Page 87 of The Score

Chapter 29

Bear

Only a couple of hours into the event, I have introduced Pen as my wife to half the staff. At this point, I'm sure my brain has completely forgotten our marriage is fake. Everything feels too real. Now I'm here pretending everything is going as well as usual, while trying to suppress the landmine that just went off in my chest.

As if I didn't just run my hand up her calf, discovering how soft her skin can be. Like my fingers weren't drawn to her like she's North and I'm South, and invisible magnetic forces took over me, demanding I touch more and more.

Man, I almost lost my mind. I'm not only thinking about my best friend in ways a friend never would. I'm also touching her in ways I shouldn't.

Now I'm thinking of that evening twelve years ago, when I kissed her after she cried in the backyard. Something happened that night. Whatever it was, it got swiftly packed away. Her laughter was the warning sign that had me hiding things in the shadows for a big chunk of my life.

Fuck. All of my twenties.

But the wedding kiss? Living with her? Sleeping with her? It's changing everything. It's making me fumble. I shouldn't have touched her leg the way I did.

Whatever I'm supposed to do with everything I'm feeling, it's not that.

"It was incredible," Pen says to the group around us. "If I had to pick one, I'd say the pipe organ was my favorite part."

With the dinner and ring ceremony over, everyone is free to mingle. Like usual, we gravitate towards our friends. Now, most of us stand together in our fancy clothes, in the same spacious event hall where they usually hold the winter gala.

The decoration is simple tonight. Most things in sight keep to a champagne palette. A hundred lights shine on the domed ceiling, all in different sizes, echoing stars at night. Alongside the strings of lights hanging on the walls like waterfalls, it's like the whole event was designed to make our championship rings shine.

I smirk and steal a glance at the large new piece of jewelry on my hand. I chose to wear it on my right middle finger. I can only see an edge of it— the big rounded corner, and a hint of what may be a hundred small diamonds. The rest of it is covered, because Pen holds that one hand.

"But you also bungee-jumped from a bridge?" Ames asks as if confused.

"That's quite the honeymoon," Evie says.

"Well, you know how it is between Bear and me." Pen smirks. "Since we weren't busy doing… things… we used the opportunity to get ahead with my bucket list."

"What's this about a bucket list?" Saint raises an eyebrow and stares from Pen to me.

"When we learned about my dad's condition," Pen explains, "we decided on a short list of fun things I've been meaning to do."

"Like getting married?" Logan asks.

"You know what?" Pen laughs. "Yes. That was part of it I guess. It's been a great distraction from everything, and my parents are having fun vicariously."

"So what kind of things are we talking about?" Dom grins. "A bucket list sounds fun."

"Get your mind out of the gutter," I say.

Or I might end up there myself. On our wedding night, she implied her full list includes things I'm not privy to. I haven't forgotten the passing comment. I've only tried not to think too much about it.

Pen shakes her head. "We're only doing the PG stuff on my list. Like the pipe organ, or how on the very first night we talked about it, Bear gave me a piggy back ride."

They stare at us in confusion.

"Is that… a euphemism for something? Do tell," Dom insists.

"Not a euphemism," I say.

My friends’ quips are usually fun, but I need them to stop. Or they'll put more thoughts in my head I don't know what to do with.

"I said only the PG stuff." Pen gives Dom a hard stare. "The sexy stuff on my list— well— I gave up on that when I stopped dating."

"But you're married," Saint smirks.