OneManAdvantage (15 page)

“I’m hungry too,” she said. “Bring it in the kitchen.”

Her kitchen was tiny but efficient. He set the big cardboard
box on the counter while she got two plates out of a cupboard. Silvia sat and
stared at the pizza. Amused, Logan opened the fridge and peered inside,
wondering if there might be a beer. Dammit, no, but he shrugged and pulled out
two bottles of water. He held one up to her and she took it.

“Thanks.”

Before they opened the box, he grabbed her around the waist
and pulled her in for a smoochy kiss. She smiled at him. “What’s that for?”

“Because you’re so sexy in that robe. I think you have the
best legs I’ve ever seen.”

“Riiiiight.”

“Seriously.”

“I seem to recall that you also like my ass. And my boobs.”
She slid a piece of cheesy pizza onto her plate.

“True that.” He shrugged. “You’ve got a hot body, what can I
say.”

Her gaze dropped and her cheeks pinkened. “I do not.”

“Hey.” Did she really believe that? He lifted her chin with
his fingers. “You absolutely do.”

She gave him a crooked smile, but he saw the pleasure in her
eyes. “Thanks.”

“Why is her name Silvia?” He looked at the dog sitting
expectantly at their feet.

“Because she’s a silver schnauzer.”

“She’s not silver. She’s black and white.”

“It’s called silver. And insulting my dog is not going to
make me like you.”

He grinned. “I’m not insulting her. I’m just saying. She’s
black and white. But she’s cute.”

They talked as they ate, about the dinner last night and how
much fun it had been, about the practice earlier and the game tomorrow. Then
his cell phone rang. He slid it closer from where he’d set it on the counter
and glanced at it.

“My parents,” he said. He looked at Nicole. “Okay if I
answer?”

“Of course!”

He thumbed the Talk button. “Hey.”

“Hi, Logan.”

“Mom. How’re you?”

“Good. Just got home. I thought I’d let you know what I got
done while I was at your place in California.” She filled him in on the
details, then said, “Have you found a place there yet?”

“Yeah. I can move in on December 15.”

“Oh, that’s great. I think your furniture and things can be
there for that.”

“Thanks for doing all that, Mom.”

Her voice warmed. “You’re welcome. I’m happy to help. I know
this was pretty disruptive for you, having to pick up and move across the
country with no notice.”

“Yeah.” But he was feeling more and more comfortable with
his new life. He glanced at Nicole. Especially around her.

“How are things going?”

“Good.”

They talked a little about how things were going with the
team and then Mom said, “Your dad and I are going to come for the Chicago
game.”

“I wondered if you might.” That game was about ten days
away, and since his brother Jase would be in town, he’d thought his parents
might drive down for the game. “Hopefully we won’t have any more bad weather.
Did you get this storm?”

“Not as much as you did, I think. I heard there was a lot of
snow there. Jase says they fly in the day before, so we’ll come then too and we
can all have dinner together.”

“Sounds great. Um…maybe I’ll bring someone.” He eyed Nicole.
She blinked at him as she sank her teeth into her piece of pizza.

After a beat of surprised silence, he could almost feel his
mom’s excitement. “Really? Someone, like who? A girl?”

“Yeah.”

“You didn’t waste any time in a new city,” she teased, her
voice warm. “What’s her name?”

“Nicole.” He didn’t bother telling his mom her last name.
She’d find out soon enough who she was. Nicole’s eyebrows pinched together at
hearing her name. He smiled at her.

“Is she nice? Well, that’s silly, of course she is. Oh,
Logan, you never introduce us to girls you’re seeing. She must be special.”

“Well, I think so. But you know, it’s early.”

Nicole frowned.

“Now I’m really excited about seeing you! Here, your dad
wants to talk to you.” She handed over the phone and he talked to his dad for a
bit, then hung up.

“What was that about?” Nicole asked immediately. “Were you
talking about me?”

“Yeah.”

She gave him an unhappy look. “To your parents? Why?”

“They’re coming to town to see the Chicago game. My brother
Jase will be here and they’re going to take us out for dinner and watch the
game.”

“Oookay.” She tipped her head. “You’re not thinking I’m going
to have dinner with you and your parents, are you?”

