The Tao of Hockey (Vancouver Vice #1) (3 page)

We started getting undressed. Dirk was still bitching though.

“You do drink, right?” he asked me.

“Actually, not if I’m driving.”

“Well, sure, that makes sense. Not even one beer? You’re not going to fit in on the Vice, I’ll tell you that right now.”

A flush ran up the back of my neck. “I’ve had a DUI. My truck is rigged so that it won’t start if I’ve had a drink.” Honesty was the best policy when it came to my past. All it took was a couple of Google searches to find the shitty things I’d done.

Dirk whistled. “Guess you will fit in on the Vice.”

A
fter dinner
, Reeds led us to a downtown pub that wasn’t too far from his place. It was busy and had a friendly neighbourhood vibe to it. We got a table with a clear view of the football game on the big-screen TV. The Lions were getting whumped by the Roughriders, which made Dirk happy because his parents were from Saskatchewan.

“I’m gonna get a round. Sure you’re not drinking tonight?” Bomber asked me.

I shook my head. Of course, I wished I could, but I had less than two months until I was free from supervision, and I wasn’t going to mess that up.

“I don’t know how you do it,” Dirk said. “Alcohol is a diet staple for me.”

“Paying my dues.” I sipped on my mineral water. When the beers arrived, they looked tempting. The first sip was always so good. But the first sip was never the problem.

Reeds laughed. “Dirk needs beer goggles for the chicks he scores. I saw that lady you left with last Saturday.” He started barking and howling.

“Oh, fuck off. Like you could do better?”

“I’m a married man. Don’t have to do that shit to get laid.”

“Sure. Excuses, excuses. You’ve got no game.”

“I had tons of game—in my day.” Reeds was a few years older than the rest of us.

“Prove it,” Dirk said.

“The hell. I’m not cheating on Carly just to prove something to you.” Reeds sounded virtuous, but he had hinted earlier that he still got around.

“Okay. Alls you have to do is get a phone number then.” Dirk started looking around the room.

Bomber laughed. “And make sure it doesn’t start with 555.”

“Her.” Dirk motioned with his head to a woman who was sitting at the bar with a friend. She had long blonde hair and was wearing a blue dress and high heels. She looked good.

Reeds swallowed. Even though he played in the NHL, it was one thing to pick up women after a game when they knew exactly who you were, and another thing to have to approach someone ice cold.

“I’m willing to put a hundred bucks on this,” Dirk said with a snort. “’Cause it ain’t going to happen.”

Reeds eyed her and drank the beer that Bomber had just put on the table.

“Bock, bock, bock,” taunted Dirk while flapping his arms. He glanced at me. “I bet Yogi here could have her panties off in ten seconds.”

“Leave me out of this,” I said.

“Yeah, right. You know that physio chick has the hots for you, right? She was checking you out today, even when she was supposed to be working on me.”

Bomber snorted. “She’s only trying not to look at your scrawny body.” Dirk was on the skinny side and trying to bulk up. His size was probably why he hadn’t gotten a good look at the NHL level.

Reeds cleared his throat and stood up. “Here I go, boys. Watch and learn.”

He walked over to the bar and started talking to the two women. They didn’t shoot him down right away, which was a good sign. As I was watching him, a waitress moved away from the bar and revealed a woman sitting there. She was looking right at me. I got the feeling she had been watching us the whole time. When our eyes met, her expression didn’t change at all. She looked amused, like she knew what we were up to.

It was weird that I hadn’t noticed her before, because she really stood out in this place. She was tall and slim. She wore beat-up jeans, a short white jacket, and a tight t-shirt with a faded logo. Her black hair was shorter than mine and had streaks of gold in it. I’d never seen anyone like her before. But what really drew me to her was how comfortable she looked—she was as relaxed sitting alone in a bar as she would have been in her own living room.

I was so busy watching this woman that I didn’t even notice Reeds was back at the table.

“This close,” he said, pinching two fingers together. “Then she asked about my wedding ring.”

We all laughed at him. “Rookie move,” Bomber said.

“Pay up,” Dirk said, laying out his hand.

“Well, fuck. I don’t have the cash on me. I’ll give it to you tomorrow.”

“You guys are my witnesses, right?” Dirk said.

“I’m going to the can,” I said. I got up and moved towards the bar. The seat beside the woman was open, so I sat there.

“Hey, beautiful.”

She turned and looked at me. She began at the bottom and her eyes moved up slowly and deliberately—lingering around belt level before finally resting on my face.

“Hey, handsome.”

