Winning It All (Hometown Players Book 4)

by Victoria Denault

  I stare at her. She sips her drink, and the waitress shows up with our meals. As she places them all on the table, Jessie glances over at me. “You looked miserable out there on the ice during the ceremony. I’m guessing your hockey dad is no treat either?”

  I nod. Wow. I did not in a million years see this coming. Jessie Caplan’s dad was a hockey nightmare like my own. I suddenly feel like maybe Jessie is exactly who I want in my life. But I still don’t know why, if she saw the darker side of hockey, she is about to marry a player.

  The conversation turns to talk about the rest of our day—what everyone is looking to buy, what color nail polish we’ll get for our pedis. But every time Audrey looks at me it’s with a knowing smirk. Then, as she looks up at me as the waitress clears our plates and Audrey and Sasha talk about a new store in the mall they want to check out, I turn to Jessie and say softly, “I’m sorry if I’ve been a bit of a bitch to you.”

  Jessie smiles easily. “You haven’t been. You’ve just been kind of distant.”

  “I may have stereotyped you without knowing how much we have in common. I’m sorry.”

  “I get it. My sister even accused me of being a puck bunny when we were kids and I first hooked up with Jordan,” Jessie says and reaches across the table to give my hand a squeeze. “You can make it up to me by including me in the next girls’ day.”

  “For sure,” I agree happily. Thank God she’s willing to cut me some slack.

  I glance up and notice Audrey’s doe eyes glued to something over my shoulder. “Is that Sebastian?!”

  I spin around and my eyes land on Frenchie, who is at a table across the restaurant with a couple of guys.

  “Gonna go say hello to lover boy?”

  I shake my head swiftly as Sasha asks, “Who?”

  “Number eight for the Seattle Winterhawks. Leads the team in fights and penalty minutes. Currently the highest scoring defenseman in the NHL, about to crush Glenn Beckford’s record, and a potential Trojan Magnum spokesman.”

  I reach across the table and smack Audrey’s arm at that last comment while Jessie groans, “Too much information!”

  Sasha’s eyes shoot to Seb’s table and then get wide. “Him? The injured player from the other night? You’re sleeping with him?!”

  “No!” I bark at my sister-in-law. “It was just a one-night stand.”

  “That happened twice,” Audrey adds helpfully.

  Three times, I correct inwardly. Now Jessie is staring at me in shock along with Sasha. “So that kiss I stumbled upon at the game wasn’t a first-time thing?”

  “They kissed at the game?” Audrey looks like someone just gave her a check for a million dollars. “Oh my God, you broke your own rules. Knowingly. You like him!”

  “I have no idea why I am friends with you,” I say to her and turn to Jessie and Sasha. “That was a mistake. Being around my father gave me temporary insanity. It was nothing. We’re nothing. He’s a hockey player.”

  Audrey looks past me at him again, and he must be looking back because she mouths the word “hello.” Jessie waves. “Oh! He’s with Chooch and Dix.”

  I can’t help but look back over, and Seb winks at me. I turn away, trying to quell the ripple of heat that starts to flow through my veins.

  He looks mouthwateringly good. His hair is styled, pushed back a little off his forehead and tousled. He’s wearing a charcoal shirt. The color makes his eyes look even lighter somehow. His jeans are well worn and he has battered black boots on.

  I have to admit, I had expected to see him before now. I thought he would follow me back into the private box at the hockey game, but I didn’t see him again for the rest of the game. And he hadn’t been by the gym yesterday. Whether I liked it or not, I found myself wondering where he was and what he was doing and why I hadn’t seen or heard from him. My heart was the one asking the questions, while my brain screamed the obvious answers.

  You haven’t heard from him because he’s done with you. You treated him like crap. He finally got sick of it, which is what you wanted. He’s moved on to the billions of eager, hot girls that want him.

  That’s why, now that I see him sitting there laughing with his buddies, I have to ignore him. Because I finally got what I wanted. I can’t screw that up. Sasha glances over her shoulder, at Frenchie and his friends, and back at me.

  “He’s got his very pretty eyes glued to you, Shayne.”

