Page 5 of Rematch (Stingrays Hockey #3)

Chapter Two

Joy laughed. “Oooo. That might be your best line yet.”

Preston grinned, even though he wasn’t entirely sure it had been a pickup line.

Just like the two of them running into each other hadn’t been random. He’d spotted the beauty the second he walked into the party tonight, his gaze drawn to her time and time again as he socialized with his buddies.

His opportunities to attend parties like this during the hockey season were always hit and miss, depending on whether he had a home game, late practice, or was on the road.

Today, the Baltimore Stingrays had played a one p.m. game in Philadelphia, so he and a couple of his teammates stuck around to attend tonight’s party with Elio Moretti.

Elio had played for the Stingrays before retiring a few years earlier to run this inn with his wife, Gianna.

To make things even better, Preston had tomorrow off—he needed the recovery time—before flying to Florida with the team the day after.

So he’d decided to take advantage of the opportunity to chill with his friends for a couple hours.

His original intention had been to drink a beer and rehash the glory days with Elio and the guys, and then drive back to Baltimore because he preferred sleeping in his own bed versus staying in a hotel.

Sleeping in hotels got old quick, and considering he’d been doing it for fifteen hockey seasons, it was safe to say he was well over it.

That plan changed when he saw her . Suddenly, one beer became two as he watched her, captivated by her pretty face, her gentle demeanor, and something else he hadn’t been able to put his finger on.

There was a vulnerability about her that he’d initially attributed to shyness…

but now he knew it had been put there by an asshole ex.

He’d been approaching her, trying to figure out what to say, when she’d stumbled into him, her hair getting caught in his Christmas lights.

“What makes you think it’s a line?” He attempted to keep his tone light and fun.

“If it’s not, then you really should get to know me better before you go making a wild, sweeping claim like that,” she said, grinning.

“I think that’s a great idea. So tell me. Why Paris?” While it was a crazy thought, he couldn’t help but wonder how married she was to the idea of skipping off across the pond.

“The opportunity was too good to turn down. I landed a dream job and, well, it’s Paris,” she said, as if that should explain it all.

“Dream job, huh?”

“Yeah. But I’m not going to lie,” she confessed. “It’s going to be difficult leaving my hometown, my parents, and my friends. It’s just…the offer presented itself at the perfect time, and I realized there was nothing holding me here.”

She turned slightly on the couch so that she was facing him more fully. Preston couldn’t resist the desire to cut the distance between them, so he shifted forward until their faces were closer, his arm still resting on the back of the couch, allowing him to stroke the side of her neck once more.

She glanced over her shoulder, back in the direction of the dancing, and he wondered—okay, worried—that she was uncomfortable with his touch or thinking about ending the conversation here.

“Tell me one of your childhood dreams,” he said quickly, unwilling to let her walk away.

Her attention returned to him, and she was clearly pleased he wanted to continue their get-to-know-you game.

“Let’s see,” she said, tapping her lower lip with her finger playfully.

“Oh, I know. For one whole year, I wanted to be a meter maid. I used to ride my bike up and down our street, putting tickets on all the neighbors’ cars. ”

“Bet they loved that,” he said sardonically.

She shrugged. “Luckily, it was a great neighborhood, so they were mostly entertained, and a couple even played along, paying my quarter fine.”

Preston chuckled. “So I have to ask. Did that dream come true? Are you off to Paris to ticket the French for double-parking by the Eiffel Tower?”

She snorted. “Not even close. After a year as a ‘meter maid,’” she air-quoted the last two words, “I moved on to bus driver. Stopping my bike outside every house to pick up imaginary students for school.”

“Did you have better luck making that dream come true?”

She leaned closer, lowering her voice as if sharing a deep dark secret. “Not even close. I’m a terrible driver.”

“Good information to have. I’ll be careful never to let you get behind the steering wheel of my Audi R8.”

“Way to work in a brag about your badass car.”

Preston chuckled. “You’re only giving me one night here. I have to take my shots where I can.”

She rolled her eyes good-naturedly.

“So your big childhood dreams were meter maid and bus driver?”

She lifted one shoulder. “Not really. Those dreams were short-lived. I guess what I always wanted to be when I grew up was a baker. I used to spend every Sunday in my grandma’s kitchen when I was younger, learning how to bake cookies and cakes and her world-famous apple pie.”

