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