  “It like he’s trying to remove your clothes with his eyeballs,” Audrey comments.

  “Well, that’s not happening again,” I vow, even though I do not sound at all convincing.

  “Good-looking, great guy with a good income—why wouldn’t you want to date him?” Jessie wants to know, her green eyes blinking innocently.

  I sigh, loudly, and nervously play with my hair. I can feel his eyes on me. It’s making me warm. “My dad and basically all his teammates were cheaters. I dated a hockey player in college and he was a cheater.”

  “Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon,” Jessie agrees, but she doesn’t look concerned, which I would if I was engaged to one. “But for every player I know who cheats, I can name two who don’t. I’ve never seen Seb in a long-term relationship, but I know him well, and I’m confident he would be in the don’t column.”

  “And he gives her orgasms,” Audrey adds, crunching on the celery in her now empty glass. I glare at her but she goes on, undaunted.

  “Go Seb!” Jessie laughs. “He’s also great at making cocktails. Seriously, Shayne, he’s a catch.”

  “Can we talk about something else?” I beg, so embarrassed now I feel like running away. I take a long sip of my Bloody Mary. Audrey rolls her eyes at me but shows me some support and changes the subject, asking Sasha if they have baby names picked out yet. A few minutes later as Sasha is explaining how much Trey loves the name Brandy and how much she hates it, a fresh Bloody Mary is placed in front of me, and the hand holding it doesn’t belong to the waiter. I look up and Sebastian is smirking down at me.

  “Thank you,” I say, because I don’t know what else to say.

  “You’re welcome,” he replies just as simply, and then he glances at Audrey, Jessie and Sasha with less smirk and more smile. “I ordered another round for all of you too.”

  Sasha grins, leans forward and extends her hand. “I’m Sasha, Shayne’s sister-in-law. And thank you. Please join us.”

  Ugh!

  Sasha slides out of the booth as Sebastian reaches over and grabs a chair from a nearby empty table. “I’ll take that and you can slide into my place,” she offers and pats her baby belly. “I’m running to the bathroom every ten minutes anyway.”

  As if to prove her point, she waddles off to the bathroom. He drops his sweet ass into the booth and then leans back and wraps his arm around the back. My stomach does a somersault. God, what a pathetic reaction. The waiter shows up a minute later with fresh drinks for Audrey and Jessie and a Pellegrino for Sasha. Audrey looks back at Sebastian’s friends and points.

  “Why don’t you invite them over too?” Audrey asks with a smile. “I can text Josh and Jessie can text Jordan and we can make this a real party.”

  “What about shopping and—”

  Audrey cuts me off. “My birthday, my plans. And I’m changing them.”

  “Bonne fête, Audrey.” Sebastian raises his drink at my best friend, and the biggest traitor in my life, and turns to wave his friends over. As he does, his arm presses more firmly against my shoulders and his fingers graze my upper arm. It makes me tingle—between my legs.

  A moment later Michael Choochinsky and Chris Dixon are pulling up some extra chairs and we’ve formed a group. Everyone is chatting at once. Audrey starts talking with Chooch. Dix has two kids, so he starts talking to my sister about formula and baby toys and colic. Jordan shows up and we order another round and move to a bigger table across the restaurant. Sebastian still ends up beside me somehow. Then Josh is there. Everyone is laughing and chatting and another round is ordered. I try in vai
n to stare straight ahead and focus on what Sasha is saying to Dix, but I can feel the heat of Frenchie’s stare beating into the side of my face, so finally I relent and glance at him.

  “Miss me?” he asks, his light blue eyes dancing.

  I roll my eyes but can’t fight a bit of a grin myself, because he’s just so ridiculous. “You haven’t been around? Hadn’t noticed.”

  Bald-faced lie.

  He looks crushed. “Guess I’ll have to work harder at giving you something to miss.”

  I wrap both hands around my Bloody Mary, put the straw between my lips and take a long, slow sip. He makes the smallest little noise in the back of his throat that I’m sure no one can hear but me.

  “I missed you.” He admits it so easily I’m floored. So floored I have no response. He seems to enjoy that and he leans closer—so close the stubble on his chin tickles my shoulder and I shiver a little. “Why are you so surprised by that? I’m not the one who is against this—us.”

