Out of Her League (10 page)

 Lachlan sighed. He clearly still had a
very hard time putting himself in Michaela’s shoes. In this case, though, he
suspected it wasn’t so much a function of his social incompetence as it was
that they were very strange, very difficult shoes to fill.

“You don’t have to quit,” he said
carefully. “It was only the first meeting. I suspect Tanner—who was the one
responsible, by the way,
not
you
—
has learned a lesson.”

Michaela nodded, albeit grudgingly. Then
she almost smiled. “I thought Sadie was going to kill him. I’m not sure what
she’d do if those guys turned up again.”

“There you go,” Lachlan said encouragingly
as he turned up his front walk. He’d jogged up his steps before realizing she
hadn’t followed him. He looked back at her. “This is my place. You can come in,
if you want?”

“No, you go ahead,” she said with a wave. “You
have your game and I don’t want to make you late.”

“You could come,” he said before he really
thought about it.

“What?”

“To the game. Uh, you know, you could come
with me. To watch. People do that—bring friends to watch. So you could, you
know. Be my friend. Watching.”

Jesus, he was so smooth.

Michaela smiled. “Okay.”

Michaela sat in the stands at the rink and
tried to be inconspicuous. It was not going well.

For one thing, she was shivering her ass
off. She was dressed perfectly sensibly for a sunny New England fall day—which
meant she was comfortable outside in the sixty-something degree weather, but
not so much in the arena where the temperature had to be closer to fifty. Or
less.

Lachlan had pointed her in the direction of
the stands where his teammates’ friends and family usually sat, and then
disappeared down a long hallway toward the locker rooms. She’d smiled and said
“hello” as she’d climbed up the stairs past the fifteen or so other spectators,
feeling conspicuous in her dress and bare legs, and sat by herself a few rows
back.

They’d obviously recognized her, given the
storm of whispers her arrival had set off, but no one made any move to speak to
her directly or ask her to come join them.

Which was fine. Except that they all looked
so
warm
.

“Michaela?”

Michaela whipped her head around toward the
entrance, then jumped to her feet.

“Savannah!” she called with a wave.

Lachlan’s sister made a beeline for her, trailed
by the two men she publicly referred to as her “roommates”, but who Michaela
knew were, in fact, a hell of a lot more than that. Michaela could still
remember the horror on Callum’s face when he’d explained that his sister had
two lovers, and that the three of them were in love with each other. Not that
he was judging, but Callum would have preferred to pretend Savannah would spend
her entire life in blissful virginal innocence, just so he didn’t have to
accept that his sister had sex.

Michaela thought it was awesome that the
three of them had found each other. She didn’t know them that well, but was so
happy to see them—and not just because Rhian was carrying a blanket under one
arm.

Michaela hugged them all hello, grateful
when the men sat on either side of her and Savannah, sharing their body heat
and throwing the blanket over all of their laps. It was a stretch, but they
managed to huddle in close enough.

Michaela grinned up at Garrick beside her. “Thank
you so much. I don’t think I would have made it through the game as it was.”

“Wasn’t expecting the rink to be so cold?”
he asked with a smile.

“Wasn’t expecting to watch a hockey game,”
she admitted.

Savannah asked, “Are you here to surprise
Lachlan?”

Michaela laughed. “God, no. I would never do
that to him. You know how he hates it when people sneak up on him.”

Three sets of eyes blinked at her. Oh
right, Lachlan said no one really talked about his issues.

Rhian, normally the quietest of the three,
was the first to laugh. “You’re right, he would freak.”

“So, he knows you’re here?” Savannah asked.

“Sure. He brought me. We were talking and
we didn’t get a chance to finish our conversation, so he suggested I come
along. I guess we’ll finish our discussion after the game.”

Which, now that she thought about it, was
kind of silly.

“Wait,” Savannah said slowly, “you were
talking?
”

Michaela grinned, feeling oddly proud.
“Yes, we were. We’ve actually been doing that a lot recently.”

“You
have
?” Savannah asked with
total disbelief.

“Oh, yeah,” Michaela said. “He gets over it
eventually.”

Rhian really started laughing then. He
winked at Michaela. “I think you must be good for him.”

“I think I must be driving him crazy,”
Michaela countered, “but he puts up with it.”

“I think he’s lucky,” Garrick said in a
quiet voice.

Michaela bumped her shoulder to his.
“Flatterer.”

She actively ignored the way Savannah was
looking at her like she was some kind of eighth wonder, delighted for the
distraction of the teams coming out on the ice.