She turned back to her drink and took a sip. Now that I was close, I could see her a lot better. She had dark eyes, thick eyelashes, and pale lips. She wore a lot of jewellery too—a bunch of thick bracelets, spiky rings, and a fancy belt that sat on top of her hips. I checked out her body. There was no bra under that thin t-shirt, and I could see her little nipples poking out. That was hot. Again I was struck by the idea that I’d never seen anyone like her before.

“So, you come here often?” That was corny, but since she was already interested I figured the small talk didn’t matter. Not having a drink to hold, I needed something to do with my hands—other than putting them all over her, which was what I really wanted. I pulled over a bowl of peanuts and started shelling one.

She didn’t answer me. She seemed to be people-watching through the mirror behind the bar.

“Why so quiet? I thought we were getting along well.”

She turned back at me. “Nope. We were only stating facts. You
are
handsome, and I think you know that.”

I leaned in and smiled. “And you are beautiful....”

She lifted one shoulder in dismissal. “How much money will you make if I leave with you?”

Why would she think that? I turned around and all the guys were watching us. Dirk leered and gave me a big thumbs-up. Fuck that noise.

“None. I wanted to come over and talk to you. That’s all.”

“Just talk?”

I nodded. Her eyes were like her hair—dark with flecks of gold. Her skin was golden and looked perfectly smooth even under the harsh artificial light of the bar.

Her lips curled into a smile. “So, if I asked if we could go back to your place and fuck our brains out—you’d say no?”

I spilled the bowl of peanuts onto the floor. “What?”

She blinked at me, as calm as if she’d asked for the time.

I swallowed. “Jesus. I mean, if that’s what you want—then okay, sure. I’m Eric, by the way.”

She ignored this and signalled the bartender. She handed him a twenty, left a tip from the change, and stood up. She was tall with long, long legs. Fuck, she was as hot as she was weird.

I scrambled up. Peanut shells fell from my lap and crunched under my feet. “Are we going now? Just like that? Shouldn’t we talk first?”

“So you can throw more food around? Talking is going to spoil the mood. I can find better things to do with that mouth.” She raised a finger to my lips to silence me, but I caught it gently in my teeth, pulled it deeper into my mouth and sucked hard. Her finger tasted like salt and whiskey. And lust.

Her eyes widened and then she laughed—a low, hearty laugh. She pulled her finger slowly out of my mouth, then deliberately ran it down her neck and into the V of her T-shirt—leaving a trail of my saliva on her. Fuck. Now all I could think of was running my tongue down the exact same path, but ending up on one of those hard little nipples. My cock had gone from aroused to so hard that I was afraid my zipper would bust.

“Let’s go.” She led the way, and her ass was amazing. It was high and round, and I could not wait to get my hands on it. If I drove fast, we’d be back at my place in ten minutes.

As we exited, the guys were watching our every move. Well, hers anyway. Bomber was playing it cool, but Reeds and Dirk were snickering. Dirk called out, “And that’s how it’s done, boys. That dog’s going downward tonight.”

She heard him, stopped, and leaned both hands on the table. “Does Eric here win any bets for leaving with me?”

The guys stared at her open-mouthed. Bomber shook his head.

She looked back at me. “You’re not a bullshitter. That’s good.”

Then she strode out of the bar, and I hurried after her.

I
t was
dark outside once we left the pub. “Which way are we going?” she asked.

“Uh, my truck’s over there.” I pointed. “But wait.”

She swirled around and looked at me. She was so tall that I could almost look her in the eye. Her face was unreadable. I still had this feeling that she was pranking me somehow. Nobody leaves a bar with a stranger this fast, especially someone this good-looking.

“What?”

“Uh, I don’t even know your name....”

“You can call me X.”

“X?”

“Yeah, like in X-ray.” She smiled.

“That’s not your real name though.”

“Look, Einstein, if you’re getting cold feet, that’s fine. See ya.”

“No! It’s not that. It’s only—I don’t know—I feel like we should get to know each other.”

“Awesome. Of all the dudes in the bar, I get the romantic.”

She came right up to me, so close that I could feel the heat of her breath and body next to mine. I could see the pulse in her throat and hear the jangle of her ridiculous bracelets. She pressed her body against mine and pulled on the collar of my shirt, bringing my face up to hers. Then she kissed me. Her lips were soft but her mouth was demanding—opening up and sucking all the breath out of me. She kissed me even harder, and I opened my eyes to see her eyelashes fluttering against her cheeks, her skin tanned and glowing. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her closer to me. I could feel those rigid little nipples against my chest, and I got even harder. She felt my erection too and rotated her body against mine. I let my hand move down to her ass and squeezed hard. Firm and bouncy. She lifted one leg and wrapped it around me. Man, she was so hot. It was like she was ready to fuck me right here in the street.

