Offside (17 page)

“What’s your relationship with your
folks like now?” he asked. “Are they proud of you for what you
did?”

She laughed. “No. I don’t know what
they are. They don’t really pay much attention to me, as long as
I’m staying out of trouble and out of the limelight. At one time in
my life that would have been enough to make me go skinny dipping in
a pool with a bunch of guys knowing there were cameras there and my
picture was going to be all over the internet the next day, so my
parents would be all pissed off and yelling at me…but now…” She
shrugged. “It is what it is. I’m doing what they wanted, but I’m
not doing it for them. I’m doing it for me.”

Fucking amazing. He didn’t even know
what to say. Had no words.

All he could do was show her. So he
rolled her to her back, moved over her and kissed her.

Chapter Twelve

Honey was only too glad to switch from
talking about her fucked-up past to, well, fucking. Because sex
with Matt was off the charts hot, steamy enough to take both their
minds off the stupid shit she’d shared when she was all softened up
by Matt and his focused attention and damn sweet charm.

So they spent the afternoon mostly in
bed, Matt heading to his kitchen at one point to make them fried
egg sandwiches and orange juice, which they ate and drank in bed.
But eventually all good things had to come to an end, and she was
expected to show up at her parents’ home for Sunday dinner as
usual.

For a moment, when she was dressed in
her jeans and T-shirt and hoodie from yesterday, and they were
leaving his apartment so he could drive her home, she had the wacko
idea of inviting him to come with her. She felt a really weird
reluctance to leave him. But that was a truly fucked-up idea, so
she kept her mouth shut as he drove her home, walked her to her
apartment door and paused there.

Like he was waiting for
something.

Still she kept her mouth shut, other
than to smile and go up on her toes to give him a quick kiss on his
mouth. “Thanks,” she said, with determined cheer. “For the bike
ride and the new bathing suit and all the food and…” She winked.
“All the orgasms.”

The corners of his mouth lifted into
what looked like a half-hearted smile. “You’re welcome. Any
time.”

Was he expecting more? She had no idea
what. But she did know better than to expect anything from anyone,
including Matt after a hot and sexy weekend together. They had
physical chemistry, no doubt about that, and exploring it had been
fun, but that was all it was and she had no illusions or
expectations of anything more.

“I’ll talk to you next week,” she
said. “We’re going to visit the kids at Franklin Middle
School.”

“Yeah. Great.” He still didn’t move
for a moment, studying her face. She kept her smile in place until
finally he nodded. “Okay. See you later.”

Then he was gone and she was alone in
her little apartment.

Even though she’d spent a good part of
the last twenty-four hours in bed, she wanted to climb into her own
bed, pull the covers over her head and relive every moment she’d
just spent with Matt. But that wasn’t an option and she only had an
hour to make herself look presentable for her parents.

Her hair had been damp from the hot
tub and she’d slept on it, so it was wild and wacky. She’d washed
her makeup off her face, after she’d slept in it, which was never a
good look, and there were still remnants of mascara smudged beneath
her eyes. She had pinkish beard burn on her face that she was going
to have to disguise somehow. Holy crapsickle. She had serious work
to do.

*****

She wasn’t going to beat herself up
for sleeping with Matt. It had been fantastic. She liked him. They
were both adults, both free, and obviously with some attraction
between them. It might not have been the smartest thing to do, but
no one else knew about it. The idea of sleazy news reporters
finding out and splashing that all over the internet and TV made
her eye twitch—she did not want that to happen to Matt. He deserved
better than to get linked up with someone with her past.

So she just tried not to think about
him.

But much as she tried not to, she
had
thought of him, remembering that he’d been cleared for
full contact practice with the team, and Monday morning he was
there in the Coliseum somewhere, doing that, and she wondered how
it was going. He so badly wanted to play again and weirdly, she
found herself anxious about that. Not that she cared. It didn’t
matter to her. But she wanted that for him. Since it was so
important to him.

He didn’t call or text her. She
emailed him to confirm the time of their visit and arrangements to
meet there.

She kept busy, though. Without Dulcie
there to ask questions of, she felt even more on her own. But she
was figuring things out and moving forward with her own plans,
which she knew she was going to have to share with Trent at some
point and hope he didn’t freak out.

There were some last minute details to
be worked out for the annual Sweet Affair gala, a major fundraiser
that the Foundation had been organizing for the last few years,
which also kept her busy. Luckily Dulcie had allowed her to help
with this project, so Honey knew what was going on with
it.

She spent two evenings that week with
Mia when Farrah got called in to work a couple of unexpected
evening shifts. Mia wanted to learn how to knit, so she started
teaching her and got her working on—what else—a scarf. And when
Farrah invited her to come over for a glass of wine when she got
Mia put to bed, she found herself accepting, even though she knew
it wasn’t a good idea to get too close to her neighbor. But it was
nice to have a little company over a glass of wine.

Farrah was another person who didn’t
judge her—she knew who she was, but basically didn’t care. She
trusted Honey to look after her kid, and that meant a lot to Honey.
And Honey respected Farrah for raising a good kid on her own, never
complaining, just working her ass off doing her best.

Then on Friday she had to see Matt
again, and when she came face to face with him at Franklin Middle
School on Friday afternoon, the small explosion of heat she felt
inside her was…disconcerting.

Crap, he was good-looking. There was
just something about his smile, the way his eyes crinkled up, the
way the corners of his mouth lifted, the way his eyes gleamed…his
smile made her feel like he was giving her something special.
Probably everyone felt like that when he smiled at them,
though.

