by Amber Lynn
Her exact hair color was a little hard to determine because of the lighting, but it was definitely brown. The light seemed to hit on some golden shadings in the long strands that hung around her face. It looked like it’d been a while since she’d had a trim because the hair trailed down her shoulders all the way to her abdomen.
Most of her features were secondary to Ryan’s focus. As soon as he’d heard the knock on the window, his eyes had zoomed to the woman’s light brown eyes. There was a feeling of loss and fear that immediately made him feel protective.
As his eyes had moved up to meet hers, he saw she was wearing a purple top with a leather coat covering it and a pair of jeans. He also saw that she didn’t look like she skipped meals. He didn’t consider her anywhere near overweight, merely healthy, but the women he usually ran in circles with were so skinny that he always felt like he needed to offer them a steak.
Most of the guys he knew were into the stick figure supermodels that they thought looked good on their arms. Ryan thought if a woman needed a reminder that food was an essential part of living, she wasn’t someone he wanted to hang around with.
The woman waved a hand in front of the window to help focus his attention. She looked nervous, so Ryan tried his best to give her a smile that wouldn’t immediately make her run for her car. Smiles generally didn’t brighten his face like they did most people, but he tried to break them out when he could.
She was far enough back from the car that she didn’t need to move as he opened the door to step out. As his big body unfurled from the car, it was hard to miss the fact she took two giant steps backwards. She looked to be only around five-seven, so his six-foot-four frame dwarfed her.
She tried to hide her fear, but as her eyes widened, it was clear she considered him a little intimidating. Ryan couldn’t blame her. They were out in the middle of nowhere and there were no indications their hosts would be there soon.
Ryan was still studying the woman, which probably didn’t help matters. There was something vaguely familiar about her, but he didn’t think they’d met. Since she knew Dylan and Casey, he assumed he’d seen her at the arena at some point.
“Are you Ryan?”
A heavily Southern accent wasn’t what he’d expected to hear. The quiet timidness, yes. The twang, not so much. He didn’t know why, but it sounded like the accent was manufactured. He wouldn’t bet his life on it, but something was just a little off about it.
Hearing that she knew his name was almost just as surprising. Clearly Casey was more forthcoming with her victims than her husband was.
“Ryan Gulliver at your service.” Ryan reached his arm out to shake her hand, but her reaction to his confirmation wasn’t what he expected. It was still early in the acquaintance and he was fairly certain no one had screwed with his expectations as much as the mystery woman.
Her left hand flew up to her forehead and she groaned as she slowly slid it down her face to cover most of it. “From your size, I assume you really are a hockey player, right? Casey didn’t lie to me about that much, did she?”
It was clear there wasn’t going to be any hand shaking going on, so Ryan lowered his arm back to his side and stared at the woman. He didn’t know her nuances, but he was pretty sure there was frustration in her voice.
“What exactly do you think Casey lied to you about in the first place? I assumed since you knew my name, you knew who I was.” Ryan’s mind scrolled through anything he’d done or said that could disprove something Casey said about him. Since he’d only uttered his name, and that seemed to be a match, he wasn’t sure what the woman’s problem was.
Her hand finished the slide down her face and lowered. Instead of answering the question immediately. She scrutinized his face. He’d spent at least two straight minutes doing the same thing to her, so he didn’t mind the engrossed focus.
Things did end up being a little weird when she reached her relatively small hand out and wiggled his nose. Ryan had been on quite a few dates in his day, but no one ever yanked on his nose. As she drew her hand away from it, he extended his arm to grab hers. Her fingers were icy in his, making him reach for her other hand and start rubbing them together with his.
Her brows furrowed at the move, but she didn’t yank her hands away. Ryan hoped their hosts would be there soon, because it was a rather cool evening, and he didn’t want to spend the whole night standing around in the winter air.
“They said you were a fighter, but clearly that was just some kind of joke between them.”
Ryan was focused on their hands and creating friction to warm her up, so for a second he wasn’t sure what to make of the words. Part of him was pretty sure they were meant as an insult.
“Did you watch tonight’s game? You did see that I had nine penalty minutes, right? Five of those were for a fight.”
It wasn’t one of his better fights, mainly because his opponent seemed like he was just learning how to skate and couldn’t keep his balance when he started swinging. They were getting close to the end of the year, when a lot of teams called up guys from the minors. The level of play was a little quicker than those guys were used to, which often led to them trying to be noticed anyway they could.
Ending up on the ice after a ten-second fight didn’t seem like the best way to put a good foot forward, but Ryan tried to warn the guy he didn’t want anything to do with him. People often talked about good hockey sense, and picking a fight with someone who has over a thousand penalty minutes just isn’t good hockey sense if you can’t stay on your feet.
The woman’s eyes squinted as she thought about what he said. “But it seemed like they were saying you’ve fought everyone on the team at least once.”
That didn’t really make things clearer for Ryan, but he nodded his head. “I’d say that’s a pretty accurate assessment. There’s a rookie or two who’ve been smart enough not to start something, but I’ve fought Taylor at least ten times, so that should make up for it.”
