How fucking original.

  BART, THE ULTIMATE WINGMAN

  CREW

  Could I have been any more typical in my response to Summer’s question? No, I couldn’t have. I was a fucking idiot who had just promised her best friend that I’d back off until our contract was over so that she’d realize that I actually meant what I was saying.

  But, dammit, I was a fool when it came to this woman. She’d asked a question, and I hadn’t wanted to lie. What I’d said was the truth. I wanted it all when it came to Summer, and apparently, I needed her to understand that.

  There was no way in hell I’d be able to last two whole months without knowing what she tasted like. Those lips were meant to be on mine. That body had been made for my hands. I was going to have to figure out a way to get her to give in. Because sixty fucking days was fifty-nine too long.

  When she pulled into the main entrance of my hotel, I took my time in unbuckling my seat belt and getting out of the car, trying to think of something clever to say to make her stay longer. “Do you want to call the listing agent from my room?”

  She gave me a look, those blue eyes judging me. “It’s okay. I have some other things I need to handle, so I’ll be in touch as soon as I’ve worked out the logistics. To be clear, you’d like to move in as soon as possible, yes?”

  “Yes, and—shit.” I just remembered something I’d been meaning to tell her all day before I got distracted by her existence.

  “What?”

  “I’m leaving town for two weeks.”

  “What? When? Why?” Her tone sounded more like a questioning girlfriend than whatever it was that she was supposed to be for me.

  “Coach scheduled a group-training-slash-bonding-trip for the team.”

  “The whole team?”

  “The starting offense,” I corrected.

  “So, you’ll be gone for two weeks?” She actually sounded upset.

  “Is that okay, Duchess?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Stop with the nickname already. Of course it’s okay, but I need the details. You’ll need someone to watch Bart.”

  How could I have forgotten about him?

  “We leave in a few days,” I said. “Friday. Can you watch him? I’ll pay you extra. Whatever you want. I just can’t think about leaving him with a stranger, and he already loves you.” I was piling it on extra thick, but it felt necessary.

  Summer shifted in her seat, turning around to face Bart but not saying anything.

  “I’ll be gone, so it’s not like I’ll need anything. And you said you only work for me, right? Is your home dog friendly?”

  She reached for Bart, petted his head, and ruffled his face with a grin. “I’ll watch him. Now, get out. I have a lot of work to do in a limited amount of time.”

  I did as she’d asked. And Bart and I stood there, watching her drive away before some kid ran up and asked me if I was the Crew Maxwell. Then, he took a selfie with me before disappearing and coming back with his mom, who did the same.

  “I’m staying here, too, if you want to get drinks or something one night.” She wagged her eyebrows at me, and I knew exactly what she was offering.

  My eyes roved the length of her body without meaning to, and she flicked her hair in response. It was honestly a habit to check people out. I did it with men as well. Not because I wanted to fuck them, but because it was in my nature.

  “I’m in training. Sorry.” I tried to be polite, but I was annoyed on the inside.

  “Are you sure? I can come to your room after I put Jonathan to bed. Anytime. I’m here for a week,” she babbled on, sounding desperate as she tried to touch my arm but I moved out of the way.

  I didn’t even say a word before turning my back to her and walking toward the elevators, giving the security guard a nod as I pressed the button and the doors opened.

  “Ma’am, you’re going to have to take the next one,” the security guard said when she tried to squeeze inside with me and Bart.

  “But it’s empty. Surely, Crew Maxwell can share his elevator like a gentleman.”

  “Hotel policy. You can take the next one,” he said again, sounding stern.

  I stopped the smile that wanted to spread across my face as the doors closed, locking me away from her. I made a mental note to slip that guy a little cash for helping me out.

  My phone started ringing, and I wondered who it could be before seeing Summer’s name on the screen.

  “Miss me already?” I answered, and she made some sort of annoyed huff. “Gotta stop with those sounds, Summer. You know what they do to me.”