She stopped kissing me. She opened her eyes, and they were dark and liquid. “Wanna go now?”

“Oh yeah.” I took her hand and led her over to the truck. I unlocked it, and we both got in.

My cock was aching, and all I could think about was getting inside her. Automatically, I grabbed the interlock and blew into it.

“What the fuck?” she said.

“Uh, I’m, I have to do this—it’s an interlock system. You know, it locks the ignition unless I—”

“I know what it is. I’m out.” She opened the door.

“Wait! Why are you leaving?”

“Duh, Eric. I’m not riding with a drunk driver.”

Oh c’mon, she came on to me so hard, and now this was the deal breaker? “Please, um, ‘X.’ It’s totally safe. See this?” I showed her the pass message on the reader.

“You don’t get one of those things unless you’ve messed up big time. I like living intact.”

“Well, at least give me your number. We can meet up another time.”

She laughed. “What’s the point? It was only going to be tonight.”

She slammed the door. Mouth-breathing, I watched her take a few long strides and disappear out of my life.

D
irk could not stop laughing
at training the next day. “You’re shitting me, Fairburn. Here I was thinking that you were the luckiest fucker in the world, and you went home alone?”

It was Saturday. There were no scheduled sessions, but none of us wanted to take two days off in a row. Today I’d done a light workout with Dirk and Bomber. Reeds was apparently hungover at home.

“She took one look at the interlock in my car and said she wasn’t going anywhere with a drunk driver.” I sighed.

“You poor fuck,” Bomber said. “Why didn’t you take a taxi or something?”

“Well, I wasn’t exactly thinking straight.” Taxis, or her doing the driving had occurred to me later. In the moment, I had been distracted by her tight body and all the things I wanted to do to it.

Dirk nodded. “No kidding. She was so hot. She looked like the kinky type too.” We all imagined the possibilities. Fuck. “Well, maybe you can call her and invite her over. No driving needed then.”

“I don’t have her number. I don’t even know her name.”

“Go back to that pub,” Bomber suggested. “Maybe she’s a regular.”

That wasn’t a bad idea. I was having trouble getting her off my mind. I kept imagining the night that might have been. I went back to the pub that night. Being a Saturday, it was even busier. I sat on the same stool as the previous night, but she never showed up.

Finally, I asked the bartender. He looked familiar, and I was pretty sure that he was the same guy she had tipped.

“Hey, do you remember the woman that sat here last night?” I pointed to her place.

He squinted at me. “Uh, no. We get lots of people in here.”

“She was special though. Tall, short black hair with streaks in it. Really pretty.”

“Oh, her. Bourbon, rocks.”

“What?”

“That’s how I remember people—by their drink orders.”

“Okay. Do you know her name?”

He laughed. “That’s not how things work in a bar, buddy. People don’t introduce themselves to me. I hear more if there’s two people talking, but she was alone.”

He left to make some drinks. Maybe I’d have to give up on finding her. But at least the guy knew who I meant. When he came back, I ordered another mineral water and then asked him more questions.

“Does she come here all the time?”

He shook his head.

“Well, do you remember anything at all about her? Anything she said or did?”

“What is this,
Law and Order
? Look, I’m not telling you anything.” He went to the other side of the bar.

Should I have offered him money like they did in the movies? But I had no clue what the right amount would be.

One of the waitresses came up to the bar and ordered drinks. While she was waiting, she smiled at me.

“I heard what you asked Don. Why are you looking for her?”

I shrugged. “This is going to sound dumb, but we left together and then she took off. I don’t know, I felt like we had a real connection. Stupid, right?”

She blinked at me. “No, I think it’s romantic. And you don’t strike me as a stalker.” She motioned her head towards Don the bartender. “Guys don’t get other guys. You probably have women chasing you.”

“Well….” They didn’t exactly chase me, but I never usually had problems. Maybe that’s why X was so intriguing for me—her elusiveness.

She giggled and smoothed her long curly hair. “No need to brag.”

“So, do you know her name?”

“No. But I know something.” The waitress leaned closer to me, her breast nudging my arm. “I was talking to her earlier in the evening. She had a big bruise down the back of her arm and I asked her about it. She said she got it at work—she does stunt work. You know, for the movies.”

That was certainly something to go on. “That’s great. Thank you so much.”

The waitress was still standing there watching me, so I wondered, “Can I give you a tip or something?”

