Scoring Lacey (10 page)

“Way to go, baby!” One of the smokers shouted.

She heard the other one. “Can they play again?”

Shayne pushed her against the side of the building, the bright lights spilling right past them at the patio. “I can’t believe you flashed me.” His hands settled on her hips as he crowded her against the wall. “Let’s see that bra again.”

His mouth was on hers before she could grab the bottom of her shirt. He tasted of all things sinfully delicious in the dark.

“Word on the floor is you scored on Hands here.”

The glass paused briefly before Lacey took a sip. Shayne met her gaze, an eyebrow rising up and down while his foot rested between her thighs. One of her legs was hooked over his. He didn’t bother to lower his foot when Todd dropped down beside him though he felt a little nervous. Shit, fifteen minutes ago he had not only seen Lacey’s bra but his hand had been under it too while they had made out like a couple of horny teenagers.

“It’s a gift.” She lifted a shoulder in a lazy shrug.

Apparently word on the floor had left out the whole flashing part.

Todd picked one of the chips out, one not covered in congealed cheese. “Hear you got a pretty bra too.”

This time Lacey coughed, choking on her beer. A pretty blush spread over her cheeks and she focused on her beer instead of her brother.

When Todd looked at him with narrowed eyes, Shayne nodded. “It’s a pretty bra. What can I say? Don’t look at me like that, dude. She’s your sister, flashing her bits all around your bar. Better warn the pool sharks.”

Todd held up a hand. “Please. Sister. Bra. Let’s not go there. These are nasty. New order?” He looked at Lacey, shook his head then took the nachos with him without waiting for their answer.

Shayne rested his elbow on the table. “Wanna go play again? Best of two. Come on.” He leaned to the side and enjoyed the laugh that erupted from her. Returning to his original position, he ran his hand along her calf. He hated boots. They got in the way of skin. “Feel free to score on me any time, Magerin.” He lifted his glass and smiled at the memory of that pretty pink bra. “Aaaaaanyyyy time.”

Along his ankle he felt her hand glide up and down while her other elbow rested on the table, her hand slipping behind her hair. “Maybe I’ll share my method with Adam.”

He paused, playing the image. “That would truly stun me if Payne was wearing a pink lace bra and flashed me during a televised game. Truly stun me.” He shuddered and wished the picture would leave his brain forever.

“So what did Todd say when you said you were sticking around.”

“Cool.” There had been a moment when his friend had wanted to ask a question. In the end, Todd had kept it to himself. It was why they were still friends after all this time. They didn’t talk shit about feelings and stuff. He was staying, that was okay. And if tomorrow he said he had enough and was going home, Todd would nod, mutter a “Cool” then drive him to the airport.

“Talkative. No questions? No curiosity?”

“None he voiced.” Thank God because what would he say? Oh, wanted to stay, hang out in your sister’s bed and because she asked.
That
would go over well.

With a shrug, she smiled at the waitress who left a new order of nachos on their table. “Boys are weird. Thanks.”

“No problem.” The waitress grinned then winked. Apparently the word on the floor was that Lacey had flashed him then scored.

His ego was going to take a hefty kick but he dared any man to stand there and not be struck dumb by her breasts being flashed. Frowning, he decided that was a dumb idea and no one got to see her flash him but Shayne.

“We should eat those,” she said without looking at the chips.

“Yup.” He wasn’t hungry. He had scarfed down a sandwich earlier.

“A girl needs her energy.” She smiled as she helped herself to a cheesy chip.

“She does.”

“On the other hand--”

He dug out his wallet and slapped a ten dollar bill on the table while she retrieved her purse. They went out the back where a couple of guys were having a game.

“Whoo, Lacey, gonna flash?”

Damned if she didn’t turn, and start to yank up her shirt. Shayne put a restraining hand on her arm and she laughed. “Sorry boys!” She lifted her hand and waved. “Maybe another time.”

“Count on it!”

Jesus. The woman was a hazard. He snagged his hand in her back pocket and pulled her away from the parking lot. “Let’s walk. God knows who you’d flash in your car.”

She was clearly a little buzzed as she faced him and yanked up her shirt again. “Just you, baby.” Lacey spun and laughed, almost knocking him with her purse.

He yanked her back and wrapped his arm around her waist. “You are a danger to society.”

“Why are we walking? I have a car.”