  “Crew, pay attention,” she demanded.

  The elevator dinged before the doors opened, and thankfully, no mom was waiting on the other side. I half-suspected the mom from downstairs might have run up to beat me here.

  “Hold on one sec. Let me get into my room and let Bart off his leash.”

  “Okay,” she said, sounding agreeable.

  Bart wagged his tail as we walked down the hallway toward our door. I unhooked the leash from his collar, and he ran inside the room, heading straight for his bowl of water and making a mess all over the floor. I wondered if I should warn Summer that he was messy in everything that he did but thought better of it. Bart could be messy. I was clean. She’d love me more.

  “Crew?”

  “Yeah, I’m here. Sorry. What’s up?”

  “I talked to the agent for the house, and she said you could go ahead and start moving in today if you wanted.”

  “Seriously?” I asked as I took in the state of my room, thankful that I hadn’t really unpacked any of my things for this reason exactly.

  “Yeah. I told her you were under a time crunch. She’d already run your credit and approved you, so she was basically waiting on you to say yes. Do you want me to head back over to the hotel and start loading up your things?”

  “I knew you missed me,” I breathed into the line, and it went quiet.

  Pulling it away from my face, I looked at the screen, which was now showing my new team logo as the screen saver. She’d hung up on me. I guessed I deserved it.

  “Buddy, she’s coming back,” I said in Bart’s direction, and he barked, the water dripping off his face rolls. “We gotta get our shit in order.”

  I rushed around the room, tossing all of my bathroom shit into a travel bag before grabbing the piles of dirty clothes all over the floor and shoving them into a duffel. I’d be ready to go by the time Summer arrived, so we didn’t waste any time. When I emptied out Bart’s water bowl, he whined, confused, before I told him that it would be okay. I put all of his food and treats in a separate pile, stacked his bowls into each other, and did one last sweep of the room to make sure nothing that mattered was being left behind.

  The sooner I could get checked out of this place, the better. It wasn’t that the hotel was bad by any means, but I did enough hotel living during the regular season to last me a lifetime. I needed a home. And Bart needed a backyard.

  The knock on the door let me know Summer had arrived already. She must not have gotten too far when the agent told her we could move in. When I opened it, she stood there with her hand on her hip, scrolling through something on her phone. Bart practically knocked me over the second he realized it was her.

  “You’re my favorite male,” she whispered against his head, and I made a silent vow to change that.

  TWO WEEKS WITHOUT CREW

  SUMMER

  I helped move Crew and Bart into the rental house that afternoon. It went a lot smoother than I’d expected it to. But that was because underneath it all, Crew was a pretty simple guy. He never asked for much and was easy to please. Which was saying a lot because most athletes were kind of little bitches, honestly, who whined, complained, and were rarely satisfied.

  Bart and I drove Crew to the airport a couple days later, dropping him off for his team-bonding trip like we were some kind of couple. When he got out of my car, he stared at me for too long, and I half-wondered if he was going to lean in and give me a kiss good-bye. I thought I would kiss him back if he did, which was definitely a problem. Instead, Crew reached back for Bart and told him to be good before grabbing his duffel bag and disappearing into the terminal.

  I watched him walk away and stayed a little longer after the doors closed, for no damn good reason at all.

  Seline had told me the other night that I was in trouble with this one, and I’d refused to acknowledge the truth in her statement, no matter how hard she pushed. I fired off a text to her, demanding that she come over after she was done working. With Crew gone, I really didn’t have much to do, but I figured that we could gather a few home options for him to consider once he got back. That was, if he still liked living in Manhattan Beach.

  “I guess it’s just you and me,” I said to Bart as I pulled out into oncoming traffic.

  It had been so long since I’d had a dog to take care of, but Bart was so damn lovable that I knew I was going to dread giving him back when I had to.

  Maybe Crew will let me keep him, I thought to myself before giggling. No one just gave their dog away.

