Page 14 of The Goalie

“Well, my charm seemed to work on you,” he said, standing at his full height. “I got to fuck you twice.”

Before I could even open my mouth to defend myself, there was a knock on the door. I stopped fiddling around with the eggs and padded over to my door, brows furrowed.

“Are you expecting anyone?” he asked, following me.

I shook my head as I leaned forward and looked out the peephole. The second I saw him, I snapped back like I had been burned.

What the hell was Josh doing here?

7

Dan

“What are you doing here?”

Sam didn’t sound pleased with whoever was at her door. I knew it wasn’t my business, and I knew there was a good chance Sam wanted to keep whatever this was between us a secret. Hell, I knew I wanted to keep it a secret.

But I couldn’t help myself. I also wanted to know who she was talking to. Usually, she reserved that tone of voice for people she didn’t like. I only knew due to personal experience. To hear her hate someone else?

Was it stupid if I was a little jealous?

“I came to get my stuff.”

Male.

I clenched my jaw and walked out of the kitchen and into the living room where Sam was positioned in front of the door. I couldn’t see out, the guy couldn’t see in. I didn’t think it was because she was keeping me a secret. Rather, it almost seemed as though she didn’t want whoever was at the door coming in.

“Why are you here now?” She shifted her weight, her hand tightening on the door handle. She was both frustrated and uncomfortable. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was her ex-boyfriend. The one who called her boring. “I told you we would talk about it later.”

“It’s later.”

“It’s the next day, and I never gave you permission to come over to my house,” she said, her voice firm.

“I was in the neighborhood and I thought I’d save myself a trip.” A pause. “Come on, Sam. You’re still in your pajamas. It’s not like you were doing anything else anyway.”

I wasn’t sure why I walked over to Sam. I wasn’t sure why I decided to pull the door open more just so the fucker could see me. I hoped I wasn’t putting Sam in an awkward position, but I couldn’t help it. The guy made an assumption about Sam. More than that, he was being a jackass about it.

“Sam,” I said, though I kept my eyes on the man in front of me. I wrapped my arm around her and perked my brow, giving him a challenging look. “Everything okay?”

This guy, Josh, looked up. Couple of inches shorter than me. Dark eyes, stubble. Lean. Not a bad-looking guy. Not a great-looking guy, either. She could do better.

She did.

She tensed under my touch, probably not expecting it. However, she hadn’t pulled away, which I interpreted to be a good thing. She cleared her throat.

“Yeah.” I nodded, though she still hadn’t looked at me. “This is Josh. We dated for a bit. He’s here to pick up his stuff. I didn’t realize he would be dropping by this early.”

“Huh.” I tilted my head to the side. “What are you doing here so early, Josh?”

I couldn’t help but admit that Josh held his own. He met my eyes without flinching. There was something in them that gave me pause, like he was angry that I was here. That made no sense since he was the one who broke up with her because she was boring—at least from what I remember Lucy said.

“Like she said,” Josh said. His voice was tight, controlled. From the corner of my eye, I saw him clench his hands into fists at his sides. Definitely was not happy that I was here. “I’m here to pick up my stuff. I called last night.”

“And I told you I’d call you today to make arrangements,” Sam insisted.

I stopped studying Josh and what he thought of me and decided to turn my focus to Sam. How was she feeling with him here? Judging by her stiff body, and the fact that she was letting me touch her for a prolonged period of time in a social setting rather than a bedroom, she considered me the lesser of two evils. Which meant she wasn’t terribly happy that Josh was here.

“I was in the neighborhood.” Josh softened when his eyes dropped back to her. He shrugged as though this whole thing was no big deal and everything would work out the way he wanted.