She handed it over, and Dave went to town on the stain. “You’re a lifesaver.”
“I know, but honestly too few people are brave enough to say it out loud.” She lifted her shoulders in a faux-modest shrug, and because they were sharing an armrest, she felt Aiden’s body shake with a quick laugh. Before she could mentally high-five herself for amusing him, a man toting one of the civic center’s video cameras on his shoulder moved in front of their section while a headset-wearing producer stood behind him barking orders.
Thea sprang into motion. “Ladies! Camera! Everybody look thrilled to be here!” Her command was directed at the Brick Babes scattered throughout the station’s VIP seating area, and the dozen women all exploded into cheers and shimmies, and within seconds, their antics were projected on the massive four-sided display hanging over the ice. Thea smiled and hollered and bounced on her toes with the rest of them, but once their faces were replaced with player stats on the big screen, she dropped into her seat with a sigh.
“I’m too old for this,” she muttered to Aiden.
His only response was an exaggerated rubbing of his ears, a wordless commentary on the high-pitched squeals he’d just been subjected to, and she felt compelled to let him know what he was in for. “Be warned: Brandon worked it out with the production crews to have us featured on the big screen a few times tonight. There’s going to be more screaming.”
“Oh shit.”
She looked at him in surprise. He sounded alarmed, and as far as she knew, Aiden didn’tdoalarm. He ambled through the world on a cloud of laid-back cool that Thea had never once been able to muster for herself.
“You okay?”
“Yeah. It’s just…” He was staring at the blond producer in the headset as she guided the cameraman to another section of the jersey-clad Anchor fans. “That’s Bree Wilkie. She hates me.”
She looked back at the producer. “You pissed off the woman who controls the civic center video feed?”
“What makes you think I’m the bad guy?” His hazel gaze moved to Thea, and she opened her mouth before she could think better of it.
“I mean, it’syou. Didja maybe sleep with her and then blow her off the next day?” She regretted her flippant words when his jaw bunched.
“Actually, she’s pissed that Ididn’tsleep with her.”
She took a closer look at Bree, who was whispering in the ear of her cameraman and staring at…Yikes, she seemed to be staring right at her and Aiden.
“Really.” Her voice came out flatter than she intended, and if anything, Aiden’s whole body tensed even more.
“Look, I’m not a fuckboy,” he said in a low voice. “I may joke with Dave, but I don’t go home with just anybody on command.”
A wisp of shame curled through her at her assumptions. “Ah.”
“Yeah,ah.”
Now he sounded pissed, which in turn made her a little panicky.Damn. She hadn’t meant to offend him. She inhaled hard and forced herself to brazen through it. Smile, joke, move on before anybody got hurt. She gave a breezy grin and patted his knee, trying not to dwell on the hard muscle shifting beneath the denim. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to make you feel like a himbo.”
“Hmm. Thanks.” He relaxed back into his seat, although his posture lacked the lazy sprawl from earlier. “I’m more than a pretty face, you know.”
“If you say so, Adonis.” She held her breath, unsure if that last barb was a step too far. But when he rolled his head to look at her, her chest eased to see amusement in his eyes instead of irritation.
“Smartass,” he drawled, and before she could reply, the nine thousand fans in the Baker Center Arena surged to their feet in an explosion of shouts and wild cheers as the Beaucoeur Anchors took to the ice. The cacophony popped their strange circle of intimacy like a soap bubble, and they stood and joined the other fans in their section in rooting on the Anchors to continue their at-home winning streak.
Soon enough, Thea got sucked into the Brick Babe whirl, taking selfies with the girls and chatting with the fans who wandered by their section, sharing everything to the station’s social media pages. As always, the vibe was “boy, don’t you wish you were here?” and as the game wore on, she more and more wished she wasn’t. The Brick Babes were fun, but the Brick Babes were also exhausting.
And then the kiss cam came around.
By the break between the second and third period, she’d reached the end of her second beer. It was enough to put a glint in her eye and an extra oomph to her laughter as she chattered with the other Babes. Then “Kiss Me” started booming through the arena as the half dozen camera operators spread out and highlighted one couple at a time on the big screen over the ice. Each time, the happy duos laughed in surprise as they saw themselves projected on the enormous four-sided display, then obliged the crowd with a kiss amid good-natured catcalling from the fans in the arena.
Riding high on fermented hops and a little too much sass, she nudged Aiden. “So I guess I don’t get to joke about how many former hookups you’ve seen on the kiss cam tonight, huh?”
His lips quirked. “Two, actually.”
Her jaw dropped. “I was kidding!”
“I was too. Maybe.” He grinned at her, that irresistible smile that lured in women of all ages, colors, and creeds, and she was helpless not to grin right back.
Suddenly everyone around them started shrieking in excitement, and when Kimmie jabbed her in the spine, Thea looked around in confusion. “Wha—”