She shook her head. “Don’t worry, blondie. Just go out there, find her, and make a happy ending. That’d be so romantic.”

I wanted a happy ending all right. But maybe not as romantic as she was thinking.

S
unday was my day off
, but it was also the day that Joe wanted me to work on his kitchen installation. I woke up to the sounds of hammering and drilling. I checked my clock. Shit, it was only 8:00am. But it sounded like I wasn’t going to get to sleep in. I pulled on some old jeans, a t-shirt, and running shoes. I hadn’t brought my work boots since I never expected to need them in Vancouver.

“Morning, Eric. There’s some coffee if you want.”

“Thanks, Joe.” I looked around and saw he’d already stripped the kitchen.

“Everything’s roughed in. I’ve got the rest of the cabinets in the garage, so we’ll put those in today. If we can get to the countertop too, that would be good. That’s the part I really need help with.”

“Just tell me what you want done.”

Joe kept a close eye on me in the beginning, but once he realized I knew which end of the hammer was up, he left me alone. I had worked summers at my dad’s construction business, so I was pretty handy.

This work was manual labour, which was good since I wasn’t really awake yet. And my brain was full of X. I kept seeing her face—those lush lips and her brown eyes. The way she looked straight at me with absolute confidence. And kissing her had made me want her so badly. What was wrong with me, if one kiss was knocking me onto my ass like some hormonal teenager?

We worked in silence for a while. Joe had the radio on to his favourite hard rock oldies station, so that music filled the empty kitchen. Suddenly I realized that he was the perfect person to ask about X.

“Hey, Joe. I met this woman the other night, but I didn’t get her phone number. I know she works as a stuntwoman though. So, maybe you know how to get in touch with her?”

“Well, I wouldn’t know her personally, but I could ask the stunt coordinator. He’d know pretty much everyone. What’s her name?”

“Ahhh, that’s the tricky part. I don’t actually know her name. But she’s very distinctive. She’s tall—like close to six feet. She has really short dark hair with streaks, and she’s beautiful.”

Joe winced a little. “I don’t know how to break this to you, but if a girl doesn’t give you her name or her number—she ain’t interested.”

“I know that’s what it sounds like, but we were so close to hooking up. She is into me, and I just want to get another chance.”

Joe shook his head. “I take my work serious, Eric. I’m not going to play Match.com for you to get your rocks off. Besides....”

“Besides, what?”

“Dino told me that this your last big chance. You know, not just to make the Vice, but maybe beyond that.”

“I know. The training’s going great. Tony’s the best.” I had already been in good shape, but now I was going to be next level.

Joe put down his drill, leaned on the counter, and frowned at me. “You want to focus on one thing only. Cinch your position on the team first.”

“I am focused.”

He snorted. “Women are great. I love women. But they need attention, you know what I’m saying?”

“Kind of.”

“If you go for the quickies, you spend a lot of time on the chase. Well, a guy like you, maybe it’s easier. But a relationship takes time for sure.” He motioned around the room. “Maybe the kitchen needed an update, but if it was up to me, it could wait. Margie put her foot down, and here we are. And once I finish this, I’m on to the suite reno.”

Margie was reminding me of my high school girlfriend, Sunny: someone who always had plans for both of us. Joe started drilling again, but in between he continued his advice.

“I’m not really complaining, Margie’s a great gal. But for a young guy like you, get your priorities straight. You could make some pretty good money if you make it to the NHL.”

“If I was driven by money, I’d be back in Switzerland. I’d probably make more money there.”

“Yeah, but long term you’re not going to make millions in Switzerland.”

“It’s not about the money,” I told him.

“That’s nuts. It’s always about the money.” Joe continued his lecture. “In the movie industry, I’ve seen more than a few good guys get side-tracked from the main chance. So, I tell everyone that they need to pursue their dreams hard.” He picked up the drill again.

“I agree with you, Joe, but I can’t play hockey 24 hours a day.”

Joe pointed the drill at me. “Women are complicated. They take time and energy—which is exactly what you need for hockey.”

I shrugged. That was a matter of opinion. When it came to women, you had to steer clear of the head cases, for sure. But sex was good for your game. It was like the ultimate way to relax.

I walked out to the garage to get another load of cupboard doors. When I closed my eyes, I could see X again. She pulled me towards her, our lips met, and the heat of that kiss melted off our clothes. Her naked body was taut and tanned. I reached out to squeeze those pointy little nipples and felt a sharp pain. Like an idiot, I’d been caressing Joe’s workbench. Fuck, now I had a splinter and a boner. Maybe Joe was right. I was getting too obsessed.