I knew she liked music, obviously, but taking her to see a popular musical like Hamilton didn’t seem like how I wanted to spend my date with her. Nor did a movie. I contemplated a fancy dinner but that just didn’t feel right either.
Well, I had a plan now and was nervous as fuck about it, but it was too late to change my mind. She’d agreed to meet me, although I would gladly have picked her up. I guessed she didn’t want me to know where she was staying, which I totally got. I had a little sister, and I’d tell her to do the same if she was going on a blind date with a guy she’d never met.
I walked to our meeting place since it wasn’t far from my condo, just across the river. It was late afternoon, just getting dark, the tall buildings making it seem darker. The sky was clear, the air crisp. It was early, but if I was going to have a date with Jordyn Banks, it was starting early and ending late. Jesus. I couldn’t even bring myself to think about the end of the date. She was only here for one night, leaving for New York tomorrow.
We’d both kept it low key, not making it public on social media anywhere, and my hope was to keep it that way. Chances were pretty good that we’d be seen though, especially since so many people had been talking about our bet and our date.
I stopped outside Whole Foods, hands in my jacket pockets, and looked around. People strode briskly along the sidewalks, some carrying shopping bags, and traffic flowed steadily over the bridge.
A car pulled up on Illinois at the curb right near me. The driver got out and opened the back door and a woman stepped out. She smiled her thanks at the driver, said something to him, and he got back in.
Jordyn.
She almost wasn’t recognizable, wearing a black hat, sunglasses, and a huge plaid scarf wrapped around her neck. But her pale blond hair showed beneath the hat, and her pretty lips, shiny with a rosy gloss, were easily identifiable. At least by me.
She seemed small. So much smaller than I would have thought from the pictures I’d seen of her or watching her on TV.
She smiled, and despite the sunglasses, I knew she was looking at me. I pushed away from the granite pillar I was leaning against and started toward her as the car she’d arrived in pulled away from the curb and drove off.
She took off the glasses as we neared each other. Fuck yeah, that was her and she was beautiful, even more beautiful in person, with smooth creamy skin, big eyes that as usual were emphasized with lots of eye shadow, making them a focal point on her face. Her small nose wrinkled as she grinned at me. “Chase.” She said it not as a question, but as a soft statement. “Hi.”
“Hi.” I smiled down at her. “Jeez, you’re little.”
“Ah!” She laughed. “And you’re tall. But I figured that.”
I wasn’t really that tall for a hockey player—six feet, two hundred pounds. There were a lot of dudes bigger than me. But she could only be about five foot five…my gaze dropped briefly to her feet. She had on boots with chunky heels that were a couple inches high, so…“You’re little.”
“I’m not that little. I’m five three. That’s average height. Okay, the low end of average.” She smiled as she said this, and I knew she wasn’t really offended by my comment.
I remembered that she always seemed to be wearing high heels onstage and in pictures and now I knew why.
“It’s so nice to meet you in person.” Her smile broadened, showing perfect white teeth, her eyes crinkling up.
“Yeah. It really is.” I was keeping myself in check, not wanting to make a fool of myself by going all crazy fan boy.
“So where are we going?” She glanced at the building. “Probably not shopping at Whole Foods?”
“Nah.” I held out my arm, and she slipped hers through it. We were both wearing thick jackets, but it still felt…good. “Although I do shop here a lot. We’re going bowling.”
She laughed, a light, musical sound. “No way.”
“Way.” I started across the street when the light changed. “It’s just down here. Wonder Arcade and Lanes. Have you been there?”
“Nope.”
Great. I didn’t know why it mattered, but I wanted to take her somewhere new.
“Will I have to wear bowling shoes?”
“Yes.” I grinned. “It’s part of the experience. Does that freak you out?”
She smiled. “I think I can handle it.”
“Okay. But we don’t actually have to bowl if you prefer not to. There’s an arcade as well. In fact, we have to have a game of air hockey.”
“We absolutely have to do that.”
“And there’s even mini golf.”
We entered the building, which was noisy and dark, lit with lots of neon. It wasn’t that busy yet, but loud music pumped through the sound system. I led her across the scuffed wood floor toward the bowling alley area. I helped Jordyn take her coat off and handed it and my own to the girl working the coat check. Jordyn handed over her hat, but kept the big scarf on. She wore a pair of black leggings and a long, soft-looking gray sweater. The leggings outlined her perfect legs…slender but curvy. The sweater was loose so it hid more than showed off her shape, but I liked it.
She met my eyes with a smile as she requested size-six shoes and we carried our shoes to the lane we were assigned. Most of the lanes were empty, the only other people at the far end of the room from us, and they paid no attention to us. Leather couches and coffee tables flanked the scoring table, and Jordyn set her purse on one of the couches and sat to put on the shoes. “This is a cool place.”
“Yeah. It’s an adult playground.”
“You’ve been here before, obviously.”
“Yeah, a few times. The first time was actually at the beginning of the season last year, when the team all came here for some team-building fun.”
The corners of her mouth lifted. “That’s pretty cool.”
“It was fun. We’re all competitive, but kicking each other’s asses at arcade games and foosball was hilarious.”
She straightened her legs to check out the shoes. “Sexy.”
“Not your usual style,” I said. “But yeah, still sexy.”
“Thank you, sir.”
This was so weird. It was the first time we’d met and I was totally starstruck, but it felt so…easy.
She lowered her feet and stood. Yep, she was small with flat shoes on. “I have to warn you, I don’t know how to keep score in bowling.”
“That’s okay. The computer does it for us.”
“Also, I’m glad it’s five pin because those big balls are heavy.” Then she giggled. “Ha. That’s what she said.”
I cracked up, my insides lightening at her dirty humor. “Okay, so I’m all right to make a joke about putting fingers in holes?”
A grin stretched her pretty mouth and her eyes danced. “Yeah, you’re good.”
“Good to know.” My heart rate was accelerating, and I took a couple of breaths as we got set up.
A waitress came by to see if we wanted to order food or drinks. I looked at Jordyn. “I thought we could get food a bit later, if that’s okay.”
“Yeah. But I’d love a beer.”
Yeah. She was fucking perfect. “Me too,” I said casually. We ordered beers from a local craft brewery then got started bowling. I let her go first.
She wiggled her fingers in the air before she picked up a ball. “Good thing I’m getting my nails done tomorrow. Fake nails would be a problem.” Her first ball went into the gutter, her second took out three pins, and when her third took out the rest, she squealed, then did a little dance, shaking her ass, arms in the air.
I grinned. “Uh-oh.”
She punched a fist into the air as we traded places. I picked up a ball, held it in front of me, then stepped forward and released it. It cruised straight down the middle of the lane for a perfect strike.
I turned and Jordyn slumped in the chair. “I should have known you’d be good at this.”
“Total fluke.”