“Um. Yeah.” He stared at her. “I was.”

“Are you crazy? I can’t do that!”

Chapter Fifteen

A faint red haze floated in front of Nicole’s eyes as she
glared at Logan.

“Uh…why not?” He just stared back at her.

“Did you not hear anything I said earlier?” She sighed with
vexation. “
Câlisse
, Logan.”

“What does that mean, exactly?” He eyed her.

“What?
Câlisse
? It’s a swear word. If you translate
it, it means ‘chalice’.”

“Oooh. Bad word.”

“Okay, it doesn’t translate well, but it is a curse. Don’t
distract me. Why on earth did you tell your parents about me? I don’t want
anyone to know about this!”

His mouth fell open a little, but damn him, he still looked
so beautiful sitting there bare-chested with all those powerful muscles bulging
and rippling, his stubbled jaw and messed hair reminding her of all the things
they’d just done in bed, her skin abraded everywhere he’d kissed her.

“I heard what you said,” he replied, his words clipped. “Did
you hear what
I
said?”

She stared at him. What had he said? That had been…hours
ago.

“I said, you can date whoever you want to. Forget about
fucking Cody Burrell.”

“I forgot about fucking him the minute I dumped him.”

He didn’t even smile at her joke. In fact, his eyes narrowed.

“Sorry.” She sighed and flipped her hair back. “Okay, yes,
we have something between us. Something hot. We’re…we like the same things. I
think.”

He arched an eyebrow.

“But that doesn’t change what happened. Logan, seriously.”
She looked at him beseechingly. “Think what people will say if they find out
about us.”

“I don’t give a shit what people say.”

She stared at him in mounting frustration. “Well, I do.”

“Why?”

She blinked. “What do you mean, why?”

“Why should you care?”

“I…I…” She didn’t know how to express that. “Do you have any
idea how humiliating that was? When Cody said that?”

He pressed his lips together, his eyebrows slanted down.
“Well, I know it was, but dammit, Nicole…” He gave her a look. “When I was a
kid, there were a couple of stupid kids who were bullying me.”

She started. “Bullying
you
?”

“Yeah. I was only about nine or ten. I wasn’t always this
big.” He gave a crooked smile. “They were jerks. But when they called me names
and said I was stupid, or when they said Jase was stupid, I’d get mad and
sometimes I didn’t react appropriately. Anyway, my mom tried to help me deal
with it without getting into fights. When they said I was a stupid baby, she’d
ask me if I believed that. I’d say no. Then she’d say, well then, it doesn’t
matter what they say if it’s not true and you know it.”

Her heart squeezed so hard at that she couldn’t breathe, the
image of him as a little boy being picked on making everything else disappear
for a moment.
Stupid?
He had a degree in frickin’ economics, for god’s
sake. She let out a long breath. “But here’s the difference,” she said slowly.
“You weren’t stupid. So it wasn’t true. But what Cody implied
was
true.
And I don’t want to be that girl.”

“So what are you saying?”

She rubbed her forehead. What
was
she saying? How had
this all got started? Oh yeah. Dinner with his parents. As if! “I can’t have
dinner with you and your parents. And you shouldn’t have told them about us.”

“So you’re still saying I’m good enough to fuck, but not to
date.”

“No! This isn’t about you! It’s about me.” Her bottom lip
quivered just a little and she sank her teeth into it.

“Okay. But still. You’ll fuck me, but not date me.”

“As long as no one knows about it.”

He sat there for a long moment, their pizza forgotten. She
hated
the look on his face, imagining him as a little boy being called hurtful names,
imagining his face looking just like that. Her insides writhed like snakes in a
pit and her skin itched.

Then he slammed a hand down on the counter and she jumped.
“For fuck’s sake,” he shouted. “I’m not sneaking around so we can be fuck
buddies.”

Pressure built behind her cheekbones and her eyes stung. She
swallowed through an aching throat. “Okay,” she said quietly. “Then just go.”

He slowly moved his head from side to side. Her heart
thudded in her chest and her palms went damp as they sat there for long,
stretched-out moments. Then he scowled. “I don’t have a fucking car here.”

