Nikki Worrell - The Enforcer (NHL Scorpions)

Not wanting to be rude, she replied, “Oh, no thank you.” Stretching the truth a bit, she added, “I’m seeing someone.”

Eyes riveted to her chest he replied, “Sure you are. Come on, one dinner.”

“No really. I’m seeing someone, but thanks anyway. Well, I’m going to go try these on. I start my skating lessons tomorrow. Bye.” Lacey didn’t much care for the creep and wanted him to leave. She picked up a pair of skates and walked away to try them on.

He followed her, still talking. “Oh yeah? I’ll teach you to skate, Doll. I actually play hockey on a league.” When she told him that her ‘boyfriend’ was an NHL hockey player he said, “Oh, okay. And what’s his name?” He doubted that she even knew how the game was played. She was too cute and curvy to be into sports. If she knew anything about hockey, he’d be willing to bet she knew how to be a puck bunny, and that was about it. Why was it that girls always played hard to get with him?

Why not tell him, she thought; maybe it’ll make him go away. “Jody LaGrange. He just came here from San Jose.”

Still not believing her, he smiled at her with condescension. “The Goon? That’s the first name you came up with? Oh, come on, Honey. With looks like yours, you could at least go for the captain. The girls seem to go nuts for that Keith Lambert.”

Right when Lacey was going to tell him to get lost, Ian walked into the store. What impeccable timing. She remembered briefly meeting him at the pub and waved him over, hoping he remembered her. “Hey Ian. How are you? Are the guys done practicing already?”

Ian could tell immediately that the guy she was talking to was making her uncomfortable. He was standing pretty close to her, and she was trying to inch away from him. “Hi Lacey. Practice won’t start for another forty-five minutes. I just stopped by to pick something up for my son.”

“Great. I’m here buying skates. Jody’s going to start teaching me how to skate tomorrow.” Turning to Ben’s father she said, “I guess you’ll be going now.” Just as she thought he might make one more advance towards her, Ian stepped closer to her, and he changed his mind. “Sure, nice talking to you.”

When he was gone, Lacey turned to Ian to thank him. “That guy just wouldn’t take no for an answer. Sorry I called you over.”

“No problem. Glad it wasn’t Jody who walked in. Being new to the Scorpions and coming from a rival team, he doesn’t need any bad press, that’s for sure.”

“What do you mean by that? Why would walking in here give him bad press?”

“Well it’s like this. Let’s say, Jody is a tad overprotective of what’s his. Or what he thinks of as his. He just wouldn’t take it well if he saw some guy giving you a hard time, that’s all.” Just as Lacey was about to speak up, Ian held up a hand and continued, “I know you’ve only known each other for a short time, but believe me, there’s not a guy on the team who doesn’t know Jody’s staked a claim on you. You can get annoyed over that if you want, but it won’t change the fact. I’ve known Jody for years, and even the guys who don’t know him very well know that you’re off limits.”

Off limits? Lacey wasn’t sure if she should feel warm and fuzzy or pissed off. She had seen a little bit of that behavior from Jody already. No one was perfect, and she guessed his Achilles heel was his need to possess and protect. As long as he didn’t go too far, she thought she could be okay with that. She wasn’t a huge feminist who needed to strut her independence at all times. Maybe she could just roll with it for now and see what happened.

“Well, let’s not mention this then, huh? It wasn’t that big of a deal; he was just being an ass. I think he probably hears ‘no’ a lot. And to be honest, I’m not sure how I feel about Jody thinking he needs to protect me. So I’d rather avoid that issue for now. I mean, I’ve only known him for a week.”

“Sure. Mum’s the word. So, you going to get real hockey skates? Good choice. Go big or go home, right?” Ian helped her pick out a good pair that fit her well, and then they left the store together.

When Lacey got home, Zoe was ready to go shopping. “Can we stop to get something to eat? I’m starving! I can’t shop on an empty stomach and let me tell you … I’m in the mood to shop a lot. We need to buy you a new sexy wardrobe so you can keep that Jody sniffin’ around.” Zoe had obviously had her caffeine and was good to go.

They stopped at a place that had a great selection of salads and pasta. Lacey, of course, got the salad while ‘Zoe of the amazing metabolism’ got a huge plate of pasta and meatballs, along with cheesy garlic bread. Luckily, Lacey loved salads and didn’t care for pasta, so she wasn’t too jealous of the way Zoe ate today. Of course Lacey’s salad probably wasn’t all that much better than the pasta after she got done adding bacon, blue cheese and full fat ranch dressing. Good stuff.

After lunch, they hit their first shop. Lacey desperately needed a couple of pairs of updated jeans. In the past, jeans were just jeans but since the general atmosphere became more casual, jeans had evolved. Lacey wanted some jeans that weren’t just the ‘wear at home’ type. No ‘mom’ jeans. She wanted fitted, dark, dress jeans. Maybe even some (dare she?) skinny jeans.

Trying on her very first pair of skinny jeans, she frowned. “Do these make my ass look even bigger than usual, Zoe? I’m not sure about these.”

“Holy shit Lacey! Your ass looks fabulous in those jeans. How can you not see that? Women pay to make their asses bigger. How many times have I told you to embrace your curves? I’d kill for your curves.”

“Oh please, Zoe. You could bounce a quarter off of any part of your body. You know that most of the time I hate you, right?” Looking back in the mirror at her behind, Lacey smoothed her hands over her butt. “I guess they look okay. Maybe I’ll try them out skating tomorrow.”

Zoe snickered. “Who are you kidding? You know you’ll have Jody drooling all over you. You should get a really hot, tight sweater to wear. I know it’s warm outside but it’ll be chilly on the ice.” Zoe left the fitting room to find Lacey a sweater to try. She came back in with a dark red three-quarter sleeve sweater that had a sweetheart neckline. When Lacey put it on, she immediately vetoed the choice.

“My boobs look ginormous in this. No way, put it back.”

“Jesus, Lace. Here we go again. Look in the mirror, and tell me what you see.”

“I see a tart. A puck bunny.” With her figure, she had to be careful about not looking like she was trying too hard. Which was funny because she tried extra hard to look like she wasn’t trying too hard. Whoever said being a woman was easy, lied.

Exasperated with her, Zoe stood behind her and held her hair up. “Then you’re an idiot. Now look again. With your hair swept up like this, you look elegant. Yes, the clothes hug your body, but they’re supposed to. You are not trashy. Red looks fabulous with your dark hair, and you could wear your silver hoop earrings and that silver heart necklace I gave you. Simple and classy.” Secretly Zoe almost felt bad for Jody, because if Lacey did wear this outfit, he was going to have a tough time concentrating. It was so much fun messing with guys.

“Okay Zoe. I’m going to take your word on this one, but the rest of the stuff I buy will be a bit more conservative. I wonder if I could pull off a dress. It’s been years since I’ve tried a dress on, but I think I’m in the mood.” After purchasing a short sleeve sun-dress (after all, it hovered around seventy-five degrees in September) and some sandals, Lacey told Zoe she wanted to hit the lingerie shop ‘just in case.’