that she needs to see.

I hear another knock at the door. This time, a more anxious knock.

‘I’m coming!’ I yell out to Cammy.

I flip the deadbolt and the lock on the handle and then swing the door wide open, but the person on the other side of the door isn’t who I expected to see.

It’s not Cammy at all.

‘Josslin,’ I say in surprise.

She takes one long look at me in her ex’s shirt and I can see her trying to hold back his grimace. She’s not exactly going to win any Academy awards with her performance of the ‘not jealous’ ex. It’s becoming more obvious as time goes on. She beams whenever Seven is anywhere near and scowls at me when she thinks I’m not looking. It wouldn’t take a detective to see what’s happening here.

‘Can I come in?’ she asks, trying her best to smile.

‘Seven isn’t here. He just left,’ I say, hoping she’ll quickly retract her request

‘I know… I saw his Jeep pull out of the garage. I want to talk to you actually.’

Damn it.

I glance behind her hoping that Cammy or Rita are behind her, coming over as a buffer, but she’s alone.

‘Ok… come in,’ I say, opening the door wider for her.

She walks in and I close the door behind her.

‘Does Cammy know that you’re here?’

‘No, she thinks I went for a walk on the beach.’

That doesn’t sound promising.

‘We can sit in the kitchen if you want?’ I ask.

‘That’s as good as any.’

She follows me through the kitchen, and we both take a seat at the kitchen table.

‘Can I get you something to drink?’ I ask.

‘You certainly seem to have made yourself at home here. Offering me a drink as if you live here… wearing Seven’s clothes.’

Her tone isn’t accusatory… it’s more pained. Like she harbors regret that she’s not in my position.

But her regret isn’t my problem.

She could have had this life.

She could have had Seven.

That realization almost makes me sick to my stomach to think that if she had made one different choice in her life, I wouldn’t have had these experiences with him. Why does that make my heart pound with anxiety… I don’t know.

‘Why are you here Josslin?’

‘I came here to talk to you woman to woman and ask you for a favor.’

A favor?

‘That depends on what the favor is.’

‘Seven doesn’t know yet, but I’ve come here to tell him.’

‘Tell him what?’

‘That Cammy is his.’

My heart just about leaps out of my throat, and I feel the blood drain from my face.

‘Cammy’s his? How could that be? He told me that the timeline doesn’t work out and that you swore that Cammy was Eli’s.’

I blurt out.

How could she not have told him already?

He’s going to be crushed.

No… more than that. He’s going to be obliterated when he replaces out that Josslin lied to him about Cammy.

Oh God… poor Seven. He lost out on Cammy growing up.

My heart breaks instantly for him, and he doesn’t even know yet.

‘How could you do this to him? Haven’t you seen the way he is with Cammy, and he only thinks he’s her uncle? He’s never going to forgive you for this.’ I say, knowing I’m saying more than is my business… but she came to me.

‘Let me worry about Seven. He’s not your concern.’

‘Not my concern? How would you know that?’

‘I heard Cammy telling Rita about your boyfriend in Australia. I know that Seven is just your fuck toy until you head home.’

Did she just say, ‘fuck toy’?

‘Excuse me?’

Her eyes clamp shut, and she shakes her head.

‘I’m getting off track. I didn’t come here to argue or offend you; I came here to beg you to leave Seven alone and let our family mend. I’m going to tell him and I know he’s going to be upset, but he’ll come around. He always wanted a family… I can give him that.’

‘I can too!’ I almost blurt out, but I don’t.

‘A family? Cammy’s eighteen years old and they already have a relationship.’

‘I can give him another child. He’s always wanted a big family.’

I can’t believe this is what she came her to tell me.

‘Do you really think he’s going to trust you after this?’ I ask.

‘I don’t know but I have to replace out. His brother is finally going to get the help he needs. He’s going to a rehab facility for six months as part of my agreement to not cut him out of our family, but we’re separated and I’m leaving him. Cammy needs a father right now and Seven is that person. We need him—his family needs him.’

‘What does that have to do with me?’

‘He needs to focus on his brother and on his daughter. He doesn’t need a distraction right now. Especially someone who’s using him until she gets back together with her fiancé.’

The moment she says the words, I know they’re true.

Ever since I showed up here almost two weeks ago, I’ve been using Seven, I just didn’t realize how much until she said it.

For his house.

For his protection.

For his breakfast cooking skills.

For his orgasm-inducing cock.

And what have I given him in return?

A splitting headache for being a huge pain in his ass for the last week and a half?

‘Besides, do you think it’s any coincidence that he hasn’t moved on with anyone since I broke off our engagement?’

I never thought about the possibility that Seven hasn’t been in a relationship in all these years because he’s still stuck on her. Could that be true?

‘I just want him to be happy,’ I say.

‘Me too. I’ve known him since we were little kids riding our bikes in our neighborhood. Seven, Eli and I grew up together. I’ve never met anyone who felt so strongly about the importance of family like Seven used to. I want to give him back his family, Brynn… and I can do that but I’m only here until tomorrow. I only have one chance before I leave. Do you care about him?’ she asks.

Of course, I do, or this decision wouldn’t be so hard.

‘Yes… I care about him very much.’

‘Then help me give him back his heart… which is his family. He’s been apart from it for too long.’

If I care about him, I don’t think I have much of a choice, so I stand up from my chair.

‘I’m going to get dressed.’

‘Cammy is just about to leave for the restaurant. If you hurry, you could catch a ride back.’

‘Thanks,’ I mutter and head out of the kitchen.

I head down the hall and back into Seven’s room to put on the clothes I had on last night.

He might be mad at me for leaving when I promised I’d stay, but if there’s even a sliver of truth behind what she says about Seven being the way he is now because he lost his family, then I have to step aside.

Even in the best-case scenario, Seven and I only have another forty-eight hours together before I leave for Seattle and return to my life.

I can’t sacrifice his potential happiness just because I selfishly want every last hour with him that he’ll give me before I go.

After I get dressed and I walk back out of his room, I head for the front door.

Passing by the kitchen, I overhear Josslin on the phone.

‘We’re legally separated Eli, remember? I’ve begged you to get help for years and you refused. You’ve been a stranger living under the same roof as me and Cammy, and I have loved you through every moment, but it’s not fair,’ I hear her tell him. ‘Please stop making me feel guilty about this. Loving you out of it didn’t work. Now I have to move on with my life.’

She doesn’t hear me walk past, and maybe that’s for the best.

What Josslin did to Seven wasn’t right. I’ll never give her a pass for what she did to him. And what she did to Cammy by withholding a father who would have moved heaven and earth for her wasn’t right either. But there’s this little piece of me that feels the pain she’s going through as she loses her first love. The more time I spend here, the less clear my future with Daniel looks.

I’ve loved him for so many years that the idea of not being without him scares me. And the pride my father shows at the match I’ve made with Daniel is the one thing I feel like I’ve done right in his eyes. I want to make him proud of me like he is of my older brother.

I open the front door and walk out, closing it behind me.

I hear a truck running and turn for Rita’s to see if I might be lucky enough to catch a ride.

The driver side door is open and then I see Cammy leaving Rita’s house.

‘Hey,’ I say. ‘Are you headed to Scallywag’s?’ I ask.

‘Yep. Want a ride?’

‘That would be great, thanks.’

Cammy jumps in and waits for me.

I head for the truck and then jump into the passenger side door.

‘Oh… hey… is everything ok?’ she asks.

She must see the sadness on my face that I have no more energy to hide.

I’d like to tell her the truth so I tell her what I’ll keep telling myself until I’m back safely in Seattle, putting all of this behind me.

‘No, but it will be.’