Page 31 of He Has It All (Boston Brawlers Hockey)
He squeezes my arm, and I’m prepared for his laugh, but it doesn’t come. “That explains things,” he says. “But don’t worry. They’re watching me, not you.”
I laugh, too hard, and I cover my mouth. He’s grinning and his mom yells at him to be serious. Maggs glares and Levi shakes his head, but he’s smiling. Embarrassment averted, mostly. Thanks to my knight in tarnished armor. The jerk. I really, really want to dislike him, to finally dispel my crush. To stop wanting to finish what we started four damn years ago.
We manage to get through the rehearsal without awkwardness or tension in spite of the non-kiss still weighing me down, hanging in the back of my mind. But at least my confidence is restored to its former healthy level because I know who I am. Even if stinking RO seems to be confused about me and can’t manage to own his appreciation.
With relief, I get back to the hotel for the rehearsal party where the rest of the family and friends are waiting for us. In fact, it looks like they started without us. It also looks like there are more people here than there were yesterday as I wend my way to the bar as soon as I walk through the door of the Breezeway’s deck. There’s quite a crowd and quite a number of young women I haven’t seen before. Must be Levi’s people. Maybe from his mom’s side.
As I reach the bar, I look around for who else but Ryan. He should be easy to spot. He’s tall and gorgeous and all I have to do is find the knot of adoring women and he’s probably at the center of it, right?
More right than I want to be. “I’ll have a margarita with Patron,” I tell the bartender, a lovely young woman.
“Sure thing, cutie. How come you’re not over there with the crowd out to get that hunk of a man’s attention? You’d be a shoo-in to catch his eye.” I see that she’s talking about Ryan and count no less than six women surrounding him. I also see that he’s sporting that overly patient smile he has to accommodate his adoring public. Not good. I thank the lady bartender, take my drink and leave a ten-dollar tip. It’s a whopper for me, but she earned it.
Maggs is waving me over on the left where she and Levi and a few others from the wedding party are sitting. On the other hand, Ryan is stranded and might look like he’s in need of rescuing not ten feet away in the other direction. If this was anywhere but at Maggie's rehearsal party, it wouldn’t matter. I’m contemplating what to do when Mrs. Brown rushes up to me from behind, all harried.
“Chelsea, can you help me?”
“Of course, Mrs. B. What can I do?”
“Something, I hope. This is terrible. I had some people show up here unexpectedly and invite themselves into the party and now look.” She flaps her hand over to where Ryan is inundated, backing away and looking like he’s going to jet the second he gets a chance.
“These women behaving like that. I was afraid this would happen. I was warned. Now I don’t know what to do because I can’t leave any ill will—these women are professionals who work with my husband and neighbors and one of them is a niece who should know better. They must have come a day early for the wedding.”
She looks panicked and I feel terrible. “I’ll be glad to run interference,” I say. “Whatever you need.”
“Good. Because this is Levi and Maggie’s wedding and we don’t need women making a scene over Ryan, taking the spotlight away, especially not tomorrow, she says.”
I nod because I totally get it.
“I need you to keep things under control. See if you can extricate him from those women and guard him, take possession. and above all make sure this craziness doesn’t happen at the wedding. The spotlight should be on Levi and Maggie.”
“Agreed. I’m on it.” She squeezes my arms and nods, seeming to relax. I nod back and taking a deep breath, head for the growing mob of women around the spectacular hunk who is now more like a spectacle.
Pushing my way past several women because I can, towering over them without apology, I reach Ryan and take his arm, dislodging a petite woman who doesn’t have a chance. He turns to me. The relief and welcome on his face almost make my knees go weak.
“There you are sweetheart,” I say, realizing this is the perfect time to cash in, for him to make amends for that no-kiss date. So I lean in and plant a kiss on his lips. With every one of the dozen or so women around us watching, feeling like a spectacular spectacle myself, doing the exact thing I hate, putting myself right at the center of attention. But at least it’s for a good cause, right? And as he gets into the game, he kisses me back, wrapping an arm around me and putting a hand on my cheek, caressing and making me dizzy. The crowd may as well have disappeared. We could be center ice at the Boston Garden with a full house and I wouldn’t know right now, because this is the payoff I was looking for, that kiss. The one that proves the chemistry beyond a doubt because I’m sober and he’s into it.
A wolf whistle breaks the spell, makes me flinch and I break the kiss. He lets me do it and reluctantly takes his hand from my face, but he keeps his eyes on mine. “I missed you, sweetheart. So glad you’re here.” His words are soft, but the ladies surrounding us get the message.
“Damn.”
“Oh. My. God. Can I have one of those kisses too?”
“Who is she?”
I’m starting to shrink behind him, now paying the price for the spectacle I’ve created and looking desperately for Maggs. I was supposed to prevent a spectacle, not create one, right? In rescuing Ryan from the mob of women, I’ve only succeeding in turning us both into targets. Or that’s what I’m thinking until Ryan sets things straight.
“Ladies, you’ll have to excuse us.” Keeping a tight hold on me, he pushes past the crowd and makes his way to the stairs where we go down to the beach-level patio. But we don’t stop there even as the cool air hits us.
“That was intense,” he says, pulling us onto the sand. I’m about to protest because my heels sink and I stumble, but he rights me, takes hold of me in both arms. “Thank you, Chels. I needed that—the rescue I mean.”
I raise my brows and he laughs.
“The kiss wasn’t bad either,” he says,
I smile, but I can feel his reluctance.
“We can’t stay out here too long,” I say. “I want to spend some time with the bride and—”
