Taking A Shot (15 page)

And God, Jenna loved her. They’d had a rocky start once she and Gavin had started dating, but Liz had been family before she and Gavin had fallen in love, and she was like a sister to Jenna now.

“Well, far be it for me to criticize anyone for working too hard.
I’m the queen of all work and no play.” Liz drummed her fingers on the counter. “But Mom is right, Jen. You need to go out.”

“I had a date this week.”

“You did? With whom?” her mother asked.

Jenna shrugged. “Some model.”

Liz and her mother looked at each other. “Ooh, a model,” her mother said.

“Do tell.” Liz had a gleam in her eye.

“It didn’t work out.”

“Why not?” Her mother looked disappointed, and Jenna wished they weren’t having this conversation.

“No chemistry.”

“That’s too bad. But at least you’re getting out there.” Her mom picked up the knife and went back to slicing tomatoes.

Good. Maybe they could drop the subject of her dating life.

“Doesn’t mean you have to give up just because of one bad date,” her mother said while slicing.

And then again, maybe they wouldn’t be dropping the subject.

“Clearly you need some help.”

Jenna’s gaze shot to Liz. “No, I don’t.”

“I know a lot of guys.”

“Yeah, guys in sports. You know my rule.”

“What rule is that?” her mother asked.

“Jenna doesn’t date guys who play sports.”

She leveled a glare at Liz, who gave her an innocent look.

“What? Is that a secret?”

“You don’t date men who play sports?” Her mother looked confused. “Why on earth not?”

She waved a hand. “No particular reason, Mom. Just that I’m surrounded by sports all the time, so I just don’t want to date it. You know?”

“I guess so. This worries me, though.” She laid the knife down again.

The one thing she never wanted was her mom’s full attention. That meant she was focused on her, and that usually meant trouble.

“What’s there to worry about?”

“You hate sports.”

Jenna rolled her eyes. “I don’t hate sports. I grew up around them. I love them. I just don’t want to date them or marry them.”

“Hmmm.”

That was even worse. The examination by her mom when she pondered what she’d said.

She needed to escape.

“I think I’ll go see what Dad’s up to. You have things covered in here?”

“Sure. You go ahead.”

She made a quick exit and hurried out to the living room. Her dad was in there with Tara, Mick, and Nathan, watching, of all things, hockey. And even worse, it was an Ice game.

It was either that or face more conversation with her mother about her job and her love life.

The lesser of two evils, she supposed, and this was no different than being at work and having the game on at the bar.

She flopped onto the sofa next to her dad.

“What’s up, punkin?” he asked, slinging his arm around her.

“Mom and Liz are trying to fix me.”

His dad frowned and looked her over. “Are you broken?”

“Nope.”

He nodded. “Okay, then. Let’s watch the game.”

Thank God for her father. Everything with him was simple black-and-white. If you said you were okay, then you were. He believed you. Either that or he just wanted to watch the game and didn’t want to be bothered with girl things.

More likely it was the latter, since he was a guy, which suited her just fine. As long as she didn’t have to explain her lack of a boyfriend
and why she didn’t want to date anyone affiliated with sports, it was fine by her.

She settled in, leaning against her dad’s shoulder.

The game was still in the first period. Normally, she’d be so busy at the bar that she’d only catch cursory glances at whatever games were on. And she sure as hell didn’t watch sports on her days off.

This was the first time she’d actually had to watch Ty in action—undistracted, anyway.

“Your boys are looking good, Elizabeth,” her dad said as Liz and her mom strolled in.

“Yes, Tyler and Eddie are great players. I’m very lucky to represent them.”

Liz arched a brow at Jenna, who shot her a warning look. The very last thing she wanted was for anyone to know about that night she’d spent with Ty. Especially after telling her mother she didn’t date sports players.

“Anderson was a good addition to the team,” Mick said.

“I have you to thank for that, Mick. If you hadn’t fired me, I likely wouldn’t have been scrambling to pick up new talent and I would have never landed him.”

“See? All kinds of good things came out of that mess. Mom and Dad ended up together. Liz and Gavin fell in love, and Liz got a whole bunch of new clients. And Dad and Liz made up and are friends again and now no one is mad at each other anymore. So sometimes bad things happen for all the right reasons.”

They all looked at Nathan.

“Out of the mouths of babes,” her mother said with a smile as she came into the room.

“You’re right, Nathan,” Mick said, ruffling the teenager’s hair.

Nathan ducked. “Man. It took me a long time to get it to look like that.”

“And here I thought you rolled out of bed and did nothing at all to get that style,” Mick teased.

