She opened her mouth, but no reply came.
Tank didn’t bother to wait for her answer, giving her a knowing grin that was just as hot as all his other grins and smirks and smiles.
Why did he have to be so damn hot?
As if he could read every single one of her chaotic, out-of-control thoughts, Tank winked, grabbed his leftovers, and walked out of her office.
“This isn’t real,” she whispered to the empty room, even though he wasn’t there to hear it.
Because she knew exactly which one of them needed that reminder.
If only it would sink in.
Chapter Seven
Tank twirled McKenna on the sidewalk outside Pat’s Pub as she giggled, her auburn hair spinning around her shoulders. God, he loved when she wore her hair down.
The woman had been smiling ever since he picked her up several hours earlier for Hunter’s secret concert. Her cheeks had to hurt by now.
Not that he was going to ask.
McKenna was a very sweet, very pleasant, but very serious woman. Of course, he’d seen her smile plenty times over the past nine months, but he’d never seen her this…well, uninhibited and happy. She radiated pure joy.
“That was incredible!” she gushed, saying the same thing she’d said no less than a hundred times tonight.
Tank was thrilled he could show her such a good time, but he hadn’t lied about his newly discovered jealous streak. He was suddenly greedy about McKenna’s blushes, wanting her to save them all for him. So he’d felt his eyes turning green when Padraig introduced her to Hunter after the show, and she’d blushed and stammered and looked adorably awestruck.
Tank wasn’t sure what to do with the misplaced anger he’d felt toward Hunter, who’d been standing next to the wife he clearly adored at the time.
Maybe this emotion wouldn’t be so strong if he’d had any experience with it in the past, but he’d never had a girlfriend. When he looked back, it occurred to him, that meant he’d also never been in love.
Funny how he’d never considered that a problem.
McKenna’s first impression of him hadn’t really been the wrong one, and now, he found himself wondering if his emotional growth had been somehow stunted or delayed due to finding success as such a young age.
Tank’s hockey career had taken off when he was in his late teens, as his hard work and natural talent got him drafted by New York when he was just nineteen years old. Two years later, he was traded to the Stingrays, and he’d been one of their top scorers ever since.
All of that meant he’d been handed the life most little boys dream of and write down whenever their elementary school teachers ask them what they want to be when they grow up.
At nineteen, he’d been there, playing professionally, earning a fuck-ton of money, and having beautiful women throwing themselves at him night after night. It’s no wonder it all went to his head.
However, his attitude had been slowly changing during this season, though he wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was a combination of things.
For one, several of his best friends had fallen in love and settled down. He’d tried to dissuade Blake from taking himself off the market at the beginning of his relationship with Erika, telling him he was making a mistake, wasting some of the best years of his life by shacking up with just one woman. In the end, it felt like Blake had schooled him, because Tank was certain he’d never been as happy in his entire life as his buddy was right now. Blake was still living the dream, playing the game they loved and making bank, but he also had…
Shit, he also had stuff Tank never thought he wanted until Blake got it.
Stuff like someone to go home to every night. Someone to celebrate his wins and help him mourn the losses. Someone to adopt a puppy with, laugh with, tell all his secrets to.
Blake had opened Tank’s eyes to new possibilities, and Coulton and Preston had reinforced the lesson. Preston, the new father, had even expanded on it…as, for the first time in his life, Tank realized that he wanted kids. That revelation had blown his mind, even shaken him for a bit, but there was no denying that every time he saw Preston with Lennon in his arms, Tank longed for something he’d sworn he wouldn’t even think about before retiring from the game. Now…that felt like too far away.
And while Tank could shift all the blame for this new attitude toward life to his buddies, he also knew a lot of the changes he was undergoing were due to stupid decisions he’d made. He had gotten too cocky, too conceited and overconfident. Tank had been taking too many things for granted—his career at the top of that list—prior to that viral video, by partying too hard, drawing too much negative attention, and speaking his mind when it would have been better to shut up.
Originally, he’d approached McKenna’s reputation repair as a hoop he had to jump through. He figured he’d play his part, get it over with, and move on with his footloose and fancy-free lifestyle. Then he started spending time with her, McKenna becoming—unbeknownst to her—his first female friend. Or at least the first who wasn’t also the girlfriend of one of his buddies.
Suddenly, he started to understand Blake, Preston, and Coulton better, because he saw firsthand how much fun it could be to spend time with an intelligent, sweet, funny woman. And as the days progressed, he found himself wanting her to like him as much as he was starting to like her.
“It’s been a great couple of days. First, last night’s blowout,” McKenna said, “and now tonight.”
