Tank chuckled. As good as McKenna looked without her glasses—her bright blue eyes sparkling—he realized he preferred her in them. The thick frames gave off sexy librarian vibes.
“This hair,” he said, aware that with each passing comment, he was coming off as an even bigger buffoon.
She pushed the dark auburn waves over her shoulders. “It’s already driving me mad. I never wear it down because there’s just too much of it and somehow it always ends up in my face.”
Tank couldn’t come up with an intelligent reply to that, because he was too busy imagining himself closing a fist around the wavy tresses as he took her from beh?—
Brakes screeched in his brain, because what the fuck?
Why did his mind keep going there with her?
McKenna was not his type. Period.
“Should we go?” Mercifully, she didn’t seem to be suffering from the same case of the stupids he was.
She stepped out onto her porch, and he waited as she locked the door.
It was then that he realized she was taller tonight. Glancing down, he spotted the heels.
“I’m afraid I couldn’t find a spot on the street to park. My car’s about a block away. I can go get it if?—”
“Oh, that’s okay,” she assured him, smiling when he offered his arm, the two of them walking down the steps to the sidewalk. “While I rarely dress up, I’m actually pretty good at walking in heels.”
He tightened his crooked elbow to his side, her hand nestled between as they walked down her street.
“Parking is always bad around here, I’m afraid,” she explained. “There’s only room in front of each townhouse for two smallish cars, and my neighbors on both sides are couples in their mid-forties with older teens still living with them. So they’re four-car families. Fortunately, they’re super nice and they know I’m a single woman living alone, so they’ve told their kids to always leave one of the spots right in front of my house clear for me.”
“That is nice.”
“It’s a great neighborhood,” she continued. “I was a little worried about living on my own in the city, but this street’s quiet, with a lot of working families, and everyone looks out for everyone else.”
Tank was glad to hear that, because he knew there were plenty of other parts of the city where he’d worry about McKenna living.
Worry?
Jesus.
Tonight was going to be way too challenging if he kept thinking about McKenna as anything more than a work colleague.
“That’s a pretty dress,” he said, when they reached his Audi and he opened the passenger door for her.
“Thanks.”
He closed the door behind her, quickly crossing around the front of his car to climb behind the steering wheel.
When he started the vehicle, McKenna said, “Blake’s girlfriend, Erika, invited me to go shopping with her and Ainsley when she learned I was attending the gala with you. I was glad she did, because I wouldn’t have had a clue what to wear. Ainsley was in the same boat. We’re both new to attending fancy parties like this.”
Blake and the Rays’ goalie, Coulton, had been the first of Tank’s friend group to fall hard and fast for their ladies, both guys shedding their bachelor statuses in the fall. Tank hadn’t been surprised at all when Blake fell for his long-time neighbor and best friend, Erika. In truth, he was shocked it had taken them so damn long to figure out they were perfect for each other.
Coulton had the reputation as being the team’s gentle giant, the quiet guy who’d never shown much interest in women at all. Which Tank could never understand. Because why be a professional athlete if you weren’t going to take advantage of the perks? And in Tank’s opinion, puck bunnies were a sweet perk.
Coulton had never agreed, perfectly fine with spending his nights alone until he found “the one.” Which he had after walking into a dive bar in Cherry Hill on a whim and spotting the tough-as-nails bartender Ainsley behind the counter.
Tank never imagined his quiet friend would fall for a tatted-up, curses-like-a-sailor woman, but damn if she and Coulton didn’t fit together perfectly.
“Erika’s great,” Tank agreed. “And she obviously has amazing taste if she helped you pick out that dress, because you look…” He shook his head as he snuck another peek at her in her curve-hugging, sapphire-blue dress. “God, you look fucking hot.”
McKenna flushed again, but her expression told him she was pleased by his compliment.
