Laces and Lace (Assassins #6) (38 page)

When another nervous giggle came from his bride, he looked up as she said, “My hands are twitching. I want to clean.”

He laughed before coming toward her. “Please don’t. It’s my mess, I’ll get it clean.”

Kissing her lips, he brought her in against his strong chest, his mouth devouring hers and hoping to distract her from his disaster of an apartment. When they parted, since he knew that time was against him, he smiled against her lips. Looking into her sweet green eyes, he was mesmerized by them as his chest ached. She really came home with him. She was really married to him. She was his. They were going to do this.

“I love you, sweetheart,” he said, his voice rough with emotion for this gorgeous woman.

She smiled, her cheeks warming with color as she slowly moved her fingers through the stubble on his jaw. “I love you, even if you are messier than hell.”

He chuckled before kissing her nose and then letting her go. “I’ll call you before I come home in case you’re hungry or something.”

“Sounds good. Bye, have a good practice.”

“Thanks, babe,” he said, flashing her a grin before running out the door. Something about saying goodbye to her as he left for practice really pleased him. While he didn’t want to leave her, he liked that she kissed him goodbye and wished him well.

It was real, married people shit, and he liked that. A lot.

Rushing to the arena, he couldn’t stop thinking of Lacey. He worried about her being alone but then pushed that aside. His lady was strong, and he had no doubt that she could take care of herself. He wouldn’t even be gone that long, and then he and JT would clean the shit out of that apartment, get ready for the delivery of her stuff, and then he would need to call the Realtor to find them a house. While he loved that his apartment was so close to the arena and everything else he needed, it wasn’t big enough for Lacey and her office and then him and JT.

Arriving at the arena, he looked at the line of cars of his teammates and knew he was late.

“Fucking hell,” he said, rushing to park his truck before sprinting toward the door. The last teammate always did extra laps per Shea Adler’s rules. While Karson could probably use the extra cardio since the only cardio he had been doing was sex, he really wasn’t in the mood. When he entered the locker room though to see all his teammates, almost all dressed, he knew that laps were in his future.

“Thirty extra laps,” Shea said as he passed Karson. “Welcome back, by the way.”

“Thanks, Cap,” Karson said, his shoulders falling. Everyone chuckled and razzed him as he headed toward his locker, shaking hands with the men who were not only his teammates, but his brothers.

When he got to his locker, JT glared at him. “Hey, fucker.”

Chuckling, Karson said, “Good to see you too.”

“Whatever, asshole. Where have you been? Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” Karson said, pulling his shirt off as he toed out of his sneakers. “Everything is great.”

“What happened?” JT asked, annoyed. “Obviously, I’m not asking to get some generic answer.”

Setting him with a look, Karson said, “Aren’t you a ray of sunshine this morning?”

“Fuck you, where have you been?”

Karson really need to reevaluate his relationship with his asshole, but meeting his best friend’s gaze, he could tell that there was genuine worry in his eyes.

“Aw, Jordie Thomas cares about me,” Karson teased, batting his eyes, but that just pissed JT off more.

“King, stop fucking around,” he warned and Karson laughed.

“I got married,” he said like it wasn’t that big a deal, even though he knew it was.

Talking stopped around him as thirty pair of eyes cut to him.

Apperently none of them saw his facebook.

“What?” JT asked. “Did you say you got married?”

“Yeah,” Karson said with a grin, dropping his pants and boxers before putting on his underwear that had his cup built into it. He should have felt weird with the whole team staring at him with his cock out, but he was in a hurry to get ready.

“To who?” Phillip Anderson asked. “I didn’t think you were seeing anyone.”

“I wasn’t,” Karson said, pulling his body armor shirt on. “I dated her about ten years ago, we met up in Chicago, flew out to Vegas, and got married.”

“’Cause that’s something sane people do,” Erik Titov said, receiving a few laughs.

Karson chuckled as he nodded. “Sane people don’t push away the mother of their child when they love her, but who’s judging?” Karson said, and that shut Erik right up.

“For real?” JT asked. “You really did it?”

Holding up his hand that held a black metal wedding band, he grinned. “Sure did.”

“Holy shit,” JT gasped with a shake of his head.

“Well, I guess congratulations are in order then.” Shea’s voice boomed through the locker room. Holding up his Gatorade bottle, he said, “To King’s new marriage.”

“To King,” the whole room toasted and Karson smiled in appreciation.

Then Shea said, “We’ll have to go for beers one night. First round’s on me.”

“I’d like that, thanks, Cap.”

“No problem. I’m looking forward to meeting her.”

“She’s amazing.”

Shea laughed. “She has to be to get you to fly to Vegas to marry her.”

Karson’s face warmed as he nodded. Bending down, he taped up his socks just as Coach yelled, “Did King finally decide to show up to play?”

Karson’s head snapped up and he said, “I’m here, Coach.”

“My office, now!”

Oh shit.

“Ha, you’re in trouble,” JT teased as he laced up his skates.

“Fuck off, Thomas,” he said as he followed his coach into his office, his stomach churning with nerves. What did he do? Elli said he was good until today. Was he not? Fuck!

Shutting the door behind him, he fell into a chair in front of his coach’s desk as Coach Baxter filled his cup with coffee. “Have a nice vacation?”

Karson squirmed in his seat. “Wasn’t really a vacation. I got married.”

“Oh,” he said with a nod. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you.”

Looking over at Karson, he said, “You can’t take off for four days and expect me to play you the minutes I was.”

