Page 54 of Dancing in the Rain

“Sounds like you had your whole life planned out, and now you’re doing exactly what you wanted.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

He didn’t answer right away. “No, not at all. Guess I’m just a little envious.”

She bit her lip. Right. He’d lost the job he loved.

“You must be good at what you do,” he said.

“I am.”

She caught his smile out of the corner of her eye, but kept her gaze on Chloe.

“Do you like living in New York?”

“Not as much as Chicago. I love Chicago. They’re both big cities, but there’s just something…I don’t know. Big cities always have their problems. Part of it might be that I don’t know as many people there. But I have a couple of friends at work and people I’ve met through the wine club.”

“And all the men you date.”

She grinned and slid a sideways glance at him. “That’s thanks to Matchmaker dot com.”

“Get out. Seriously? You use a dating website?”

“Sure. Why not?” She lifted a shoulder. “I’m not into picking up guys in bars and I don’t have a lot of time. It’s a reputable site, with lots of professionals on there. It’s a good way to meet people.”

“Huh.” He frowned.

“Have you been dating? Since your divorce?”

“Well, I don’t know if you’d call it dating.”

“Soyoudon’t have an issue with picking up women in bars.”

He snorted. “I guess not.”

She decided she didn’t really want to talk about that. “Chicago’s the only city you’ve lived in since you started playing hockey?”

“Yeah. They drafted me in my freshman year of college. I played a year for their farm team, then I got called up and I’ve been here ever since.”

“Do you like it? Or do you wish you’d been drafted by Los Angeles? Or Hawaii?”

He laughed. “There is no hockey team in Hawaii.”

“Not much ice there, I guess.”

“Just what goes in the piña coladas. But yeah, I like it here. It was an adjustment for me, coming from Thunder Bay, Ontario. Like you said, Chicago’s a big city. But I’ve kind of gotten used to everything that’s here—great restaurants and night life, Lake Michigan and the beach. The White Sox.”

“You’re a baseball fan?”

“Sure. I played baseball, too, when I was a kid. Much to my dad’s dismay. He was a football player.”

“You’re just a star athlete, aren’t you?”

He grinned and bumped her shoulder with his. “You can probably outrun me, though, now I have a bum knee.”

Something warm expanded in her chest and she took a quick sip of her tea.

“She really does love to dance,” Drew said quietly. “Look at her face.”

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