Back Check (Aces Hockey #4)(11)

 

His eyebrows pulled together. "Of course I will. Jesus."

 

"You didn't seem very enthusiastic about the wedding plans. You didn't even know the date."

 

He shook his head, his mouth a thin line. "Weddings aren't my thing. I've been to too many of them."

 

Her heart stuttered then, remembering what she knew about his childhood-his parents' divorce when he was eight, the series of step-parents and step-siblings who'd come into his life, then disappeared again. And apparently now he had his own failed marriage.

 

Another frosty gust of air stung her cheeks. "Right. Well, hopefully you won't let your past spoil your friends' enjoyment of their own special time."

 

Special time. She wanted to roll her eyes. She sounded so pretentious.

 

"I can't believe you're a wedding planner."

 

"Event planner," she corrected. "I do many other things besides weddings. Anyway, much as I'd love to chat and catch up, I'm freezing. Good night, Tanner." She wrenched open the door of her aging Volvo and slid in. Unfortunately, trying to cram herself, her briefcase, and her big purse into the car all at the same time didn't work and she got ungracefully stuck. She wrestled with the straps of her bags, currently stuck on her coat sleeve, finally getting them free so she could heave the bags onto the passenger seat, pull her legs and the hem of her coat inside, and slam the door shut.  

 

Yep, he was standing there watching her little exhibition of grace. She ground her teeth as she started her car and drove away.

 

Christ on a crutch, how had this happened? She smacked a hand on the steering wheel. She knew she shouldn't have taken this job! She most definitely should have invented a trip to Kiev. She'd swept her misgivings aside because she needed the money and she wanted to do this pretty, elegant wedding for that beautiful couple.

 

Mother of all fuckers, now she was into this and Tanner was one of the groomsmen. She couldn't back out … Lovey'd already been abandoned by one wedding planner; Katelyn couldn't do that to her too.

 

The trembling started deep inside her, working its way from her belly up to her chest and then outward to her arms and legs, reaction at seeing Tanner again. Remembered pain ripped through her. She'd loved him so much.

 

God.

 

She didn't blame him for leaving, she really didn't. Following his freshman year in college, he'd been drafted by the New York Islanders in the second round. He'd come back to college to play there one more year-which was when they'd met-using the time to develop his strength and skills, and had ended the year winning the Hobey Baker Award. Soon after that, the Islanders had offered him an entry level contract. She'd known his dream of playing in the NHL. How could he not take it?

 

She swiped angrily at a tear that escaped her eye. There was no point crying now. That had been eight years ago. She'd cried enough when they'd said goodbye.

 

He was the one who'd been angry, and she didn't blame him.

 

It wasn't far to her apartment on East Delaware Place. She zipped over to Michigan and circled around to the lot where she parked her car. The high-rise building was gorgeous, although a little impersonal, but it was a great location and she was getting a good deal on rent thanks to an acquaintance who sublet it to her due to a transfer to London, England. The one-year job had turned into two years, so she was thankfully still living there.

 

Inside her little studio apartment, she flicked on the lights, dropped her bags, and stripped off her gloves. She was still shaking. It could be from the cold. Maybe a nice hot shower would help.

 

And another glass of wine.

 

She couldn't help replaying the entire encounter over and over in her head as she stood under the hot spray in her bathroom. She probably hadn't handled that very well. She should have been friendlier. Cool but friendly. Like they were old friends.

 

Then more memories flooded back … the night she'd met Tanner at a frat party. The hockey players on campus all had reputations as man hoes and he apparently had tried to live up to that. He'd been so attractive-rough and tough, a little cocky, and a lot handsome. The twinkle in his eye and the sexy smirk broadcast nothing but trouble. But oh, how tempting that trouble was. Girls flocked around him. So did his teammates.

 

Hockey was a physical game, which only made her wonder how physical he got in bed.

 

Katelyn was the daughter of a math professor. Her dad taught at Michigan State, where they went to school. She was studious and maybe a little prim, serious about the business courses she was taking. She'd eyed all the big, tall hockey players surrounded by girls and shook her head. Until she'd seen Tanner.

 

The attraction between them had been instant and powerful, and yet at the time she hadn't really known that. Tanner had been so cool and careless, she'd at first thought he was just screwing around. Making fun of her by flirting with her. She hadn't dared think that his interest in her might be real.