“I wouldn’t think it, sir. I know I have to earn my spot back.”

“Good, tear that ice up this morning, show the guys that you deserve it,” he said sternly as he dropped his weight into his chair, it squeaking from his size. “I don’t like not playing one of my star defensemen.”

Compliments didn’t come from Coach Baxter so that surprised Karson and caused a grin to come across his lips.

“Yes, sir,” Karson agreed with a nod, and then started to get up but stopped when Coach continued.

“Now, the reason I called you in here,” he said slowly and Karson’s heart dropped. He thought they were done. Slowly lowering himself back in the chair, he met his coach’s gaze as he asked, “Why the fuck is Nate Martin telling me to bench you?”

You’ve got to be kidding me
, Karson thought as he let out a long breath.

“I married his daughter,” he said simply. “In Vegas, and he’s never really liked me.”

“You married Lacey? Wow, shit, she’s a good girl,” Coach said with a nod.

“That’s why I married her,” Karson said, his grin back.

Coach laughed. “Yeah, well, now you’ve pissed off Nate Martin, and he’s probably the craziest mother-trucker I know.”

“Yeah, not the ideal father–in-law.”

“Not in the least,” Coach scoffed. “Okay, well, I told him to shove it. You are my best defenseman aside from Shea, so he can kiss it. But watch yourself. That asshole will try to ruin you.”

Karson took the warning with a grin. “Yeah, but the only way he can do that is taking Lacey away.”

Coach’s brows shot up as he shook his head. “Newlyweds make me gag. Get the hell out of my office and go do your laps.”

Karson laughed as he did what his coach told him and went to finish getting ready. As he laced up his skates, his mind was flooded with thoughts of what Coach said.

That asshole will try to ruin you.

Yeah, he will, but Karson wouldn’t give him the chance. He had it good here in Nashville, and now that Lacey was with him, nothing could touch him. He felt invincible.

“So I guess you are moving out then?” JT asked from beside him as he taped up his stick.

“Yeah, I’m gonna call a Realtor today.”

“Sucks I’m losing my roommate.”

“I’m sure you’ll be okay with all that extra space to lay it down.”

JT grinned as he nodded. “Yeah, true.”

He grinned back as he stood to put on his shoulder pads. Looking over at Karson, JT asked, “You two are staying in the apartment until you move though?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t we?” Karson asked, his brows furrowing.

JT laughed. “Does Lacey know I live there?”

“Um, I think so. I don’t know, but thanks for leaving your shit out. She saw it.”

Shaking his head, JT laughed some more as Karson stood there, confused. How was this funny?

“Dude, she is going to be pissed,” he finally said.

“No, she was fine. I told her I’d clean it when I get back.”

“No, I mean about me living there too. I don’t know many women that want to share a place with her husband and his best friend.”

Karson thought for a moment. Had he told Lacey that JT was his roommate? Shrugging his shoulders, he said, “I’m sure it will be fine, and it’s temporary. No big deal.”

Right?

Lacey’s husband was a slob times two.

Instead of taking the nap she so desperately needed, she had spent the last three hours cleaning her new home. The things she found, smelled, and cleaned would forever be burned in her mind. She and Karson were going to have to have a long, long conversation about cleaning and his masturbation habits.

The tissues…the tissues.

Ugh
, she thought as she shuddered with disgust while she washed her hands for the billionth time. Leaning against the sink, she took in her work. She had done really well. It looked like a brand-new apartment, and she was sure her hubby would be pleased with her work. Going to his—well, their—room, she undressed and then took a long shower to clean off all the germs she had collected. Even with the cleaning session from hell, she was still grinning.

She was in Nashville. With her husband. It was pretty freaking awesome, in her opinion. Her heart still hurt from the rejection of her family, especially Rachel’s, but she wouldn’t let that bother her. She was excited. Change sucked, it did; she knew this. When she lost her mom, it sucked. When she got cancer, it sucked even more. When she started college and was a mess, it sucked but it was bearable. When Karson left her, it sucked badly. Then she left for Nashville with her husband, and her family hated him and didn’t support them, and Lacey decided that that sucked the most.

She finally had all the love she wanted and needed, but that didn’t mean anything to her family. They decided they knew better and didn’t believe in her or her love with Karson. It was frustrating, to say the least, but she wasn’t going to let it ruin her. Not when she was starting a new life. Not when she finally had her chance at true happiness. She still prayed and prayed that Karson was right when he said they would come around. The only problem was that she wasn’t very confident in that. The Martin family was very stubborn.

When her phone rang, she wrapped a towel around herself and went into the bedroom where her phone sat on the bed. She expected it to be Karson, but to her surprise, it was Rachel. Her heart ached in her chest as she hit answer. Excitement filled her at the hope that her best friend was calling to apologize and to say how happy she was for Lacey. It was a long shot, but Lacey still thought it could happen.

Happily, she said, “Hello?”

“Hey, the mock-ups for the campaign came in. I am forwarding them to your email now. Do you have a second to talk them over?”

Her heart sank as she swallowed her sob. “Yeah, hold on, let me get my laptop and throw a shirt on,” she said before putting the phone down and getting dressed quickly. Finding her laptop and entering Karson’s Wi-Fi info from the Post-it note on the fridge, she hooked everything up before logging in to her email. Like Rachel said there would be, an email was waiting for her. Clicking it, she downloaded the files and looked over each of the photos.