Reid took a deep breath before he wound up and shot the puck towards the net. Something about being on an empty sheet of ice taking slap shots from the blue line made him feel better. After the odd experience that was speed dating, he needed to spend a little alone time focusing, and the ice was where he usually found the most clarity.
When Sarah walked away, he found it hard to stop thinking about her and immediately calling her to continue their conversation. The ice was supposed to be hindering those thoughts, but it wasn’t helping. He wondered what she’d think when she heard he was a hockey player. Most women would relish the idea, but Sarah had already pointed out she wasn’t normal. Reid figured that was what drew him to her. He couldn’t put his finger on what exactly intrigued him, but there was no denying there was something there.
Taking another puck from a pile about a foot away, Reid shanked a shot, missing the net by a mile. He didn’t make every shot, but he usually got the puck in the general vicinity.
“I warned you.”
Nico’s presence was not welcome. Reid couldn’t get Sarah’s face out of his head, but it was Nico’s voice he kept hearing harping on him.
“What exactly did you warn me, Nico? All you said was she wasn’t the right one.”
Reid took another shot and made it on target. He sighed as he turned around and leaned on his stick. His teammate was standing behind the bench with a look Reid couldn’t read on his face. Like Reid, Nico was still in the clothes he wore to the club. Evidently at least one woman got her lips on him because a pale pink set of lip prints were on his left cheek. Reid laughed and rubbed his own cheek.
“Before you answer that, you might want to rub that off. How many kisses were stolen tonight?”
If they weren’t supposed to set up their own dates, Reid was pretty sure the rules said something about not kissing perspective dates. It wasn’t like any of the people running the show would’ve done anything about it, but it seemed they should’ve had a little more order to things. Not that Reid was complaining about their lack of keeping things running smoothly.
“Huh, oh.” Nico made the motions of rubbing the lipstick off, but didn’t seem to care whether he was successful. “I think three women kissed me before I left their table. It was a slow night.”
Whether he was disappointed about that wasn’t obvious as he quickly straightened his posture and narrowed his eyes. Reid had assumed his lecture would be waiting for him to get home. Nico was looking out for his best interests, which Reid knew, but interests could change.
“How many dates do you think you racked up?”
Keeping the conversation from the lecture about Sarah wasn’t going to last forever, but Nico liked to talk about conquests, and potential ones. Reid didn’t understand how he could go from woman to woman and not get driven to distraction.
“I’ll probably hook up with two of them. My night isn’t what we need to talk about. I warned you to stay away from redhead.”
“Her name is Sarah,” Reid said quickly.
“So you said. She the reason you’re here? It’s after ten and we have practice early tomorrow morning that I know you’ll be at. Usually you’re in bed by now.”
Nico made it sound like Reid was a saint. He was, at least as far as the way he lived, but that didn’t mean he liked being teased about it endlessly like his teammates were known to do.
“You don’t have to worry about it. I think she’s agreed to go to dinner with me if I go to a wedding with her.”
His friend’s head tilted to the side before he started shaking his head. Reid expected the look that reminded him of how his father glared at him when he was five and tracked mud in the house.
“You are not going to a wedding with the girl. You ask me to help make sure you don’t wander from your goals and wedding with woman is not a good idea.”
It wasn’t the ideal situation, but Reid didn’t have the aversion to weddings everyone he seemed to know did. They were just like going to an elaborate dinner that lasted a little longer. He’d been to three of them within five years, and they weren’t anything special.
“She’s not looking for a boyfriend, Nico. She just needs help getting out of a jam because her ex apparently has a boyfriend or something.”
Reid’s mind had drifted to the loser he assumed drove Sarah to speed dating. He didn’t know the story, but he already hated the guy.
“Her ex a man or a woman?”
At least the question wasn’t a continuation of the scolding. Reid assumed he was a man, and remembered using masculine pronouns without being corrected.
“Pretty sure he’s a guy. It sounds like it just happened, so she’s not looking to get involved. She’s just committed to this wedding and needs someone to go with her.”
“Why? The ex going to be there?”
Nico’s position had relaxed a little, but for him that just meant his shoulders slumped so they weren’t forming perfect right angles. Reid couldn’t mimic the look without his gear to help square his shoulders. Since he was just shooting some pucks, he hadn’t even put skates on.
“Probably not, but I’ll make sure I ask when I call her to work out the details.”
“So you didn’t take her out to eat?”
The concept confused Nico. Reid had mentioned he was trying for a dinner and chances were Nico had never been turned down. With his somewhat gruff exterior, Reid always thought women may take a little warming up to his charm. That never seemed to be the case.
“Nope. She claimed she was busy, so as you can see, you have nothing to worry about when it comes to her.”