Oh god. “You want me to drive you back to Fedor’s?”

“Nah. I’ll just call him.” He grabbed his cell phone and
slid off the stool. She heard him talking as he walked down the hall and into
her bedroom. She stared hard at the piece of pizza on her plate. He must be
getting dressed.

And yeah, he reappeared a few minutes later, now fully
dressed. His face set in grim lines, he slid on his jacket, pulled his knit cap
onto his head and wrapped his scarf around him. “He’s on his way,” he said
shortly, shoving his feet into his boots. “I’ll meet him outside.”

“It’s cold out. And dark now.”

“Whatever.” He paused at the door, his back to her, his big
shoulders hunched. Then he glanced over his shoulder at her and said, “Bye,
Nicole.”

Less than an hour later, Taylor phoned. “Okay, what’s going
on?”

“What do you mean?” Nicole lay stretched on her couch,
feeling heavy and tired, staring sightlessly at the television, Silvia snuggled
up against her hip.

“I mean you and Logan. He came back with Fedor, stormed into
the house, grabbed a beer and slammed the door of his room. He hasn’t come out
since.”

“Oh.”
Tabarnac
. “I don’t know.”

“Bullshit. He was over there for a while. What happened?”

“Oh Taylor.” She sighed. “He wants me to go out with him and
I keep turning him down.” She didn’t mention the sex part.

“Wow. He seems pretty pissed about that.”

“Yeah, he wasn’t too happy when he left here. And I really
like him too, but…you know.”

“Yeah. I know.” Taylor was silent for a moment. “What do you
want me to say?”

“Huh?”

“You know. Do you want the ‘stick to your vow and stay away
from him’ speech, or the ‘forget about that stupid vow if you really like him’
speech?”

Nicole gave a reluctant laugh. “You’re a good friend,
Taylor.”

“I know.”

“I’m sorry if I’ve made things awkward there for you. He’ll
only be living with you guys a couple more weeks, I think.”

“Yeah. It’s okay.”

“Just another reason I shouldn’t have gotten involved with
him, right?”

“Well…”

“I know, I know.” She sighed again. “Not going to happen
again.”

* * * * *

The next day was game day, so she headed in to work in the
afternoon to make sure things like the game-day copies of Faceoff were
delivered and ready for distribution at the game, and to ensure the
arrangements for food for the staff, media, refs and the team were in place.
She got Ryan his list of shots the team and the NHL wanted from the game.

They’d run out of chicken fingers in the media room partway
through the game, so she was on her cell phone to the commissary walking along
the concourse on her way there to deal with it. She paused to peek at the game.
Midway through the second period, the Caribou were down four to one. Not good.

Her eyes immediately found Logan on the ice with uncanny
instinct. As she watched, he turned over the puck to a Carolina player on the
blue line and she cringed as one of their wingers fed it to their center who
slammed it into the net past Burney, the Caribou goalie.

She bit her lip as the crowd collectively groaned. Five to
one. Holy hell. She watched Logan take the next face-off, losing to the
Carolina center, and shook her head. He was definitely off tonight. Glumly, she
made her way to the commissary to deal with the shortage of chicken fingers.

The entrance to the commissary was near the players’ bench
and as she walked by, she could hear Scott yelling at the players. Then she
heard the word “turnover” and had a feeling he was yelling at Logan.

The vibe in the arena was pretty negative for the rest of
the game, with a lot of the crowd leaving early to beat the traffic. She always
disliked it when fans did that, feeling that even when the team was losing they
deserved to be supported right to the end. Her work was done and she wasn’t
sure why she was still there herself, but hey, she considered herself a fan
too, and even though the team was getting spanked, she stuck it out, watching
the third period from the press box.

Well, they had been doing better lately, starting to come
together better with the players who’d been called up to replace all the
injured guys and with Logan added to the team, but you couldn’t win every game.
It just hurt to see the mistakes they were making and she had to acknowledge
Logan’s influence on the team. He was one of the hardest workers, had a way of
encouraging the other players and motivating them, but tonight with him being
off his game, the rest of the team was suffering too.

Why did she feel guilty about that? There was no way Logan’s
lousy game was because of her. Was it?
Merde
.

