"Tampa's offensive line is going to make you work," she said, shifting closer to him. "Especially that punk Martell."
"Yeah?" He chuckled, because it was fun to talk hockey with a fan who actually watched the game. Maybe he'd underestimated Carrie. Connie. Whatever her name was. "What tricks do you think he has in his bag?"
"His trick is that he's unpredictable. He'll spend a whole game trying to get you with a toe drag, and then the following game he'll try something else."
Mike touched his beer bottle to Connie's wineglass. "You should see if our defensive coordinator is hiring any assistant coaches. I think you'd be a shoo-in."
She threw her head back and laughed, giving him a different view of her elegant throat. She had pink, kissable lips and clear blue eyes.
And he didn't give a damn. His eyes wandered off Connie and scanned the crowd. He thought he'd spied Lauren earlier. She must be here somewhere.
He really shouldn't torture himself, but the sight of Lauren in an evening gown was not to be missed. And then he spotted the shine of her hair, and the graceful line of her neck. He drank in these little details one at a time, because glimpses were all he could have.
There had once been a time when he could look across the room at her and think she's really mine. There was no better feeling than knowing they'd go home together at the end of the night, climbing into bed for sex or conversation. Or both. He missed the whole package.
"Then there's Skews," Connie went on to say. "He's going to give your man O'Doul some trouble."
"Is that so?" O'Doul asked, entering the conversation.
Mike let his gaze wander again. Across the crowded area, a basketball player shifted to the side, giving him a better view. And-holy hell-he couldn't believe what he saw-Lauren wearing a blue dress. The blue dress. The one he'd bought for her when they were dating.
The conversation around him seemed to fade away while he watched her silk-clad body maneuver between two men in tuxes. His eyes weren't fooling him, either. She was wearing the dress he'd bought her on the weekend he'd spent all day trying not to remember. But there it was-a column of silk the color of flower blossoms, clinging gently to the feminine shape of her body. It draped teasingly across the line of her bosom.
She'd worn it. Here, of all places. His throat constricted, and his chest got tight.
"Beak, your tongue is hanging out. Hey." Patrick O'Doul snapped his fingers in front of Mike's face. "You okay?"
He looked up to see that Connie had wandered off, and O'Doul was staring at him. "Not really."
"What's the matter?"
He shook his head like a waterlogged dog. "Seeing Lauren every day. It's killing me. I feel like I'm watching a highlight reel of my own life."
O'Doul put a big hand on his shoulder. "Dude, I'm sorry you miss her."
He spent a moment being surprised that the captain wasn't giving him shit for that kind of sentimental talk. But Doulie was a lucky man these days-in love with Ariana, and still in the honeymoon stage of the relationship where nothing is ever wrong. Lucky bastard.
Once you'd tasted the sweetness of it, you were never the same.
"You never hook up," O'Doul pointed out. "Maybe there's someone else here who will catch your eye?" He looked pointedly toward Connie who was now chatting up Silas. Maybe she really did have a thing for goalies.
Slowly, he shook his head. This roped-off section of the beach was crammed full of attractive, moneyed people who could pay five hundred bucks to chat with athletes and their billionaire team owners. The women were all tanned and dressed to kill.
"You're right. I don't hook up," he told O'Doul. "I have a thirteen-year-old daughter who's gotten very good at noticing everything I do. God forbid I spend the night with some chick who snaps a photo of me, or brags about it on Twitter. Try explaining that to my nosy teenager. If I take somebody to bed it has to be somebody I trust. It has to be worth it." Unbidden, his eyes cycled back through the scene to find Lauren again.
"Well." O'Doul chuckled. "I hear you. And I never really had much interest in the hookup scene, either. But then you need another hobby to burn off some of your energy. Shuffleboard, maybe. Or wakeboarding."
"Let me ask you something." He tore his gaze off his ex. "Let's say you bought Ari a beautiful dress. The first time she wore it, the two of you had frantic sex in a hammock on a Florida beach."
"There are hammocks on the beach?"
Mike cuffed Doulie's shoulder. "There are. But focus, okay? So, three years later, Ari wears the dress again, at a party on a Florida beach. What do you think that means?"
O'Doul stroked his chin. "I think it means-let's have sex again in a hammock on the beach."
"Who's having sex in a hammock?" Leo Trevi asked, stepping between them. "You and Beak? Does Ari know? And how big is this hammock?"
"You are such a comedian," O'Doul grumbled while Leo laughed at his own joke.
"Are there really hammocks nearby?"
Mike sighed. "Yes, and you're welcome." He scanned the crowd again for Lauren. "It's not over between us," he said suddenly. If it was over, he wouldn't still feel like this-as if just standing in the same zip code with Lauren had his body humming with newfound possibility.
"What's not over?" Leo Trevi asked, sipping a fresh beer.
"Beak wants his girl back," O'Doul explained. "But he's facing some pretty steep odds."
"I waited six years to get mine back," Leo said.
Shit. "I don't have six years. I don't even have six weeks. Once the play-offs are over, she'll be gone. You assholes better put some goals on the scoreboard in Tampa. I need to take this thing all the way to the Cup."
"That's the weirdest motivation I've heard for wanting to reach the finals," Leo said. "But whatever works for you, man."
Laughing, O'Doul high-fived him. "Some people play for glory. Some want the money."
"But Beak plays for the puss . . . Hi, sweetheart!" Leo changed his tone in a hurry as Georgia sidled up to him.
"What inglorious conversation have I stumbled into?" Georgia asked, relieving Leo of his beer and taking a gulp. "With twice as many athletes present as usual, I'm sure the smack talk is flying. It better not be about me."
"Never," he said, kissing her jaw. "Dance with me?"
"Only if you share your drink. The line at the bar got long all of a sudden." She took another sip.
"Of course." Leo cupped her elbow in his hand, guiding her toward the dance floor. "Want to take a walk on the beach, later? I heard there were hammocks . . ."
Mike watched the two of them slip away through the crowd. The rookie's eyes were locked on his fiancée's. Leo put up with a fair amount of friendly ribbing over how smitten he was with Georgia, and the kid took it like a champ. He knew he was lucky, and he didn't care what people said.
Mike and Lauren used to have what they had-that effortless connection.
He wanted it back.
Before he even knew what he was doing, Mike began weaving through the crowd toward Lauren. She was sipping a drink which could have been either a gin and tonic or a club soda with lime. And she was standing a discreet few feet from her boss, probably ready to step in and rescue him from anyone who tried to dominate his time.
Whenever Mike was tempted to think that being a sports star was a drag, one look at Nathan and he knew he had it easy. People liked meeting hockey players, but they wanted things from Nate.
He zeroed in on Lauren, where she leaned against the end of the bar. He must have worn his intensity right on his face because when she saw him approaching her eyes got big.
"You summoned me?" he said, stopping a foot away and folding his arms across his chest.
Slowly she shook her head. "If you were summoned it was by someone else. That redhead, maybe."
He smiled because she'd noticed the redhead. That meant she'd been watching him, too. He let his eyes drift down her body slowly. He'd bought the dress on a whim. She'd been trying on shoes in a store, and he'd been eating an ice cream cone outside. The color caught his eye in a shop window. Somehow he just knew it would fit her. There wasn't any doubt in his mind. He'd asked the startled women working there to wrap it up.
His gaze dropped all the way down, then took a lingering path back up, past Lauren's hips, where his hands had once enjoyed skimming the fabric. Up to her breasts, just visible above the soft folds of the blue silk. He leaned forward and spoke into her ear. "You summoned me by wearing this." He let his lips just brush the shell of her ear as he spoke.