Nico’s head shook from side to side as he sighed. The men were at least ten feet away and Reid could easily hear that sigh.
“Not her I’m worried about now. I never see you look at someone like her. She dangerous.”
Sarah couldn’t have been more than a hundred and twenty pounds. As far as Reid saw, she didn’t look to be packing any weapons, so the idea of her being dangerous made him laugh. He knew what Nico was getting at, but his buddy was off the mark.
“She wouldn’t even let me take her out to dinner. She’s not dangerous.”
“Really? How many times have you reached to your phone to call? You have phone number, right?”
“Why are you here, Nico.”
Reid didn’t want to admit there was a reason the phone Nico picked up and waved in his direction was over on the bench instead of in his pocket. Usually just being out on the ice cleared Reid’s head, but his fingers were itching to use the number he’d programmed into the phone.
“When I didn’t find you at apartment, I knew you’d be here.”
“Yeah? What about the hot date you thought I was off to? We could’ve hit it off and headed back to her place.”
Reid walked over to Nico and grabbed the phone from him. He liked that the choice to contact Sarah was in his court, but at the same time it would’ve been nice if she at least seemed interested in getting his number as well. While he waited for a response, he idly unlocked the phone and scrolled through his contacts.
“She may mess with your head, but you’re still you. I think the whole league knows about your celibacy.”
That idea was frightening, and a complete exaggeration. The guys on the team knew screwing everything that moved wasn’t on his agenda, but he did his best to hide the fact he wasn’t interested in the drama of juggling the women many of them did.
“Well, since I know you sometimes screw two women a night, someone has to counteract how freely you move around. You never really answered why you’re here. If you knew I’d be here, there was no need for you to come just to watch me take practice shots.”
Reid stopped when he got to Sarah’s name in the list and let his thumb hover over the call option. It was getting late, but it sounded like she was going to be up for a while packing, or whatever she needed to do to get ready to move.
“I figure if you haven’t done anything stupid yet, it’s only a matter of time. I need to know whether you want me to let you think about something other than the game. Over the years you’ve played here, you’ve been insistent that you didn’t want a distraction. Then you see the redhead and all you can think about is when you can stick your dick in her.”
With the phone in his right hand, Reid opened his left hand and dropped the stick he was still holding right before he pulled his left arm back and punched Nico square in the chest. It wasn’t his strongest since he was right-handed, but it wasn’t a friendly tap either. Nico had absolutely no physical reaction.
“You get one hit, only because I wanted to see the reaction. You can’t tell me you don’t feel something in your loins when you think about her. I saw it earlier tonight and it’s still there as you think about calling her. You old enough now that you don’t need a keeper.”
Reid hadn’t lived with his parents in six years, so he hadn’t had an official keeper when he’d made it into the big leagues, but Nico was about as bad as a mother hen. It wasn’t a trait he’d ever pushed on Reid, which the younger man was thankful for.
“I think she agreed to go to my dinner and I’m going to fill in as a groomsman for her, but that’s it. She seems nice enough, but I don’t think there’s going to be anything more than us helping each other out.”
“Yeah,” Nico said as he rolled his eyes. “You keep telling yourself that. You not only agreed to be a date to a wedding, you’re actually going to be in it. That’s nuts, dude. I’m going to go home and drink to you and your girlfriend. Because that’s the road you’re heading down whether you want it or not.”
Nico didn’t bother with good-bye as he walked away shaking his head. Reid was fairly sure the other man’s head was stuck moving side to side. The conversation went about how Reid expected it would. He was surprised Nico took it to the point of getting punched, but Reid knew he’d get a ribbing.
If Nico had spent any time with Sarah, he’d know he was connecting dots that weren’t there. Sarah hadn’t officially said she’d go to the dinner. Their conversation had weaved in and out without a real conclusion. She’d said he could call so they could work out details, and there wasn’t any time like the present to verify he was done looking for a date.
He quickly hit the call button before he could change his mind again. They had a day and a half to figure out logistics for his dinner, so he had an excuse, even if it felt a little stalker-like. The phone rang three times before a man answered.
“Who’s this?”
Reid wasn’t expecting the question or the masculine voice. He pulled the phone away from his ear to make sure he’d hit the right button. The phone indicated he’d called Sarah, but unless there was something major she hid from him during the speed dating, she wasn’t the one answering the phone.
“Is Sarah there?”
He didn’t think he owed it to the guy to explain who he was since the guy was answering someone else’s phone. Reid had his own idea about who the guy was, but he kept it to himself.
“Hey, is my phone in here? I thought I heard it ringing, but can’t find it.”
