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“I’ll invite a few of the guys too,” I tell her, absolutely trying to ignore the surge of joy that swept through me when she accepted my offer

“Nanette will love that,” Brooke says dryly “When she found out I washere, all she could talk about was how hot hockey players were”

A thought suddenly strikes me, and I can tell by the look on Brooke’s face the sa to have to tell your friend about our little charade”

Brooke nods “Shit She absolutely would be privy to the fact that you and I werein New York for a few months before we moved here”

“Is she a good enough friend to you that she’ll keep the secret?” I ask her with a siti connection with this woman

“I’m sure she would,” she says, but she doesn’t sound overly confident “Once I explain things to her, I’ back to New York pretty quickly”

“All right,” I mutter

“All right,” Brooke echoes

We stare at each other aardly in the glow of the porch light at 1:30 in the le person around to observe whether I leave without a backward glance or I kiss the fuck out of her

A good night kiss is absolutely not necessary to give credence to our story, since no one is here to witness it

Whenaround her, I realize it must be necessary to me And I know I am in a world of shit because of it—

I turn the key in the lock as quietly as possible, noting that Dax’s vehicle is in his side of the two-car garage We decided to rent a house after taking a quick weekend trip to Phoenix once we signed our new contracts We had been living in a small apartment in lower Manhattan, which was notwas drastically different and we opted for an actual house rather than an apart up and we eventhat ould have to do yardwork

I push the door open slowly and ihts are off, but he’s bathed in a blue glow and I can see his eyes coht you’d stay at Brooke’s”

“I don’t have to spend every night with her,” I say defensively, and that gets a chuckle out of Dax

“Dude, you and Brooke looked like you were not living a lie the last few days”