“You didn’t. My mind was somewhere else.”
She smiled, tried not to make it look like she wanted to take a bite out of him.
Oh shit, where the hell had that thought come from?
“What can I do for you?”
Did she imagine the flare of heat in his eyes? Or was she projecting her own feelings onto him?
Shit, shit, shit.
“Yeah, I just wanted to check if you need us to bring anything other than pizza. For Sunday.”
Her lips wanted to curl up in a smile at the way he held her gaze. She’d noticed he didn’t typically do that with women. And she didn’t just mean herself.
Maybe she’d been watching him a little more than she’d realized. Now, she found herself wondering what it would take for him to actually look at her and smile. To hold her gaze and smile directly into her eyes.
This close, with only the bar between them, she could tell how tall he really was. How he towered over her. Why had she never noticed that before?
Probably because she’d never really checked him out before. She’d sworn off men a few months ago. Actually, she’d sworn off relationships because sex was still very much on the table.
But Justin didn’t seem like the kind of guy who did casual sex. He seemed too…nice.
And she didn’t do nice guys.
Usually she went for the guys who looked like they could bench-press a Volkswagen, all bulging muscles and thick necks.
And thick skulls. And miniscule brains.
Justin was long and lean. Lanky. A little gawky. Kinda clumsy.
She’d seen him walk through the door tonight with the guys, head down. He nearly tripped over his own feet but caught himself before he fell too far forward. He barely broke his stride, like he did it all the time and it’d become second nature.
She remembered shaking her head and smiling a little then totally forgetting about it.
Now—
“Uh, Vivi?”
She blinked. Oh my god. Had she been staring into his eyes this whole time?
“Yeah. Sorry. Sorry, I…” was thinking about what you look like naked. She shook her head. “What was your question?”
Ugh. How totally stupid did she sound?
His gaze dropped, like she’d dissed him in some way.
Without thinking, she reached for his arm and squeezed.
Her first thought as she made contact… Holy shit, the man is solid muscle.
Her second… She didn’t want to let go.
Her head snapped up, watching as he turned his head to look at her hand on his arm then slowly looking up to catch her gaze.
The connection was instantaneous and almost shocking.
Those brown eyes of his made her want to pull him closer so she could look even more closely. Which would mean his lips would be closer.
And why are you thinking about his lips?
Blinking, she pulled back but not enough to release his arm.
“I asked if you wanted us to bring anything other than pizza?”
Pizza? What—oh, yeah.
She shook her head, rolling her eyes at her own stupidity.
“No, but thank you.”
“No problem.”
His gaze dropped and she thought he was going to walk away but he didn’t. Instead, he took a breath and caught her gaze again.
“Thanks for the invite. It’ll be nice to hang out somewhere that’s not a bar or someone’s apartment playing Xbox.”
Her smile came a little more naturally now because she could totally see this group of guys sitting around virtually killing each other.
“But it’s probably fun to gang up on Derek, right?”
He smiled. And her heart skipped a beat.
Stop that.
“Yeah. He’s easy to kill. He’s always talking so he doesn’t really pay attention to what he’s doing.”
She shook her head, grinning, and watched his gaze slide down to her lips. Suddenly, she found it hard to breathe.
His gaze shot back up in a split second and she couldn’t mistake the blush on his cheeks. Damn, the guy was hot even when he blushed like a kid.
Silence fell then, a little awkward, until finally, he took a step backward. She blinked, like she was coming out of a trance, and quickly gave him another smile.
“So I guess I’ll see you Sunday.” She pointed randomly to the bar. “I really need to—”
“Yeah, sorry.” He shook his head. “I’ll let you finish up so you can get out of here. Sorry to—”
“No, you’re not. I just—”
He bumped against the chair behind him and almost knocked it over. He managed to grab it just before it would’ve tipped. And that adorable blush on his cheeks burned a little brighter.
Shaking his head and huffing out a sigh, he lifted a hand and said, “Night,” before turning and heading back to the table. Trying not to make it obvious, she watched him as he grabbed his coat off the back of the chair then jerked his head toward the door. She couldn’t hear what he said, but it was obvious he was leaving.
Derek said something that made the rest of the guys groan and Justin knocked him on the shoulder as he shook his head.
Then one of the younger guys got up and walked out with Justin. But not before Justin glanced back and smiled at her. Then he vanished out the door.
She stared at the door for a couple of seconds before she realized what she was doing. Then she forced herself to continue restocking the bar.
And telling herself she was definitely not thinking about taking a bite out of Justin.
No, no, no.
Chapter Two
“You know, Viv, these are really good. You should think about selling these.”
“Hmm? What?”
Aly gave a long-suffering sigh and tapped Vivi on the head before pointing to the prints she’d spread across the dining room table.
Since neither of them usually had the time to sit and eat a meal together, the table was covered with everything from bills to file folders to year-old magazines and receipts for things they probably didn’t even own anymore.
An hour ago, Vivi had cleared a space and spread out the prints she’d made of her recent photos.
