Nikki Worrell - The Enforcer (NHL Scorpions)

Lacey ran her hand down to cup Jody through his jeans. “Yes, God yes, I’ll come home with you. Can we leave now?”

“Hell yeah. Let’s go.” Jody grabbed her hand and just about ran back out to their table. When they got there, they discovered that their table was occupied by others now, and Zoe was nowhere in sight.

They went outside to see if Zoe was still talking on the phone. She was just getting ready to hang up when she said, “Wait a sec Aidan, Lacey just came out.” Aidan, Zoe’s brother, had moved to San Diego when Zoe did. They were pretty tight. Covering the phone up, Zoe told her, “Aidan broke up with his boyfriend. He’s a mess, and of course, he wants you.” Looking at Jody apologetically, Lacey took the phone.

“Hi hun. I’m so sorry.” Lacey listened for a while looking sympathetic. “Well, he’s a rat bastard, and he doesn’t deserve you.” Some more listening and then with a disappointing look at Jody she said, “Of course you can come stay with us tonight. I won’t let Zoe psychoanalyze you, I promise. Ben & Jerry’s all around.” Then Lacey laughed as she found out that Aidan was already waiting for them at the house. Winking at Zoe, Lacey said, “We’ll be home in about ten minutes. Chin up, Kid, we’ll get through this.”

Jody understood that her friend needed her but he was seriously disappointed. He was so close to Valhalla! Jody shot a quick text off to Vlad telling him that they weren’t going to be at the pub. When they got back to Zoe’s house, there was an extremely attractive man sitting on the front steps. He didn’t look gay, but what did gay look like anyway? Aidan was buff, but not overly so. His silky hair hung down just past his shoulders. He was dressed casually in everyday jeans and a t-shirt. Jody wasn’t all that comfortable leaving Lacey with him, even though he was apparently not interested in the female sex.

Aidan stood up when Lacey and Zoe got out of the truck and gave Jody ‘the eye.’ It was the eye men gave other men to say ‘don’t mess with my family or my woman.’ He gave Zoe a hug and then Lacey. He looked Lacey up and down and patted her rear. “Lacey, Lacey, you are looking fine, Sweetheart! Girl, you are all curves, aren’t you?”

Gay or not, Jody didn’t like his hands on her. Aidan noticed and said to Jody, “Calm down man. Just because I have no interest in sampling the goods, doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the package. And my, Lacey is one hot package!” Aidan stuck his hand out and said, “Aidan Millis, Zoe’s brother, and you are?”

“Jody LaGrange, enforcer for the Scorpions.” He figured he’d just let this guy know that he could beat him to a pulp if he wanted to. Lacey poked Jody in the chest and said, “Play nice.”

Shaking Jody’s hand Aidan laughed at the tough guy act and said, “Message received.” Zoe thanked Jody for driving and then led Aidan inside. Lacey turned to Jody and started to apologize. Putting up his hand he said, “Don’t. It’s okay, and I think you’re a wonderful friend. I’ll just go home and suffer in silence. But since I’m so incredibly understanding, I think you owe me a date. I want a real date where I pick you up and take you out somewhere. Just the two of us.”

Lacey readily agreed, and they decided Jody would pick her up on Tuesday at seven o’clock. He smiled and gave her another toe curling kiss before he turned and left.

Sunday was Lacey’s last day off before starting her new job, and she wanted to spend the day with Zoe. Aidan had left early that morning, feeling marginally better, so the girls decided to have a day of pampering and started it off with a massage and a pedicure.

After being pampered and having a nice lunch, they spent the rest of the afternoon with their toes in the sand. It would start getting a bit cooler soon, and they wanted to take advantage of every beach day they could. Beach chairs in place, Zoe turned to Lacey and asked her if she wanted to take a walk or sit and stare at the ocean first.

“Let’s just watch the ocean for a while.”

“Fine by me. Let’s talk about boys. I need to find a date. Nothing serious of course, but just someone to go out with a few times, you know?” Zoe hadn’t had a date since the mysterious guy in the shower when Lacey was still in Maine; although, come to think of it, that was only a few weeks ago. Time flew by so quickly when there were so many changes happening in her life.

“Okay. Do you have anyone in mind? Oh! I know what you should do. Why don’t you do one of those online dating things? Or one of those speed dating things? Yeah, that speed dating thing. You’d be great at that.” Lacey remembered seeing that on a sitcom once. A bunch of guys and girls would sit across from each other and switch partners every five to eight minutes or something like that. It was a good way to quickly weed out undesirables.

“By myself? Oh no. I’ll do it if you do it. You and Jody aren’t an official couple yet, are you?” Zoe didn’t think Lacey would agree, but it was a good way to get Lacey to admit she felt more than a physical attraction to him. Lacey’s answer actually surprised her.

“Maybe I will. Just to be fair, though, I’ll tell Jody that you and I are doing it. I’m only doing it for fun. I’m not looking for anyone else to date. Jody and I have our first real date on Tuesday. Let’s see if we can find a speed-dating location to hit tonight or tomorrow night.” What could he object to anyway? They were not a couple, and she’d been up front with him that she wasn’t looking for a long-term relationship right then (even though she could tell she was weakening in that regards). It wasn’t really dating anyway. Just meeting a bunch of guys at one time.

“Can I listen in when you tell him? He’s not going to like it. Don’t you listen when the guys tell you how possessive he is?” Zoe would love to hear his reaction. It was good to stir the pot and see what was what (probably not the best way to be when one was a therapist – but hey, it was harmless). Telling Jody her intentions to go on this speed dating thing with her would be interesting, to say the least.

“Oh come on,” Lacey shot back. “You think it’ll bother him that much? He has no claim on me. I’ll bet you the guys exaggerate his attitude. I’ll call him right now.” She dug her phone out of her bag, found Jody’s name and hit send.

He answered on the second ring, sounding out of breath. “Hey Lace.”

“Hi. Did I catch you at a bad time? You sound like you just ran a marathon.”

“Perfect timing, actually. I was just trying to think of an excuse to stop running. I’ve only done about three miles, but I already did a workout at the rink. What I’d like to be doing is sitting on my deck drinking a cold one.” Jody loved his afternoon beer on the deck. It was a daily ritual. He didn’t drink much when he went out with the guys, but that beer on his deck was a constant in his life.

“The day I even try to run three miles is the day pigs’ll fly,” Lacey said. Now that she had him on the phone, she was kind of nervous to tell him about the speed dating. “Anyway, Zoe wants to try that speed dating thing where you meet a bunch of guys for about five minutes each and then move on to the next one. Have you heard of that?”

“People actually do that shit? That’s insane.” Jody couldn’t imagine her needing to do that to meet someone. Zoe was cute, smart and funny. Of course he had women throw themselves at him all the time, so maybe he didn’t know how hard it was to meet someone.

“Well, yes. Not everyone has your luck getting dates, Jody.” Why was she getting so defensive? Was it because she didn’t want to hear his opinion on the subject, or was she jealous of all the harlots that she knew threw themselves at him? “I’m going, too. Even though you and I haven’t even had a first date yet, I thought I should tell you. I’m not looking for a date there; I’m only going because Zoe doesn’t want to go alone.” He was silent. Then not so silent. Lacey pulled the phone away from her ear while Jody ranted.