“You are drunk.”

“No. Not drunk. Just feeling no pain. You could drive.”

She would feel pain if he tripped and dropped her on her head. “You’d flash me then I’d crash your car. How pissed would my agent be then?”

“True, too true. Damn agents,” she snarled the word and he almost tripped over her when she suddenly stopped. “Fucking agents. Jerks. She wasn’t the first, you know.” Her voice was soft and he tightened his arm on her, holding her closer.

He had assumed so.

“He stopped touching me when Carmen was ten. He left me long before I kicked him out. And it’s my fault. Mine.”

Shit. “Lace.” He turned her and held her because there was nothing else he could do, nothing he could say. “Who said that?”

“Him.”

“He’s shit.”

“Carmen. Kayla would say it too if she were here. If I had loved him more. Maybe they’re right because I didn’t love him anymore. I stopped loving him a long time ago. Love is like a plant. It dies when it’s neglected.” She rested her head on his chest. “Can we not go home? I don’t want to go back there yet. Whisk me away somewhere else, Shayne.”

He kissed the top of her head then slid her purse off her shoulder. “Yeah, but you better not flash me on the highway.”

She sighed as he felt her fingers curl on the waist of his jeans. “You’re no fun, Shayne. No fun at all.”

He took her to the grain elevator two kilometers outside of town. He used to come out here to escape his life. When he was younger, he’d scream as the trains went by as if the rail cars could obliterate the latest beating, the latest gossip spew of what his drunk of a dad had done. The name Granville was faded and there was graffiti decorating it.

He silenced the car and darkness dropped on them like a slap shot. Folding his arms on the steering wheel, he stared at the black, hulking building.

He could tell her he never liked Kevin, had found him a selfish prick even when Shayne had been a kid. He had looked at Kevin Hodges and had seen his dad. Only sober. A user who sucked the life out of those closest to him. Instead he reached over and opened the door, stepping out into the night. A few minutes later the other car door opened and banged shut behind Lacey. Hiking himself up on the hood, Shayne slid back, the engine heat soaking through his jeans as he leaned back to look at the stars.

She stood between his legs and he shifted to make more room for her. The car dipped and the hood gave a little pop beneath their combined weight. She leaned back, her head resting on his chest.

“Why’d you stay with him?” He watched those five words rise up to night sky as he wrapped a wavy strand of hair around his finger. How, he wondered, had Kevin not touched her? Shayne couldn’t stop touching her.

“The girls,” she answered in a soft voice. “And pride. Pride,” she repeated with a whisper. “I kicked him out because it was no longer just our unspoken secret. It was out there in the world because lollipop couldn’t keep her mouth shut that she was balling Kevin Hodges right under his wife’s nose.

“He was no longer just hurting me, he was hurting our daughters. So I kicked him out. Not that they got mad at him for cheating. Oh no, that would be too easy. Poor Kevin, kicked out by their mom. What a bitch she was. Is.”

“Baby,” he whispered, shutting his eyes at the pain in her words. His thumb caressed her cheek and he hated the tear that he encountered.

“I wonder if Kayla would’ve gone to school here if I had just shut up and let him stay. But...I couldn’t, Shayne. I couldn’t not matter anymore. I hate him. I really hate him for what he did.”

Shayne’s thumb brushed along her cheek, chasing and erasing tears. She wiped her eyes then captured his hand, holding it against her chest. A year ago when Todd had called him raging about the motherfucker who had hurt his sister, he had wanted Shayne to help kick his ass. Shayne had been on board because you didn’t hurt Todd’s sister. Tonight he wanted to beat the man to bloody paste on the road because she was more than just Todd’s sister now.

He flattened his hand over her poor, battered heart and counted stars because there was absolutely nothing he could say. Sometimes the phrase “I’m sorry” was a lame ass phrase that said less than no words. A little sigh came from her as she tilted her head into the bend of his elbow, her fingers spread over his forearm.

“Why did you kiss me Saturday night?”

Ahh...now there was a question to ask the stars. Because she had suddenly become the most tempting, amazing woman he had ever laid eyes. Because his entire body had surged alive panting like a dog in heat.

“Because I couldn’t not,” he answered, borrowing her words. He felt her lips repeat the words soundlessly against his skin. “Falling star,” he said, pointing up. “Wish.”

“I think it’s a satellite,” she said.