“Dude. You just don’t know.”

“What I do know is that if you call me ‘dude’ again, you’ll be on toilet scrubbing duty for a week.”

Nathan looked at Mick with a horrified expression on his face.

Tara smothered a laugh.

“Uh, yes, sir.”

Mick rolled his eyes. “I don’t think we have to go that far.”

Jenna did laugh, then they all turned back to the game. She tried to watch the Ice as a whole team, but she couldn’t help but focus her attention on Tyler. He had a magnificent command of the ice and seemed to always gravitate toward the puck. Part of that was his position as a center, but he was fast on his skates and didn’t shy away from the hard action, which often got him double teamed or slammed up against the boards. He took a lot of elbows and hard knocks, ending up on his ass a lot of the time.

He didn’t seem to mind. In fact he was as aggressive as the other players, shoving an elbow or body slamming someone, even if it cost him a penalty. He’d do whatever it took to get the puck and skate away with it or pass it to a teammate.

And often enough it resulted in a goal, so obviously his methods worked.

But the bottom line was, he was exciting to watch, and he got results.

By the end of the first period they were up by one goal.

“Dinner should be ready. Should we head in to the dining room?”

Everyone got up and headed that way. Jenna lingered, watching Ty skate off the ice.

“You’ve got it so bad for that guy,” Liz whispered to her, bringing up the rear with her.

“I do not. I was just enjoying the game.”

Liz snorted. “Oh, yeah. You being such a big sports fan and all.”

She lifted her chin. “Hey, it’s part of my job to know what’s going on with all the games so I can talk to my customers about them.”

“Uh-huh. It’s more like you want to get your hands around his cock again.”

Just the thought of it had her face flaming. “You are so wrong about that.”

Liz directed a bullshit look her way. “Am I?”

“Totally. I’m going to start dating to get you all off my back.”

“Are you? Great. I’ll be sure to find you some awesome men that aren’t in sports.”

“You do that.”

“Consider it done.”

“Consider what done?” her mother asked.

“I’m going to play matchmaker for Jenna,” Liz said with a triumphant gleam in her eyes. “I know a lot of men.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful. Aren’t you sweet, Elizabeth?”

“Yeah, she’s a peach,” Jenna said as she took her seat at the table.

Tara cast her a hint of a knowing smile, while Liz downright grinned all through dinner.

She’d have to remember to decline the next time the family had a meal together.

NOT MORE THAN TWO DAYS LATER, LIZ TEXTED HER AND told her she was sending her a guy.

Jenna felt like she was getting some bought-and-paid-for escort, but Liz insisted the guy was a friend of hers, and that he wasn’t in any way involved in sports.

She had to work, but Liz said she’d bring him by after she finished with a client meeting, so it might be around eight or so, which was fine with her since she was stuck at the bar anyway.

With Ty, who had a day off.

She really wished he and his friends would find another bar to hang out in. But since it would be epically bad for her business to tell him and his friends to take a hike, she’d have to suck it up. Sports figures were a huge deal at Riley’s. They made her customers happy, and anything that made her customers happy was good for Riley’s.

It appeared Victor had coupled up with Lisa, the platinum blonde bar bunny who was also a regular, and Eddie had finally come up
with the courage to ask Renee out, so now the two of them were dating. And since Ty, Victor, and Eddie were pretty much best friends, it made sense for Ty to hang out with his buddies.

Still, she couldn’t help but think he frequented her bar because of her and his interest in her.

Though he hadn’t exactly acted interested the last few times he’d been in here, not since the day after the wedding when she’d effectively shut him down cold.

God, she’d been such a bitch about it, too. Rude and dismissive, as if what they’d shared the night before hadn’t meant anything at all, when it had been the best night she’d had in at least a year—possibly longer.

Which was why it could never happen again.

Seeing him again reminded her of just how good it had been, which made her want it to happen again, which just made everything worse, and made her bitchy and cranky.

Maybe if Ty saw her moving on with a new guy, he’d move on, too, and they could both get past what had happened the night of the wedding.

She hoped Liz was great at choosing men. This had to work.

Liz showed up a little after ten, later than she thought she’d be. But Dylan, the guy Liz brought with her, was worth the wait.

He was a suit, but hot as hell in a suit. Light brown hair, gorgeous blue eyes, and the kind of smile that lit up a room. Very tall and well built, and every woman stopped and stared when he walked in. He had an easygoing presence about him that commanded attention. He looked rugged and full of masculinity, but he was friendly. She liked that.

He hung out at the bar with her and Liz, but he was focused on her. She took a break, putting Renee behind the bar since traffic was light.