The kids definitely liked him, super
excited and bouncing off the walls to have him there. It was enough
to make her feel all warm and fuzzy. She leaned on a classroom
wall, watching him interact with them, smiling.

Then somehow she got drawn into the
conversation when one of the kids said something about girls not
liking hockey.

She blinked. “You mean girls don’t
like to watch it? Or girls don’t like to play it?”

The kids hooted at the idea of girls
playing hockey. She straightened from the wall. “Of course girls
play hockey.”

Matt grinned. “Not you.”

“Not me,” she agreed. “But there are
some great female hockey players. It’s an Olympic sport,
guys.”

“My mom played hockey,” Matt shared.
“Not in the Olympics, though. Also my sister-in-law played hockey.
And I’ve met some of those female Olympic hockey players when I
played in the Olympics. So he—ahem, heck yeah, girls can play
hockey.”

Honey made a mental note to see if she
could track down a female Olympic hockey player in the Los Angeles
area who might want to visit the school. Just an idea.

“Girls can do anything,” she affirmed,
sending smiles toward the girls in the room.

When they were done, the principal and
the Phys. Ed. teacher walked them out and they paused inside the
front entrance of the school to chat, the principal expressing her
thanks for the visit. Honey shared some of the work they’d be doing
to fundraise and their gratitude was heartwarming.

Then she and Matt walked out and
headed to the parking lot where they’d left their
vehicles.

“Done for the day?” Matt asked her.
“Or are you going back to the office?”

“I was going to see how we did for
time.” She glanced at her watch. By the time she got back, everyone
else would have left. “I guess I’m done.”

“Dinner?”

He stood in front of her, hands in the
pockets of his expensive-looking dark jeans, a zippered black
Condors sweatshirt open over a black T-shirt. Their eyes
met.

“How did your practices go this
week?”

He smiled. “Good. I’m playing tomorrow
night.”

A rush of happiness soared through
her. “Oh that’s fantastic! Congratulations! You must be so happy.”
She had to restrain herself from running to hug him.

“Yeah. Come celebrate with
me.”

“That was your reason for us going out
last weekend,” she reminded him.

“I’m doing a lot of celebrating
lately.”

How could she say no? Her heart felt
warm and full. She smiled. “Okay.” Then she added, “But low-key
again, right?”

He pursed his lips. “Huh. Really? I
was thinking we should go somewhere really nice…Lux. Or maybe
Coco’s.”

She bit her lip. Those were popular
L.A. restaurants. It was
his
celebration after all. But
taking a chance on them being seen together… “I don’t know,
Matt…”

“Why?” He stepped closer.

“You don’t want to be seen with me,”
she said quietly. “If the media are there, they can turn it into a
big deal, and—”

“What the fuck?” He stepped closer
still, now nearly touching her. “I don’t care who sees me with
you.”

Her mouth fell open. Once again, he
floored her. “Well, you should,” she said quietly. “I come with a
lot of crap. I don’t want to bring that onto you.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake. I don’t give a
shit about your past. Didn’t I make that clear?”

Yeah, actually he had. “Yes, but…you
should.”

His thick eyebrows pulled together. He
gave her a long look. A muscle in his jaw twitched. Then he said,
“When I was in sixth grade, there was this kid in our school who
had Asperger’s. He was…different. He came across as a little odd.
He didn’t have very good social skills. Other kids made fun of
him.”

She gazed at him wide-eyed. What the
hell was he talking about?

“But he was really smart and he and I
both liked science. We were all supposed to pair up to do a science
project and of course nobody wanted to be his partner, so I
volunteered. We hung out a bit, working on our project after
school. My friends told me I shouldn’t hang around with him. People
were starting to say that we were
both
freaks.”

“Matt—”

“That pissed me off,” he said quietly.
“It pissed me off that people were mean to the kid. It pissed me
off that my friends told me not to hang around with him. It pissed
me off that people would say things like that about me, just
because I associated with him. You know what?”

“Um, what?”

“I did it anyway. I didn’t give a
shit.”

Her throat closed up and the corners
of her eyes got wet. She felt her bottom lip trembling. And in her
chest, her heart was doing that weird cracking, melting thing
again.

“I am who I am,” he continued in a low
voice, his face moving toward hers. “Stuff like that is
bullshit.”

As he brushed his mouth over hers, she
breathed in his scent, and had a weird sensation of falling,
falling through space, falling hard.

“Fine,” she whispered. “We’ll go
wherever you want.”

If he’d wanted them to have dinner at
Spago naked, at that moment she would have agreed to it.

“I’ll make a reservation,” he
murmured. “I’ll text you.”

She nodded and he kissed her again
then moved away.

She stared at him walking to his car.
Holy effing crap.

She was in her apartment when he
texted her to tell her he’d gotten a reservation at Lux for eight
o’clock. How he’d done that, she had no idea, but then again, rich,
famous, handsome hockey players could often get whatever they
wanted.

Even from her, apparently.

She stared into her closet, which was
sadly lacking in elegant dressy outfits. It had been a few years
since she’d needed anything fancy, but she did still have a couple
of dresses from way back. The ones she’d kept had been more classic
styles—a sleeveless sheath style dress in black sequins and a
strapless one in gold lace. Doubtfully, she eyed them both. Were
they too much for dinner at Lux? Crappity crap, she had no frickin’
clue. Lux had only been open a few years and she’d never been
there.

Hell, it was Hollywood—you could wear
anything, right?

The gold lace one was the less flashy
of the two, but she didn’t have great shoes to wear with it. At
least she had nice black pumps, which she wore almost every day to
work, which would go with the black sequined dress. So the black it
was.