What was it with my team tonight?

Did they all need to try to set me up with the woman I was already going to marry?

“Drop it, Alix,” I warned him, but like usual, he either didn’t get the hint or didn’t care.

“We are worried,” he said and he put his back to his door, holding it open. Far enough out of my reach, I couldn’t shove him through it without letting go of my own door. “And have been. I know… I know this is not real, but a year is a long time. And you’ve had three…”

“Stop. Right now, stop.”

He closed his mouth, rubbed a hand over it. “You do not need to keep carrying guilt that does no longer matter, Andrews. We all see it. So you messed up. It happens, to good guys like you even. But that does not mean you have to be alone forever. That does not mean you can not be happy.” He nodded his head, gesturing behind me. “Even if it is not with her, it is okay to move on.”

A piercing, heated pain seared my chest. “Fuck you.”

I turned and slammed the door behind me, and once inside, rested my back against it.

Screw them all. Every single guy who had the nerve to bring up Ava, tonight of all nights.

Fuck them, too, for having a point I was only slightly willing to consider.

I had bigger, more important things on my mind.

Like how in the hell I was going to go through all of this and not lose my shit.

“Score! Kane Andrews lights up the lamp…”

My head snapped up. The hell? What was Emmersyn doing? Or watching?

I headed around the corner and found her in the living room. A laptop perched on her thighs, legs bent to her side. The lights were muted, and her reflection was as clear in my dark windows as the reality of her was in my living room.

Dressed in a white tank and bright blue leggings, the bright colors set off her quickly darkening tan. She had her hair curled, a thick mass of it fell over her shoulders.

And her teeth were nibbling on the side of her thumb, eyes furrowed and narrowed on the screen.

Looking damn sexy, like she was concentrating on what must have been one of my games.

“You’re watching my games?”

“Oh! Hey!” She jumped, grabbed the laptop as it slid off her lap and snapped it closed. “You’re home. Hi.”

The anger and frustration from Alix and Joey and what was coming drifted to the background in a heartbeat as her cheeks turned a dark shade of pink.

Curiosity had me grinning, and the fact she was clearly embarrassed about being caught.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh… watching an old game?” She nibbled on her thumbnail, a nervous gesture I picked up on last week.

“My old games?”

Shock, surprise, of the happy kind forced me to move forward and grab the laptop.