Spite Crush (Rock Hard #2)

Chapter Twenty-One

~Kellen~

“I’m honestly ready to just walk away from all of it,” I admitted, sighing heavily into the receiver.

I felt bad knowing that I’d dominated the entire conversation so far bitching about Ford and Tim and Craig. I was sure Zak hadn’t called to talk about the band. But they were pissing me off so badly I just had to vent to someone.

I’d received calls and texts for days about when I was starting on the new album and I’d ignored all of them. If they wanted it so badly, they should try doing some of the work for a change.

“Don’t make any rash decisions now,” he insisted. “But if you want to get away…Our first game of the second round is at home on Tuesday. You could try actually staying with me for a while.”

“Second round? Oh my God. You guys won on Monday?” I asked, forcing myself to sound as shocked as possible .

“You’re a terrible boyfriend,” he snapped. “These are the biggest games of my career and you can’t even Google it.”

“I’ve been busy,” I reminded him. “Also, I absolutely watched the game. I’m just messing with you.” I chuckled softly. “Why not until Tuesday?”

“There were supposed to be three more games,” he explained. “But since we swept the round, we get a break until the next scheduled game.”

“Hmmm,” I said thoughtfully as I tried to think if I had anything going on for the next few days. “I don’t know. Are you going to win for me?”

“No, but I plan on winning for me,” he said. “But if you come I’ll win harder.”

“How could I possibly turn down an offer like that.” I grinned as I opened my laptop and started searching for flights. “Tell me what’s going on with you. I’m sick of talking about me.”

As I scrolled through private flights, he started complaining about his coach and I tried to listen as I booked, but I missed a lot of what he said.

“And then he turned into a lizard,” Zak said.

“He what?”

“You’re not even listening to me.” He laughed, so I figured he wasn’t mad about it, but I felt my cheeks heat with embarrassment anyway.

“Sorry. I was, kind of. Sutherland is being a jerk.”

“Fine, I get it. You don’t want to hear about my issues. ”

“That is not true,” I argued. “I was booking my flight, which you asked me to do, by the way.”

“Not while we were on the phone,” he said. “But whatever. When will you be here?”

“Saturday afternoon,” I said, clicking the confirmation button. “I’ll have a car bring me to your place.”

“I’ve got practice until two, so I’ll have security leave the door open for you if I’m not back yet.”

“You’re a big, tough guy,” I said. “Why do you have private security? ”

“Because I’m never home and I own a lot of nice stuff,” he said. “You don’t have security?”

“Only at shows,” I answered. “I live in L.A., everyone here has nice stuff.” I looked around at the action figures on the shelves in my office, the comic books in the racks on the walls, and the life-size Darth Vader statue by the door. “But maybe I should consider it.” I’d be gutted if someone stole my Vader. He was custom made for me. Plus of course there was about a million dollars’ worth of music equipment in my studio. But really, it was all about the Darth.

I hadn’t spent much time looking around Zak’s place, but what I’d seen was rather sparse without much personality. He’d probably hired a decorator and most of his personal stuff was out of sight of the main area.

It was possible that if we worked out and ended up moving in together, our styles might not mesh. Would we need to buy a big enough house that we had completely separate wings for our own stuff? That seemed excessive.

Then again, he had Star Wars’d me when I’d told him I loved him, so maybe he was a nerd, too and just hid it behind those incredible muscles.

“And then I turned into a lizard.”

“I’m sorry!” I said quickly as he laughed again.

“Booking a flight to see your other boyfriend?” he teased.

“I’ll spare you where my mind wandered,” I said, once again embarrassed, though for a totally different reason this time. I couldn’t admit to him that I was thinking about living together.

“It’s okay,” he assured me. “I should probably get going. It’s almost midnight here and I need to get some sleep before practice in the morning.”

“He’s still overworking you?” I asked.

“Not as bad as before,” he said. “I think winning the first round calmed him down a little. But we still need to work on some things specific to playing the Panthers, so I can’t fault him for keeping us on the ice.”

“Alright,” I said. “I’ll see you on Saturday.”

“I can’t wait. I love you.”

“I love you, too. Good night.”

We disconnected and I spun slowly around in my chair, looking at my stuff but letting my mind wander once more.

Would he have been freaked out if I’d told him I was thinking about our future together? He was the one who’d been ready to share his feelings first. Maybe it wasn’t so crazy to consider what our lives were going to be like.

Once he got through his championship, maybe I’d consider broaching the subject with him. Or maybe I’d chicken out and wait for him to do it.

Yeah…that seemed like a better idea.