The Enforcer (5 page)

Jody: Night Lace

“Night Lace,” She could just hear him saying that in his sexy voice. Oh, what did it matter what he sounded like or looked like anyway? He was probably married or had a girlfriend … or hell, maybe both. With that thought, Lacey decided to actively search out a man (
not
associated with hockey, of course) to start her dating life up again. The hard part was figuring out how to go about that.

Putting those thoughts to the back of her mind for later, Lacey went back to celebrating with Zoe. They looked through old pictures of the two of them in Halloween outfits, pictures of them in those awful Christmas clothes their mothers used to dress them in and pictures from their college days. But the best pictures were, by far, those God awful school pictures. Oh the awkward years. Zoe was always much cooler than Lacey, so Lacey looked even less cooler than she actually was.

Zoe had a sense of style as far back as Lacey could remember. Zoe would be dressed in designer jeans and a pretty blouse, while Lacey would be in a pair of sweats and a ratty t-shirt. Zoe’s short hair would be perfectly coiffed, while Lacey’s long hair was forever in a ponytail. More times than not, Lacey would have some kind of animal hair on her clothes from volunteering at the local animal shelter, while not even a wrinkle could be found on Zoe’s clothes. She was a well put together kind of person. Lacey tried to be more stylish, but even with her OCD, her clothes were usually rumpled a bit. And she was the first to admit that she could use some help in the fashion style area.

They got some good laughs from those photos. When they were done laughing about the good old days and had a few more drinks, they decided to wind down for the night. After Lacey popped some popcorn, Zoe put in their favorite move,
Ever After
. By the time they got to bed, it was almost four o’clock in the morning. Friday was going to be a bitch.

Lacey woke up entirely too soon after she had passed out. She gingerly sat up and put her head in her hands.
God I can’t wait until my bed gets here,
she thought. With her head spinning, she slowly got up off the floor and went into the bathroom for a glass of water and a bottle of Advil. How people could live like that on a regular basis was a mystery.

Hours later, Lacey woke up again feeling marginally better. When she looked at the clock, she was shocked to see that it was almost three o’clock in the afternoon. Lacey raced to get Zoe up. Zoe would kill her if she wasn’t ready for her appointment with Jody. When Lacey found Zoe’s bedroom empty, she rushed into Zoe’s office and threw open the door. “Zoe! It’s almost three o’clock.”

Lacey was relieved to see Zoe awake, dressed and making notes at her desk. That relief was short-lived. Sitting in the chair across from Zoe was a man. Well, not just a man; that made him sound average. There was nothing average about him. He was gorgeous – out of this world gorgeous.

Zoe looked up at her and said, “Nice of you to barge in Lacey. This is Jody LaGrange; Jody this is my friend Lacey.” Jody got up and stuck out his hand. “Nice to meet you in person, Lace.” Laughing a little, he looked her up and down and said, “Late night?”

Holy shit on a shingle …
Lacey shook his hand and then simply stood there and gawked at him. His six-foot three-inch frame held his two hundred thirty pounds perfectly. He had beautiful light blue/grey eyes that crinkled a little as he smiled. His sandy blonde hair looked like he’d just run his fingers through it, and he had a crooked smile that went along with a crooked nose. You could tell this man’s nose had been broken once, twice or six times. But it worked for him. The team logo was stamped on the front of his grey t-shirt, which fit him like a second skin. Her eyes traveled down to take in his jeans. Holy cow, those jeans. Oh his jeans hung on his hips like they were honored to be on him.
I know I would be,
Lacey thought. He … was … absolutely … delicious.

Lacey finally found her tongue, and before rushing out of the office muttered something that resembled an apology. “Uh, hi. Sorry I barged in. I was afraid you’d be late Zoe. Okay, bye.” As she was leaving, Zoe yelled out, “Maybe put some pants on, huh?” Lacey looked down. Oh my God. When she passed out in the wee hours of the morning, she just crashed in the clothes she had on. But apparently she did take the time to strip off her pants. So there it was. She met Jody LaGrange wearing nothing but her sweatshirt, panties and socks that had little frogs on them. What a stellar moment for her.

When Lacey got back to her room, she made the mistake of looking in the mirror. Her hair was sticking up everywhere, she had a huge pizza stain right between her boobs and yes, that
was
crusty mascara goop on her cheek. It really couldn’t get much worse.

Back in Zoe’s office, Jody was smiling. He said, “Your friend Lace partied a little too hard, eh? Or does she always walk around half dressed?” Zoe grimaced and shook her head. “I’m sorry about that. Honestly, Lacey’s the best of the best. We just stayed up too late celebrating her move out here. She celebrated a bit more than me.” Thank God hockey players were so laid back. Lacey barging in like that was a major faux pas. That couldn’t happen again. She’d have to get a sign to hang on the door when she had a client in there.

Jody tried to keep it light, but internally he was a mess. Lacey stunned him. She looked like she’d been in a train wreck when she walked in, but all Jody could see was how enticing she was. Even with her hair sticking out in all directions, it was beautiful. Long and dark, it looked like it would be silky to the touch. She had soulful blue eyes that could hold your attention forever. Her cheek bones hinted at a Native American ancestry. And her lips. Hot damn! Her lips were full and pouty and just begged to be kissed. As his eyes had taken in the rest of her body, he couldn’t help but notice her phenomenal rack. Even hidden under her bulky sweatshirt he could tell she was stacked. What could he say? He’d always been a breast man.

