Play the Man Page 6

  “I should make you walk,” Nick replied.

  “You wouldn’t do that to a teammate, would ya? The one guy on the ice that’s gonna stick up for you when the big mean goons come after you?”

  “Fine,” he sighed, adjusting the bag over his shoulder. “Come on, Freeze.” Nick led the way to his Mustang while Alex hobbled behind him and tried to keep up.

  “Oh my goodness,” Jenna moaned in relief, watching them move away from her and Ryan. “Is Frazier really gone? Finally gone?”

  “Aw, was he bugging you?”

  “You have no idea. He called at least five times a day while you guys were gone. I’m not even exaggerating. Five times a day. Even thought I showed up to his place every day. I almost felt bad for him, being left here alone and the frustration with his knee, but he just made it impossible for me to feel any sympathy toward him at all. Not with how annoying he is.”

  Ryan laughed quietly as they arrived at the sport where Jenna had parked. “That’s part of his allure.” He tossed his bag in the backseat and slid into the passenger side of the car, and she took the driver’s seat.

  “You’re really tired, aren’t you?” she asked.

  “Pretty tired. Why?”

  She giggled, “Because you always drive. And you hate the way I drive, and you’re the worst backseat driver I know. So you must be incredibly tired if you want to subject yourself to this.”

  He leaned back in the seat and nestled in. “I’ll probably be asleep before you pull out of the parking lot.”

  Jenna nodded, even though he couldn’t see it because his eyes were closed, and turned on the car. She was so anxious to nail down a date for their wedding and she wanted to talk about it now, but she didn’t take into account his possible fatigue when she imagined his return, and she should have known. “Too tired to talk about a date?”

  He let out a long breath. He wasn’t trying to be rude; he was trying to find the right way to ask to put it off without actually looking like he was avoiding it even though he was. “In the morning?”

  She nodded and then realized he couldn’t see. “Yeah,” she finally muttered. She knew it wasn’t his fault that he was tired, but she was still irritated that she had to wait. The discussion would have to be postponed. Tomorrow—

  first thing tomorrow—they’d talk.

  Ryan dozed restlessly as she drove, and twenty minutes later, she woke him up to get into the house. Jenna grabbed his bag and hauled it into the house, to be nice since he was so tired, as Ryan dragged his feet behind him toward the front door. Immediately, they went upstairs and into the master bedroom. Ryan collapsed on the bed, falling on his back, and his tired hands fumbled with the zipper on his pants.

  “What are you doing?” she asked as she began to toss his dirty laundry into the hamper and as he continued to take off his pants.

  “Getting ready for bed, babe. Wanna help?”

  Jenna knew what he meant by getting ready for bed, and “getting ready for bed” didn’t have anything to do with getting some sleep. “I thought you were tired?”

  “Never too tired for you,” he sighed. “It’s been a long week.”

  She smiled and teased him. “Aw, poor baby. Did your hand get tired?”

  “Did you wear out the massaging shower head?” he quipped back, the corner of his mouth curling up in an impish smile.

  “Why? You jealous?” She stopped sorting through his laundry and walked over to him by the bed. Wisely, she stayed just out of his reach as she approached him.

  “Join me,” he coaxed, finally taking his pants off and then reaching to discard his shirt.

  Of course Ryan would be too tired to talk, but not tired enough to go without sex. He had said they’d talk about it as soon as he got back, but she wasn’t going to push it once she knew how exhausted he was. And now he was just plain procrastinating. Jenna wasn’t stupid; she knew that sex outweighed talking in any man’s head, but this was killing her. “You want to marry me, don’t you?” she asked quietly, looking down at him on the bed as she twirled the ring around her finger.

  “Whoa. Wait. Where is this coming from? Jenna, you know I love you,” he said, stilling his hands and looking up at her.

  “Yeah, you love me. I know that. I love you, too. But that’s not my question. Do you really want to marry me? Or are you just going through the motions because you think you should?”

