Page 2 of Only for Tonight (Only For #1)

two

Ariella

I ’m collecting my things to put in my purse—lipstick, lip gloss, a compact, even though I never actually reapply my lipstick, and then my phone. Looking down, I see that I’ve missed about five text messages.

“Oh my,” I say to myself as I open the app, “how long was I in the bathroom for?” I scan the text messages. Spotting a text from Lexi, who is my cousin and best friend.

Lexi: Have fun tonight. Give everyone my love and a little hug. Call me in the morning! Send me a picture of your dress!

I decide to snap a picture of myself in the full-length mirror near the door, sending it to her and adding in:

Me: These shoes already kill my feet but they make my legs look hot.

She replies right away.

Lexi: That’s because they are hot.

Another from my cousin Zoey.

Zoey: I’m here and I’ve done five shots already.

I snort, knowing that her husband, Nash, is going to be carrying her home at the end of the night. Not that he cares, he would do anything for her.

My brother texts me next.

Brookes: I’m going to be here for two hours and then I’m leaving.

Brookes: I’m with Maddox at a table, if you are looking for me.

He mentions his best friend and our other cousin. The two of them have been thick as thieves since Maddox was adopted into the family. They are two months apart and have been each other’s shadow since.

I step out of the hotel room and hear the sound of the door clicking at the same time I put the key card in my purse and my phone pings with a message.

Mom: We are in the ballroom. It’s on the second floor.

My head is down as I walk toward the elevator door, my heels sinking into the carpet as I round the corner and hit the tiled entryway, where three elevator doors greet me.

I take in my reflection. The black lace dress was something I bought today when shopping with Zoey and my mother.

It was a spur-of-the-moment purchase, but it fits like a glove, so I had to have it.

The lace sleeves are see-through and go to my elbows.

The front comes down into a V and is tight all the way until my mid-hips, and then it flares into a ruffled bottom that hits mid-thigh and drapes longer in the back.

The bottom part sways right and left when I walk.

My black sky-high pumps with a gold T in the back complete the look.

I didn’t go big with my makeup, opting for a natural look, with my long brown hair in beach waves. My blue eyes look a light gray tonight.

I press the button for down before answering everyone with the same message.

Me: On my way down.

The pinging of an elevator has me looking up and I see the last one has the white light on top of it, so I walk over to it at the same time the doors open.

I step in, pressing the second button before the door closes.

I put the phone in my purse, holding it in front of me as I watch the numbers go down from twenty-seven to two.

Luckily, it doesn’t stop at any other floor, and when the doors open, I can hear the music coming from one of the ballrooms. I look around, seeing people everywhere.

My heart starts to speed up with a bit of nerves as I make my way toward where all the people are.

My phone vibrating in the purse in my hand has me stopping and opening my clutch and pulling it out while it vibrates another four times. I look down and see I now have twelve missed texts. The big red bubble shows me the number.

Pressing the green app, I see that it’s the thread I have with my sister, Callie, and my cousin Zoey.

Callie: I need someone to hook me up with one of the hot guys from the hockey team.

Zoey: I can’t help you there. My husband is an executive. You need to get Ryleigh to help you.

Callie: Where is she?

Zoey: She should be there any second.

Callie: There is this guy at the bar, I think I heard him say his name was Nikolas or Atticus.

Zoey: Pics or it didn’t happen.

Callie: Okay, I’m now deceased.

Zoey: I’m coming, what happened?

Callie: I tried to snap a picture of him but it’s so fucking dark in here that my flash went off.

Zoey: RIP, you will be missed. Also, rookie mistake.

I shake my head and try not to laugh out loud as I take a couple of steps and run smack into someone.

“Oh my God,” I quickly blurt when I feel hands on my upper arms. The heat from their hands going right through the lace of my sleeves.

“I’m so sorry.” I look up and into ice-blue eyes.

But they’re not all the way ice blue, the border around them is darker and all you can do is stare into them.

“Ariella?” His voice is smooth and husky all at the same time, and my eyes widen in shock.