Somehow she wasn’t the least bit surprised
to see the C stitched on Lachlan’s jersey. She smiled and waved when he looked
up at the stands. Her companions also waved wildly, all with shit-eating grins
on their faces.

Lachlan rolled his eyes and plunked his
helmet on his head.

“So, is this a league for the university
staff or something?” Michaela asked.

Savannah chuckled. “God, no. I’m not sure
Lachlan would want to play with that crowd, even if he could find enough
players to fill a roster. That would be a sight to see, though.”

Michaela tried to picture Dick Chomelsky
out on the ice. She just couldn’t do it. “So who are these guys?”

“Just people from around the area. One or
two are guys Lachlan played with in high school or college, but mostly they’re
just crazy old guys who still want to play hard hockey,” Rhian explained.

“Who are you calling old?” Garrick grumped
from her other side. “Most of those guys are my age.”

“Yeah, old man, and you’re
retired,
”
Rhian fired back with an affectionate smile. “And
you
were a professional
hockey player. A trained athlete. Bob is an electrician. Finn owns a bar. And
Mike teaches third grade, for crying out loud.”

“Be real,” Michaela said seriously. “Not
one of us is tough enough to teach third grade.”

“Good point,” Rhian conceded with a dramatic
shudder. “Children scare me witless.”

Garrick reached across Michaela and
Savannah, under the blanket, and grabbed hold of some part of Rhian—Michaela
could only hope it was his hand—squishing her and Savannah in the middle.

“Come on now, Rhi,” Garrick said softly. “You
know you’re going to be an amazing dad.”

“We,” Rhian said firmly. “
We
are
going to be amazing dads.”

Michaela looked at Savannah and the blush
rising on her cheeks. “Oh, yeah?”

“You can’t tell Lachlan,” she said quietly.
“It’s too early to be sure. We just started trying.”

Michaela wrapped her arms around Savannah
and hugged her. “Well, I hope it works out. Any child would be lucky to have
the three of you.”

Savannah held on. “Thanks,” she whispered
in Michaela’s ear.

The sound of a whistle rent the quiet air
around them and Michaela pulled away from Savannah’s warmth, smiling when
Savannah left her arm around Michaela’s waist.

Lachlan was lined up at center ice, ready
for the face-off.

“So, how long has Lachlan been playing in
this league?” she asked when it became clear her companions were all going to
stare at each other, moony-eyed, all night if she didn’t distract them.

“He actually just started this league a few
years ago when his old league fell apart. He managed to get this arena thanks
to his connections with the university, and a bunch of those guys jumped on
board.”

“Lachlan
runs
the league?” Michaela
asked incredulously.

Savannah laughed. “I know, right? He
doesn’t seem like he’d enjoy it, but he really does.”

“Oh, I don’t know. It’s not like the league
is co-ed. Then he’d be in real trouble. All those hot hockey-playing women?” Michaela
laughed at the image, then cringed when the opposing defense slammed Lachlan into
the boards. “Holy crap. I guess I see what you mean about hard hockey.”

“Yeah, and why this isn’t a co-ed league,”
Garrick agreed. At the dirty look from Savannah, he held up a placating hand.
“Not that you couldn’t kick all of those men’s asses, honey.”

Michaela had been to a lot of hockey games
in her life, and more than she could count in the past five years while she’d
been “dating” Callum, but this one stood out. She couldn’t remember being more
invested in a win, let alone a particular player. Maybe it was because Callum
had been in the goal, and therefore far less likely to be plastered to the
boards or knocked clean off his skates by the lunatics he was playing against.
Michaela leapt to her feet alongside Savannah, Garrick, and Rhian, hollering
for Lachlan’s team. She also gasped, her hand clapped over her mouth, whenever
Lachlan took another of what appeared to be an endless series of hits.

Savannah laughed at her. “You look so
worried. You know he loves this, right?”

Michaela didn’t know. Or she hadn’t. But
she could see the feral smile on Lachlan’s face from all the way up in the
stands. He looked not even one iota like the gentle, thoughtful college
professor who’d driven her to the rink earlier.

He’d looked handsome, then. Sexy, in his
quiet way. Now he looked
hot
. Not just sweaty-hot, though he was certainly
that as he pulled off his helmet and shook the opposing team’s hand at the end
of the game. He exuded confidence, his smile genuine if perhaps just a shade smug
while facing the men his team had just soundly defeated.