  “I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

  “But do you want to marry me?” she asked again, wondering how many times she had to repeat the question before he answered.

  “Yeah, babe. I want to marry you.”

  “You promise?”

  “That ring was—and is—my promise to you. Listen. We’ll do it this summer, after the season is over. How does late June sound? The last weekend in June.”

  Jenna smiled. “You mean it this time?”

  “Absolutely,” he said, happy to see her elated expression. This was all it took to make her this happy? “I’ll do you one better. Let’s pick the location. I say we do it in Chicago, instead of up in Canada or New Hampshire. This is our home, so let’s do it here. We’ll bring both of our families here.”

  Jenna let out a tiny scream, pushed Ryan’s back against the bed, and climbed on top of him. She peppered kisses all over his face. “Was that so hard, Ryan?”

  “I’ll show you hard,” he retorted.

  Chapter 6

  Nick pressed the trunk release button on his keyless entry remote as he neared his car, and Alex followed behind him as fast as his crutches would allow. He was deep in thought and didn’t pay attention to Alex when he spoke.

  “Yo, Marty, what’s up with you?”

  “What are you talking about, Freeze?” Nick asked absentmindedly, tossing his bag into the trunk and then getting into the driver’s seat.

  “You look like you’re constipated or something,” Alex laughed. “Something’s going on with you.”

  “It was a long flight. And I live downtown, but now I have to take you home, which is totally out of my way. I don’t know why you couldn’t go home with Biggie.”

  “Because I did not want to be in the middle of whatever was going to happen there. Probably fighting and then making up. Although, the making up part mighta been fun to watch,” he said, laughing again and elbowing Nick in the ribs. Nick rubbed his sore side and shot a nasty look at Alex. “Marty, what the fuck is up your ass?”

  “That’s disgusting, Frazier. I don’t want to think about those two having sex,” Nick said. It was true: he didn’t want to think about Ryan having sex with Jenna, because Nick thought Ryan didn’t deserve that privilege. He didn’t want to think about Jenna having sex with Ryan, because he was incredibly, ridiculously jealous. But most of all, he didn’t want to think about Jenna having sex at all, or the way she’d look naked, laid out on the bed beneath him as he moved over her, her eyes closed in total bliss, moaning and calling out his name, Nicky, Nicky....

  “Oh come on. Don’t be a prude. Every guy thinks about other people having sex. Guys can’t not think about sex. Every guy on the team has thought about Jenna that way. Every guy on the team has thought about The Caveman’s girl that way, too. Just because we don’t talk about it doesn’t mean we don’t do it.”

  Nick nodded, trying to feel a little reassured. All the guys have had thoughts about the various girlfriends of the team. But somehow, that didn’t help. He hated to think that his teammates had thought about Jenna like that, his jealousy starting to flare up again. Also, he didn’t think his situation was quite the same. Yes, he was thinking about what it would be like to have sex with Jenna, but more so he was thinking about what it would be like to make love to her. For him, she wasn’t a means to a physical release; it was about the emotional connection with a like-minded individual.

  Finding girls, for Nick, was hard. There were girls who were looking to just hook up with him, and there were girls who would have loved to be his girlfriend to get a piece of
his fame and his money. Nick wasn’t dumb—he knew that was why they came to the games and showed up at the bars afterward, knowing that the team would be there to celebrate a win or to lament a loss. That’s why he didn’t go out often, because he wanted to avoid those types of girls altogether. Well, that as well as the fact that going out, drinking, and horsing around was not going to help him win that damn silver Cup this year.

  What he wanted was a woman, someone who would keep him company and support him as he worked for that ultimate reward for a well-played season. Jenna wasn’t a puck bunny, but she was a hockey lady. She was practically already a hockey wife. She knew the demands of the long, hard season, and he had a feeling that she would never chastise him for his hard work and dedication. Rather, she would be fully supportive, because she understood the value of hard work and the sense of satisfaction that resulted from achieving the goal.

