Hockey Holidays Read online

  “Gideon Aguilar.”

  “Yeah, good to meet you, man. Hope I didn’t cramp your style.”

  “Don’t worry about it. It’s all good.” Gideon frowned as they exited the men’s room. “Did I see you on a billboard or am I just imagining things?”

  Ian laughed. “No, that’s me all right. Got a sweet sponsorship deal.” He patted his stomach. “I have killer abs. What can I say?”

  “You have killer farts, is what you have,” someone remarked.

  “Fuck you, Baxter. You meet the new guy yet? Aguilar?”

  Gideon went through another introduction, all the while wanting to get back up to Bailey. He didn’t want her to think he’d abandoned her, but the guys were herding him to the bar telling him he had to buy the next round.

  Chapter Seven

  About five seconds after Gideon left, Bailey realized she should hit the restroom too. She didn’t want to return to the party looking like she’d just had hot rooftop sex, even if said rooftop sex had been the most incredible sexual experience of her life.

  She still felt stunned by it all. There had been none of the fumbling or uncertainty that usually pervaded spontaneous encounters like this. Not once had she wondered about faking it to get him to finish faster or wished she hadn’t let it get this far. In fact, nothing could have been farther from the truth. Everything he’d done had turned her on. He’d been so sure of himself and yet gentle at the same time. She’d never come with someone the first time they were together. In her experience, it took a few practice runs and here Gideon had made her come twice.

  Bailey was in a stall just about to flush when the door to the ladies room opened.

  “I’m telling you, Maya,” a woman said, “you can barely see the scars. I’m one hundred percent certain he wouldn’t be dating me if I hadn’t gotten them done.”

  “They look really natural, Shay.”

  “You should feel them. They feel like the real thing.”

  “No, it’s okay. How much were they again?”

  “Five thousand.”

  Maya gasped.

  “I know. That’s higher than average but this doctor was worth it. Not everyone is born with a chest like yours.”

  Bailey wasn’t sure if she should make herself known or not then figured, if they were concerned about privacy, they’d have checked under the stall doors for feet. She was just about to stand up when…

  “Speaking of chests,” Shay said, “did you see who the new guy was with?”

  “Are you talking about Mr. Holy Guacamole?” Maya asked.

  “Yeah. I don’t know his name, but he looks like he could be Antonio Banderas’s brother.”

  “That’s him. I didn’t see his date.”

  “Oh my God, it looked like he picked her up off the street in Chinatown. Her dress looked like it was from Target and she’s flatter than I used to be and that’s saying a lot.”

  Bailey’s face heated with embarrassment and she carefully collected handfuls of her dress so that it wouldn’t be visible. Like every other red-blooded American woman, she had some minor body issues. She did wish she had more in the chest department. She didn’t think her sense of fashion was keen either, so Shay’s barbs went straight to Bailey’s vulnerable underbelly.

  Thankfully, the door closed and Bailey breathed a sigh of relief.

  Intellectually, Bailey knew that some men weren’t that particular about boob size, but figured they were probably the ones who were grateful to have access to any boobs. Hotties like Gideon could afford to be choosy.

  Had he slept with her? Yes.

  Had he paid any attention to her breasts?

  She sighed.

  Not really.

  She flushed the toilet, left the stall and as she washed her hands, she peered into the mirror. She didn’t look anything like the other women here. With the exception of Dakota, they were all tall, blonde and busty—beautiful in every way that Bailey wasn’t. Nor did she resemble the girls in her family everyone cooed over. She had not inherited porcelain skin or a pouty mouth. No one had ever called her lithe or graceful.

  Exasperated with herself, she stuck her tongue out at her reflection.

  “This is what you have to work with, girl, so don’t knock it. It was good enough to snag Gideon Aguilar for one night, wasn’t it?”

  Temporarily, yes. But the upside to hearing those girls talk was that her eyes were opened to reality. This wasn’t a fairy tale where the village girl got the prince. This was real life where girls with the finest boobs money could buy caught the professional athletes.

  Yes, she’d monopolized him for a few hours, but she should leave now and avoid the awkwardness of him assuring her he’d call when she knew damn well he wouldn’t. She prided herself on being a person who was happy most of the time and the key to that was being grateful for what you had and not yearning in vain for things that were out of your reach. This was the perfect time for her to put that tenet to the test.

  She’d had a once-in-a-lifetime experience tonight—one that hundreds of thousands of hockey fan girls would give an ovary to have.

  She’d attended the Christmas party of the San Francisco Dragons hockey team.

  She’d hobnobbed with every player on the team.

  She’d been made love to by the sexiest man she’d ever met.

  Time to cut her losses.

  Chapter Eight

  Gideon called out Bailey’s name as he fast-walked around the roof. He got no answer because she wasn’t here. Damn it.

  He went back inside and started asking random people if they’d seen her. No one had.

  After searching the top two floors with no sign of her, he was beginning to think she’d taken off for some reason. Maybe there had been of some kind of emergency.

  Thinking the valet would know for sure if she’d gone, he went outside to the little stand.

  “Dude, I’m looking for—”

  “The Lady in Red? Missed her by that much.” The kid held his index finger and thumb close together.

  “Damn it. She didn’t happen to mention why she was leaving, did she?”

  “Nope.”

  “Did she, er, leave a message for me?”

  Gideon had to give the kid credit for not laughing at that ridiculous question.

  “No. Sorry.”

  Dejected, Gideon looked up and down the street as if by some miracle he’d spot her electric blue Prius. He didn’t, but he had one last hope. Maybe Cam or Dakota had a lead he could follow.

  “Bailey left and I didn’t get her phone number,” he said when he found them inside the restaurant.

  “She must have found out about your obsession with Celine Dion,” Cam said. Then he saw Gideon’s stony expression. “Sorry, dude.”

  That got Cam a light punch in the arm. “You hockey players never stop teasing,” Dakota said.

  “It’s in our DNA,” Cam admitted.

  “I don’t even know her last name,” Gideon said. “Did she tell you guys what it is?”

  Dakota shook her head. “Cam?”

  “No. I just knew her as Bailey.”

  “Okay, thanks.”

  “Don’t worry,” Dakota said reassuringly. “I’m sure she’ll get ahold of you.”

  Chapter Nine

  Bailey met Indigo the next day for dim sum brunch. Indigo, having had dim sum with Bailey a couple of times before, wasn’t shy about requesting her favorites from the passing carts—the barbecued pork bun, shao mai, the sticky rice bundles. Bailey had offered to pay, so Indigo was ordering like they were expecting a battalion of teenaged boys.

  “Hey, all this stuff is good left over,” Indigo said defensively after Bailey raised an eyebrow.

  After she’d poured soy sauce on her plate, Indigo said, “So I’ve decided to grant you clemency for your Girl Code Misdemeanor last night. You may thank me by passing the shao mai.”

  “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Bailey said, handing her the small metal steaming dish, “but I told