  Later that afternoon, my phone pinged with a text message as I sat on the couch, waiting for Seline to finally get here. I rubbed Bart’s head, who was hogging up the whole thing.

  Crew: Send me a picture of you and Bart. I miss you guys.

  Me: Who is this?

  Crew: *picture of mad face*

  The picture was super hot and sexy and made me actually ache between my thighs.

  Me: *picture of Bart only*

  Crew: You’re bad at following directions.

  Me: I could say the same thing about you.

  Crew: Want to spank me?

  Me: Crew.

  Crew: So, that’s a no?

  Me: You’re infuriating.

  Crew: So, you’re saying I should be punished then?

  Me: …

  Crew: LOL. I’ll stop.

  Me: …

  Crew: Summer.

  Me: Crew.

  Crew: …

  Me: How are things going with the team?

  Crew: Are you sure you want to ask me that?

  Me: Why wouldn’t I?

  Crew: You might give me the wrong impression. You know, like you care about me or something.

  Me: I care about the mental state of my client. Need to know what to expect when he gets back into town.

  Crew: Is that all?

  Me: What other reason could there be?

  Crew: You’re falling for me. You miss me like I miss you. You loooove me. You want to have ten thousand of my little football babies.

  Me: I’m no longer responding to your texts.

  Crew: *silly face emoji* Yes, you are.

  Me: Gotta go. Super busy.

  Seline finally showed up after I took Bart for a walk and checked on Crew’s house, just to make sure everything was okay. She arrived with Thai food in hand, so I couldn’t be too mad at her. Mostly, I was just bored. I didn’t sit around and do nothing very well. It wasn’t my strong suit.

  “Sorry I’m late. This client made me take him to three houses he’d already seen four times before. He keeps visiting the same ones, claiming that one will speak to him.”

  “If he doesn’t feel spoken to by now,” I started to give my two cents when she put a hand up.

  “No. I mean, really speaks to him. Like he hears voices in the home.”

  “Like dead-people voices?”

  “I didn’t get that far. I just nodded along and told him to let me know but that we couldn’t keep visiting houses we weren’t planning on making offers on.” She groaned. “Luckily, in this market, they’ll all be under contract soon enough, and we won’t be able to go back in.” She dropped down in a chair at my table and started pulling items out of the bags. “The commission on whatever finally speaks to him is going to make me sing.”

  Walking into my kitchen, I pulled out two plates before joining her at the table, undoing the takeout cartons one at a time. Bart followed me, never more than two steps behind. When I sat down at the table, he lay at my feet, his giant Lab head looking up at me like he was starving even though he’d just eaten.

  “Your job is insane,” I said, reaching for a set of chopsticks and breaking them apart. Rubbing the two sticks against each other, I watched as the single splintered piece ground itself down to nothing.

  “I know. But it’s not always like this,” she said before adding, “Got to get it while the getting’s good.”

  I’d known Seline since she’d started in the real estate market, and I’d seen her make more money in a month than I made in a year. I’d also witnessed the flip side as well. There were times when she’d go months without a single sale. Which was why she was never frivolous with her earnings. Seline saved and bought nice things but never got herself in over her head.

  “How’s lover boy?” she asked after taking a bite of her food and swallowing it.

  “Who?” I played dumb, and she pointed toward the table with her chopsticks.

  “I brought over a few property listings not on the market yet that I thought he might like. But I know you told him to press pause until he’s been here a little while.” She stopped stabbing the air, and I nodded as I reached for them.

  “I’ll take them. I’m sure he’ll like it here, but I want it to be his decision, you know?” I explained like I always did. “I don’t want him to feel like he has no options and is only doing what I suggest.”

  “Does he know you live literally three blocks away?” she asked with a grin.

  I shook my head. “No. And you’re not telling him either.”

  “Where does he think Bart is?”

  “At my place.”

  “Which is where?”

