Page 4 of Only for Tonight (Only For #1)

four

Ariella

“T here you are.” Brookes comes up to me. “I’ve been looking for you for eighty-four years.” He is tall and lean like our father. His hair is darker blond than our dad’s, but his eyes are the same crystal blue. There’s a smile on his face as he comes in for a hug.

“Here I am.” I rub his back with my hand as we hug. “I was looking for you too, but couldn’t find you.”

“Yeah, Maddox and I,” he says, motioning to Maddox and I smile and go to give him his own hug, “were just sitting at some random table.” I can even smell that they are bullshitting me, they were probably up to no good.

“Hey, Squirt,” I tease him, even though now he towers over me by a good six inches, “you are looking good.” My hand comes up, along with my tippy-toes, to touch the top of his hair that is shaggy compared to the sides of his head which is shaved.

“I see the hockey flow”—I gently tug the hair to the side of his neck a bit—“is still a trend.”

“Who knows.” He shrugs. “I like skating and feeling the wind blow through my hair.” He tries to keep a straight face. “Kind of like Beyoncé.”

He and Brookes burst out laughing until Callie surfaces next to me. “We are about to do another round of shots,” she tells me, then looks at the guys. “It’s a girl thing. Sorry, you aren’t invited.”

“It’s going to be a girls’ thing when you are heaving into the toilet all night long.” Brookes shakes his head. “You would think you would learn.”

“You are ruining my buzz,” Callie accuses.

“Last time you said that”—Maddox points to her—“you threw up in my car.”

“Hey.” Callie points to him. “I paid to have it cleaned.” She glares at him. “And you blackmailed me for about six months. I set you up with five of my friends who have stopped talking to me because you ghosted them."

"I didn’t ghost them,” Maddox denies, “I lost my phone.”

“You have the same number you did when you were ten.” Callie rolls her eyes at him.

“Okay, you two”—I use my mom voice—“to your respective corners. Maddox, I love you big.” I drag Callie away from them and to the bar, where my shot awaits me.

I look over and see that Jaxon is still at the bar, staring at me. “Are you having a shot?” I ask him and he just shakes his head and tries not to smile, but fails. “Borrrinnnngg,” I repeat what I told him before and pick up the shot and then cheers with the girls.

A song comes on and I have just enough time to put down my glass before I’m pulled to the dance floor. “I’ll be back,” I say over my shoulder and all he does is nod at me.

Then he turns around and is in deep conversation with Nash and Gabriel.

I don’t know how long I spend on the dance floor, but one song leads into two, then into three, and all of a sudden we are singing “Dancing Queen” at the top of our lungs.

“It’s really hot,” I note, grabbing my hair in one hand while I fan myself with the other. “I’m going to get some water,” I tell my cousins and my aunts, who are now all busting it up on the dance floor.

I make my way toward the bar, bumping into my Uncle Evan. “Why is it that my niece is here and she hasn’t come up to me and said hello?”

“One,” I say, getting up on my tippy-toes and kissing his cheek, “I haven’t seen you yet because there are about a million people here.” I look around the room, my eyes finding Jaxon with my brother and Maddox, laughing at something. “And two, I saw my aunt when I walked in.”

“She didn’t tell me.” He holds his hand up to cup my cheek. “You’re beautiful, you know that?”

I smile at the soft way he looks at me. “You have to say that.”

“Oh, please,” he says, his hand falling from my cheek.

“See those two?” He points over to Matthew and Max, who are his brothers-in-law, as they walk our way.

He leans in and whispers in my ear, “Those two are ugly as fuck.” I have to stop myself from bursting out laughing. “Hey, there they are, M&M.”

“That fucking nickname,” Max grumbles before smiling at me and leaning down to kiss my cheek. “Hi, sweetheart, how are you doing?”

“Get your mitts away from her.” Evan pushes him away, which gives Matthew a chance to give me a big hug. “Great, now the ogre has her.” I laugh as I give Matthew a kiss on the cheek. “Leave her alone, will you?”

“You know, we speak almost weekly,” Matthew informs him, “and we meet at least once a month for lunch.” He puts his hands in his pockets and raises his eyebrows. “Can you say the same?” he asks him with a huge smile on his face, because he can’t say the same.

“Why the fuck are the two of you having lunch once a month?” my uncle barks at him.

“I don’t have to answer that.” He smiles big, goading him on.

“As much fun as this is”—I look at them, seeing Max just shaking his head as Evan glares at Matthew, who just smirks at him—“I need water.”