* * * * *

Practice the next morning was painful. They didn’t usually
practice on Sundays, and today they were at their practice facility because of
a concert being held at the arena that night. The mood of the team was low,
even though they all knew they had to put the loss behind them and get ready
for the next game. Scott was pissed and Logan didn’t blame him. It’d been ugly.

Yeah, he’d been distracted, but Christ, he was a professional
and knew better than to let his personal life interfere with his game.
Sometimes that was easier said than done. But hell, it wasn’t as if someone in
his family was dying, he was just pissed at a girl who kept leading him on and
then rejecting him.

He wanted to think that was done, but after he’d left her
house on Friday evening, he’d been thinking a lot about it. She wouldn’t go out
with him, but she’d sleep with him. Was he nuts to turn that down? Probably. It
made his gut ache, but hey, what was wrong with a little no-strings-attached
sex? As long as he kept his mouth shut about it. Gah. As if he’d mouth off
about something like that.

In the dressing room as they were getting their gear on,
Logan spoke up. “Listen, guys. I’m sorry about last night.”

Tyler looked up at him. “Not your fault, man. We all played
like crap.”

“I know it’s not all my fault,” Logan acknowledged. “But
some of it was. I was distracted by some shit last night. I shouldn’t have let
it interfere with my game. I let you guys down because of that. That turnover
in the second was directly responsible for a goal.”

“We’d already lost the game by that point,” Burney said.

Logan sighed. “I know. But still. There were other things I
screwed up and I’m sorry.”

Scott stood there, arms folded across his chest, watching
him with a frown. Logan met his eyes and shrugged. Scott gave a terse nod.

With singular focus, Logan put everything else out of his
head, including Nicole, and gave the practice all he had in him. This was what
he should have been doing last night instead of feeling pissed at the world and
consequently not paying enough attention to his game.

Afterward, he went and found Florian, the manager of the
practice facility. He had an idea, something that had come to him because of
practicing there, but he wasn’t sure how hard it was going to be to set up.
Fifteen minutes later, he grinned with satisfaction, although his gut tensed up
a little thinking about how he was going to approach this.

Sunday night. He didn’t know all that much about Nicole’s
schedule, but he knew she wasn’t working and doubted she was at a hip-hop dance
class. He smiled and shook his head at that. She was something else.

He drove to her place that evening without calling ahead,
hoping she’d be home. She opened the door to him with a look of wary surprise
on her face. “Hi.”

“Hi.” He paused, that clenching feeling in his stomach
returning. “Can I come in for a minute?”

She let him walk in past her and closed the door.

He shoved his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket.
“I must be nuts,” he said, shaking his head. “But I thought about it and I
guess fuck buddies is better than nothing.”

She blinked at him and pursed her lips. “So this is a booty
call?”

“No! I want to take you out somewhere.”

Her eyes widened and her mouth flattened. “Logan…”

He held up a hand. “It’s not what you think. Get your
skates.”

“My skates?” A crease appeared between her eyebrows.

“Yeah. You must have skates.”

“I do. But…what…?”

“Just get them. Get some warm clothes on. I promise, nobody
will know about this but you and me.”

Still she hesitated. She sank her teeth into that plush
bottom lip, making him want to do the same. “You’re crazy,” she whispered.

“I know. I already said that.” He gave her a crooked smile.

She blew out a breath. “Okay. Have a seat.” She waved in the
direction of her living room. When he sat on the couch, Silvia leaped up beside
him. He let her sniff his hand, then rubbed her head. She moved closer. Yeah,
she was kinda cute.

Nicole returned a short time later wearing a turtleneck
sweater and jeans, pushing her arms into a puffy down jacket. From her small
closet in the foyer, she pulled out a scarf and mitts, and he grinned when he
saw the Canadian Olympic team logo on them, the bright red mitts adorned with
white maple leafs. “Nice.”

“Thanks.” She eyed him. “You played in the Olympics, didn’t
you.”

“I sure did. Got the gold medal to prove it.”

Their eyes met. She smiled slowly and he returned it. That
connection between them was still there, pulsating slowly, drawing them
together.