Their gazes locked—and she realized he wasn’t going to fight. Instead, he gave her a crooked grin and casual one-shoulder whatever shrug.
McKenna sighed. “Fine. I’ll go with him.”
“Great.” Obviously, now that Benny had gotten his way, he was making a quick escape lest she tried to change her mind. “Good luck tonight,” he said to Tank, as he and Roger left the hotel restaurant together.
“Looks like you and I are going on a date,” Tank said, kicking back and stretching his legs out under the table. His feet brushed against hers.
“It’s not a date,” she pointed out. “I’m going to this thing as your keeper.”
Tank grinned. “You know, I’m starting to think you don’t want to date me.”
McKenna couldn’t help it. She laughed. “What was your first clue?” she joked, but Tank didn’t take it that way, which was wildly out of character for the man who never seemed to take anything seriously.
“Why not?” he pressed, frowning. “What’s wrong with me?”
McKenna got the sense his question was a sincere one, and that she’d even hurt his feelings.
“There’s nothing wrong with you,” she said, diplomatically. “You’re just not the kind of guy I date.”
“What kind is that?”
“I just told you. I’ve only dated three guys, Tank. And I was in love with all three of them. I’m not interested in sex without strings. Unlike you, I want committed relationships. So when I sleep with a man, it’s because I have feelings for him. Meanwhile, you just admitted that your sole purpose for dating is to hook up.”
Tank didn’t reply to that, and she knew why. They’d gotten way off base.
“This is a pointless conversation, because next weekend is not a date. It’s just an extension of the work we started a few weeks ago. Okay?” she asked.
Tank sighed, and for a moment, she got the sense he didn’t agree, though she didn’t have a clue why not.
Finally, he nodded slowly. “Fine.”
“Great.” With his agreement, McKenna decided to take a card from Benny’s playbook and make a quick escape. For one thing, she was afraid Tank would want to resume their previous conversation about her dating history, and for another, she needed to get away from him so she could get her thoughts in order.
While she’d just insisted that the gala wouldn’t be a date, and that he wasn’t her type, she wasn’t so sure she believed either of those things. And she desperately needed to.
Fantasizing about the sexy hockey player while she got herself off at night was one thing.
But there was no way in hell she could let that attraction bleed over into the real world or her job. She’d made that mistake once before, and it had resulted in her moving away from home and starting a new job in a new city.
She liked Baltimore, so she wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice.
Which meant she needed to double down on her “rules to live by.”
No hockey players and no one from work.
Tank was both.
Fuck.
Chapter Five
Tank drove past McKenna’s house, searching for parking on her narrow street. She’d texted him the address that morning reluctantly, initially insisting she could meet him at the gala, but finally relenting when he pointed out there would be lots of opportunities for him to say the wrong thing if left alone on the red carpet. Obviously he wouldn’t, but he decided to use Benny’s lack of faith in his intelligence to his own benefit.
Because he wanted to see where McKenna lived.
While Tank had bought a large condo on the waterfront after signing with the Rays, McKenna was currently renting a small townhouse on a narrow side street much farther away from the Inner Harbor. Tank had lived in Baltimore for six years, but he’d never been in this part of the city. He had to admit, he was impressed. Obviously, the townhomes housed people living on budgets considerably smaller than his own, but it was still a nice area with well-kept houses and tree-lined sidewalks. What wasn’t great was the parking. He’d gone nearly a full block past her house before he found a spot where he could parallel park.
There were plenty of sections of Baltimore where Tank wouldn’t even consider leaving his baby—aka, his Audi R8—but he’d be fine to park it here for a few minutes. He stepped out and engaged the locks, walking back in the direction of McKenna’s house.
