The Enforcer (18 page)

When Lacey was two spots away from Jody, the shit hit the fan. The guy she was talking to, Alex, was a hulking Swede. Nice looking if you were into that pretty boy look, but he was a real ass. It was obvious that he considered himself a true ladies man. Where did these guys come from? Lacey could handle his inappropriate comments, but when he leaned over and put his hand on her leg, just above her knee, Jody lost it.

There was a loud crash as Jody’s chair hit the floor, and he shot up out of his seat. “That’s it! You’re done here.” He walked over to Lacey, picked her up out of her chair (picked her up!) and left the room. Gently putting her down just outside the door, he turned around talking about killing Alex for touching her. Vlad caught him just in the nick of time. “Stand down man. You don’t want to do this.”

Alex was still sitting in his chair watching Jody bear down on him. “Wait a minute. You’re Jody LaGrange, right? Hey man, nice to meet you.” He stuck his hand out like Jody
wasn’t
seconds away from making his face a punching bag. Jody looked at Alex’s hand and slapped it away.

“That’s my girl you were putting your hand on.”

Apparently Alex wasn’t too bright because the next words out of his mouth were, “I would say she’s
not
your
girl if she’s here looking for a date.” Alex looked behind Jody. “Right, Sweets?”

Lacey had come back into the room, but she had no idea what she was supposed to do. She was pissed as hell at Jody, but she didn’t want to outright reject him when he was so obviously upset by the whole thing. Not understanding why she felt she owed him a damn thing after his behavior, she said, “I’m really not looking for a date. I just came because my friend didn’t want to come alone.” Wanting to defuse the situation, she grabbed Jody’s arm and pulled him back. She could tell he still wanted to pummel the guy but he refrained.

“Zoe, I’ll wait for you in the car, okay? Please take your time.” Addressing the group as a whole, she said, “sorry for the interruption.” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Vlad snarl at Sebastian and then go take his seat again. Yup, speed dating was a monumentally bad idea.

Jody knew he fucked up. Royally fucked up. Lacey looked like she was going to explode. Whatever she threw at him, he’d take it and apologize. Maybe. He wouldn’t apologize for making that cretin take his hand off her, but
maybe
he could have handled it better. “Come on Lace. Let me have it. I know I deserve it.” She just kept walking. That was probably not a good sign.

She turned around with fire in her eyes. “What the hell, Jody? You don’t own me! Keep this up, and I’ll have to report you for stalking.” How could she be so spitting mad and still want him to take her home so she could rip his clothes off? It must be the anger. Any heightened emotion could make people amorous, right? You hear about it all the time. When some catastrophic event occurs, nine months later there’s a baby boom. So maybe anger did the same thing as fear. Because she really did want to grab him and have her way with the big, stupid, possessive, cave man.

“I know, I know.” Running his hand over his face he said, “Okay, here’s the thing. I tend to get a little crazy when someone infringes on my territory. And I can also be a little bit over protective, which could come across as controlling, but trust me, I’m working on it. I wasn’t successful today, but Lace I can do better if you give me another chance.” He looked so dejected Lacey couldn’t help herself. She walked over to him and told him that she would give him another chance, but their date on Tuesday had better be spec-fucking-tacular.

With perfect timing, Zoe came out. Speed dating was over for the night (thank God), and she was ready to go. Lacey didn’t say anything else to Jody as she got into the car and left.

On the first day of her new job, Lacey was sitting at her desk when she got called up to the front. There were two deliveries for her. One was a huge, gorgeous bouquet of wildflowers (no roses in sight), and the other was a roughly wrapped package about the size of a book. The flowers were from Jody and were for good luck on her first day of her new job. The package, however, was not from Jody. The card read, “I’m sorry my human misbehaved.” It was signed ‘Izzy’ with a paw print – a real paw print. She unwrapped the package and found a framed certificate for a $1,000 donation made to the local animal shelter in her name.
Oh, he’s good,
she thought.

Lacey sent Jody a text thanking him for the flowers and asked him to thank Izzy for the donation. She also told him he got an A for effort. With a smile on her face, she put her gifts on the filing cabinet where she had a good view of them and got back to work.

Just before she left for the day, she got a text from Jody asking how her first day went.

Jody: Hey Lace. I just wanted to see how your first day went.

Lacey: Hi Jody. It was great. Busy, but great. And I got two nice gifts to decorate my office. Thank you again.

Jody: You’re welcome. Izzy and I are glad you liked them.

Lacey: I was just on my way out the door. I’ll see you tomorrow?

Jody: I can’t wait. I’ve planned a spec-fucking-tacular date as instructed. I hope anyway. :)

Lacey smiled at that. Maybe she was a little harsh with the spec-fucking-tacular comment. She kind of felt bad for putting so much pressure on him, but he deserved it after that stunt he pulled at the speed dating place.

