Page 21 of Hockey Wife

“Hmm?”

“This marriage business. You could have turned to me if you needed a husband.”

How thrilled her mother would be. She loved Oliver’s parents. They were on all the same charity boards.

“And what would Savannah think?”

They looked toward Oliver’s girlfriend, who gave them a tiny finger wave and turned back to her conversation with a baby Pritzker. Poor Sav. She really did not like Georgia.

“She’d know I was just trying to do you a favor. We had a pact. Single by thirty and we’d do the deed. Guess you don’t need me anymore.” Boy band pout activated.

She squeezed his arm. “Believe me when I say this was not part of any plan. Serves me right for wandering the streets of Vegas by myself.”

“Yeah, Paris and Skye have a lot to answer for. They should have been keeping an eye on you.”

A little patronizing, but that was typical Oliver. That weekend, she’d wanted to get away from everyone, commune with neon and noise where no one knew her. It had been two years since she lost Dani. Two years as the broken half, left behind, her heart aimless.

It’s your time to shine, Georgia. I won’t be around sucking up all the oxygen. Make me proud.

All those promises to live life to the full and figure out her place in the world had shattered in a seedy chapel, a few blocks off the Strip. She couldn’t even get that right. Her parents already thought she was a disaster and Banks obviously thought so, too.

Before that fateful night, she’d had three marriage proposals in as many years and one broken engagement. A nice ratio. Everyone wanted to marry Georgia, even Oliver who should be thinking about his real girlfriend. But the one guy she’d gone all the way with, so to speak, knew instantly the mistake he’d made.

“Don’t worry, it’ll be fixed soon, and we can go back to our original plan.”

Oliver was still hung up on the sordid details. “But a hockey player? Whatever possessed you?”

“Tequila, Oli. Tons of it. Do you really think I’d have done that if I was in my right mind?” A pang of guilt pinched her, though she didn’t owe Dylan Bankowski a single kind thought, not after he’d dismissed her so rudely. Neither had she been that drunk, but alcohol was as good a scapegoat as any.

He chuckled mirthlessly. “No, I suppose not. He’s not exactly your type. You prefer them with all their teeth.”

Another pinned-on smile. She was pretty sure the guy had all his original teeth, not that he’d ever used them on her. All that glowering, and still she’d let him lead her down the aisle.

Oliver wasn’t done. He had quite a nasty streak when he got going. “Multiple pucks to the head, too. Probably brain damaged. And don’t forget he’s a fists-first kind of guy.”

“He is?”

“They all are. That’s what hockey players are known for. Duking it out on the ice.”

That sounded familiar as a concept. The reality, not so much. Dani was the sporty one in the family, a big hockey fan. She’d be laughing her head off if she could see Georgia now.

What do you think, sis? A hockey player!

Oli’s right, G. So not your type.

“He was quiet.” Contemplative and stoic. But when he spoke, it felt like he saw right into her. Not that she told him much about herself, so that was her overactive imagination for sure. Now he knew that she came from money, that she liked to party, and he obviously had “opinions.”

She’d done some research herself.

Dylan “Banks” Bankowski. Thirty-six. Center position. Wisconsin native. Winner of several awards, including the Calder Memorial and the Frank J. Selke. (But not the Cup, which she knew was the big one.) Played for New York, Denver, and Nashville before being acquired by the Chicago Rebels in January, the weekend of the All-Star game.

The weekend he became her husband.

But soon not to be. Perhaps the bar ambush wasn’t her best idea, but subtlety had never been her strong suit. With his refusal, she was forced to reckon with telling her parents how much she’d messed up. They’d want more control over her life, make her return to college or … marry someone they chose. Like Oliver. Which wouldn’t be terrible because he was a friend and wanted to be with her.

Not like her current husband.

Banks hated parties.

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