  Alex wouldn’t understand. He couldn’t understand; Alex didn’t have a problem with picking up random chicks in the bars and going home with them when he needed someone to keep him warm for a night. His phone was his little black book, and he could call any of those programmed numbers and have a companion if and when he wanted one. Nick didn’t see anything wrong with an occasional one-night stand, in order to fulfill his physical needs, but he wanted so much more than that. Jenna had all the potential to be everything he wanted, everything he needed, but she couldn’t be that for him. It wasn’t because Jenna had a fiancé; it was because her fiancé was Ryan Linsenbigler, his teammate. His captain. Nick didn’t want to mess with the friendship and working relationship between them.

  Nick needed to forget all about Jenna. He needed to get her out of his head, because he was feeling guilty just for having these thoughts. As much as the mere thought of her warmed his heart, his conscience was eating away at him just for thinking about her that way. He needed to do something to preoccupy himself, so he made a suggestion. “You wanna go grab a beer or something, man?”

  Alex looked at Nick like it was the first time he had ever truly seen him. And it was the first time that Alex didn’t have a quick remark. He stumbled over his words until he finally blurted out, “What?”

  “A beer,” Nick replied. “You know, at a bar? Those types of establishments usually sell alcohol. Do you want to go to one, with me, and have a beer?”

  “Um, yeah, I’m always up for a beer. But you.... You never go out for a beer. And you certainly never go out for a beer with me. Something’s really up with you.”

  Nick let himself smile at Alex’s reaction. Yes, this was definitely out of character for himself, but so was falling hard for a teammate’s girl. “I guess it’s a night for new things.”

  Jenna and Ryan woke up around the same time the next morning. She immediately rolled out of bed, feeling energetic and excited. She opened the wedding planner that her mother had purchased for her as soon as she heard the news of her daughter’s engagement, and Jenna found the calendar. Proudly, she circled the box with the number 30 printed in the corner. She couldn’t wait to tell Ryan that they’d be getting married on a thirtieth after all. Her goal was to have the save-the-date cards sent out by the end of the week to kick this damn wedding into motion. Finally.

  She went about her morning routine, taking her women’s one-a-day vitamin and birth control pill and then hopping into the shower. Every day had its own schedule; she didn’t need to adhere strictly, but she liked knowing exactly what needed to be accomplished. Jenna had classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays she did some charity work with some of the other wives and girlfriends. Today, however, was a Sunday. She had no concrete plans, and even if she did, she would have canceled them.

  She had a wedding to begin planning.

  Of course, setting the date was only the beginning. Right now, she and Ryan still had to pick out their wedding party, and then there was the guest list that they still had to tackle. She wanted small and soon, and she supposed she was getting soon: a short engagement of less than one full year. Besides an elopement, she couldn’t have asked for quicker.

  The size of the guest list was the only other question she needed an answer to right now. After all, she had to book the venues and ministers and caterers and florists and book them soon, if the wedding was going to happen in nine months. A summer wedding in Chicago meant that a lot of places were already going to be reserved. Once they decided on the number on the guest list, they could narrow down the list of potential venues for the wedding and the reception. If the list were long, then they would need a big place, and a small place if the list were short. No big decisions could be made until that was figured out.

  Jenna was ecstatic that Ryan had given her answers last night, and she knew that she couldn’t just go wake him up and pester him some more. As anxious as she was, she knew that he was tired. After all, Ryan was a professional athlete. He pushed his body to its physical limit every day, and all his recent travel was going to wreak havoc on his body until it adjusted. He needed rest, and she needed to let him sleep.

  Not to mention that even if he woke up feeling refreshed this morning, chances were good that he still wouldn’t be in the mood to be badgered with questions and ideas. Jenna knew that Ryan was a typical male: he didn’t care about stuff like this. He would want peace and quiet, so she knew she would have to butter him up if she wanted to bother him with wedding planning again.

