Even though the sound was off, Sean could practically hear the slap of sticks hitting the ice and the grunts as McQuid caught Ehlers in the corner and brutally checked him into the boards. In the third period, Marchand rocked a one-timer into Hellebuyck’s five-hole and lit the lamp.
That, he thought as he cut into his steak, was something that made his heart thump. A laser shot in the five-hole filled him up with so much electricity, it always felt like his hair would singe. Putting points on the board had never felt like a responsibility to him. It was fun. He got off on it. He was one of the best shooters in the NHL. Putting the puck in the net was a challenge, one that he would gladly shoulder.
The bartender recognized him and gave him a beer on the house. Sean might not play for the Canucks, but he was a Canuck by birth and had played for Edmonton at one time. The two men shot the shit for a few minutes until the other man left to mix martinis.
On the two TVs, a Bud Light commercial interrupted the Bruins/Jets game, and Sean glanced at CNN as he shoved a big piece of meat into his mouth. The closed caption rolled down the screen as three commentators discussed plastic bottles floating up onto a California beach. One second the screen was filled with white plastic, and in the next, the news feed cut to a long dock. A familiar green seaplane bobbing at the end.
KING 5 is at the scene. While the captions rolled, the door to the seaplane opened and someone jumped out. Even if the woman wasn’t wearing yoga sweats and his brown shirt, the fish hat was a dead giveaway. At first it didn’t appear as if Lexie spotted the cameras and news crew. Her attention was directed at her phone, and she didn’t notice the media crosshairs on her forehead. Then suddenly she looked up, and her eyes rounded like those of a deer caught in the headlights.
The morning sun sparkled in the pumps she’d worn the first night he’d met her. For a split second, Sean wondered what she’d done with her boots, but then all hell broke loose.
Lexie? Miss Kowalsky, can you tell us where you’ve been? the closed caption read.
Blond hair beneath her fish hat flew about her head as she blew past the reporters. Her long legs chewed up the dock, her breasts bounced like soccer balls inside his shirt, and he thought for sure she’d fall and break an ankle.
Sean cut into his steak and thanked God he wasn’t in the middle of the chaos. Like the closed caption on the television, two thoughts scrolled through his mind.
First, she shouldn’t run like that. It looked painful and she could hurt herself.
Second, fourteen hours didn’t seem all that bad. He shoved a bite of steak in his mouth and reached for his Stella. From where he sat, a four-hour layover in Vancouver seemed like he’d dodged a bullet.
Chapter 8
•all’s fair in love and war
Lexie’s luck ran out the moment the Sea Hopper landed in Seattle. She’d asked Marie to pick her up at the Lake Union dock, but that had been just one more mistake added to the heap in her growing pile. Lexie didn’t want to involve her friend more than necessary. These days Marie was an upright citizen who taught first grade at the respectable Waldorf School. The last thing she needed was to be seen on the five o’clock news driving a getaway car. She’d gotten away with it the first time. Twice was pushing her luck.
If Lexie’s dad was in town, he would have met her with a couple of hockey players to run interference and body-check a few reporters into the drink. Someone had leaked the information that the runaway Gettin’ Hitched bride had jumped aboard the flying tree frog, had hopped out of town, and was now hopping back in. Lexie suspected Jimmy. The fact that he hadn’t mentioned the scene that waited for her during the flight to Seattle put him at the top of the list. Plus he had the most to gain by the free publicity and sudden notoriety. Not that she could blame him—much. She’d done the same thing for her business. And she couldn’t really yell at
him for being a traitor since he’d helped her out big-time. If he was the one who’d talked, she figured they were even now.
Halfway up the dock, she noticed the media rushing toward her from the floating veranda next to the check-in office. Earlier, she’d stepped in a muddy hole in her boots and had to take off at a full sprint in her Louboutins. She barely made it to the parking lot and Marie’s MINI Cooper before being swarmed. As they sped away, dodging reporters and paparazzi, Marie glanced at Lexie from the corners of her eyes. “What the heck are you wearing?” she asked as they darted into the noon rush on Fairview.
Lexie looked down at her sparkly Louboutins, yoga pants, and Sean’s brown plaid shirt. Since he hadn’t shown up to board the Sea Hopper, she supposed it belonged to her now. But Sean was the last person she wanted to discuss with Marie or anyone. “I stepped in a freezing cold puddle and my boots—”
“No,” Marie interrupted. “That thing on your head.”
“Oh.” She pulled off her fish hat and set it in her lap. “Jimmy bought it so no one would recognize me.”
“Jimmy? The king of bad taste?” Marie looked in the rearview mirror and switched lanes. “I hate to point out the obvious, but nothing says Look at me like a woman with a fish stuck through her head.”
Sean had pretty much said the same thing. Lexie put a hand on the dash to steady herself and ran her fingers through her tangled hair with the other. Outside of her family, only five people knew she’d been hiding out in Sandspit, British Columbia. Out of those five, she’d thought she only had to worry about Geraldine Brown. Obviously she’d overestimated Jimmy’s loyalty. “I’m so tired,” she said through a yawn.
“Being a fugitive from the hitchin’ posse is exhausting,” Marie said as she dodged in and out of traffic as if they were actual fugitives running from the law.
That and staying up late and having sex with a man she’d known for two days. She figured she’d had about four hours of sleep before the sun had sliced through a part in the curtains and cut across the empty pillow next to hers. She’d managed a few hours of sleep on the Sea Hopper but woke feeling even more exhausted.
She didn’t know if Sean had:
Stayed behind at his mother’s.
Slipped and fallen.
Been abducted by aliens.
All she knew for sure was that he’d kissed her hair and told her he’d pick her up and drive them to the wharf. He’d never shown, and the only thing Jimmy said was that Sean wouldn’t be flying to Seattle with them. She hadn’t asked Jimmy any questions, fearing Jimmy might ask her questions that she didn’t want to answer. “I’m going to sleep until next week.” In the end, Sean’s reasons didn’t matter:
He didn’t owe her anything.