Chapter 15

Halfway through the movie, Nick’s doorbell rang. He frowned and glanced at Jodie.

She made a face and pushed up on the sofa. “It could be Kendra and Zyana home early.”

He paused the movie, and they went downstairs to find Hallsy at his front door. Nick heaved a sigh and opened the door. “I’m fine.”

Hallsy looked at Jodie, then back at him. “Why didn’t you answer my texts?”

“I did. The first one, anyway. I told you I’m fine.”

“Look, I know what day it is. Thought you might want some company drinking tequila.”

Nick huffed a laugh and shook his head. “You’re just after my Gran Patrón Piedra.”

Hallsy’s lips quirked. “It is good stuff.”

“I, uh, should go,” Jodie said.

Nick didn’t want her to go. But he couldn’t say that in front of Hallsy.

“Am I interrupting something?” Hallsy asked, looking back and forth between them.

Yeah. “We were watching a movie.” Nick looked at Jodie. “You can stay and watch the rest of it.”

“That’s okay. You can have some guy time.”

They all hiked into the kitchen where Nick poured another glass of tequila for Hallsy. “Go on up,” he told him. “I’ll see Jodie out.”

Jodie picked up her jacket from the stool where she’d discarded it earlier. Something fell out of her pocket at Nick’s feet. He glanced down…to see two condoms.

He looked back up at Jodie.

“Oh man.” She bent and scooped them up and shoved them in her pocket. “Where did those come from?” When she stood and faced him, her cheeks were pink.

He moved closer, almost close enough to touch. “Did you come here for a booty call?”

“M-maybe.”

He brushed his mouth over hers. A sinking feeling of disappointment and regret filled him. “Shit. And here I am half wasted, crying in my tequila.”

“And Max is here.”

“I could get rid of him easily enough.” He leaned his forehead against hers. “But when I fuck you, I want to be perfectly sober so I know exactly what’s going on and I can remember every detail.”

“Oh.” She pulled in a quick breath. “I, uh, don’t get many chances to do that.”

He groaned. “I know. And I blew it.”

“Um. I have something to ask you.”

“What’s that?”

“I got a text message from your teammate. Cam Brickley.”

He frowned, remembering Cam asking for her number.

“He wants to go out with me.”

“Fuck no!” The words burst out of him before he could think about it. Heat burst in his chest and flashed through his veins.

Jodie blinked her long eyelashes at him. “I was going to ask if you think he’s a nice guy.”

“He’s a cocky asshole serial womanizer.” He winced inwardly at portraying his buddy that way. Well, he kind of was like that. “You can’t go out with him.”

“Um, you don’t really get to make that decision for me.” She straightened, a little notch between her eyebrows. “I just moved here. I don’t know many people. I’d like to go out once in a while. Have a social life.”

“You want to go out on a date? Fine. I’ll take you out on a date.” He stepped back, crossed his arms, and lifted his chin. “Name the day.”

Her mouth opened. Nothing came out. She closed it and tried again. “You want to take me out on a date.”

“Yeah.” Shit. As if she was going to want to go out on a date with a guy who could barely string a few sentences together in the name of conversation, whose idea of fun was sanding old furniture, who was drunk on a Sunday afternoon crying over his dead brother. His gut tensed. Cam was way more fun than he was.

He shoved a hand into his hair and looked away. “Never mind. Dumb idea.”

She inhaled slowly. “No, it’s not a dumb idea. I’ll go out with you.”

“Don’t do it because you feel sorry for me,” he muttered.

She snorted. “I mean, I’m sorry for what you’ve been through. But it wouldn’t be a pity date.”

“Ha. Good to know. Okay, I have next Friday off. Can you get a babysitter?”

“I’ll ask Kendra. I’ll let you know.”

They stared at each other in a moment of hot, vibrating silence. Then he reached out, grabbed her shoulders, and hauled her up against him for a long, hard kiss. Desire tore through his blood, setting him on fire. He pulled back, breathing roughly. “Okay.”

She swallowed, straightening her glasses then touching her hair, eyes dazed. “Okay. Bye.”

