it. She was using hockey boy to show Tyson that she’d moved on.
Wrong. If Gabi planned to use a man to show she’d moved on, it would be me.
Without tearing my gaze from the situation, I reached down and touched Mimi’s shoulder. “Hey, sport, you wanna go say hi to Coach Welk?”
“Yes!”
Perfect little ruse. No one would suspect it was my idea.
Mimi popped up, snagged my hand and dragged me over to the table. “Coach Welk, that was awesome seeing you play! You did so good.”
“Thank you, Mimi.”
“Well, except for you didn’t make a goal.”
“I tried, though. That’s what matters, right?”
Hockey guy—who I now recognized as the goalie—offered his hand. “Matt McCoy. Is this your daughter?”
“No, this is Jax’s daughter, Mimi. I’m Nolan Lund. Jax’s brother. Mimi is one of Coach Welk’s students at Lakeside.”
“I’m very happy to meet you, Mimi.”
But like mine, Mimi’s eyes were solely on Gabi. “You look all fancy tonight.”
“You’re used to seeing me in my coach or ref uniforms, huh?”
“You’re pretty.”
Gabi’s eyes softened. “Thank you, sweetheart.”
“I heard Uncle Nolan say you looked pretty too.”
What the hell? That little liar. I’d never said that. But denying it, yeah . . . not going there.
“Well, I agree with both of you,” Matt said, smiling at her. “She does look fantastic.”
A smile Gabi didn’t return because she was too busy trying to fry my face off with her laser death glare.
“Gabriella, I need a word with you.”
“How coincidental that I have a word to say to you too, Lund.” She stood. “Mimi, why don’t you sit here and keep Matt company?”
“Sure.” Mimi scrambled into the chair. First question out of her mouth? “Have you won as many Stanley Cups as my daddy?”
God, I loved that kid.
Gabi bobbed and weaved through the people like she was on the ice.
I snagged an icy cold can of Coke before I followed her into the foyer.
She’d ducked into an alcove that separated the skyboxes on this level, and paced in the small area. As soon as she saw me, she opened her mouth.
“Ice that lip while I’m talking. You should be trying to keep the swelling down.”
“Don’t boss me around. What makes you think I want to hear anything you have to say?” She put her hands on her hips and stared me down. “Especially after that bullshit flattery you fed your niece and then you used her to tell me.”
“I didn’t. That was all Mimi. She just repeated what everyone else had been saying about you.” I kept my eyes locked to hers. “But that doesn’t mean it’s not true. You are hot as fire in that outfit and you know it.”
“Omigod, Nolan Lund, you are the worst. You admitted that I’m not your type. Then you apologized for it. But you never claimed you changed your mind about finding me attractive until I showed up at a party, in an outfit you picked out for me. To add further insult to injury, when another man acts like he’s attracted to me, you decide that I’m not so bad after all?”
For fuck’s sake. Did she really think I was like that?
“Yes, Nolan, I do.”
This woman tied up me up in knots so completely that I don’t know when I was talking to myself or out loud.
“Well, you’re wrong. Completely, utterly and totally dead fucking wrong.” I crowded her against the wall. “You weren’t wearing that sexy outfit an hour ago when I was in the locker room cleaning the blood off your face, were you?”
That stubborn chin went higher. “That doesn’t count.”
The hell it didn’t. “Fine, you wanna back up? We’ll back way up. To the night at the barcade when you admitted you overheard things at Buddy’s I’d said that upset you. You let me apologize, and what’s more, you saw I was sincerely sorry about hurting you. You could’ve walked away at that point and left it at that.”
“I should have.”
“But you didn’t,” I reiterated. “You wanna know why I said you weren’t my type at Buddy’s that night?”
She opened her mouth. The look in her eyes suggested she was about to let a zinger fly.
So I warned, “Consider your words carefully.”
She did. Then she grudgingly admitted, “Because you didn’t know me.”
“Exactly. The best part of my night at the Full Tilt opening was getting to know you.” My eyes searched hers and I moved in close enough to catch a whiff of her warm and sweet scent. “I seem to remember you didn’t try to run away screaming