The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife (Blair and Grayson) novel Chapter 243

The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife

Chapter 243

CHARLOTTE-

Marco saw me.

There was no point in hiding it.

The tears were already there. Ugly. Very public. I wiped my face and only made it worse.

“Why are you crying?” he asked again.

His voice was careful. Not teasing. Not his usual self.

“I had a fight with Luca,” I admitted.

He frowned. “What was the fight about?”

I looked at the napkin. The drink. His face.

“I don’t know if I should talk about it.”

“I’m your friend too,” he said. “Luca is my brother. I’m here to help. Both of you.”

Something in me gave out.

I had been holding it in since the door slammed. Since Luca made it clear this was why he never wanted to start whatever this was between us.

“I’ve been in love with him for years,” I confessed.

I could not believe I was saying it to his brother before him.

“He’s only ever seen me as his best friend. Nothing more. Tonight just proved that.”

Marco did not interrupt.

I could see the concern on his face. The way his hands stayed still on the counter, like he was afraid sudden movement would send me running.

“I had to watch him sleep around with girls almost every night. Hear him from my room. It was torture. But I kept going. Kept being his best friend. Never leaving his side even though it hurt seeing him with other women.”

His jaw clenched.

I kept going because if I stopped I would start crying again. More than before.

“We started this deal. Sex. No strings attached. It was great at first, then it just made everything more complicated. I got upset because I saw pictures of him with his crush from years ago. We fought.” I dragged in a breath. “Then he made it sound like it was a mistake. Like we never should have crossed that line. I don’t know how I’m supposed to face him as just his friend after what we did.”

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The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife

The devastation stayed within me like something I could not get rid of.

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had given him everything. My first time. My whole heart. And he had looked at me in that suite and said the line should never have been crossed.

Marco was quiet for a second.

Then, “Luca can be blind. He may not have realized how you felt. I don’t think he really knows even now how he feels. I think he sees you as more than a friend, Charlotte. He’s just too stubborn to admit it. Scared to lose you. Relationships complicate things when a friendship is already that important.”

I shook my head. “You’re wrong. He only sees me as a friend.”

“I believe he loves you,” Marco said. “He hasn’t realized it yet. It isn’t my place to tell you that. I’m just observing. But I don’t think you should give up on this because of one argument.”

A laugh broke out of me. A broken one.

“He stood in a hallway flirting with Paloma this morning. Then he told me he never wanted to start this because he can’t lose my friendship. That does not feel like love, Marco. It feels like all he wants is the friendship. Nothing more.”

Marco’s mouth tightened.

He did not argue about the photo.

He sat on the stool next to mine.

“He is an idiot,” he said. “That can be true at the same time as the other thing.”

“Don’t defend him.”

“I’m not. I’m telling you what I see.” He leaned in a bit, voice low. “He looks at you like the rest of the room is background noise. When you freaked out after the accident, he acted like you were the one who crashed. He cannot stand Nico making you laugh. Or me. Have you ever seen how he looks at you? That is not how he looks at friends, Charlotte. That is how a man looks at the person he cannot afford to lose, and he is too scared to admit what those feelings actually mean.”

I pressed my fingers to my eyes.

“If he loved me he would have said so. Instead he said we never should have crossed the line.”

“Because crossing it means he can lose you,” Marco said. “Luca is brave when he races. When it comes to love, he runs. He would rather keep the safe version of you than risk the version where he admits he wants more and then ruins it. That is not the same as not wanting you.”

“It feels the same.”

“I know.” He said softly. “I watched him watch you all weekend. I watched him fail at pretending. He is not ready to say it. That does not mean it isn’t there.”

I shook my head again. The tears kept coming anyway.

“I asked for the deal so I wouldn’t lose him.”

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The Mockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife

“I know.”

nd it still feels like I lost him.”

“I’m sure that’s not the case.”

It felt like the case.

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It felt like I had offered him the coward’s version of love and he had accepted it as sex, then panicked the second it started costing him the friendship.

Marco sighed.

“I’ll talk to him. I’ll sort this out. You can’t sit in a bar and decide the rest of your life because of one fight. will fix this. I promise.”

I could not help it.

I reached over and hugged him.

I needed it.

I cried against his shoulder with a broken heart, scared of what would happen next. Scared that Luca would come downstairs and ask to go back to how it was. Scared that he would not come at all.

Marco held me as a brother would.

“You’re like a sister to me,” he said into my hair. “Don’t worry. You can let it out for now. Then we fix things. I’ll try my best. I promise.”

I nodded against his shirt.

“He’ll be looking for you,” Marco murmured.

“I don’t want him to find me like this.

Marco did not let go until my breathing slowed.

“Drink water,” he said. “Then we go upstairs or we stay. Your choice.”

I wiped my face on the napkin.

Could Marco really help?

Would Luca even be open to discussing it?

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