It was late Sunday morning and her sister was leaving in a little while to go to Philly for Riley’s game that afternoon with the Colonials.
She wouldn’t be back until late tonight and then she’d go straight to bed and get up for work the next morning. Aly had been putting a hell of a lot of mileage on her car recently with all her trips to Philly.
“Your photos,” Aly said. “You should sell these. They’re beautiful.”
Vivi huffed out a laugh. “Thanks, but no one’s gonna pay me for these. These are just for me.”
“Who says you can’t make money doing what you love? You should think about it. Have you sold any more designs lately?”
One of Vivi’s part-time jobs was designing tattoos for ColorWheel Tattoos, the studio where she’d worked for years, starting when she was sixteen, creating art for a friend’s father who was a tattoo artist and part owner of the studio.
“A few.” Actually, more than a few. Her designs had begun taking off lately. “Just designed a full sleeve for a veteran. He wanted a reminder of where he’d been for the past twenty years. He was deployed to the Middle East for years and spent some time in Afghanistan. He’s been to Turkey, Germany, South Korea. He tells the most amazing and horrifying stories. He’s been shot a couple of times, broken a few bones, and he’s missing parts of a couple of his fingers. But he’s still this great guy, even after all that shit.”
She dug around in her pile of photos for a few seconds before she found what she was looking for.
She slid the photo toward her sister. “This is him. This is just the start of the outline. Eventually, it’ll be a full-color sleeve.”
“Wow, Viv. This is beautiful. You do amazing work. I’m telling you, you need to find a way to sell these photos.”
/> Vivi shrugged but couldn’t deny she got a little glow inside from her sister’s praise. “Thanks. I think it’s some of my best work.”
“All your work’s amazing. I hope they’re paying you what you’re worth.”
Aly headed into the kitchen so Vivi didn’t have to respond. If she had, she knew Aly would’ve been all over her ass. Because, honestly, Vivi would do the design work for free.
She wasn’t trained as an artist, had taken a few classes as a teen when her parents could afford it, but she’d always been good at it and she’d always loved it. She’d also known there was no way in hell she was going to go to college because she’d barely been able to get out of high school.
The day she’d graduated, both she and her parents had breathed a huge sigh of relief at having made it through in the allotted twelve years. But she’d be damned if she spent another four years having teachers lecture her about what she had to do with her life.
Of course, that meant she’d had no viable skills when she left high school, which meant she’d been working at a series of dead-end waitressing jobs for the past five years, trying to figure out what the hell to do with her life.
Still haven’t figured that out, have you?
“Oh, hey, can you drop off the water bill on your way to work tomorrow? It’s due Thursday.”
And though Aly didn’t mean it like that, that was a not-so-subtle reminder that Vivi worked three jobs and barely made enough to cover her half of the expenses.
“Sure, no problem.”
Lately, she’d been thinking more and more about what she wanted to do with her life…and still hadn’t come up with an answer.
“Viv, you okay?”
Aly stood in the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room, watching her with narrowed eyes.
She shrugged, shook her head, and said, “Yeah,” but Aly wasn’t buying it.
Her sister didn’t say anything right away, but after a few seconds, she walked over to the table, glass of milk in one hand and bagel in the other, and sat opposite Vivi.
After a few long silent moments, Aly finally said, “We haven’t had much time to talk lately. I’ve been so busy at work and then I’ve spent every other second either on the road to see Riley or on the phone with Riley or with Riley.”
Vivi shrugged, a wry smile tugging at her lips. “Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be? Unless you want to spend the rest of your life staring at me across this table, you’re supposed to find a guy and move on.”
Aly pulled a face that made a pit form in Vivi’s stomach.
“Riley and I have been talking about me moving to Philly.”
It shouldn’t have been a shock. Vivi was kind of surprised it’d taken this long, actually. But it still hit her like a sucker punch.
She tried not to show it, but Vivi knew her sister could read her like a book.
“That’s not a surprise,” Vivi forced the words out of her mouth. “I mean, come on, you guys can’t bear to spend a few nights away from each other. You’re such a bitch when you don’t get laid on a regular basis.”
She smiled to let her sister know she was teasing and Aly gave her the older-sister “you’re a pain in my ass” look, which fast faded into an expression Vivi couldn’t quite understand.
“I’m not planning to leave you with the bills. I’m still planning to pay my half of the house. You can’t get rid of me that easily. And I don’t want to sell the house. But…I’m going to be looking for a job in Philly.”
That knot in the pit of her stomach loosened and the dread she hadn’t wanted to acknowledge dissipated. Mostly.
“I’m happy for you guys. I mean, sure, I’ll miss you but it’s not like I’ll never see you again.”
“I know.” Aly shrugged. “It’s just…”
Vivi had no idea what her sister was trying to say. “Is there something else going on?”
Aly shook her head, but Vivi could tell her sister was still thinking about something.
“Is everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine. I’m sorry, it’s just…” Aly shrugged and shook her head. “I’m going to worry about you.”
Frowning, Vivi shook her head. “What? Why?”