I move around Matthew and head to the bar to grab a bottle of water.

I walk through the crowd looking up at the pictures scattered through the room.

I spot Jaxon in front of another picture of his father and my father.

He looks at it and I can see him laughing to himself, memories.

“What’s so funny?” He looks to the side where I’ve stopped and am standing next to him.

“Do you remember this?” He points his finger to the picture. “It was, I think, the second game in the playoffs. You wanted to catch a puck, so I thought it was a good idea to put you on my shoulders.” I gasp, now remembering the story. “And?—”

“And you tilted forward a little too much and I hit my face on the glass,” I fill in the rest of the story. “I saw stars that night.”

“Why wouldn’t you hold out your hands?” he asks me, as if it was my fault I face-planted in the glass.

“I was holding on to the side of your head, trying to steady myself,” I defend my actions. “I spent the rest of the night in the kids’ room with an ice pack on my face.” I push his shoulder. “Thanks for that memory.”

“You had a lot of faith in me.” He moves his hands to his pants pockets, making his chest feel like it’s puffed out even more.

“I think me not putting my hands forward to block my face was me having faith in you, don’t you think?” I laugh as I close my eyes and put my hand to my head.

“Do you still have the puck I got for you?” he asks me and I shrug my shoulders. “Wow.”

“Do you know how many pucks I have in my house?” I cock my hip to the side. “I’m sure it’s there somewhere. Anyway, as much as I would love to go down this memory lane with you, I’m on my way to the bar to get some water.”

“Oh, as Tori would say, that’s deflection,” he jokes. “Besides, I owe you a drink anyway.”

“Really?” I move a step backward so I’m eye to eye with him.

“You bought me the last drink, so now I have to return it by buying you a drink.”

“But it's an open bar.” I put my hand to my chest and the smile on his face fills his whole fucking beautiful face.

“A wise woman once explained to me how these things work.” He takes his hands out of his pockets and holds one out toward the bar in the corner.

“That wise woman must be something else.” I start to walk and look over my shoulder at him, winking. “You should definitely listen to said woman.”

“I think I just might.” He chuckles as we zigzag through the people standing around and chitchatting

When we get to the bar, he looks at me. “What will it be?”

“I’ll have a bottle of water,” I tell him.

He turns the tables on me and sings, “Borrringgg.” It makes me bite my lip to stop from smiling and I don’t know why, but I just burst out laughing.

“I’m in training.” I turn the tables back at him and he points to me.

I tap his hand away. “Besides, it’s about moderation,” I tell him, “which sounds as boring as ‘I’m in training’ but the rule of thumb is one glass of booze, one glass of water.

I have failed miserably at that tonight since I’ve had about five shots and maybe one glass of water.

So I figure having a whole bottle of water now will offset all the other drinks I’ve had without water. ”

He puts his elbow on the bar, bending it and leaning into it, his bicep looking like it’s going to bust out of the suit jacket. “Is this another universal rule that I didn’t know about?”

“Well, considering you’re in training”—I lift my fingers up to do air quotes for the word “training”—“you wouldn’t really know this rule.”

“I’m really learning all kinds of interesting things tonight.” He winks at me and my stomach tingles and then it shoots into other areas that he should not be affecting, but is.

“Old dogs can learn new tricks.” I lean against the bar, mimicking his stance.

“How old are you?” he asks me.

“A little bit past a quarter of a century,” I tell him and he just stares at me. “What?”

“You couldn’t just say twenty-five?”

“That was a test.” I shrug. “Congratulations, you passed.”

“What’s the prize?” he asks me and my body flushes. I don’t know if it’s the booze or the heat or maybe it’s a bit of both.

“What do you want the prize to be?” I ask him, and his eyes just stare into mine. I wait a few seconds as he blinks a couple of times. I’m waiting for his answer, and before he can say a word, the bartender comes over.

“What can I get for you two?” he asks, putting a napkin down in front of each of us.

“I’ll have a water,” Jaxon orders, “and the lady will have?—”

“A water and a cranberry on the rocks with a splash of vodka.” He nods his head at me as he walks over to grab the two water bottles, opening them, and putting them on the napkins in front of us before he walks over to make my drink.

“A splash of vodka?” he asks me and I nod my head.

“I usually like my drinks a light pink,” I inform him, “but I’m going to have to go easy on the booze until I get more water into me.”

“Like your cheeks.” He points to my cheeks.

“They are not pink.” I stand up and put both my hands on my cheeks.

“They were pink when you were flirting with me.”