“Some of them are really,reallycute though,” Kinsley says.
“Excuse me.” Skylar tries to look offended but with Kinsley practically sitting on her lap, it’s not that convincing.
“She’s very happily single and I’m very happily not single.” She leans in, frames her girlfriend’s cheek with one hand and kisses her.
My chest tightens in a way that suggests I’m not as happy in my independence as I’d like to believe.
When Kinsley pulls back, all doe-eyed and smiley, she says, “But I can still be objective about hotness.”
I let my stare roam around the bar. She’s not wrong. There are lots of guys in here that I’d say are above average on the handsome scale. Maybe a night out is exactly what I needed.
5
TRAVIS
I’m too restless to sit tonight. The win felt good, but I played like shit. Things aren’t clicking for me yet this season. Usually, hockey is the one place I can count on feeling like myself but lately it’s like I’m playing in someone else’s skates. Uncomfortable and at times, painful. I don’t know what my problem is, but I need to fix it.
I wander around MVP, chatting with my teammates and other friends that came out tonight. It’s early in the season where everyone still makes an effort to stop by after games. Once we get farther into the season, guys will blow it off to spend more time with their families.
Case in point, Nick and Ruby. They’re at a table all alone. Side by side. Him with one arm around the back of her chair and her leaning in so that her shoulder brushes against his chest. They’re here but not really interacting with anyone else. Lost in each other.
I’m making a second lap when a blond at the corner table catches my eye. She sits with her profile to me. Elbows resting on the table and leaning forward. She’s with two other girls and the three of them are smiling and laughing. My pulse picks up speedas recognition clicks into place. I’ve thought about her so many times I’m surprised it took me this long to place her—even from twenty feet away in a crowded bar.
I’m not sure how long I’m frozen in place, gawking at her, but eventually she looks up and directly at me. She does a double take before she seems to recognize me too. I lift a hand in a wave as a smirk lifts the corners of my mouth. Her eyes widen a fraction and her body tenses before she looks away.
Well…not the exact reaction I was hoping for, but she’s here. That has to mean something.
I resist the urge to walk over to her. I have a hunch that won’t end well. What I need is a game plan.
I circle back around the bar, keeping Hannah in my periphery the entire time. I slide into an empty chair next to Ruby, interrupting whatever sweet moment she and Nick were wrapped up in.
“Hey.” Ruby pulls her attention away from Nick before he does to greet me.
“She’s here.” The words come out breathless as adrenaline pumps through me. My body tingles from head to toe.
“Who?” Ruby asks.
“My neighbor.”
Ruby’s brows lift as her pupils widen. “Really?”
“The one you fell in love with at first sight?” Nick’s tone is part challenge and part disbelief. For a man who has been hopelessly in love with Ruby since basically the first time he laid eyes on her, you’d think he’d be less suspicious.
I nod at Ruby.
She sits tall and looks around. “Where?”
“Behind you. Left, corner table.” I don’t bother answering Nick’s question. I don’t pretend to be an expert on relationships or love, but whatever reaction my body is having now and when I first saw her, it’s like nothing I’ve felt before.
They swivel around at the same time. While they’re busy locating Hannah, I stare unabashedly.
“Which one?” Ruby asks. “It’s a sea of hot women tonight.”
“Blond. Blue dress,” I say without tearing my gaze away. She’s smiling at her friends again but glancing around the bar like she’s looking for someone. Me maybe?
I like the way she holds herself. Is that weird? It feels a little strange even to admit to myself, but it’s true. There’s something about the lean in her upper body and the tilt of her chin that I find interesting. This is what my dating life has come to—admiring women’s body language from afar.
“I know her,” Ruby says while I continue to catalog and study my neighbor’s qualities like I’m cramming for an important test. It’d be the first one in my academic history that I would ace.
