Page 73 of Blind Luck

Jace tried to wrap his arms around Kelsey. She pushed them away, and he just laughed. Rusty’s lips pressed together in a thin line, and it was my turn to put a hand on his.

“Don’t make a scene. I know it’s unpleasant, but she’s here of her own accord, and he can’t act like a complete monster in a room full of people.”

“Someone needs to tell Silas about this.”

“Him flying to Vegas to kill a man won’t do the Raiders’ Meadows Cup chances much good.”

“He can call her, convince her to come home.”

“And then they’ll find out you’ve been spying on her.”

“I’ll tell him I was in Vegas with you and I spotted her by chance.”

“If you tell him you saw her with a guy, he’ll assume she’s cheating, which she’s not, but you can’t tell him that without revealing we’ve been following her for weeks.”

“So I’ll tell him it looks like a fucking hostage situation.”

“Talk with your friends in the morning. Get theiropinions, seeing as they know Silas better and they were the ones who sent you here.”

“Okay.” Rusty blew out a breath and glanced across at the dance floor again. “I don’t like it, but okay.”

Rusty had come to Las Vegas to find out if Kelsey was cheating, not to question her poor life choices, and he’d achieved the goal. He should be reporting back, not going renegade and potentially impacting Kelsey’s career. If she wanted to suck up to a sleaze to land a contract, that was her decision to make, although I was still worried she didn’t know quite what she’d gotten herself into.

I forced a smile. “Seeing as this might be our last night together, can we try bowling?” The lane closest to Kelsey and Jace was open.

“What do you mean, our last night together?”

“If Kelsey leaves Vegas, you won’t need to stay here, will you?”

“Yeah, I will need to stay, but for a different reason.”

“Really? What reason?”

He just stared at me. Wait a minute…

“Me? I’m the reason?”

“I need to take you out for a meal that isn’t part of a surveillance operation.”

“But…but…”

“But what?”

“But what about Florence?” I blurted, inviting the elephant into the room. The elephant who probably danced like a ballerina and didn’t put her foot in her mouth the way I did.

“Since I met you, I’ve barely thought about Florence. It’s been cathartic, you know? Like wiping the slate clean.” He fixed those soft brown eyes of his on me, and my stomach turned to mush. Which, when added to a hundred decibels of bass, left me feeling oddly queasy. “It’s time for a fresh start.”

“What about hockey? You’ll be playing again soon.”

“Fresno is only three hours from Santa Cruz, so you’d better learn to drive. What, did you figure I’d just leave and we’d never see each other again?”

Yes, exactly. “I hadn’t really thought that far ahead.”

“Liar.”

“Well, what do you expect? You’re a hockey megastar, and I’m a nobody who didn’t even graduate high school.”

“I’m just a guy from backwoods Minnesota who happens to be pretty good at hitting pucks into goals. And you might not have your GED, but you’re whip-smart. Plus you have a good heart, which is way more important.”

---