Chapter 166
UCA-
The articles were everywhere.
Hotel doors. Her face. My hand. Captions that made a night of takeout sound like more.
I groaned and dropped the phone on the lounge like it had personally insulted my driving.
Charlotte was on the next chair in sunglasses, legs in the sun. Legs I’d noticed before and ignored. Brunette hair wet at the ends from an earlier swim. We had the suite for a week. Pool in the morning. A quiet day. That had been the plan before Olivia Monroe walked out a basketball game crying and I put her in a car like I was a decent person for one night.
“I cannot believe the mess I have made,” I said.
Charlotte did not look away from the water. “You say that like it is new.”
“This one is new. Usually the mess is a girl in my bed and then a blocked number. This is different.”
“You do have a brand,” she said. Still watching the pool. “Consistency. I will give you that.”
“I actually like her.” The words came out before I could stop them. “First time in a long time. Not a random hookup. Not a girl I forget at security. I like Olivia.”
Charlotte went quiet.
Not her usual quiet. The kind that stayed in the air and made everything still.
I turned my head. “Why are you suddenly so quiet? I usually can’t get you to stop talking.”
She rolled her eyes behind the glasses, I could tell because I knew her so well. “You have fucked around so much that it has come back to bite you in the ass. I am taking a moment of silence for your ass.”
I sighed. “Her father will never allow it. He is probably already on damage control. Men like William Monroe do not like their daughters with men like me. They do solutions to fix the mess I caused. I am
never the solution.”
Charlotte adjusted her sunglasses. “Imagine that.”
My phone buzzed.
I frowned at the screen. I was so shocked, I had to read the message five times.
“Fuck.”
“What’s wrong?” Charlotte asked. Soft. Then she cleared her throat like the softness in her tone had been an accident.
“Turns out I made more of a mess than I initially thought.”
“What do you mean?”
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The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
“Nico is being forced to marry Olivia. To make up for the scandal.” I sat up. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”
Charlotte laughed. Actually laughed. I threw my water bottle at her.
“You sure do have a way of making things worse, Vescari.”
I stared at the message again. Nico claimed giving my number to Olivia was the reason he was being handed a bride.
The universe had a sense of humor and it was not on my side.
“I am going to be the best man at a wedding I caused. The bride being the first girl I’ve ever truly been interested in. That is a new personal low.”
“You would not be the best man,” Charlotte said. “You would be the man they mention in the vows.”
“Helpful.”
“I am always helpful.”
She took a sip of water, still facing the pool. If I had been paying attention I might have heard what she did
not say.
I was not paying attention. I was thinking about the red hair in my passenger seat. Fuck. How could I fix this? It wasn’t like Olivia even liked me. But it still felt like my fault.
“I did not even kiss her last night,” I said.
“The internet kissed her for you.” Charlotte’s mouth twitched. “Very efficient. Saves you the work.”
I dragged a hand down my face. “Nico is going to kill me.”
“Nico is going to marry her,” Charlotte said lightly. “That is worse. For everyone. Poor Olivia. She has to face the consequences of being seen with you.”
“Hey. You are seen with me everywhere, I haven’t ruined your reputation.”
“I wish you would.”
I froze.
“What did you just say?”
“I said you wished you could!”
Did I truly not hear her correctly?
She stood and dove into the pool without asking if I was coming. I watched her cut through the water and felt, for a second, like joining her.
Weird.
Charlotte was never this quiet when I told her a story. Usually she roasted me for twenty minutes and stole my fries. Today she was wearing sunglasses like she didn’t want me to see her eyes.
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The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
I picked the phone back up and typed Nico’s name.
Adia not call even though I wanted to.
There was no version of sorry your arranged marriage is my fault that sounded like a man who had finally liked someone at the wrong time.
Charlotte surfaced at the far end and did not look back.
I told myself she was just hot and bored and done with the chaos in my life.
It was easier than wondering why my best friend had gone quiet the second I said I finally liked someone.
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142 Mon, Sep 21 MJ.
The Mockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
Dex Morgan
Dex works to elevate each story with clean writing, emotional balance, and thoughtful flow for readers.