  I turn to face him and pull back a little because he’s leaning so close to me that if I don’t our lips will touch. And that can’t happen in public in front of everyone. Or ever. “Because you know exactly where to find me and you haven’t found me.”

  His smile softens at that, becoming less cocky. “I thought you didn’t want to be found. At least not by me.”

  “I don’t,” I reply softly, and for some reason my brain can’t comprehend, my heart adds, “I shouldn’t.”

  “You know what they say, Shay,” he whispers, his stubble once again rubbing deliciously against my skin. “You won’t miss me if I don’t go away.”

  Wow. Seriously? He’s been staying away from me because he wanted me to miss him? So tell him you missed him, dumbass, my heart wails at my brain, which completely ignores it. Instead I press my lips together and say nothing at all. Chooch says Sebastian’s name, trying to pull him into the conversation about golf he’s having with Josh and Jordan. I keep my hands around my glass to avoid resting one on his knee under the table. That’s all I want to do. Touch him. God, I miss touching him.

  Chapter 26

  Sebastian

  I’m smiling at the fact that this day turned out so very differently than I anticipated and I couldn’t be happier.

  When Dix and I originally joined our goalie for a liquid brunch, it was simply to help Chooch, who had called me from a hotel room this morning because he’d walked out on Ainsley the night before. He was contemplating going back to her, and this being the first step to really ridding him of her, I jumped at the chance to meet him and make sure he didn’t weaken. Dix offered to join me. Dix was the most happily married guy I knew and the biggest advocate for coupledom, and even he knew Ainsley was a cancer Chooch need to cut out of his life.

  A secondary reason, a selfish one, to meet Chooch was because it was a way to keep my mind off Shay. I was purposely avoiding her. I was giving her time to miss me—I hadn’t been kidding about that. But I also didn’t know what to say about what I’d seen her father do. Or if I should say anything. Not seeing her, though, was torture.

  I had decided, right before Chooch called, that I was going to go to Elevate Fitness and talk to her. I wasn’t sure what I was going to say, or if I would mention what I saw with her dad, but I needed to see her again. Whether she wanted to or not, she responded to that kiss in the stairwell. But Chooch needed me, and I never blew off a teammate. Especially because I know Chooch was toying with the idea of going back to Ainsley, and that would be the worst possible thing, for him and our team. He was still playing like shit and I was hoping—we all were—that if she stayed gone he would be able to focus. Still, I wanted to see Shayne again so much I ached.

  And then fate intervened, and there she was. When I first noticed her across the restaurant, I wanted to walk right over and grab her pretty head and lay my lips on hers. But Chooch was in the middle of pouring his heart out. I waited as long as I could—about an hour—until I was literally twitching in my seat trying to fight the urge to go talk to her.

  “Dude, what the fuck?!” Dix had said and waved a hand in front of my face to get my attention again. He had been telling us a story about how he knew it was right with his wife, Maxine. “You could do to listen to this too. Didn’t your last relationship go all Fatal Attraction?”

  “Sorry,” I muttered.

  Both Dix and Chooch turned around to see what was so distracting. “I’ve been…involved with the girl over there.”

  “The pregnant one?!” I give Dix a withering stare and he laughs. “What? With you anything is possible.”

  “The one next to the pregnant one,” I explain, and both sets of eyes turn and stare at Shay. “Here name is Shay. She’s the sister of Avery’s old teammate, Trey. The guy who owns Elevate Fitness.”

  “Really? You’re dating her?” Dix seemed shocked.

  “Not technically.” I sighed. I don’t want to gossip about Shay so instead I just mutter, “It’s complicated.”

  “She’s hot,” Dix says admiringly. “Nice eyes.”

  “Nice everything,” I reply, and he smiles at that.

  “She works at the gym, right? The girl in the green dress from the opening party?” Chooch says, his freckled face scrunching up a little as he strains to remember.

  “Yoga teacher and nutritionist,” I tell Chooch.

  “So is she bendy?” Chooch wants to know. “I hear you can fuck yoga girls with their legs behind their heads.”