He watched her cross the yard back to the coach house, taking a moment to tamp down on the lust blazing inside him, then grabbed the tequila bottle and headed upstairs.

“That took a long time,” Hallsy said dryly. “The movie’s over.”

“What? You started it?”

“No, I’m kidding.” He lifted an eyebrow and sipped his tequila. “It did take a long time though. What’s going on?”

“I asked her out on a date.” He threw himself back down onto the sectional.

“Holy shit. Seriously?”

“Yeah.” He rubbed his face. “Apparently Brick wants to take her out and in some crazy moment of…I don’t know what. Jealousy? Competition? I told her not to go out with him, and I’d take her out.”

Hallsy laughed. And kept laughing. “How drunk are you? You don’t date.”

“I do. Well. Not really.”

“You just have hookups with Lindsey.”

“Haven’t seen her for a while,” he muttered, reaching for the remote. “Anyway, Jodie’s going to ask Kendra to babysit Friday night. You have to make sure she says yes.”

“Hey. What if we have plans Friday night?”

Nick pursed his lips. “Do you?”

“Nah.”

“Asshole.”

Hallsy grinned. He sipped his tequila. “I thought you said Jodie was annoying.”

Nick grimaced. He had said that. “She talks a lot.”

Hallsy shrugged. “She’s friendly. Outgoing.”

“I guess.”

“So what…is this just going out with her because Brick wants to?”

“I don’t know.” Nick slumped into the couch.

“Don’t be a dick to her. She’s a nice girl. And Kendra’s best friend.”

“I’m not a dick.”

He felt Hallsy’s long look at him and tried to ignore it. “I don’t know why I’m doing it. And I don’t know why she agreed. Brick’s a fun guy. I’m a…dick.” He shook his head. “She denies it, but she probably just feels sorry for me. I just told her about Aleks.”

Hallsy nearly spilled his drink. “You did?”

Nick shrugged. “It just came out.”

“You never talk about Aleks.”

“Yes, I do. When I go out to schools and talk about mental health, I talk about him all the time.”

“Ah. Right. But…”

Hallsy was right. He didn’t talk about Aleks much to his friends. He was guilty of that same tough-guy mentality Aleks had been—keeping things to himself, not wanting to let on to anyone that he was hurting. Yet with Jodie…it had just felt easy. “Okay, it actually felt good to talk about it.”

“Fuck me. This is great!”

Nick frowned. “What? Why?”

“You actually talked to a woman and asked her out on a date. This is progress, man.”

“Progress? What the fuck? You’re talking like there’s something wrong with me.” Well. The truth was, he kind of felt like there was something wrong with him. Like nobody would ever want to be with him, since he wasn’t exactly the life of a party. And he knew he didn’t deserve anyone wanting to be with him. But he’d never admit those feelings out loud, not even to his best bro. He liked his life the way it was.

“There’s nothing wrong with you,” Hallsy said. “But it would be good for you to have someone in your life.”

“Whoa, whoa. This is not like that. This is one date.”

“Sure.”

“I don’t like kids,” Nick reminded him.

“Right, right.” Hallsy relaxed back into the cushions.

Nick scowled. He didn’t need “someone” in his life. His life was fine the way it was.

---

It had been a helluva long time since he’d been on a date.

How sad was his life?

Nick shook his head. Not sad at all. This was how he wanted it. Hookups and hockey were enough for him.

Yet tonight, as he got ready to take Jodie out on a date, he wished he had a little more practice at this. An unfamiliar sense of uncertainty gripped him, tensing his muscles, making his mouth dry. He was almost ready to cancel the whole thing. Why was he even doing this? He was wasting an evening of her time, when she could be going out with someone like Brick, who was fun and knew what the hell he was doing when it came to women and dating.

Canceling would be a dick move though. Also, offering to order in pizza and watch a movie would be pathetic.

He rubbed his jaw as he looked in his bathroom mirror, then ran a hand through his hair. He’d showered, shampooed, trimmed his stubble to a shadow, and was dressed in a pair of navy pants with a navy and tan checked shirt. For luck, he was wearing one of his craziest pairs of socks…navy blue with pink flamingoes.