“Nah, are you nuts? That’s just the longest falling star, ever.” Shayne felt her smile and grinned. How to feel triumphant: make a sad girl smile. And he had done it twice tonight.

Go team Donnelly.

There was something soothing in listening to another person’s heartbeat. The rhythmic pulses that meant one wasn’t alone in this moment. That there was another person holding you close when your moment wasn’t the happiest.

Lacey listened to Shayne’s soft breathing as they gazed up at the Saskatchewan night sky. “Did you blame your mom for leaving your dad?”

“No,” he said after a few minutes of contemplative silence. “I blamed her for leaving me behind. I can understand her wanting to get as far away from Jerry as she could. He was a drunk bully who hit whatever he wanted when he was drunk and angry. What did I do though? Aside from being born. I guess that was equally bad in her eyes.”

She reached up to cup his face. He turned and kissed her palm. “Silly woman.”

“Though if she had taken me with her, would I be playing hockey to this extent? It was an escape from the house. A way to flip the old drunk the middle finger when I made it. And if I weren’t here, whom would you have flashed tonight? It is what it is, Lace. Nothing more, nothing less. And, shit, maybe she’d be worse than him. Our roads are what they are. What ifs are nothing more than insanity pills.”

She liked that. “Very pragmatic, Donnelly.”

“Hey, I’m not just a hot piece of ass.”

He was actually the last person she’d thought to be sitting under the stars with. The last one she expected to make her feel not so shitty. And yet here he was, lying beneath her doing just that. He gave her no platitudes, offered no words of wisdom, he simply was and that was enough.

She shifted so she was facing him and his gaze shifted from the stars to her face. “Thank you.”

“For what?” He brushed her hair aside then stroked his thumb down her jaw.

“Tonight. I didn’t expect to get all morose about Kevin.”

He shrugged as his other hand rested on the small of her back. She felt his hand grip the denim then drag her up so her position wasn’t so awkward, bringing her face closer to his. “Hell, any conversations about Kevin make me morose.”

“Thank you.”

“Shut up.” Shayne glared at her and she lowered her head to his shoulder. His hands slid down her back, over her ass and along her thighs. At her knees he gave another tug so she was straddling his waist. “Better.”

Lacey could stay like this all night. Listening to Shayne’s heart beating, his body warming hers and his hands holding her steady. “You’re so unexpected.”

She felt him kiss the top of her head while his fingers spread and gripped her thighs. “You too, Lacey. You too.”

“Let’s stay here forever. It’s peaceful and quiet.”

“Until the train goes by. You’ll change your mind when it’s speeding by you and your insides vibrate.”

Lacey grinned. Sounded a lot like him.

“Lace?” His voice rose at her name and he cleared his throat and she smiled. “I have to tell Todd. About us.”

She blinked five times then rose up to see his face. Her heart was thumping nervously in her chest at three little words. “Okay,” she said, not sure how she felt about this.

“He’s not stupid. And you’re not a dirty little secret. Neither am I. I’d rather tell him,” he sighed and looked up at the sky. “Secrets are hard to keep in Granville, especially when it’s a Donnelly and a Magerin. I figure with the whole flashing and me sticking around, he’s gonna be thinking something.”

She nodded. “Okay. He’s gonna kick you out.”

“Probably. There are hotels. Unless--” An eyebrow arched up as he glanced at her.

“Yeah, because that wouldn’t send my teenage daughter through the roof at all. If things were better with the girls,” she lifted a shoulder in a shrug, “but it’s not. It’s really not better with the girls at all. You’re sure about this?” Jesus, her brother. She didn’t want to ruin their friendship.

Shayne looked back up at the sky. “Fuck no, I’m not sure at all.”

“Okay.” She lay back down on him and worried about what kind of shit was going to rain down on Shayne tomorrow. She didn’t want him hurt. She didn’t want her brother hurt. Hell, she didn’t want to get hurt. At the end of this though, she could see them all being hurt.

Was there anything more perfect than pristine ice? Shayne stepped onto the ice and couldn’t hold back the grin. Beneath the sharp blade was the satisfying slice of metal carving into frozen water. It had been a slight procrastination to suggest the rink to Todd. The wisest place to have a conversation about Lacey probably wasn’t on ice with sharp objects and hard pucks, but he couldn’t really figure out the right place to confess.