Page 48 of Replay

“It’s fine, Josh. Jessica and I are talking about non-hockey stuff, so do your thing.”

He grinned. “Want another beer?” I hesitated. He nudged me with his elbow. “I’m not having any more, and I’ll drive you home. Have more if you want.”

“Sure. Another Keith’s, then.”

Josh waved for our server, and I looked at Jessica.

She lifted her hands. “Yeah, I get it. Puppy eyes is right.”

An hour later, everyone was ready for another round. Two women in tight-fitting hockey shirts came over. They were very pretty, well made up, and they looked around the table like this was the real menu.

“Can we buy you a drink?” one of the guys asked.

Before long, three more women had joined us. I saw gazes moving between me and Josh, assessing whether we were together. I wasn’t sure how to act. What did he want me to do? Scoot away? Was I supposed to be a buffer? A big part of me wanted to wrap an arm around his just to see how they reacted.

And that was a problem. This was definitely becoming let’s hook up hour, and I wasn’t playing that game. I pulled out my phone to check the time, and all of the things I had to do tomorrow crowded into my head.

“I need to head out now. Classes in the morning.”

Jess frowned at her own phone. “I should get Justin and head home too.”

Josh had been talking to…possibly Crash? But he noticed what I was doing. “Time to go?” he asked.

“I don’t want to break up the party. I have to leave, but you should stay. I can call a ride.”

Josh pushed back his chair. “We gotta go, guys. See you in the morning.”

I stood up beside him. Leaning close to his ear, I whispered, “You don’t have to?—”

He took my hand, short-circuiting the rest of that sentence, and pulled me after him as he made his way around the table.

There was a chorus of “Bye, Ducky” and “Nice to meet you, Katie” as we left them behind. Jess put her hand to her head in the call me gesture and I nodded. We’d already exchanged numbers.

“You sure about this?” I double-checked with Josh.

“Yeah. We came together, we leave together. I can shoot the shit with those guys tomorrow.”

What about hooking up? Did he want to do that? I wasn’t brave enough to ask.

My phone buzzed as we hit the entry doors. There was a foyer between the outside doors and the inside ones, keeping the worst of the wind from sneaking into the bar. The buzz was the particular tone I’d set up for work messages.

“Can you give me just a sec? This is work, and it might be a schedule change for tomorrow.” The prof had been complaining of a scratchy throat, and if he was taking a sick day and I had to fill in, I wanted all the notice I could get.

“Sure.” Josh was always agreeable. He leaned against the wall as I took a step away, putting a finger in my free ear while I listened to the message.

Nothing from the prof. Just a change in a lab session location. While I was listening, the door from outside opened and a woman entered. Like the women who’d joined the table earlier, she was gorgeous and dressed for attention. She had blonde hair—not natural, I decided. Perfect makeup. I’d put on blush and mascara and lipstick, but the lipstick and blush were probably gone by now, and the mascara flaking under my eyes. She was wearing boots with a four-inch heel over tight, very tight jeans. I honestly wondered if her shirt might rip, unable to contain her generous boobs in such a tight space. The Blaze logo was so stretched out it was almost unrecognizable.

“Hey, Ducky.” Her voice was low, husky, seductive. “I was hoping to see you tonight. How’s your knee?” She touched his chest with one perfect, blood-red fingernail, running it down toward his jeans and what the actual fuck?

Josh stepped back. “Um, it’s fine.”

Something changed, like the place was lit differently. The man standing there was no longer the teenager I’d known in high school. He had the same shaggy brown hair, but there was a shadow on his jaw, like he needed to shave again. The jawline was sharper, and his face more angular, less round. He wasn’t that much bigger, but he had a presence about him he’d never had in high school. He wasn’t a hockey wannabe; he’d made it. He was successful, admired, and had the world at his feet.

He wasn’t surprised or flustered that this woman was after him. This happened to him often. She was going to suggest a “workout” for his knee, and I was just not having that. For all my talk about letting it happen? Nope. I took the two steps necessary to get to his side and slid my hand into his. He jerked his head toward me in surprise.

“We’ve been keeping it iced, and now it’s all good again.” I tried to give him a sexy smile as I looked up at him. “You put those ice packs back in the freezer, right?”

He nodded slowly, still looking shocked.

---