“Wait, Jaxon?” I say his name, my mind finally placing him as he moves his hands off of me, and I take a step back to look at him. “Hi.” I move into him again, this time to kiss his cheek. “I haven’t seen you in, like, forever.” His musky cologne makes my knees buckle a little.

“Yeah.” He takes a step back and out of my way so he can look down at me.

My five-foot-six height is nothing compared to his six-foot-whatever frame, I think, he’s a foot taller than me.

“I usually can get out of attending certain things,” he starts, putting his hands in his pockets and I stupidly give him an up and down, “but this is one I couldn’t get out of. ”

“Same,” I admit to him, laughing as he does his own up and down of me and I have to say I’m really happy I wore this black dress.

It shows off my toned legs, as well as the toned body I spend seven days a week doing Pilates for.

“I couldn’t get out of it.” I look around, wondering if he’s here with someone.

“When was the last time I saw you?” he asks me, and I’m taken aback by his question as he stands here talking to me.

“Whenever it was, you didn’t have the beard.” I point to the soft beard he has, which makes him look even more rugged.

“I think the last time I saw you, Zoey was sneaking you drinks, since you weren’t of age,” he jokes with me and I push his shoulder.

“I think I had just turned eighteen, if I’m not mistaken.

” I shake my head, smiling. “What about when you were sixteen and got drunk in one of the hockey suites during a game, and you threw up on Evelyn’s shoes?

” I remind him and he throws his head back and lets out a barking laugh.

“It’s ’cause of you that for the next ten years all alcohol was monitored and they brought in a bartender. ”

“I forgot about that.” He puts one hand to his stomach and I see the ink on his hand, and my mouth waters. He has definitely added that since the last time I saw him. “Definitely good times.”

“There you are.” I see his sister coming up to him and her eyes light up when she sees me.

“My favorite babysitter in the whole world,” Tori declares, hugging me tightly as she moves me side to side. “Ariella used to always bake with me,” she says to Jaxon.

“I’ve never seen you bake in my life,” he tells Tori.

“It was a million years ago,” she scoffs at him, “I was eight.”

“And it was not her strong suit,” I cut in, “but she was good at other things. No one could color quite like her.”

He just stares at me and, for the first time, I feel nervous around him, which is crazy since I’ve known him my whole life.

He is seven years older than me, so we never really hung around with each other too much.

I was probably the young annoying kid who was always asking him questions.

When he got older, he was never really around, especially once he got drafted.

Our fathers played hockey together and then retired at the same time and worked in the front office of the organization, side by side.

They are still the best of friends and vacation together all the time.

My phone buzzes in my purse. “I have to get in there before they send out a search party,” I tell them and Jaxon nods.

“Yeah, Mom and Dad are looking for you.” Tori looks at Jaxon, who just nods his head at her as he looks over toward where people are walking into the two doors pushed open. My eyes are transfixed on the ink on his neck, and I’m curious to see if his whole chest and arms are tattooed.

“I was coming,” he says and waits for me to walk ahead of him before he follows a step behind me.

“Did you just get here?” I ask him over my shoulder.

“We got here together,” Tori fills in for him, “but he forgot his phone in the car.”

“The horror,” I joke with him as we walk into the ballroom.

The green, white, and black balloons are everywhere, mixed in with gold all around the room.

“Wow.” My gaze travels around, noting the pictures of the Dallas Oilers organization throughout the years.

“Look at our dads.” I point over to a picture of my dad with Manning on the ice from when they won the Cup.

Manning is holding the Cup in the air and handing it over to my father.

“I still remember that game,” he says with fondness in his voice and I laugh.

“That’s how old you are.” I push him with my shoulder jokingly, and it hits him mid arm since he’s so much taller than me.

He doesn’t have a chance to answer, he just smiles while his father comes up to him. “Was looking for you,” he states. “Come say hi to the guys,” he tells him and then Jaxon looks over at me, then Manning notices me.

“Holy shit, Ariella,” he blurts, coming to me and giving me a big hug and kissing me on my cheek. “I didn’t even—” he starts to say, letting me go. “You look different. More grown up.”