Michaela crossed her legs, telling herself
it was ridiculous to feel
turned on
by a hockey game. By a man. By
Lachlan.

Her body just wasn’t listening. It wanted.
She
wanted. Too much.

Lachlan sat in the back corner booth at McGinty’s
and laughed at Rhian’s imitation of the stern lecture Savannah had delivered to
one of Rhian’s teammates the other day. Funnier was the scowl on Savannah’s
face.

Lachlan was still feeling the high of a
well-played game, his muscles and bruises all aching in the best way. He’d barely
rinsed off at the rink, rushing to see everyone as quickly as possible. He
needed another shower, and wished he had some fresher clothes, but he felt
fucking fantastic. He’d chugged a ton of water when they’d arrived, but now he
was enjoying his second beer, feeling loose and happy with life.

Michaela sat across from him, her back to
the room where the rest of his teammates and their friends were harassing Finn
at the bar. Rhian had generously sat with Lachlan, facing the room, and
informed Michaela that any looks directed their way were for him—and he
was
a very popular player in Boston these days, so Lachlan thought he might be at
least partly right.

Rhian seemed to guess what Michaela might
need, what might make her more at ease, without being told, and Savannah and
Garrick didn’t question it. Michaela had said she didn’t have friends here,
except for Lachlan. After tonight, that was clearly no longer the case. He’d
liked looking up in the stands and seeing her squished in between his family.
He knew how much she needed that kind of contact, that kind of connection, in
her life.

Michaela listened to the bickering breaking
out beside them, smiling and laughing in a way that he rarely got to see. When
Savannah threatened to withhold her favors if Rhian didn’t knock it off,
Michaela grinned, her tongue caught between her teeth, and warmth pooled low in
Lachlan’s belly. God, he loved that particular smile. He’d like to blame his
body’s potent reaction on the adrenaline from the game still working its way out
of his system, but, of course, that would be total bullshit.

He wanted her. She’d been abstractly
attractive as a stranger, but as his friend, as a woman for whom he felt an
oddly protective and yet not-at-all familial affection, she was just so goddamn
compelling.

He leaned over the table as his sister and
her partners fell into a whispered debate about things that Lachlan, as her
brother, didn’t need or want to hear.

“I’m sorry we didn’t get a chance to finish
talking,” he said to Michaela, just loudly enough to be heard over the din.

“That’s okay. I was thinking about it some
during the game, and I think I might give the study group another try.”

He smiled. “That’s great. I’m glad.”

She shrugged, her expression grim. “I can
always back out if it goes badly again.”

His smile fell. She looked away, but he put
his hand over hers, drawing her attention back to him. “I get why you’re
worried,” he said in a low voice. “But maybe go into it with the goal of trying
to stick it out for a while? It might get weird. Hell, you know it will. Hanging
out with you gets weird, frankly.”

“Gee, thanks,” she said dryly.

“Hey, you’re the one who’s always telling
it like it is.”

She chuckled. “I guess I deserve that.”

“Seriously, though,” he said, squeezing her
hand. “They might act freaked out, or not think before telling someone they’re
meeting with you. And they’re going to have a strange response when people do
the awkward shit they do around you. But don’t jump to conclusions. I can
testify that it’s hard to know how to act when that happens. Most of us don’t
have as much practice with it as you do.”

Michaela pursed her lips thoughtfully. “That’s
true.”

“Just think about it,” he said, running his
thumb encouragingly over the back of her hand.

She nodded. Lachlan became very aware of
the silence from the rest of the table and Savannah’s pointed stare at their
joined hands.

He sat back and pulled his hand away,
ignoring his sister in favor of asking Rhian how he was feeling with the first
weeks of training camp under his belt.

It was late by the time they left the bar,
and Lachlan was still feeling the effects of the beers he’d drunk. They said
goodbye to Savannah, Garrick, and Rhian, and sent them on their way. Then he
smiled sheepishly at Michaela.

“Do you mind if I walk you home? I can
leave my car where it is for the night, and I don’t think I should drive.”

She grinned. “You feeling it, Dr. Snorrison?”

“Ugh. Don’t call me that.”

“Why not? I kind of like it, now that I’ve
seen you play hockey,” she said as she threaded her arm through his and turned
them toward home.

“What does that mean?” he asked.

“It means you’re the least boring professor
I’ve ever met. I’m sure none of my other teachers ever started a fight with a
defenseman twice their size.”

Lachlan rolled his eyes. “Please. He wasn’t
that
big.”