I shoot her a warning glare, but Brody seems to have heard. “I don’t want to interrupt your dinner plans, but here…” He reaches into his suit pocket to pull out a card and offers it to me. “Maybe you would like to meet up to discuss law, Brielle?”
Lena nearly chokes, probably because we both know that was not what he means—or maybe he does. My flirting skills are a bit rusty. “Take the card.” She utters her suggestion with an overdone smile.
Hesitating for a few seconds, I can’t tear my sight off the card, reminding myself that I’m not taken, need a diversion even, and my fingers flex out.
“Or not.” Lena yanks my arm out of nowhere. “Ex.”
“What?” I look to her and see her eyes are blazing with shock.
“Hockey baby daddy, nine o’clock,” Lena whispers.
At the speed of light, my head whips in the direction of the door where I see Ford standing there with a steely look, hands hanging at his sides and forming into fists. His jaw flexes, and judging by the fact he is storming in our direction, then I know he witnessed the last minute.
“Ford?” I’m confused as to why he’s here.
He is quick to bring his arm to the back of my chair, as if he needs to make a claim, and his eyes land on Brody who left the card on the bar.
“What are you doing here?” I ask him.
“You know this guy? He’s Ford Spears, a hockey legend.” Brody seems surprised and looks at me, as if suddenly I’m an alien. “You watch hockey?”
“Oh…” I nervously tuck a strand of hair behind my ear, as that is the connection Brody is making to Ford. “Actually…”
“Elle is the mother of my child which makes me the father of her child, so weareconnected.” Ford flashes a victorious smile, with his eyes seeing red.
Protective Ford is a force not to be messed with, and it’s oddly sexy as hell.
Rolling my eyes, I sigh, as I know there is only one way out of this. “Excuse us. It was nice to meet you,” I tell Brody who has a neutral look because he seems to recognize that Ford and I have a delicate relationship, to put it mildly.
I grip Ford’s shirt sleeve and yank him with me as I head to the door and out onto the sidewalk of Main Street.
Turning to him, I don’t know what to think. “What are you doing here, Ford? I thought you were going back to Lake Spark?”
His eyes stay glued to me, not blinking, while his feet stay firmly planted. “I’m clearly saving you from men in suits who are only after one thing.”
I scoff in disbelief that this is where our conversation is heading. “Not that it’s any of your business but I was waiting for Lena, and he was just making small talk, he’s a lawyer.”
“A man giving his card to a woman looking like you do in that dress is not making small talk.”
“What’s wrong with my dress?” I step closer to him and poke his chest with my finger. “You have some nerve.”
He is quick to defend. “When it comes to you, yeah, I do.”
I could cut the air with a knife. He knows how to break down my defenses because I cherish the idea that he feels he has a claim to me.
I drop my finger and blow out a breath as I gather my thoughts, and I realize that I still don’t have my answer. “Why are you here?”
He pinches the bridge of his nose, clearly agitated. “Would you have taken his card?”
I fold my arms over my chest. “What? I don’t know. Maybe. To be polite.”
It’s the truth, maybe he would be the key to forgetting about you.
Ford scrubs his face with his hand. “Don’t be polite.”
I shake my head because we’ll go in a circle. “Answer me as to why you’re here.”
He tilts his head to the side and licks his lips. “I’ve been thinking about what Connor’s teacher said.”
