He gave her a quizzical look. "What?"
She seemed sheepish as if she was suddenly aware that she said that louder than intended. "Oh, um, Denver's in town that night and I'll be at the game so I'll see you Friday."
"Ah, right. Well, I'll try not to disappoint you." He flashed her one final smile. "Good night, Charlotte."
"Good night," she said before she closed the door behind him.
He stood there waiting for the elevator, unsure of how exactly he should feel. Dinner had gone well after he got over the fact that her date wasn't really a date. And she did tell him she would show him her bedroom another time. She didn't mean literally, he tried to tell himself.
But then there was that moment in her office. He couldn't really explain it. It was as if his body had no choice in the way it reacted to her. He could try and deny it, try and say it didn't really mean anything, but it had. Jordan could just hear his brother saying, "I told you so," which is why he decided he wouldn't share that part with Ethan.
On Friday, Jordan scored two goals against Denver and after the game, he skated over to give Aiden his stick and Charlotte one of his trademark winks.
Chapter 5
Charlotte sat in the visitors' locker room at the Pirates' arena, lacing up her skates for tonight's season-ticket holder event. It would be a welcomed distraction from the email her mother had sent her earlier in the day.
"Thought you would find this interesting if you haven't seen it yet!" the message read. She added a smiley emoticon and ended it with "Hearts, Mom." She hated her mother's new sign-off. It made it sound like the post-menopausal woman who raised her was now a teenage girl.
Charlotte's mother had a tendency to send links to her from various gossip sites about various people she couldn't care less about. "Can you believe this actor lives a floor below us?" or "This is Francesca's daughter. You know Francesca." (She had no clue.) Today it was a story about a single-named lingerie model. She groaned out loud, knowing she would have to click on it to find out what it said since she could guarantee her mother would ask about it later.
But this time, her mom was right. It was quite interesting, just maybe not in a good way. At the top of the site was a Page Six headline in bold black letters — "Raquelle: 'I've never been happier'" — and a picture of the model with her boyfriend's arm around her.
Charlotte recognized him immediately.
"Super sexy model Raquelle says she's never been happier now that she's with hockey bad boy Declan Reed. 'He's the best thing that's happened to me,' she gleefully said in a Vogue interview this month."
Charlotte scoffed. "That's what you think," she muttered as she continued to read.
"The Los Angeles forward feels the same way! 'I've never been with someone as amazing as Raquelle. No other woman compares to her.'"
Charlotte stared at the screen trying to figure out what exactly she felt about Declan's quote. She was nothing compared to some super model? Charlotte took a deep breath. Screw him. She was successful and happy without him. But she also knew both from her personal experiences and from the books she wrote that you always carry things from your past relationships to your current one.
Of course, there was one tiny issue with that philosophy: a current relationship didn't exist for her. Jordan King putting his hand on her back did not make a relationship. And yet, there she was, quickly shutting down her computer so she could get ready for the season-ticket holder skate with the Pirates. And no, before she left the house, she did not over analyze what to wear or how to do her make-up or which perfume to put on. (Expect she did, including the vanilla spritz, which was her go-to since it was an easy casual scent that didn't make it seem like she was trying too hard and made her smell like warm cookies.)
Charlotte pulled herself out of her thoughts and back into her current reality at the rink by accidentally yanking the laces on her skates a little too tight. Apparently, that stupid email she opened a few hours earlier still had her a bit wound up.
"Charlotte!"
She looked up to see Aiden running across the visitors' locker room towards her with his parents following behind him. All three had skates with them and Adam had a small helmet in his hand.
"What's up, buddy?" Charlotte said as she held her hand up to get a fist bump from the six-year-old.
He knocked his hand against hers. "So much stuff!"
"What kind of stuff?"
"I got to make a robot in art class today and it was so awesome!" He plopped down in the seat next to her with a smile plastered on his face as he quickly undid the Velcro on his shoes. "I'm going skating. Are you?"
"Yep!" she said, flashing him her skates.
Adam sat down and starting pulling his shoes off. "Those are impressive skates, Charlotte," he said, nodding to her feet.
Impressive because her ex-boyfriend got them for free from a sponsor. Sure, she wasn't with Declan anymore, and sure, she was moving on. But she damn well was going to keep these skates.
"I guess I just take my hockey skates seriously," she explained.
Rachel smiled. "I'm sure the players will be impressed," she said. "Especially one in particular."