He could do this.

He actually had a plan. Hopefully Jodie would enjoy it. She was smart and funny, and he wanted to do something she would like.

He grabbed his wallet, phone, and keys, slid on his leather jacket, and headed out to the coach house to pick her up.

She opened the door with a smile. “Hi.”

“Hi.” He let his gaze move over her, taking in the stylish black wide-legged trousers and short boxy gray sweater. She’d emphasized her eyes with some makeup, and her full lips gleamed with shiny gloss. “You look great.”

“Thank you. So do you. I just need my coat, hang on.”

He stepped inside and closed the door behind him while she opened the closet. “Zyana’s at Max and Kendra’s?”

“Yep. She was pretty excited about it too.”

He definitely owed Hallsy for this.

He took her coat and held it out so she could push her arms into the sleeves.

“Thank you.” She flipped her hair out and moved to pick up a small purse sitting on the island. “Okay. I’m curious to know what you have planned for us.”

He hadn’t shared the details with her, just told her to dress casual. He’d considered dinner at a fancy, expensive restaurant but somehow he felt like Jodie was more down to earth than that.

“First, we eat,” he said, opening the door for her. “Hopefully you’re hungry.”

“Starving, actually.”

He got onto North Lincoln and headed toward Old Town. Traffic was crazy, so it took a while to get to their destination and then find parking. Jodie chatted about her day and told funny stories about Zyana as he drove. “So she wouldn’t give up the tampon and wanted to take it to daycare to show her friends. When I told her she couldn’t, she had a meltdown. Oh my God.”

He found himself laughing at her tales. She had such an entertaining way of telling them.

Once parked, he led the way down the sidewalk and paused in front of the Irish pub he’d chosen for dinner and drinks. “Here we are.”

She glanced up at the dark green exterior and the gold lettering on the tall windows. “Cool.”

Inside was dark with a long, polished oak bar on one wall. Numerous TV screens played various sporting events. “Did we come here to watch a hockey game?” Jodie asked, rising onto her toes to speak into his ear.

He grinned. “Nope.” He set his hand on the small of her back and led her past the bar to a smaller room with a few empty tables, and he held a chair for her at the corner table. “We’ll have something to eat here, then we go on to the next part of the evening.”

“You’re being so mysterious.”

Only because he was still worried this whole evening was going to be a big disappointment to her.

When they’d removed their jackets and settled in, he handed her a drink menu card.

“I feel I should have an Irish drink,” she said, looking it over.

He wasn’t thinking about drinks as he watched her. She looked so pretty, her hair all tousled and sexy, her lips shiny.

“Oh, I know.” She set down the card. “Smithwick’s Irish red ale.”

A server approached with a friendly smile and he ordered two of the ales. They then perused the food menu and both decided on the same thing—the black and blue burger, a burger with blackened spices and blue cheese, Jodie choosing fries and him kettle chips.

A loud cheer arose in another small room behind them, where a rousing game of darts was going on. Jodie glanced over her shoulder and smiled. “This is a fun place.”

“Apparently the food is great.”

“No crayons or pictures to color, so I’m pretty excited about that.”

He laughed.

“And where are we going after?”

“There’s an improv theater around the corner.” He checked the time on his phone. “It starts at eight.”

“Improv? Really?” She seemed excited by this.

“Yeah.”

“Awesome!”

“I hope it’s good. It’s a political satire called Alternative Facts.”

“Aaah! I’ve heard of it! It’s supposed to be hilarious!”

“Hopefully.” This seemed positive.

The waitress brought their beers, and they each took a sip, nodding approval.

Jodie let out a breath and relaxed into her chair, looking around. “Well, this is lovely. A Friday-night date.” She lifted her glass and raised it to him in a toast. “Thank you.”

“Thank you.” He chuckled. “And thanks to Kendra and Hallsy for babysitting.”

“I love my daughter, but it’s good to feel like an adult with a life occasionally.”