That evidently wasn’t the answer she was looking for, because she pulled one of her hands from his and reached up to his nose again. Her hands had warmed a little, but they were still chilly. “But your nose isn’t broken.”
Ryan again took her hand in his. She wasn’t really explaining anything, but at least the reason for her obsession with his nose was a little clearer.
“I’m guessing you haven’t been in a lot of fights. The basic idea is to hurt the other guy while making sure he doesn’t hurt you. Most guys are usually good at one of those things. I happen to be one of the few who is exceptional at both.”
Ryan was proud of that accomplishment, but the scowl on the woman’s face told him she wasn’t too happy about it for some reason.
“Other than thinking you were lied to, is there another reason my nose not being smashed in is an issue?”
The fact that he still didn’t know her name wasn’t lost on Ryan. It didn’t seem like he was on the fast track to learn any basic information about her other than what he could pick up from observations. He’d surmised she was Southern, pretty, ate more than salads and was a little shy. The fact that she had accosted his nose twice made the shyness questionable, but something told him she was holding back.
Rather than answer Ryan’s question, she just nodded. He waited for her to elaborate, but no words were forthcoming.
He tried to make sense of it on his own, but he couldn’t remember a time when someone was hopeful that his face would be mangled. Just thinking that he realized that wasn’t quite true, but he wasn’t counting hockey players in the equation.
“I’m getting the feeling you don’t want to share what the issue is.” A slight shake of the head was the only response Ryan got. “Okay, I guess we should figure out if whatever the reason is will end our night early. I assume Dylan and Casey will be here soon, so we probably only have a few minutes to figure out if we’re going our separate ways before the date they’ve set up.”
“Do you want to leave?”
It w
as an easy question for him to answer. “Not really. Unless you want to go grab dinner somewhere else and skip the part where Casey and Dylan pepper us with questions and try to push us together.”
“So you have been on one of their setups before. I was led to believe you were new on the team, so this was the first time you’ve had to deal with the inquisition.” For some reason her assumption made her relax, at least that’s what Ryan thought when she sighed and her shoulders rolled back.
“I was partially joking about how I thought the night was going to go if we stick around here. I take it you’ve experienced what it’s really like.”
Ryan had made some assumptions, and it wasn’t comforting that she had backed them up. He knew meeting someone for the first time with two other people pushing them together wasn’t going to be a lot of fun, but he’d hoped it wouldn’t be painful.
“You haven’t?”
“No.” Ryan shook his head to reiterate the word. “I’ve only met Casey a few times, and none of them were over dinner. How bad is it going to be?”
The initial response was almost a snort. “I promised myself after the last time that I would never let Casey talk me into one of these again.”
“Wow. That bad. Why in the world did you agree to come tonight?” Ryan was still trying to figure out why he had, so he was eager to hear the thought process someone else in his position went through.
The woman looked down at their hands for a second and then back up to his face. Her fingers wiggled a little against his hands, but she didn’t take them away.
“I wasn’t going to. I told myself never again, but then one of the hockey wives called me innocent. I know I’m not the wildest woman here in the city, but I hate when people assume I’m green just because I didn’t grow up in a big city.”
She squinted as she spoke, reliving whatever anger the comment had originally ignited. Ryan didn’t know enough about her to say whether an innocent title fit, but he was fairly certain she was closer to innocent than she wanted to admit. The feeling stemmed from the shyness he thought she was trying to hide.
“So you were basically dared to be here and you thought you’d find a guy with a broken nose. I’m not sure that speaks well for our future, but I’m willing to sit through a dinner if you are.”
Ryan heard tires crushing gravel a short distance away. Headlights hadn’t found their way to them, but it wouldn’t be much longer before they had company. If she decided they should make a run for it, they wouldn’t go unnoticed.
“I’m sure they picked up a lot of food. It’d be a shame to let it go to waste.” Before continuing with her next words, her eyes dropped down to his chest and her voice lowered. “I’m not going to sleep with you though.”
It was understandable that she didn’t want to look him in the eyes. Ryan tried to think of anything he’d done to indicate that was where he hoped the night would end up, but he didn’t think he’d done or said anything that would give her that idea. He felt a connection to her, almost like a weird kinship, but he wasn’t planning on rushing things immediately to the bedroom.
“I’m not sure why you felt the need to make that proclamation, but maybe sometime you’ll be nice enough to explain it to me.”
Lights from the car he’d heard flashed on them, and he could only imagine what the matchmakers made of the pair. They were probably rubbing their hands together with glee, thinking they’d picked a perfect couple. They very well could have, but it was way too early for those kinds of thoughts.
“I know they’re here, but maybe the idea of going somewhere else makes more sense.” The woman was still focused on his chest as she spoke. She hadn’t looked up like Ryan had to see their hosts.
“It makes perfect sense, but I still don’t know your name, and I make a habit of not running away with strangers.”
A cute smile transformed her face as she looked up. Cute wasn’t a word Ryan usually associated with smiles on full-grown adults, but there was something about the way she cocked her head slightly and let her lips barely turn up.
“Sorry, I thought you already knew it. It’s Lisa. If we can make it through the night without wanting to kill each other, I may even tell you my last name.”
