Page 14 of Hockey Heart

A lot of the other guys love that stuff. Randall Jackson, for one. He couldn’t get enough of it. Not me, though. Not anymore. Not since Cara. I closed my eyes, trying to put Cara out of my head. This one though, Sandra? Shiela? Deborah? Christ, whatever she was called… She just seemed kinda… Normal. Cute, in an odd way, too. I’d tried not to show her any interest - always a bad idea when you’re a pro hockey bad-boy - but those were truly beautiful lips, and the soft creamy roll of her neck, and the way she spoke like she wasn’t in some Tik-Tok video…Oh hell, she was coming back… Nice legs, even in that dress that looked like it came straight out of the sale section at Nordstrom Rack. Who was this woman?

Our eyes briefly connected as she arrived back at the table, and I couldn’t not look dreamily for a moment into those vibrant green opals. Fortunately, our uptight waiter returned to stop me falling right into them.

“Your wings, sir. And a beer.”

“Bring another beer. I’ll finish this one in the time it takes you to get it. Actually, make it two.”

He stared at me like I was an animal. Well, that’s what I wanted them all to think, so to hell with it.

“Right you are, sir. Madame, your wine.”

She was amadametype. The kind you pulled the seat out for her to sit down, not because youhadto, but because sheshouldbe treated like a lady. Instead, I picked up a wing as she hovered at the table, until she finally took the hint and sat herself down.

“How are the wings?”

That voice was like soft velvet. Smart and controlled. Not like the loud and dumb-sounding blah, blah, blah, of those hockey bunnies that hung around the games. I grunted and shrugged. It was exhausting being a pig, but there was no way I was going to give her a way in. I couldn’t do that. There was too much at stake. I had to protectus.

Passing wind would be too much, even I was above that, so I belched. A good squelchy one that drew some looks from the other tables. What was with these fucking tables, anyway? My knees were practically lifting it up off the floor. I flashed a glance at her, and she looked suitably unimpressed. This would be over soon.

Sarah

The smell of beer and chicken wings drifted across the table to my nostrils with a loud belch and I felt embarrassed. Yes,Iwas embarrassed, not him. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he kicked his shoes off and put his feet on the table.

What I was watching was an untrained, unkempt dog in human form. The only surprising thing was that he actually used his fingers to eat and didn’t just put his face into that platter of chicken wings and go at it like a wild animal.

“Hey,” I said jovially, smiling like I was actually enjoying myself, “You ever eaten at Jax’s Chicken in mid-town? Finish a whole bucket in ten minutes and you get all your drinks for free. I think you’d be in with a shout! They also have my favorite chicken sandwich in town, the Chick’n’Go, and their Caramel Dreams milkshake is just, uhhh, to die for.”

Hayden looked up at me blankly, like I’d asked him the square root of pie, sticky sauce smeared across his lips and drizzled on his beard, chicken between his teeth. It was official. My dream date was a nightmare.

I’d rather be home, watching television, drinking chilled wine, and eating flamin’ hot Cheetos in my pajamas.

“Why did you even agree to this?” I finally asked, somberly and deflated.

“It’s in my contract,” he said dismissively as he threw another chicken wing on the pile of bones that was growing between us by the second.

“You know, I sold my car and pawned my grandma’s ring for this,” I said sadly.

For a moment, he stopped gnawing on wings and looked over at me sympathetically, his eyes softening from black holes into deep warm pearls, his jaw half-opening to say something. Then it slammed shut, the blank stare returned, and he chugged down his third beer in one enormous gulp. The rage swelled up in me as I looked at his face.

“You know, I really thought you were something HaydenRaynor, but you’re just another entitled selfish bum with no feelings and a crap beard!”

He looked surprised, which was the biggest reaction I’d had all night. Then he threw the last of the stripped chicken bones onto the plate, spread his huge arms out, like an eagle about to take off, and yawned.

“We done?” He said, after he finished showing me how bored he was.

“Sure,” I hissed back.

“Cool. See ya then!” And he was already out of his chair and walking away, stopping to give his autograph with a wide grin to two excited young women on the way out.

I took out my phone and looked at it. There were five messages, all of them from Kensy.

Hey, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. If he wants a three-way, call me ;)

Call me after your date! I want to know everything!

Don’t order the fish!

Eye contact… Lots of eye contact!”

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