“Yeah, I can see that.” Although he never had any trouble seeing Jodie as a sexy, grown-up woman. “I guess when you don’t have kids, you take for granted the freedom you have.”

“Oh yeah.” She gave an emphatic nod. “Although it’s almost hard for me to remember what life was like before Zyana. I think I wasted a lot of time,” she added musingly.

“How so? Doing what?”

“Oh, you know…sleeping in. Partying all night. Shopping when I didn’t really need anything.”

“Well, how you fill your time when you have no other responsibilities may be different, but I wouldn’t say it’s a waste of time. I guess I waste a lot of time working on my house or furniture.”

“But you’re accomplishing something doing that. You’re fixing your house, and you’re creating something beautiful.”

“So for you, it’s important to be productive.”

“Hmm.” She tilted her head. “I guess so.”

“Just relaxing and having fun is important too, even if you’re doing nothing.”

“You’re right. Like this.”

“Sure.”

“I guess building relationships is sort of accomplishing something. And that’s important too.”

“Yeah,” he said slowly. “I guess it is.”

She set an elbow on the table and propped her chin on her hand, regarding him with warm interest that made his blood heat. “How did you get started refinishing furniture?”

“I’m not sure. My dad was pretty handy. He did odd jobs, lots of minor house repairs and stuff. Pretty much all our furniture was used, and he made it look newer by painting it or putting on new hardware, and I used to help him. We’d hang out at flea markets and yard sales. Then, when I was playing in the AHL, the first time I ever went to my coach’s house for a party he was having, I saw the antiques he had…not fancy, but nice stuff. They had a gorgeous big round oak table. And that weekend, I spotted a table just like that at a flea market, only it was in rough shape. I was sure it would be just as good as the one at Coach’s house if I worked at it.”

Her face was soft, her attention fixed on him. “And was it?”

“No.” He grimaced. “I spent hours on it, watching YouTube videos to learn what to do, but it turned out it wasn’t solid oak. It was cheap wood painted to look like oak. It totally fooled me. I ended up painting it and selling it.” He rolled his eyes.

“Gah.”

“Live and learn. After that, I started hunting for a table. I had my heart set on a solid oak table, and I finally found one. Of course, I had no idea how much it was going to cost, even though it needed work. I was making decent money at that point, but it seemed like a lot to spend, to me. That’s the table in the dining nook at the house.”

“I think that’s awesome, that you can see the potential in things.”

He lifted one shoulder. “It’s just furniture.”

“Phht.”

He became aware that he’d been talking a lot. He frowned. How the hell had that happened?

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Nothing.” He cleared his expression and shook his head.

Their burgers arrived, and they dug into the food. “I’ll never eat all this,” Jodie said, picking up a French fry and taking a bite.

His gaze landed on her holding her French fry with her fingers, and he flashed back to the weird conversation they’d had at the Sin Bin that night, about women who ate French fries with their fingers.

And then he thought back to that night on her couch and the smoking hot massage and blow job she’d given him, resulting in a stirring in his southern region.

Jesus.

“What?” she asked. “Why are you staring at me like that?”

“I guess it’s true.”

Her eyebrows knit together. “What’s true?”

“Nothing.”

“No, no, you can’t do that. You can’t say something like that and then walk it back.”

He sighed. “You’re going to wish you didn’t ask,” he muttered.

She laughed. “What?”

“According to Brick, women who eat fries with their fingers are, uh, more likely to…well actually, he wasn’t specific, but I gathered he was talking about hand jobs and blow jobs.”

She blinked. Stared at him. Looked at the French fry she was holding. Then burst out laughing. She fell back into her chair she was laughing so hard. “I’ve never heard that,” she wheezed. “Oh my God.”

“Thank God you’re a good sport,” he said with heartfelt sincerity. “Some girls would probably freak out and be offended, and it wasn’t meant that way.”

“I’m not offended.” She shook her head and wiped a tear from one corner of her eye. She leaned forward, still smiling. “After all…you’re right. It’s true.”

Oh great. Now he had a full hard-on. And the evening had barely started.