He helped her on with her wool peacoat. “You always wear big shirts and pants, and I don’t know what size you wear,” he improvised.
“Oh, it’s a zero. Can you believe I fit into a size zero?”
“No. A zero isn’t even a size. And if you are a zero, you should fatten up, maybe eat some mashed potatoes and gravy. Chase it down with some whipped cream.” She laughed, but he wasn’t joking.
They left for the short drive to the Space Needle, and by the time he turned the keys of his Land Cruiser over to the valet, they were more than an hour late. The Skyline level of the needle was perched at the one-hundred-foot mark within the structure. The SkyLine had a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree panoramic view of the city, and Luc and Marie arrived just in time for the serious partying. Stepping off the elevator, they hit a wall of noise, the combination of hundreds of voices, the clatter of dishes being cleared, and the three-piece band tuning their instruments. A sea of black tuxedos and bright dresses mixed and mingled within the dimly lit room. Luc had been here before. Not this location, not this occasion, but at a hundred or so other banquets he’d attended since signing to play in the NHL.
As Luc checked Marie’s coat, he spotted Sutter, Fish, and Grizzell and introduced Marie to his teammates. They asked her about school, and the more they spoke to her, the more she slid behind Luc, until only about half of her showed. He didn’t know if she was intimidated or shy.
“Have you seen Sharky?” Fish asked.
“Jane? No, I haven’t seen her. Why?”
He raised his beer and shrugged.
“Where is she?”
Fish lifted his finger from his glass and pointed to a woman several feet away with her back to Luc. She had short dark curls about her head. A deep red halter dress plunged to the small of her back, and a slim gold chain hung between her shoulder blades, catching the light and scattering gold across her white skin. The dress fit loose about her hips and behind and fell to her calves. On her feet she wore a pair of shiny red shoes with about three-inch heels. She stood talking to two other women. One he recognized as Hugh Miner’s wife, Mae. He’d last seen her in September when she’d been about nine months pregnant. The other woman looked vaguely familiar and he wondered if he’d seen her in Playboy. None of the women looked like Jane.
“Who’s the woman in black?” he asked, referring to the centerfold.
“That’s Kowalsky’s wife.”
He turned his attention back to his teammates. Now he knew why she looked familiar. A photograph of her and John hung on the wall in Coach Nystrom’s office. “Kowalsky’s here?” John Kowalsky was a hockey legend and had been the Chi-nooks’ captain until his retirement. Kowalsky had not only dominated with his size, but his slap shot had been clocked at over a hundred miles an hour. There wasn’t a goalie alive who’d wanted to see “the Wall” coming at him.
Luc glanced about the room until he saw Hugh and John standing within a group of front-office management. They all laughed about something, and Luc’s attention returned to the woman in red. He ran his gaze up her smooth spine and neck to the dark curls on her head. Fish was mistaken. Jane wore black or gray and had shoulder-length hair.
Luc reached for the top button closing his jacket as Darby Hogue approached the woman and said something next to her ear. She turned in profile and Luc’s hand froze. The archangel of gloom and doom wasn’t wearing black tonight, and she’d cut her hair.
“There’s someone else I want you to meet,” he said to Marie. They wove their way through the guests but were stopped by Bekah Brummet, a five-ten beauty queen and sometime friend. He’d met her at a fund-raiser last summer, and within hours he’d discovered three things about her. She liked white wine, men with money, and was a natural blonde. He hadn’t seen her since Marie had come to live with him.
He quickly introduced the two, and returned his gaze to Jane. She laughed at something Darby said, and Luc couldn’t imagine the little weasel saying anything remotely funny.
“I haven’t seen you for a while,” Bekah said and pulled his attention to her. She looked as gorgeous as always in a silky little dress that exposed her deep cleavage. There’d been a lot of Bekahs in his life. Beautiful women who wanted to be with him because he was Luc Martineau, notorious goalie. Some of them had become friends, others had not. He’d never minded taking advantage of what they’d been only too happy to give him. But he was standing next to his sister, who was in a dress that didn’t fit while she tried to disappear behind him, and he didn’t want her exposed to that part of his life.
“I’m out of town a lot.” He placed his hand in the small of Marie’s back. “It was good to see you,” he said and left Bekah looking after him. He propelled his sister away before she could figure out his real relationship with Bekah. He didn’t want Marie to think for one second that casual sex was okay. He wanted her to know that she was worth more than that. And yeah, he knew that made him a hypocrite, and he didn’t care.
“Jane,” he said as he approached. She looked over her shoulder, and a soft curl fell across one eye. She pushed it back and smiled. Her short hair made her look young and so damn cute. He couldn’t help but return her smile. Her new haircut made her green eyes look huge, and she wore makeup that turned them all smoky, sexy. Her lips were painted dark red, his favorite. The heat in the room seemed to rise several degrees and he unbuttoned his jacket.
“Hello, Luc.” Her voice sounded smoky too.
“Martineau,” Darby said.
“Hogue.” With his hand on Marie’s back, he forced her to stay by his side. “This is my date, Marie,” he said, and Jane sent him a look out of the corner of her eye that told him she thought he should be arrested. “Marie is my sister.”
“Ah, then I take back what I was thinking of you.” Jane stuck out her hand and smiled at Marie. “I like your dress. Black is my favorite color.”
Luc figured that was pretty much an understatement.
“Have you met Mae Miner and Georgeanne Kowalsky?” Jane asked and moved to widen the circle to include him and Marie.
Luc turned his attention to Hugh’s wife, a short blonde with big brown eyes and very little makeup. She was one of those natural girls. Like Jane. Except for tonight. Tonight Jane had painted lips. He shook hands with both women, then said, “I met Mae last September.”
“When I was about nine months pregnant.” She dug around in her little black purse and pulled out a photo. “This is Nathan.”
Georgeanne reached for her pictures. “This is Lexie when she was ten, and that’s her little sister Olivia.” Luc didn’t mind looking at kid photos- really-but he did wonder why parents always assumed he wanted to see them. “Cute kids.” He looked them over, then handed the photographs back to both women.
The conversation around him turned to the speeches he’d missed by arriving late, and he took the opportunity to check out Jane’s dress. The front scooped low over her small breasts, and he’d bet that if she hunched her shoulders a bit, he could see down the front. The room was hot, yet her nipples poked out like she was in a deep freeze.
“Luc,” Marie said, pulling his attention away from Jane’s dress. He looked over his shoulder at his sister. “Do you know where the rest rooms are?”
“I know,” Jane answered for him. “Follow me. I’ll take you.” With her high shoes, Jane was about the same height as Marie. “On the way, you can tell me all your brother’s deep dark secrets,” she added as they walked away.
He figured he was safe, since Marie didn’t know any of his secrets. Deep dark or otherwise. The two were quickly swallowed within the crowd, and when he turned back, Mae and Georgeanne excused themselves and he was left staring at Darby.
Darby spoke first. “I saw the way you were looking at Jane. She’s not your type.”