Lacey: I’m sure it will be. Nite Jody

Jody was just getting to the rink when he got Lacey’s text thanking him for the gifts. He was glad she liked the gifts he sent her, but he knew that he couldn’t buy her forgiveness. In a moment of clarity, Jody acknowledged his weakness and called Zoe to ask her if she thought he could learn to control his outbursts so that he didn’t lose Lacey. Lacey wasn’t the type of girl to put up with that kind of behavior for long, and he didn’t want to mess up any chance that he had of being with her.

Zoe was pleased but shocked that Jody had called. She did indeed believe that he could learn to control his outbursts, and she made an appointment for him the next day while Lacey was at work.

After he ended the call, Jody went inside the rink to suit up. Practice was going to be tough today. Training camp was just around the corner, and he only had one week left before he was expected to be in playing shape. Keith, as captain, was calling the shots until the season officially started and their coaches took over. He asked that they all be there no later than one o’clock ready to bust their asses.

Jody strolled into the workout room to do some stretches at 12:30 to find it about half full already. “Hey guys. Gonna be a tough practice today, eh?”

Brandon smirked and said, “Scared old man? Maybe you need to retire, and leave the game to us young guys.” The younger players, kids really, loved to bust on the veterans. Jody, at thirty-six years old, was one of the older guys on the team. He figured he still had two to four good years left as long as nothing major happened to him.

Jody flipped him off and asked him, “If I’m not here, who’s gonna make sure you keep that face pretty?” Brandon Marcoux, a left winger, was small. His stats generously listed him at five-feet nine-inches tall. He was small but the kid was lightning fast. No goalie wanted to see him behind his net. He had sick hands and could wrap the puck right around the net and over the goal line before the goalie even realized he wasn’t behind him anymore. The guys called the area behind and around the net ‘Brandon’s office.’

“Yeah, whatever old man. Come on; spot me for some bench presses. I gotta make sure my chest and shoulders are nice and big for the ladies. My face isn’t the only thing that’s pretty, you know.” Brandon was a cocky little shit. At twenty-two years old, it was expected, and for the most part, he didn’t bother Jody. Someday, though, that kid was going to realize that looks would only get him so far. Well, after his hockey career was over anyway. Brandon played the ‘I’m a professional hockey player’ card to the fullest extent to get the girls. And with so many puck bunnies around, he always had a girl or two on his arm.

After practice was over, all Jody wanted to do was sit down and relax. Practice was as tough as he thought it would be, and he was beat. He and Vlad picked up mass amounts of Chinese food and went back to Jody’s place to eat and chill out for a while.

“You have your big date tomorrow, don’t you?” Vlad knew Jody had been thinking about taking Lacey on a date since the day he met her. Jody was a romantic. That surprised most people before they got to know him. He was tough as nails on the ice, and no one wanted to go a round with ‘Chief,’ but where girls were concerned, he was a big old softy. It was an interesting combination.

“Yeah. Man I have to tell you, I love this girl. I know that sounds crazy. I know I don’t know her that well, but I feel like I’ve known her all my life. She’s the one for me. This date has to be perfect.”

Vlad smiled. “There’s not one of us that doesn’t know how you feel about her. You wear your heart on your sleeve, man. How do you do that? How can you be such a bruiser on the ice and such a marshmallow off it?”

Jody threw a bottle cap at him. “Marshmallow? Am I really that bad?”

“Dude … as soon as she walks in the room you go all gooey- eyed and shit. It’s embarrassing.” Vlad was just messing with him. In truth, he was jealous as hell at Jody’s budding relationship with Lacey.

Ignoring Vlad’s snarky comment, Jody told him what he had planned. “I’m going to take her horseback riding on the beach. After that, we’re going to have an evening picnic. I’m packing a cooler with Grey Goose, strawberries and cream. I’m going to go sit with my girl on the beach and do all that romantic stuff you tease me about.” Jody couldn’t wait. He couldn’t think of anything better than riding on the beach, watching the sunset and then sitting on a blanket under the stars with Lacey tucked in his arms, feeding her strawberries and cream. Okay, that’s not entirely true. He could think of one thing that might be even better, and he was going to try for that, too.

“Grey Goose? Aren’t you supposed to give girls that champagne crap?” Vlad was surprised that Jody wouldn’t know that. Champagne was almost another word for romance.

“My girl likes vodka. I don’t even know if she likes champagne. But you’re right; I should have a bottle of that, too. I read in some women’s magazine that strawberries go well with champagne.“

Vlad laughed, knowing that Jody had probably read stacks of chick magazines doing research for his date. Getting up, he collected his trash from dinner and said, “Well, I’m outta here man. Keith killed us today, and I’m beat.” On the way out, he gave Izzy a pat on the head. She, in turn, leaned fully into him, rubbed her head on him and caused him to stumble sideways. “Good Lord this dog is a menace to society.” Smiling, he added, “She sure is a sweetheart, though. See you tomorrow, Chief.”