“World famous, huh?”

Joy nodded. “It won first place in a local apple pie baking contest ten years in a row.”

Preston whistled appreciatively. “That’s quite the record.”

“One day, I’d love to open my own bakery. I even know the name of it.” She held her hands out as if imagining the sign. “Sugar and Spice.”

“I like it,” Preston said.

“What about you? What did you dream of growing up to be?”

Preston answered honestly, aware that in addition to not sharing his name, he hadn’t told her about his profession, either, though he wasn’t sure why. “I suppose my dream is a popular one with most young boys. I wanted to become a professional athlete.”

“What sport?” she asked.

“The best sport ever. Hockey.”

Joy crinkled her nose. “Hockey, really?”

“What the hell is wrong with hockey?”

She considered his question, then shrugged. “Nothing, I guess. To be honest, I’ve never watched an entire hockey game. Just seen clips here and there.”

Preston clearly spent too much of his time around people who were all hockey mad.

His family, his teammates, the fans. Then he realized the reason he’d probably held back about his career was because she wasn’t looking at him like every other woman he’d spent time with over the past decade and a half.

To them, he was a rich professional athlete, and he knew their desire to be with him was based on that , rather than who he was as a person.

“You’re kidding,” he said. “You’ve never watched a whole game?”

She flipped her hair over her shoulder. “My dad is a Ravens fan, so we were a football house.”

“Fucking football,” Preston grumbled. “Crap sport. Trust me when I say, real men play hockey.”

She laughed. “I’ll have to take your word for it.”

For the next half hour, Preston filled her in on the finer points of hockey, while she interjected her own misguided opinions on why football was better. The lively debate was fun and funny, and Preston found himself wishing this night would never end.

Mercifully, Joy didn’t ask if he managed to achieve his hockey player dream, because he wasn’t quite ready to reveal who he was to her just yet. “Do you have any siblings?”

She nodded. “Two sisters, much older. I was a late-in-life kid, and while I’m pretty sure I was an oopsie, my mom swears I wasn’t. Both my sisters are married with kids. One lives in Dallas, the other in Sacramento. How about you?”

“I have a younger brother. He moved to Denver a few years ago, married a nice woman, has a couple of daughters. He sells real estate, something he loves way too much. Whenever he calls, I get a full rundown of all his sales, as well as the deals that fell through. Boring as shit.”

“So he didn’t have that same dream of becoming a hockey player?”

“Nope. Guy doesn’t have an athletic bone in his body. We tease each other all the time about one of us being switched at birth. I say it’s him. He swears it’s me. We’re opposites right down the line, but I couldn’t imagine my life without the guy.”

“I feel that way about Allyson and Ethan.”

“Allyson is the friend you came with?” he asked, recalling her mentioning that name earlier.

She nodded.

“And Ethan?” Preston had never suffered a day of jealousy in his life, but he didn’t like knowing there was an Ethan that she couldn’t live without.

“They are my two best friends. Because of the age difference, I’ve never been particularly close to my sisters. So, Ethan and Allyson have become the siblings of my heart. I honestly couldn’t have survived the past six months without them.”

Preston still couldn’t understand how anyone could date someone as cool as Joy and walk away.

More than that, there was a special place in hell for the kind of man who would jilt a woman at the altar.

The fact he didn’t even show up to offer an explanation or apology proved the guy was a loser with a capital L.

“They’ve been dragging me out since June, trying to help me get my head back in the game. Rick really did a number on me,” she confessed, though he could see it was hard for her to admit.

“How long did you date the asshole?” Preston asked.

“Forever.”

He tilted his head, waiting for her to give the correct answer.

“Seriously,” she said. “We grew up together. We were high school sweethearts. He was my first kiss, my first boyfriend, my first everything.”

And that just catapulted Rick the Dick from merely a loser, to the world’s biggest prick. “That’s a long time.”

She nodded. “Our mothers were— are —best friends, so we’ve always known each other. I think that’s why I was so blindsided when he…” She paused. “Jesus. I’m sorry. You don’t want to hear all of this.”

Actually, he did. He wanted to know everything about her. “I don’t mind…if it doesn’t bother you to talk about it.”

“It doesn’t,” she replied, and he could see she was telling the truth. He could also see she was surprised by it.