“No, she doesn’t,” Jaxon counters right away, “she looks the same.”

“Well, I hope I look a bit older than I did when I was sixteen with braces,” I joke.

“It’s nice to see you, Manning.” I nod at him.

“If you guys will excuse me, I have to find my sister and my mother, who are blowing up my phone right now, thinking I’ve been kidnapped.

” I look around. “Got to say, I’m a little disappointed they haven’t sent out a search party.

” That makes Jaxon laugh and, for the life of me, I don’t know why I like to hear it so much. “I’ll see you guys later.”

He doesn’t say anything to me. He just nods his head as I walk around them and look around, spotting my Aunt Zara with her twin sister, Zoe, who have their heads together, no doubt talking shit about someone.

“Hey,” I say when I get close enough and Zara’s eyes light up.

Zara is married to my Uncle Evan. The two of them have the best meet-cute story of life.

When she found out her ex-boyfriend was getting engaged a couple months after he broke up with her, she tweeted my uncle, who was playing for Dallas also back then, and asked him to crash the wedding with her.

Never thinking he would answer her back, he did, and it caused a media storm.

It’s a story everyone always tells because they did all that and ended up falling in love and never going to the wedding.

It’s also karma since the ex-boyfriend has been married three times and she’s still with my uncle.

“My favorite niece,” she smirks and then corrects herself, “My favorite twentysomething niece.”

I laugh at her as I give her a big hug. “Hi,” I reply and then get the same hug from Zoe. “What are you two in the corner gabbing about?”

“Nothing,” Zoe and Zara both say at the same time before looking at each other and laughing.

“Go away and let the grown-ups talk.” Zara shoos me with her hand in the air as I turn and look around, spotting my cousin Zoey, who is right beside her husband, Nash, who has a hand on her hip.

“Well, well, well,” Zoey starts in. She was named after her Aunt Zoe, but they added a Y to not confuse anyone. It didn’t help since it sounds the same. “Look who decided to join the party.”

“I got here earlier but I ran into Jaxon and Tori,” I inform her, pointing over my shoulder.

“Where’s Callie?” I look around for my sister and don’t spot her.

Callie? My sister is eight years younger than me, Brookes is two years older than her.

He reminds us all the time that he suffers from middle child syndrome since we constantly forget about including him in things.

We do that because he’s a guy and not because he’s the middle child.

“Last I saw, she said this was her final goodbye and she was dying of embarrassment,” Zoey says laughing. A waiter comes over with a tray of champagne and I take a flute.

“Somehow,” I state, taking a sip of the cold bubbly drink, “I think she’ll survive.”

“She did go over to Zara.” She points to her cousin, who stands next to her cowboy husband rubbing her little baby belly. Her twins are already three years old and she’s happy that this one is a single. “She asked if there were any cowboys she could ride and then return.”

I about spit out my drink. “You know what we should do?” Zoey mentions. “Shots.” Nash immediately groans.

“I don’t think you should do shots at all.” Nash shakes his head but follows Zoey as she grabs my free hand and pulls it to one of the bars set up. “Maybe we should eat first,” he tries to tell her.

“One shot”—she looks over her shoulder—“and then we’ll hit up the buffet. Having shots is the whole reason I married you.”

“Great,” he deadpans, “I thought it was my charm.” The two of them eloped one night in Vegas.

They hadn’t even been out on one date before he proposed.

The rude reality is, they hadn’t even kissed.

Which is insane, but here we are, all these years later, and she’s happily married, living in LA, and has a little nine-month-old.

She even gave up her career in order to stay home with the baby.

“One shot.” I hold up my finger when we get to the bar.

“I have to eat, and I have an early flight tomorrow morning to go back home to New York, and flying while hungover is not something I want to do ever again,” I inform Zoey, who orders two lemon drop shots.

She holds up one of the shot glasses as I put down my champagne to grab the other one.

“To tonight,” she cheers, holding her shot glass up.

I smile at her. “To tonight,” I repeat, clinking her glass and then taking the shot, never really knowing just how much this one night is going to change my whole life.