  I feel my skin turning pink. Dix chuckles, and Chooch raises his hand for a high-five. I reluctantly give it to him. “Shut up, okay,” I demand. “It’s not like that. I like her.”

  “What do you mean?” Dix acts like he’s never, ever heard of the concept.

  “I like her. I’m trying to date her,” I explain.

  “Then maybe you should go over there and, you know, talk to her.” Dix’s words drip with sarcasm and so does his smile.

  “I want to,” I admit. “It’s just complicated.”

  “Well, then, I’m going to give you the same advice I’m giving Chooch,” Dix says. “Give up and get out.”

  I shake my head and smile as I rise to my feet. “Nah. She’s just worth it.”

  And that’s when I gave in and ordered a round for them, delivering her drink in person.

  Now here we are, three hours later, at a bar a few doors down from the restaurant, ordering more drinks, listening to the Bon Jovi cover band and having a blast. Sasha is the only one who bailed, heading home shortly after we joined the girls. Shay had tried to leave too, but Audrey had used to birthday-girl powers to veto that. Shay pouted a little bit at first, but now she is on the dance floor with Audrey and Josh rocking out to “You Give Love a Bad Name.” She’s moving her hips, her arms up by her head, her eyes almost closed as she sings along. She’s looks fucking delicious. My mouth is watering.

  So far two random guys have tried to dance with her, lumbering up behind and bumping against her. Every time she moved away from them, her sparkling gray eyes drifting to me. She wants this as much as I do, my brain screamed. Or maybe it was my dick. Sometimes, around her, it’s hard to differentiate.

  “He’s going to do something he’ll regret,” I hear Dix say, and I tear my eyes off Shay. He’s frowning, still looking over at Chooch, who is now standing even closer to the long, lean brunette.

  “We want him over Ainsley, don’t we?” Jordan counters, taking a swig from his beer bottle. “Sometimes the fastest route to that is fucking someone else.”

  “Chooch isn’t technically broken up with Ainsley,” I remind my teammates. “They haven’t had a final talk. He just got mad at her and spent the night at a hotel. We need to get him home and make sure he ends this properly before he sleeps around.”

  Jessie must have walked up behind me in the middle of my little lecture because suddenly her slender arm is around my shoulder, and I glance sideways and see her face. “Seb is right. Ainsley might be a total bitch, but Chooch did love her. Let’s mak
e sure he doesn’t disrespect that. Go over there and untangle him from the girl.”

  She gives her fiancé a little push; Jordan groans but wanders away from us and over to our goalie. She turns to me with a grin. “And now to fix your love life.”

  “I’d be forever grateful if you did,” I reply honestly. “I have no idea how to do it myself.”

  Jessie looks over to where Shay is still dancing her ever-loving heart out. “She likes you. She likes me too, but she was blowing both of us off, and today I figured out why.”

  “Hockey.”

  “Her father, more specifically,” Jessie adds and wraps another arm around my shoulder. “I think he’s a total narcissistic dick.”

  “A cheating, narcissistic dick.” I lower my voice a little, even though it’s loud in here. “I saw him making out with a woman at the game the other night. Not his wife.”

  “Shut up,” Jessie bursts out in shock and then she groans, dropping her head onto my shoulder. “Ugh. Did you tell her?”

  “No. I didn’t know what to say,” I reply. “I mean, it’s not my family or my business and…I think she knows anyway.”

  “I think you should tell her,” Jessie says.

  My eyes land on Shay again, and this time she’s looking back. The song ends and the cover band goes right into “Living on a Prayer,” one of the only Bon Jovi songs I like. I glance at Jessie, uneasy.

  “I would want to know,” she urges.

  I don’t answer her. I just take a deep breath and walk over to the edge of the dance floor. She’s watching me the whole time, even though both she and Audrey are still bouncing around and singing along. I wiggle my finger at her, beckoning her to come to me. I don’t expect her to do it. I almost expect her to flip me a middle finger or at the very least roll her pretty eyes and turn away. But to my utter amazement, she walks over to where I’m standing. Shay grabs my beer and takes a sip and then smiles as she hands it back. But it’s a guarded smile. “You summoned?”