Page 68 of Score Her Heart

I rolled my eyes. Last time I talked to mom, she hammered in the grandkids speech again. I ended up being a total brat and hung up on her. Since then, I had been screening her calls and texting her that I was super busy. Which wasn’t exactly a lie, but she still called it my “little writing career” and didn’t take my livelihood seriously. Now that I was married to Riley, I think she thought I was going to become a housewife and abandon my writing. No, I worked damn hard at this stuff, and there was a reason I was able to quit my job to do it full time. Although I had been debating if I should go back part-time, so I had a fall back since in the back of my mind, I was still worried this marriage with Riley wasn’t going to work out.

“Sorry,” I offered while making myself another cup of coffee. I was going to need more caffeine to deal with this. “What does she want?”

“Wants to know if you’re gonna come visit once the season’s over.”

Riley did tend to go visit his mom during the off-season, but we hadn’t talked about that at all. The last two days he had been home, we used our mouths a lot, but there were not a lot of words coming out of them.

“We haven’t discussed it.”

Finnegan sighed on the other line. “Are you doing this for real? This marriage with him?”

“Yeah, I guess we are.”

“It’s not like a—” he cut himself off and was quiet for a moment.

“Not like what?” I asked and took a sip of the coffee.

“A business arrangement?” Finnegan asked.

His question shocked me, but I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. My marriage to Riley had been a surprise. More surprising had been how eager we both were to get into bed together. We were enjoying ourselves for sure, and it wasn’t exactly love, but at the same time, it wasn’t exactly whatever the hell my brother was trying to insinuate.

“What?” I finally asked in disbelief.

“Fi, did he tell you?”

Panic wrapped tight around my chest, thinking only the worst thing possible. “Tell me what?”

“You know he loves you, right?”

“Of course. We’re best friends.”

I could almost see Finnegan face-palming over the miles we were apart. “No, dude. He really loves you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Why do you think he married you?”

“Because he said he was tired of the single-life, and he thought we could find happiness together,” I explained, but when I said it out loud, it sounded really dumb.

My brother finally sighed into the phone. “Riley is full-fledged in love with you. That’s why he offered to marry you when that douche-canoe stood you up. It’s why he asked Dad for his blessing. It’s why he convinced you that you two could have a shot together.”

My mouth went dry. No. There was no way that Aaron Riley was in love with me like that. No freaking way. He asked my dad for his blessing to marry me? No way! Why would he do that? Because my dad knew getting his blessing didn’t matter to me, but he wanted to be asked. He had been pissed when Eric never even told him he had an interest in marrying me.

“Fiona?” Finnegan’s voice cut into my thoughts, but it sounded like he was on another planet.

“I have to go,” I said suddenly and hung up.

My heart beat louder and louder in my chest, and my mind raced with all the thoughts in my head. Why would Riley up and marry me and convince me to stay? I thought of all the times his eyes slanted over me and the way he looked at me like I was the only woman in the world. Was that really lust the whole time? Or something more? I kept thinking back to our first night together, and how slow and gentle he had been with me on that first round of sex, how hurt he had been when I asked him for a divorce the next day. If he really felt that way, why hadn’t he said anything?

I didn’t want to think about this right now. I didn’t want to think about how much I missed him when he was on the road and how much my heart melted when he told me how proud he was of me about getting my first book published. I especially didn’t want to think about how I thought I was falling in love with him too and how much that scared me. Like really scared me because if he loved me, that meant he would eventually leave me like everyone else did. Like he already did once when he left for the NHL. He may have told me the ring on his finger was a promise that it wouldn’t happen again, but I couldn’t help the doubts from creeping in.

I went into the pantry and grabbed a bottle of whiskey. My hands flew back to my phone, ignoring the follow-up call from my brother, and tried Dinah once more. This time, she answered, and I berated her about breaking up with Noah. Then I promptly told her I was coming over and we were going to get drunk together. I was going to push my feelings to the side and pretend they didn’t exist. If only to help my friend get back together with her super cute boyfriend who thought the world of her. I didn’t want to think about the possibility that I had fallen in love with my best friend.

Chapter Twenty-Two

RILEY

Noah’s eyes cut across to mine when we were getting off the jet. I saw he was on his phone and gritting his teeth. He sighed and then shoved his phone at me. I threw my hands up in a shrug, and he mouthed, “Your wife.”