Delayed Call Read online

  Then there was him hollering to her behind the bench. God, she was still so embarrassed by that. Especially because instead of just agreeing with him, she called him out on it and told him the truth. That it was a fucking tap in and not a wrister, but that did nothing but get her ass chewed out by her boss. She shouldn’t talk to the players like that, she shouldn’t be mingling, she needed to focus on the issues on hand. But there was no ignoring Vaughn Johansson.

  He had been grinning so damn hard. His face full of life and she enjoyed that. She loved when a player scored. It was like all their hopes and dreams came across their faces, and she adored that. She wanted so badly to cheer out for him, to tell him it didn’t matter that it was just a tap in, that it was amazing nonetheless. But in true JoHo fashion, he called to her, and she threw it right back in his face. She didn’t know what it was about that guy, but he made her crazy.

  Truly crazy.

  Then the next thing she knew, she couldn’t stop thinking about him. She wanted to know where he was today. She hadn’t heard a peep out of his apartment, except for what she knew was a dog. And she wanted so badly to kick the door down and get it out. She loved dogs, a little too much, and she wondered what it was. Probably some big dog like a Great Dane, because obviously, Vaughn was lacking in the cock department and had to have big things to make up for it. He was a cocky mother, but Lord, he was beautiful. So fucking beautiful, it was unfair.

  When he’d walked out of the locker room to leave Chicago, his suit fit him like a glove and it took everything out of her not to drool as she’d watched him get on to the bus. Man, she hated him.

  Rolling her eyes, she exhaled loudly as she leaned her head against the back of the couch, looking up at the ceiling. Rodney looked over at her. “I love your apartment. Too bad I can’t live here.”

  Looking back at Rodney, she smiled. “Right? We’d have a blast.”

  “Yeah, lots of popcorn and candy.”

  She laughed. “Yeah, probably a good thing we don’t live together.”

  “Yeah, you’d make me fat.”

  She snorted at that since they both knew it would be the other way around. Rodney was heavier than her, with a bigger lower half and wide shoulders. Classic Down syndrome body type, but even with that, he was also an eater. So was she, but she actually tried to be conscious, whereas Rodney did not care. “Sure, I would.”

  He gave her an exaggerated wink, and she smiled. Looking down, he inhaled hard before looking back up at her. “So, I go in on Friday?”

  She nodded. “Yup, I’m gonna be able to stay for four days, then I gotta meet the Assassins out in California. I’ll fly out on my own to be there before the game, but I’ll miss all the morning stuff and leaving early.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Don’t be. I want to be here. I wish I could just not leave, but it’s my job.”

  “And we need the bacon.”

  “We do love bacon.”

  He nodded. “Too bad Mom isn’t here.”

  Swallowing hard past the lump in her throat, she held his gaze. “I know.”

  “But it’s cool. I’m a man, I’ll find a hot nurse to flirt with.”

  She laughed, rolling her eyes. “Good plan, Rod.”

  “I thought so.” Leaning back in his seat, he cuddled with a blanket. “But you’ll call every day?”

  “Of course, I will.”

  “And we can FaceTime too.”

  “Yup, and I might even bring you something from California.”

  “Please!”

  “What do you want?”

  “I don’t know. I’ll Google it.”

  Laughing, she watched as he fumbled with his phone before tapping away. He Googled everything, and he was so good at it, sometimes he knew things before she did. When his eyes lit up, she smiled before he looked up to her. “See’s Candies.”

  “Done.”

  “Yes!”

  Chuckling, she took a sip of her eggnog as the timer for the apple pie went off. “Ooh, the pie is ready.”

  Placing her cup on the table, she kicked off her blanket just as Rodney yelled out, “You bought ice cream, right?”

  She snapped her fingers. “Crap. No, I forgot.”

  His shoulders fell. “B, we can’t have pie without ice cream!”

  “Ugh, I know. How did I forget?”

  “Because you are not a real pie person.”

  She nodded as she went into the kitchen, getting her oven mitts. “You’re right, I’m more of a cake gal.” He shot her a cheeky grin before getting up and putting his shoes on. “What are you doing?”

  “We’re going to get ice cream.”

  “Rod! The only place open is Walgreens, and that’s fifteen minutes away!”

  “So? I want ice cream. Are you going to deny a boy his Christmas wish?”

  She scoffed. “So now, when you want ice cream, you’re a boy?”

  He smiled. “Yes.”

  “Jerk,” she muttered, and he laughed loudly as he reached for the door. She slid her feet into her shoes, and he waited for her to get her coat on before he opened the door.

  But when she went to reach for her purse, she heard him yell, “Nate! What’s up man?”

  Nate?

  Nate Way?

  What the hell?

  “Rodney! What’s up, buddy?”

  Whoa. Whoa.

  No.

  Oh, fuck no.

  Peeking her head out the door as her brother came out of a backslapping hug, her eyes locked with the last person she thought she would see at that moment.

  “B! Look, it’s Nate. Mr. NateWay.”

  Her eyes were as big as quarters as he looked back to Brie, his lips curved in the most sadistic grin she had ever seen as he waved back to her. “Hey there, Ms. Soledad.”

  But it wasn’t who she thought Mr. Nate Way would be.

  No.

  It was Vaughn Fucking Johansson.

  “You?”

  He just stood there, a smug, sexy smile on his face as Jensen’s brows pulled together. Rod grinned happily, totally oblivious to what was going on. Meanwhile, Brie’s eye had started to twitch, and she was pretty sure she was about to have a coronary. “You.”

  She could only blink as her eyelid went crazy, probably making her look deranged. “Vaughn.”

  “Brianna. How ya doing?”

  “Brianna?” Jensen asked, confused. “Why are you calling her Brianna?”

  She was going to kill Vaughn. Right now. Right there, in the middle of their hallway. Hopefully, she didn’t lose her job for killing the Assassins’ star player, but in a way, she didn’t care.

  Before she could move to claw his eyes out, her brother asked, “Hey, how do you know my sister?”

  “Whoa, what? What’s going on?” Jensen asked. “I’m confused.”

  “You’re always confused,” Vaughn said before looking back to Rod. “I work with your sister at my other job. Remember, my hockey job?”

  Rod nodded. “Oh! I didn’t know it was with my sister, though.”

  “I didn’t either until your sister called me the other day.”

  “You didn’t tell me.”

  “I haven’t seen ya, buddy. I was going to tell you when you guys came to visit.”

  “But you didn’t think to tell me, huh?” she muttered, and he looked back at her as he shrugged slowly, acting as if this wasn’t a big deal at all.

  Before Vaughn could comment, though, Rodney asked, “Oh, and your name is Vaughn?”

  “My real name is Vaughn Johansson, but I go by Nate at the home.”

  Confused, like she was, Rod asked, “Why?”

  Vaughn smiled. “That’s a story for another day. Maybe during the tour tomorrow.”

  “Whoa, what? Rod is Brie’s brother?”

  “Welcome to the show, Jenny.”

  “So you knew about this?” she shrieked, and all three men looked back at her. They were unaware of the very fast-approaching heart attack Brie was experiencing.