“Because you’re going to be alone a lot more than you already are.”
Vivi’s back straightened. “I don’t know what you mean.”
Her sister’s brows arched. “Yeah, I’m gonna call bullshit on that.”
“I’m around people all the time. Hell, I work three jobs. Sometimes I get sick of all the people I have to deal with.”
“But how many of those people do you really consider good friends?”
“All of them.”
Aly’s eyebrows rose higher.
Okay, okay. That was a lie.
“All right, not all of them, but I have close friends who aren’t you. Not that I don’t love you, sis, but you’re not my entire world.”
“I know that. But I’m still gonna worry. I have been worried about you.”
“Jeez, you sound like Mom.”
“Okay,” Aly’s hands went to her hips, “first of all, that’s mean. And second, stop deflecting. You know what I’m trying to say.”
“You mean I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“Well…” Aly scrunched up her nose, “kind of.”
“What do you mean, kind of? Not everyone’s life revolves around a guy, you know.”
“Oh please, you know I don’t mean you need a man to make you complete. But…” Aly paused and sucked in her bottom lip before she said, “it wouldn’t hurt you to go on a date every now and then. I know you’ve been asked. I know you’ve turned them all down.”
“I go out all the time. I just do it with a group.” Which was another half-truth. “Seriously, you’re getting hyped about nothing. I’m good.”
Aly didn’t say anything else, probably because her sister could tell Vivi was getting to the end of her patience. And having dealt with their mother for their entire lives, Aly should realize this wasn’t the way to deal with her.
Aly must have taken the hint because she nodded and held her hands up in the air.
“Okay, okay. Fine. I said what I wanted to say. I’ve got to get going. Never know how long it’s going to take me to get to Philly and I don’t want to miss Riley before he leaves for the arena.”
Aly came around the table to give her a one-arm hug.
“I worry about you. Give me shit for it, but I’m not gonna change my ways now. Have a good time tonight.”
“I’m sure I will. I really like Sophie and Derek, and the rest of the guys are a lot of fun.”
“Hmm. Any of the guys you might like more than the others?”
Vivi huffed. “I thought you were leaving?”
Aly raised her hands in the air and grinned. “I am, I am. Fine. This is me leaving.”
“Have fun.”
“Always. You too. And hey, Viv, sometimes the quiet ones can surprise you.”
“Hey—”
Aly disappeared out the door as Viv turned to throw a pen at her sister.
What the hell? Had her sister heard something about her and Justin? There was nothing going on.
Except…
Maybe there was.
She couldn’t honestly say she wasn’t attracted to him because after last night, she saw him in a completely different way. She honestly didn’t know how that’d happened.
But her sister was wrong about her not having any friends. She had tons of friends.
Yeah, but who have you hung out with lately?
Okay, maybe she’d been more of a homebody lately. Maybe she didn’t want to go out and get drunk every night like she used to.
Hell, most nights she was working and afterward, when she would’ve headed to the after-hours clubs, maybe she came home more than she went out.
Maybe you’re growing up.
She snorted. Not that anyone would believe that about her. Her reputation as a party girl prec
eded her everywhere she went. Her parents had been on a first-name basis with the borough cops by the time she’d graduated from high school.
What could she say? She loved a good party. She loved feeling good and having fun with her friends. So sometimes she drank too much and danced on a few too many tables. Fuck it.
She was only young once and she enjoyed the hell out of dancing, drinking, and having a kick-ass time.
But lately, her friends were hanging out more as couples. Like actual dating, with sit-down dinners and movies. Hell, some of her friends were married and two had kids. Multiple, even.
Every time she thought about that, she shook her head and thought, What the fuck? Seriously? Had her friends lost their fucking minds?
She couldn’t figure out what the hell she wanted to do with her own life. How the hell would she be able to take care of another human?
That’s called adulthood, Vivian. Some day you may get there.
She heard the exasperated voice of her mother in her head and sighed.
She loved her parents and she knew they loved her but… There had been days during her teen years when she was pretty sure they would’ve loved to ship her off to a desert island. Or a military school.
Not that any would’ve admitted you on your grades…
If she rolled her eyes and her mother wasn’t here to see it, did it still count?
Forcing her attention back to her photos, she looked at them with a critical eye. Were they really as good as Aly thought? Or was her sister just blowing smoke up her ass?
Does it matter?
She wasn’t going to have a career as a photographer. She didn’t have the training. She didn’t have a degree.
You don’t have a clue.
But she did have twenty people coming to her house in a few hours so maybe she should take a stab at cleaning the house.
And not think about things that didn’t mean a damn thing.
*****
“Justin! What the hell are you doing? Let’s go.”
“Jeez, stop yelling, D. I’m ready.”
“You s-said that five minutes ago and we haven’t l-left yet. Dude, come on.” Robbie’s voice reached the back of the apartment, where Justin was changing his shirt. “We’re gonna miss the g-game if you don’t g-get your ass in gear.”
The D-Man: Redtails Hockey 6 Page 2