  That’s why she started cooking breakfast. She always made a big breakfast on Sundays because it was something her family always did. And Ryan loved it, because he got to eat it. This morning, Jenna decided to make banana pancakes. She knew very well that they were his favorite, and she was making them as both a thank-you and as a way to tempt him into helping her some more.

  She whipped up the pancake batter, turned the griddle on medium heat, and then raided the refrigerator for eggs, bacon, sausage, and anything else that she could cook up for their breakfast.

  The smell of bananas and bacon wafted up the stairs from the kitchen to the master bedroom, and the delicious scent prodded Ryan out of bed. He was still tired and exhausted, wanting nothing more than to stay in bed for another few hours, but his stomach immediately growled in response to the olfactory stimulus. He smiled to himself as he stretched in bed, thinking that this was the way things were supposed to be: at home after a long trip and being taken care of by his woman.

  Ryan knew that Jenna probably had ulterior motives behind making his favorite breakfast, but at that moment he didn’t care. He pushed himself out of bed and pulled on a pair of lightweight cotton pants and a tee shirt before padding his way down the stairs and into the kitchen. He wrapped his arms around Jenna’s waist, and she leaned back against him as he kissed her cheek.

  “Good morning, Jenna.”

  “Morning, Ryan. Did you get enough sleep?”

  He let out a yawn. “I guess. I could smell you cooking, and I couldn’t resist. I had to come down now.”

  “I would have brought you breakfast in bed if you were really that tired,” she said sweetly.

  “Okay, either you want something or you did something. Making banana pancakes is one thing, but offering to bring them up to me in bed?”

  She flipped the circles of batter on the griddle. “Why do you always assume the worst of me, Ryan?” she teased.

  “Because I know you,” he laughed, his breath hitting her ear. “You treat me well, but never this well. What is it?”

  Jenna let out a little huff, but she delved right into the matter at hand. “Guest list. I need to know a number.” Ryan groaned. “I’m not saying we have to figure out exactly who we want to invite yet, but we need to get an idea on the number so we can scout some venues.” Another idea hit her that she hadn’t through of before. “And do we want a church wedding or a civil ceremony?”

  “Babe, I just woke up,” Ryan replied, releasing his grip on her and leaning against the counter.

  “I know, but you said end of June, which is
the thirtieth, by the way. And since you said it, I’m running with it, so we need to book a place yesterday. I’m so excited to start all this planning now. So all I need from you now is at least an idea of how many people we want so I can start looking.”

  “I don’t know. Five hundred?”

  “What?” she asked, dropping the spatula from her hand. “Five hundred? Are you crazy?”

  “What? Won’t that be enough?” Ryan didn’t have a problem with a lot of people. After all, a wedding was supposed to be a big deal. He only planned on doing it once in his life, and it was supposed to be a memorable day. And girls went crazy over weddings, so he thought Jenna would love sharing their nuptials with five hundred of their closest friends.

  Jenna, on the other hand, knew that Ryan liked big and gaudy. She had a piece of jewelry on her hand that was a testament to his flair for flashy and ostentatious. But she couldn’t even fathom that many people in one place at the same time who would want to celebrate such a joyous occasion with her. Jenna didn’t even think she knew five hundred people, period. “I thought one hundred people, Ryan. I thought I said that already.”

  “I thought you were joking when you said one hundred. Don’t you want to invite all your friends?”

  “My close friends. Not everyone I know under the sun. It’s a special day—”

  “That you should share with everyone—”

  “That should be shared with only your special loved ones. Family and good friends. Not the entire population of Chicago.”

  Ryan laughed. “There are more than five hundred people in Chicago, Jenna.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “Okay, okay. Compromise? Three hundred? That’s right in the middle.” Jenna pursed her lips, still wondering how she felt about that many people. She didn’t want her wedding day to be a huge production. She wanted small and simple, and as soon as the guest list grew in number, the ceremony and reception were going to get exponentially more complicated. “I thought you said that this was my wedding day, too. I thought you wanted my input?”