Her bottom half was just as nice. She had legs that made him thank the Heavens she had neglected to put pants on. She was taller than most of the women he dated, which was an added bonus. He’d guess she was around five-foot nine-inches in height. Jody usually dwarfed the women he dated; not that there’d been that many. Better yet, she had some meat on her bones. How refreshing was that these days? He liked a woman with curves, and she had them in spades. Lacey was a breath of fresh air to a man like him.

It had been too damn long since he’d had a woman. He just wasn’t like the other guys who pretty much screwed anything that smiled at them. Lacey was a marked woman now, whether she wanted to be or not. Jody started making plans to get to know Lacey better –
much
better.

Zoe had known
of
Jody LaGrange from Vlad. He was the Scorpions goalie and a good friend of Jody’s. During his first session, Zoe learned a bit more about Jody on a personal level. The first meeting was just an informal half hour ‘get to know you’ kind of thing. There was no delving into his psyche in the first session. Zoe liked to get to know her clients a bit before getting down to business.

Not all psychologists worked that way, but it worked for her and she felt it helped her clients open up more. School had taught her that there was a fine line between being a therapist and being a friend. Getting too close to your clients could adversely affect their therapy. While there was absolute truth to that, Zoe found that she got better results by straddling that line with these guys.

“Well Jody, you know why you’re here. And I understand that you probably don’t want to be. I take a slightly different approach to therapy for you guys. I’m not going to ask you to divulge your deep, dark emotions until you feel comfortable doing so. I want you to be able to consider me a friend that you can literally say anything to and know that it will never leave this room.” Zoe hoped that her unorthodox method of trying to lessen the line between doctor and client would appeal to Jody.

“I can live with that. I don’t want to offend you, but you’re right, I don’t particularly want to be here. I’ve always hated the therapy thing. It feels unmanly somehow.” And what if she hit on something and had him crying like a baby? He was a freaking enforcer. He was a tough guy. Therapy was scary.

“I get that; I do. You won’t offend me, but I can guarantee that if you give it a chance, I might be able to help you someday. One thing I will insist on. I’ve given you my card and it has my cell phone number on it. If you
ever
need someone to talk to at
any
time, day or middle of the night, I need you to call me. Can we agree on that?” This was usually where the player brushed her off with a ‘yeah, sure.’ She went through the motions anyway, because if there was a chance she could help even one of these guys someday, she’d take it.

Jody surprised her though. He took out his phone and programmed her cell number in it. “Thanks Dr. Millis. I can’t say right now that I’ll use it, but I’m not stupid enough to throw out a possible lifeline. I’ve seen what head injuries have done to other players, specifically enforcers. I’m sure you know we lost three great, young guys last year to suicides, and they were all enforcers. I’d rather not be a statistic.”

Zoe gave Jody a sad smile. “Yes, those three guys were part of my reason for changing my therapy style. When I let down my walls and stepped out of the comfort zone of being the doctor with the white jacket, I saw better results. I’d like to think I can help you guys deal with the mental and physical pressures of your job.” Giving Jody a happier smile she said, “And get rid of the Dr. Millis; it’s just Zoe, okay?” Zoe got some other preliminary information from him and ended the session.

One of the things Zoe found out about Jody was that he was single. That could be good to know if her hunch was right. Lacey was absolutely floored by Jody. That was a rarity. Zoe hoped she’d give him a chance. They obviously had a physical attraction. Zoe thought they’d both go up in flames when they met. There was instant chemistry. No one should ever waste that. She would find out tonight if it was really as strong as it seemed. Jody had asked Zoe if she was bringing Lacey to the team’s meet and greet. The team did that every year with whoever wanted to go from the organization. They were meeting at the Irish Pub at seven o’clock. That was plenty of time for Lacey to feel human again and clean herself up.

When Zoe went upstairs to tell Lacey that they were going out, she was surprised to see Lacey sitting on the floor, her legs crossed, staring at the wall. She was completely still and didn’t even notice that Zoe had walked in. “Lacey, what’s wrong?”

Lacey finally looked up and saw Zoe standing over her. “Zoe, he is, shit, I don’t even know how to describe him. I mean, wow …”

“Okay … Is it the no panties thing? Are you embarrassed? Because you shouldn’t be; he thought it was funny. It’s not much different than being in a bathing suit, you know?”

“Huh? Oh that. I don’t care about that.” Lacey went back to staring at the wall, shaking her head in disgust.

“So what’s the problem? Why are you sitting here staring at the wall?”

Lacey looked at her again. “Zoe, I do not want to be attracted to him. He’s a player. He travels all the time, just like Steven. He has access to all kinds of women, just like Steven. Think about it. And I saw him looking me up and down. You mark my words-he’s a
player,
and even though I’ve already been down that road, I liked the way he looked at me. Aw crap Zoe, I liked it!”