"He gave me a look like that too."
Lucy looked up to see Sydney staring at her.
"A look like what?"
Sydney rolled her eyes. "The whole 'I miss them, but I'm not going to admit I miss them' look," she explained. "You and Ryan had the same look."
"It just didn't work out and I'll be over it soon. It's fine."
Sydney gave her a skeptical look. "OK, if that's how you want to play it."
"I'm not playing it," Lucy said. "That's just how it is."
Sydney shrugged and grabbed her keys and wallet off her end table, stuffing them in her new black leather purse. But it was bugging Lucy that she wasn't saying anything else to protest her friend's declaration. Lucy had known Sydney long enough to know Sydney was holding back.
"Just say it, Barton."
"You don't want to hear what I have to say."
Lucy put her hands on her hips and stared at her friend. "Which is why you need to say it and just get it out of the way."
"Except we're running late." Sydney grabbed her purse and started heading for the door. "Let's go!"
"We're not done with this conversation."
Sydney turned and gave her a teasing smile. "Oh, I know. Now come on, I don't want to miss the puck drop."
Lucy looked up to check the score just as the buzzer went off. End of the second period. She was still working on her nachos so she had that going for her. And she had settled on a Vernors instead of a beer since she drove to the game. Of course, she didn't mind driving to the game that night with the parking pass Ryan had given them. There were definitely advantages to knowing a hockey player who could hook you up with free tickets and parking passes and vouchers for nachos.
There were also advantages to knowing Ryan McCloud like the good sex and the nice dinners and the book discussions. But that wasn't the point.
Ryan had these particular seats as season tickets since he made the team and would give them to people throughout the year. They were for his parents whenever they came to visit or he would give them to Sydney and Lucy at least once a month. Any leftovers would go back to the team for charity auctions or sometimes for kids at the local children's hospital downtown.
So Ryan knew exactly where these seats were from his place on the ice. He used to occasionally smile at them from the ice or do a quick wave when they won a game. Lucy knew he would look over at them from time to time because he had noticed Lucy's affection for nachos before she even mentioned it to him.
Tonight though, he was more stoic on the ice, at least from what she had noticed, but he was still looking for them. He saw them in those seats. Lucy knew because he made eye contact with her during pre-game warm-ups. And she saw the little smile teasing the corner of his lips when he noticed the nachos. It wasn't much, but it was noticeable.
What was also noticeable were the two women a few rows away from Lucy and Sydney. They were front row, right against the glass. Lucy knew how much Ryan's seats cost — the price was on the front of the tickets he gave them. And that was just face value for season tickets. She couldn't imagine how much more expensive it was to sit in the front row along the glass, especially because those women probably bought the tickets off some resale website that jacked up the price.
They also had a sign that said "Marry us, McCloud!"
Call it a hunch perhaps, but Lucy thought these two women were trying to get Ryan's attention, and they were failing miserably. It wasn't for a lack of trying. Lucy had been to games before where she had seen this behavior from other women. In fact, she remembered one woman in particular who got tickets down on the glass with a sign to get Ryan's attention. She remembered that woman because she saw that woman leaving Ryan's apartment the next day when she picked up Sydney for brunch.
Tonight, though? Those women were having no effect on him. Lucy was paying attention. She was watching Ryan skate and talk to his teammates during stoppages in play. She was watching him when he headed back to the bench and chirped at the opposition. She never once saw him look at those women.
But she did see the smirk on his face when he looked a few rows past them to see Sydney stealing one of Lucy's nachos. Oh yeah, she saw that.
"Hey, excuse me?"
One of the women caught Lucy taking a bite of a chip dripping with cheese. "Yeah?" she asked with her mouth half full.
"Can you take a picture of us?"
The woman pushed her arm forward with her cell phone encased in a green bedazzled cover.
Lucy stared at them, her cheesy hand floating in mid-air as she tried to figure out how exactly to handle this situation.
"Of course!" Sydney said.