“That doesn’t include us wanting to kill the pair walking our way, right?” Ryan didn’t look up to the newcomers, but he’d heard multiple doors opening and closing.
“No, I want to give you a fighting chance of getting a last name. There’s no way we’re going to make it through the night without at least once wondering if Casey will fit in a wood chipper.”
Ryan had to laugh at that idea. He was pretty sure he could keep that thought from crossing his mind, but it was nice to have a little leeway just in case.
“Then it’s a deal.” Ryan kept a grin on his face as he turned to see Casey and Dylan walking towards them with a sleeping child in both of their arms. “I’m not seeing any bags in your arms. You’re not planning on cooking the kids, are you?”
Casey shook her head and rolled her eyes. “You’re lucky my arms are full. If you aren’t too busy holding hands, you can go grab the food from the car. We were going to make one trip, but I think it’d make for a nicer dinner if the kids stay asleep.”
It made sense. The kids weren’t exactly the size of a bag of potatoes.
“I’m trying to keep her from catching pneumonia. It’s not exactly a summer evening.”
“You keep telling yourself that, Ryan. There are two bags on the front passenger side.” Casey wasn’t asking him to grab the bags, which would’ve been fine if her demanding tone wasn’t a little grating.
Lisa finally pulled her hands from his as she turned to hurry over to the front door to try to help. Dylan had the keys in his hands and tossed them in her direction. Ryan didn’t wait to see if she caught them as he hustled over to the car.
Lisa intrigued him, but he was hoping to get the night over with as soon as possible. He had a feeling things were going to get uncomfortable as Casey tried to work her magic.
Chapter Four
“I’m hoping you two did more than just hold hands out there,” Casey said as she reappeared from behind a door she’d taken her sleeping boy into. She left the door open, so Lisa was a little surprised she raised her voice to be heard.
“What exactly were you expecting them to do, Casey?” Dylan had already rejoined Lisa and Ryan and had set up the small table that hid in the seating area just inside the front door.
Lisa had said too much out in the driveway, so she was trying to let the guys do all the talking while they set dinner up. She couldn’t believe she’d come right out and told Ryan she wouldn’t sleep with him. Somehow she’d managed to keep the fact that he was way too pretty to be on a date with her to herself, but if he would’ve pushed just a little more, she would’ve sang like a canary.
She’d been totally unprepared to come face to face with the man sitting next to her at the table. He didn’t look anything like Tim, which was what she had pictured him looking like. It was a stupid assumption. Clearly not all hockey players look alike, which was why she thought maybe he’d have a broken nose or some small difference. There were a lot more than just small differences.
Thinking about how stupid she’d been kept her occupied while she tried to think of safe topics to bring up during the meal. The smell of tomato sauce full of Italian seasonings made it a little difficult to concentrate on anything. There were boxes of spaghetti prepared just about every way imaginable. Hopefully Casey and Dylan were expecting to have Italian for the next week, because there was no way they’d make it through all the food.
“I didn’t mean it dirty, so get your mind out of the gutter.” Casey smacked her husband as she sat down next to him across from Lisa. “I was hoping they got some background information out of the way.”
Lisa wasn’t ready to try to be an adult and have a conversation, but sitting silent all night would only make things worse. “We pretty much spent the few minutes we had verify
ing neither of us was lost.”
“Yeah?” Casey said as she grabbed the last plate on the table and the box of spaghetti and meatballs. She started forking out her food as she continued speaking. “You looked a little cozier than two people just introducing themselves.”
“I heard a rumor you have this whole placed wired with security cameras, so we’ll let the footage do the talking.” Ryan sounded confident there wouldn’t be anything strange on the video. Clearly he’d forgotten she’d tried to see if his nose was real.
“That’s not true, is it?” As hard as she tried to keep the worry out of her voice, Lisa heard it break as she asked her question. It wasn’t a blatant break, giving her some hope the people around her didn’t notice.
It wasn’t just her actions after Ryan showed up that had her worried. She’d been there about fifteen minutes before she heard his tires coming down the drive. That was a lot of time by herself that she didn’t spend only sitting in her car.
When nerves started to get to her, Lisa tended to talk to herself, and the talks were almost always animated. If anyone watched her between the time she showed up and Ryan showed up, they’d probably think she’d lost her mind. Pacing around, waving her arms every direction possible, she had to bite back a groan just thinking about how it would look on video.
Casey’s eyes focused on her as the other woman put down a bag of breadsticks she’d just taken two garlicky sticks from. Lisa didn’t spend a lot of time with Casey, but she had realized early on in their acquaintance that reading the other woman wasn’t something easily done. It probably took an expert profiler to even have an idea what was going on in Casey’s mind, and then they were more than likely wrong.
“I know it took us a while to get home, but I assume you didn’t spend your time waiting partaking in illegal activities,” Casey paused for a second and raised one of her eyebrows. “Right?”
“You don’t have to answer that,” Dylan said before Lisa managed to shake her head no. “To answer your question, yes, the house does have video security, but unless we know of something happening, or someone being where they shouldn’t be, we don’t bother with watching the recording.”
