Score Her Heart: A Marriage of Convenience Hockey Romance (Philadelphia Bulldogs Book 2) by Danica Flynn (free novels .TXT) 📕

hearing from him solidified that not marrying him had been the right choice. I think our relationship had ended a long time ago, but we kept going through the motions. The not having sex thing should have been the first sign, but I guess being so busy working on my book, I didn’t notice. That didn’t mean it didn’t still hurt, though. It made me actually kind of glad Riley wasn’t here because I could be alone with my thoughts for a couple days and really consider whether jumping into this marriage was a good idea.

I spent all morning unpacking my things, but I still didn’t have a bookcase, so I ended up putting my books in piles in Riley’s office. He said he wanted to get me a nice bookshelf because the one I had in my old apartment was pretty much trashed. It wasn’t ideal, but I could live with it for now.

Around lunchtime, Katie called to check in on me. I ran a hand through my hair in frustration when I saw her name across my phone screen. I picked it up. “Are you checking up on me?” I asked, even though I knew the answer.

She laughed on the other end. “Sorry…yes. How are you doing?”

“Okay…I guess. Riley left for the road this morning, so I’ve kind of just been unpacking. I haven’t even written today yet.”

“Girl, get to writing!”

“I will. Other things are more important right now,” I told her. I wedged the phone between my ear and shoulder and walked over to the dishwasher so I could start unloading it. I might not be a good cook, but the least I could do while Riley was gone was manage the household. I set the phone down on the counter and put it on speaker. “Hang on, I’m putting you on speaker so I can unload the dishes.”

She chuckled on the other line. “Ha! Look at you being a housewife.”

“Shut it. I can’t cook, so at least I can clean.”

“Fi, how are you doing really? I know everything has been hard for you.”

I sighed and unloaded the plates into Riley’s cabinet. This man was surprisingly organized. And clean. Like so fucking clean. He wasn’t the messy teenaged Riley I remembered. “I’m fine. I guess? I don’t know.”

“Things with Riley are good? Are you happy you’re sticking things out with him?”

“I’m not sure yet. One of his teammates came to help me move in here, so most of yesterday was spent getting all my stuff out of the apartment in Fishtown. I think we both were exhausted last night from the packing and from jet lag. We ended up going to sleep early.”

“Uh huh.”

I finished unloading the dishwasher and took the phone with me into the bedroom, where I found Riley’s hamper. It was full, and I wasn’t sure when was the last time he changed the sheets. I stripped those off the bed and started sorting the wash.

“Don’t worry about me,” I reassured Katie.

Since I had started dating her brother, Katie and I had really bonded. Maybe it was because I was a writer and she was an English professor at UPenn. We had a lot in common, and I had been excited at the prospect that we would be sisters, but that wasn’t a good enough reason for me to marry her brother. When her marriage had broken up, I had been the shoulder she cried on while Eric told her to just suck it up. I guess I should have known then that he was a complete and utter dickweed.

She sighed into the phone on her line. “Look, I need to tell you something.”

Fear struck my heart at the tone of her voice. Now I was worried. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?” I asked.

“No, it's not about me. It’s just…” She trailed off, and I could almost see her face on the other line scrunching up with anxiety.

“Katie, what?” I asked, frustrated now.

“I ran into Brock on Campus today.”

Oh.

Katie’s ex-husband was a professor of history at UPenn. It was a big campus, so it wasn’t like she was constantly bumping into him. Although, from what Katie had told me, they had a very amicable divorce. No cheating or anything; it just wasn’t working out for them. I think part of it was because he wanted kids, and Katie had always been a part of the no-kids club, just like her brother.

“Hey, I can practically see the pity look on your face right now, but it’s fine. Brock and I didn’t work out, but we’re still friends.”

“Okay, so why are you telling me about this?”

She sighed. “You know the underwear you found?”

I made a gagging sound. “Don’t remind me.”

“Well…it probably wasn’t the first time.”

“What?” I nearly screeched.

“Brock told me he heard about you and Eric breaking up, and then he told me he wasn’t surprised because he saw Eric out one night with a leggy blonde that looked like one of Brock’s students.”

I dropped the detergent into the washer and slammed the lid shut with an angry bang. “What the actual fuck?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Your brother’s a Grade A asshole.”

“Can confirm. I’m sorry again.”

I sighed and turned the dial on the machine to get it going. “Thanks for telling me. I really dodged a bullet, huh?”

“Fi, I’m so sorry about what happened with my brother, but I’m really glad you two didn’t get married.”

“Yeah, me too. I better go; I’ve been procrastinating on writing.”

“Sure. You want to get dinner tomorrow?”

“Definitely.”

After hanging up with Katie, I ran around the condo doing more chores, but mostly it was because I was still procrastinating. It was late when I finally sat down at my computer to work on the novel. I only ended up procrastinating more on Twitter; after all, if you weren’t dicking around on Twitter with all the other writers, could you even call yourself a writer?

I was so close with this draft, but I saw the deadline looming ahead, and the panic was starting to set in.