Hearing Sarah’s voice was a relief. There were a few moments of worry that she’d given him a wrong number.
“Yeah, I thought I’d grab it since you were busy in the bedroom. It’s some guy asking for you, but it came up without a name. If you want, I’ll tell him to get lost.”
“Give me the phone, Aaron. If you want to be helpful, you can quit unpacking my stuff.”
Sarah sounded a little exasperated. Reid had to settle for grating his teeth together to make sure he didn’t make the situation tougher for her. He bent down and picked up his stick so he could take it over to the locker room where the team had their supply of twigs.
His apartment was close enough he could’ve walked, but he’d driven his car from the club. Leaving his car in the arena lot and walking was an option, but he preferred to keep his baby in the garage.
“Hello,” Sarah said as she apparently commandeered her phone.
“Please tell me that isn’t the bisexual heartbreaker.”
The fact that he was unpacking her clothes helped solidify Reid’s thought on the mystery man. The sigh coming from Sarah was a hard one to read. There could have been relief, but for the most part she sounded tired.
“Hi, Reid. I wasn’t expecting you to call tonight, but I’m happy you did. Everything is currently being tossed in boxes, so I’m going to probably need to go shopping tomorrow for an outfit for our dinner date Sunday and I need to know how dressy it should be.”
The use of the word date was an interesting choice. Reid hoped she was trying to make the jerk answering her phone jealous. If the idiot was stringing her along while he was seeing someone else, he deserved to feel his teeth being kicked in.
“So it is the loser. You need me to come over to make sure everything gets packed properly?”
It felt natural to offer his help, but at the same time Reid was sure it came off a little creepy since they’d just met. For everyone’s sake, it was best if she said no. The idea of the guy harassing Sarah bugged him, though.
“I’m probably going to give up packing for the night and get some sleep. I have to pick up a truck in the morning and sometime work in the shopping trip I mentioned, which means you have to tell me what I should wear. I can’t go wrong with a black dress, right?”
“I’ll be wearing a suit, so a dress would be appreciated. Is he staying there with you? I know it’s not any of my business, but he didn’t sound like someone ready to be an ex when he answered your phone.”
The mundane conversation about dinner and maybe playing a little game of getting to know each other took a backseat to the worry about her safety building. Reid had milled around the locker room, but the conversation wasn’t one he could stand around and let play out. He grabbed his keys out of his pocket and headed towards the elevator.
“And what time do I need to be ready? You’re picking me up at my new place, right?”
“Let’s go for a simple yes or no question, since it doesn’t seem you’re going to answer any of my others. Are you currently in danger?”
Sarah laughed, which seemed like a good sign, but Reid was so confused he didn’t know what to make of it. There was a chance Nico was right that he’d bitten off more than he could maybe chew. It hadn’t felt like that when he was able to see Sarah, but the need to rush over to her apartment to make sure she was safe was a new feeling.
“No, it’s not like that. I just don’t really have an answer to your first question.”
“And evidently he’s listening to your side of the conversation.”
Reid had made it to his car, which he unlocked and slid into. It had been a long day and he was ready to get home so he could unwind, but sleep seemed like a long way off.
“Yup, but like I said, it’s probably nothing to worry about. I was serious about heading to bed. Can you call back maybe sometime tomorrow afternoon? Or I guess I could call you, but I wasn’t sure if you had plans.”
“Put my number on speed dial in case you need it tonight. I’ve got some stuff going on in the morning and most of the night, but if you need anything from about ten to four, I’m just a phone call away.”
He hesitated to say he had practice and a game. She’d have to know about what he did for a living, but he wanted to hold off telling her until it was too late for her to back out of the dinner. There was something about her that made him think she’d be the one out of a hundred women who wouldn’t be impressed that he played hockey for a living.
“Okay, let’s make plans that I’ll call you around one and we can finish working out the details. Hopefully by then I’ll be all moved in and have a dress that won’t embarrass you too much.”
Reid scoffed at the idea. If it was up to him, they’d both wear something casual, but aside from the fact he needed to go to the dinner, the only other thing he really knew was that a tie was required.
He went ahead and finally started his car. It didn’t sound like he needed to rush to Sarah’s rescue, so he had to settle for what was sure would be a restless night of sleep.
“If my phone isn’t ringing at one, you’ll hear from me. Thanks for agreeing to the dinner, Sarah. I have a feeling you being there is going to make a boring evening a hundred times more interesting.”
“I hope not. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Since it sounds like you just started your car, drive home carefully.”
The phone went dead before he could say anything else. Part of him wished he knew her address so he could drive over and visually verify everything was okay. The thought made it clear that Nico had every right to worry about where Reid’s head was at.