Chapter 3: You’ve Got Mail

After tossing and turning all night, I went in search of coffee. I found everyone in the kitchen. Brie and Jack were at the breakfast table, a laptop and a couple of books open in front of them. Fish was sitting at the kitchen island, watching Eddie make eggs and toast. I went straight to the coffeepot. Eddie handed me my favorite huge mug, and I filled it to the brim. The first sip was hot and tasted oh, so good. I closed my eyes and savored it.

“Hey, Tess?” I opened my eyes and looked at Fish. He was frowning at me.

“Did you and David ... er...” Fish blushed, his ears turning pink. He looked adorable with his square jaw, black hair, blue eyes ... and bright pink ears.

“No, we hardly spent any time together at all. Why?”

“Well, uh. Not to be nosy, but who gave you the hickey?” Fish pointed at the left side of my neck.

My eyes popped wide as the kitchen went silent. Eddie’s head whipped around, looking for what Fish had seen.

“You didn’t have anything on your neck yesterday, Tess. When did this happen?”

I pulled my messy bun loose and let my hair down over my shoulders, covering up the mark on my neck. Eddie was not going to let it go that easy. “Did you see that stranger guy again? Who is he?”

“What stranger guy?” Fish and Jack asked the question at the same time. I glared at Eddie, but he just glared back. Brie came over to look at my neck, pushing my hair out of the way.

“Eddie’s right. That wasn’t there yesterday. When did you get it?”

“After the game,” I mumbled.

“You were with us after the game.” Brie looked confused, but I didn’t feel like telling her about Stranger with both Fish and Jack listening in. He’d promised to contact me “later”. I’d assumed that meant last night but my inbox was depressingly empty. I’d sat up for hours refreshing my browser over and over again, but no email from Stranger. I was more than a little frustrated and irritated by the whole stupid situation.

Before I could reply to Brie, the front door banged open and three more members of the hockey team came in. Nova, Goose, and Finn each dropped a couple of large duffle bags on the floor and headed for the coffee. Each of them gave Eddie a fist bump as they went past, mumbling some form of thanks. They looked exhausted.

“Tess, I already talked to Brie, but didn’t get a chance to talk to you yet. The guys are all going to be staying here for a while. That okay?”

What was I supposed to say? No? It was Eddie’s house. “As long as I don’t have to share my room, it’s fine with me.”

“Well, not your room, but you’ll have to share the bathroom on the third floor with one of them.”

I shrugged. That was no big deal. But why were they staying here to begin with? “What’s going on?”

Finn muttered into his coffee cup, “Police raided our house last night.

Landlord was growing weed in the basement. Slumlord was doing it in two other houses. We got back from the game to sirens, cops, and chaos.”

Goose picked up the story, “They took us to the station for questioning, been there most of the night. Asshole kept the basement door padlocked and had a clause in the lease that we weren’t allowed down there under any circumstances. Guess we know why now. This morning they took us back to the house, escorted us in to grab some clothes, but they kept all the computers. I’ve got a damn paper due tomorrow and no fucking computer.”

Nova just sat on a stool, clearly exhausted. His hands were wrapped around his cup and he only nodded his thanks as Eddie shoved a plate full of eggs and bacon at him. I moved to help Eddie get more breakfast going as the others all pestered the guys with questions.

After they ate, they had a quick match of rock, paper, scissors to decide who got the single room across from mine on the third floor. Finn won. Nova and Goose would share the empty second floor bedroom. They picked up their bags and headed upstairs to crash for a few hours. None of them had slept all night and by the time breakfast was over, they were clearly dragging.

It was funny how similar they all were. The hockey coach was pretty strict with his players so they all had short hair and were clean shaven. They were tall, within a few inches of each other, but varied in build somewhat.

Nova and Finn were leaner, while Goose and Fish were heavily muscled. Jack fell somewhere in between. Eddie, as a football player and injured, wore his hair long enough to flop around even though it was curly, hadn’t shaved in weeks, and had the build of an ogre. It was a little intimidating to be surrounded by so much masculinity, but I would just have to deal. At least

I still had Brie for girl-talk.

I looked at Fish and Jack. “Are you guys moving in, too?”

Jack didn’t hesitate, “Damn right. I don’t mind my girl in a house with

Fish and Eddie. They’re good guys and look out for her. But with these other guys in the house? Not a chance. I’m going to pick up some of my stuff later, but I’m here as long as they are.”

Brie tried to look mutinous, but her pale green eyes were far too happy for her to be serious about it. Not for the first time, I was envious of her looks. Her father was Irish, her mother African-American. The combination left Brie with light-coffee skin, luminous green eyes, and lovely curls she kept trimmed super short. She looked like a supermodel, just waiting to be discovered.

Fish was a bit more reserved and looked at Eddie, “I don’t know. Am I?”

Eddie looked at Fish and grinned, “Might as well, everyone else has. We’ve been talking about it, so why not?”

Fish smiled at Eddie in a slow, almost secret way. They were so gone for each other, but they tried to keep it private in front of other people. It was obvious Fish was thrilled but trying to be cool about it.

“Then I’ll go get my stuff when Jack does. Maybe you can drive us in that monster SUV of yours and we can be done in one trip?”

“You got it.” Eddie kissed Fish in a rare show of affection. I couldn’t help but grin at the two of them. Then something Jack had said clicked in my head.

“Jack, why are you worried about the other guys being here?”

Jack looked at me, his grey eyes serious. “Because Brie is my everything.

I’m not taking any chances with her. They may be my teammates, but that doesn’t mean I trust them with my girl. Do you know how Nova got his nickname?”

How would I know that? At least half of the hockey players had stupid nicknames. I was now living with guys named Fish and Goose, in addition to

Nova.

“Uh, no. Why do you guys call him Nova?”

Fish spoke up, “It’s short for Casanova, the legendary lover. The first couple years of school, Nova was the king of the one-night stand. Never the same girl twice. He got a hell of a rep. Some girl tried to pin her baby on him, but the paternity test said it wasn’t his. I haven’t seen him with anyone in a long time, though. He cut that out after that baby mess. Then the NHL scouts started coming to games. He’s been really serious about school and hockey ever since.”

“Not taking a chance with my girl,” Jack replied. “As long as they’re in the house, so am I. Unless Brie wants to move into my dorm room.”

Brie wrinkled her nose, “No, thank you. I am not sleeping in a single bed with you. We can share my Queen upstairs.”

“Okay, that explains Nova. What about you, Fish? And why do you guys call

Goose, Goose?”

Fish laughed, “My last name is Fisher. I’ve been Fish my whole life. No one uses my given name except my mother. Rumor has it, Goose picked up his nick in high school. His mom told one of his friends he didn’t have the common sense that God gave a goose. Next thing you know, all his friends are calling him Goose.”

I rolled my eyes. Meatheads. I was living in a house full of meatheads.

Lovely. I went upstairs to shower. Goose wasn’t the only one with a paper due tomorrow. I needed to hit the library and get my research done.

I stayed at the library for a few hours, then headed home after my research was done. I was camped at the kitchen island, working on my paper, when an email notification popped up. I held my breath as I clicked over to email and opened it up.

From: StrangerHP01

Holy crap, it was him! I couldn’t help the tiny gasp that escaped me. Brie, working next to me, looked over and frowned.

“Are you reading porn again? You know we agreed to only do that in private.”

“No, I am not reading porn, Ms. Filthy Mind. Go ‘way.”

Brie grumbled quietly to herself and went back to her homework. I took a deep breath and opened the email.

Tess,