  “I didn’t say.”

  “And he didn’t ask?”

  “Nope.”

  “He’s never asked you where you live?” she questioned.

  I realized that it was sort of weird that he’d never wondered. Most guys asked. But then again, Crew didn’t know where anything was out here, so what would be the point?

  “No.”

  “Don’t you think that’s odd?” Her accent grew a little stronger, and I straightened my back in my chair.

  “I didn’t. But now, I do.”

  “Anyway”—she waved me off—“I am going to tell you something, and you’re going to listen.” She gently ran her hands across the napkin in her lap before folding them in prayer pose on top of the table between us.

  “Seline, don’t.” I tried to stop her because I knew she was going to tell me that Crew was different or something of that nature, and I wasn’t sure that I could take hearing it from her as well. My heart was already hoping that he wouldn’t be like all the rest, but it was too soon to be hopeful.

  “I think he really likes you,” she informed me. “There. I said it.”

  “He might. Today,” I argued, but she already knew what was coming next.

  Seline was the one who had experienced it all with me. She was the person who had picked me up after I fell apart from the baseball player. The one I made a pinkie promise with that I’d never fall for the lies again. Seline was who I told all of the pick-up lines to, relayed all the things I’d heard from the athletes I worked with, and then was just as shocked as I was when they disappeared as quickly as they’d appeared. It made me feel marginally better to know that I wasn’t stupid to think they’d meant what they said. Seline said she would have too. She’d met most of them and seen the way they acted.

  “It’s safe to say, he’s not like the rest.”

  “We can’t possibly know that. Not until it ends.” To stop myself from talking more, I focused on my plate and continued eating.

  She blew out a breath like she was annoyed with me when, if anything, she should have been completely understanding. “Which is why I told him that exact thing,” she said.

  I dropped my chopsticks to the table, flicking pieces of rice all over. Bart scooted toward the mess, his tail wagging as he greedily cleaned up the remnants of food from my floor.

  “You what?”

  “Don’t get mad at me. I told him that if he was truly into you, he’d prove it when your contract ended,” she finished with a shrug. “What’s the big deal?”

  I had no idea what the big deal was, truly, but I felt betrayed, angered, irritated. “I don’t know. But now, he can just play whatever game he’s playing for longer—until I fall for it and give in.”

  “Summer, he’s not going to do that. I see the way he looks at you.”

  “Like I’m a meal he can’t have,” I reminded her because all men liked a challenge. They lived for being told they couldn’t have something and then proving everyone wrong.

  “No. He looks at you like a meal he doesn’t want anyone else to have. Like he’d kill them if they even thought about touching you. He watches you like he’s in awe of you. Protective. Like he’d jump in front of a fucking bullet to keep you safe. It’s not a challenge for him. I can spot those guys a mile away now. And so can you.”

  I swallowed hard, my eyes watering slightly with her words, so I sucked in a long breath and quickly wiped my eyes before any moisture fell. It had been such a long time since I’d let a man get emotionally close to me, and Crew had started crossing the line the day he walked into my office.

  “I know you’ve been hurt in the past. And a lot of these guys do nothing but lie to you to try to get in your pants. We deal with that shit on a daily basis, being women. But I really don’t believe that Crew just wants your”—she started looking around the table before grinning—“fortune cookie, and that’s it.”

  “My fortune cookie?” I giggled.

  “It sounded classier than saying your pussy,” she said, and we both winced for no good reason.

  Seline’s phone started vibrating across the table, and I watched as she chased it with her hand before grabbing it and rolling her eyes at the screen before answering.

  When she pushed up from the table, I knew that she’d be leaving soon. Seline worked at all hours, no matter what.

  Looking down at Bart, I petted his head, rubbing that spot between his ears. “Wanna go for another walk?” I said, and he hopped up instantly, his tail wagging. The sun would be setting soon, and the beach was gorgeous this time of night.

 

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