Awk-Weird (Ice Knights, #2)(58)
“Public events aren’t really my thing.” That would be putting it mildly. Going to a costume party with a bunch of superstar athletes was enough to make her want to hide under her desk. “Remember what happened at Lucy’s wedding?”
“You mean the screaming orgasms?” he asked, his tone roughening to a near growl. “I thought that was pretty awesome.”
“No,” she said, her cheeks burning. “The whole standing by myself and pretending to be on my phone so you didn’t realize I was playing along with your trivia game like some loser who had no friends.”
Oh God. Just thinking about how they’d met put her in a clammy-palmed tizzy.
Cole chuckled and somehow managed to make even that sound sexy. “Hate to break it to you, Tess, but the phone thing didn’t work even if it was cute.”
“That’s not cute; it’s awkward and weird.” She let out a so-fucking-over-this huff and sank down in her chair. “I don’t people well.”
“I’ll be with you the whole time,” he said. “If you don’t want to people anymore, we’ll go home. No questions asked. Don’t make me disco by myself. Say you’ll come. Please.”
Ugh. This wasn’t fair. Not only did she miss him—and yes, she acknowledged being a total idiot for that, but she did—but he was using the voice on her, the one that made doing the totally awful sound completely reasonable. Plus the idea of seeing him in a powder-blue tux was enough to make her want to push past her usual reticence. Yeah, so what if Cole wasn’t the only one with a spacious comfort zone?
“Fine,” she said, giving in. “I’ll be there.”
What else could she say? Her brain had melted into goo and there weren’t any other words left.
…
That evening, when she walked into the Harbor City Hotel grand ballroom, the words wouldn’t stop swirling around in her head, keeping time with the light-speed thumping of her heart and the rushing in her ears. Hanging back in the doorway, Tess searched the crowd for Cole, the awkward building with each butterfly-collar shirt, bell-bottom-pants-wearing guy who wasn’t Cole. She recognized a few faces, guys from the trivia game at the wedding whose names had been replaced in her head with completely useless information such as the literal Greek translation for “utopia” is “no place” and “eisoptrophobia” is the fear of mirrors.
Sweat began to make her hair frizz, and her lungs tightened as she scanned the crowd for Cole. Sure, it was a costume party, but how hard was it to miss Thor’s twin? Pretty damn difficult.
She scanned the room again and again and one more time before that all-too-familiar feeling of being alone settled in the pit of her stomach like sour milk and getting the hell out of there became more important than finding him. Head down, she turned and rushed toward escape and right into the hard chest of a man in a dark wig wearing a polyester baby-blue tux opened that showed off the gold medallion nestled in his too-plentiful-to-be-anything-but-fake chest hair.
“Oh my God, I’m so sorr—” Something in the teasing glint of his blue eyes stopped her mid-word and recognition flooded her. “Cole?”
He grinned down at her. “You weren’t about to ditch me, were you?”
She totally was, but instead of a quick affirmative, her mouth did that nervous thing. “Did you know the name Milt is also the zoological term for fish semen?”
Yes, because that was exactly what this already nerve-racking and awkward moment needed—fish jizz.
One side of his mouth tilted upward. “We definitely won’t name the baby Milt, then.”
She tensed, looking around at the crowd of strangers. “Have you told anyone on the team?”
“Only Petrov and Christensen, who are here somewhere.” He scanned the crowd, obviously looking for the men. “They’re idiots, but they’re family and—” He let out a harsh groan and a mumbled curse. “They brought their karaoke machine. This is not going to end well.”
“Why?” Following his gaze, she spotted the two hockey players carrying a seriously big karaoke set up the steps leading to the DJ booth on the stage.
“They both have this nasal twang whistle thing when they sing,” Cole said. “I mean, with one person it’s bad enough, but with two people who sound like mirror images of each other, it’s just… Oh God, we gotta cut this off or everyone will run away before this thing really starts and the charity won’t raise any money.”
He slipped his hand into hers and pulled her forward into the crowd, acting as the point of the arrow as they zipped around groups and hustled through the ebbs and flows of people packed into the ballroom—the whole time Cole offering hellos and how ya doings to every other person until they got to the stage. Normally, this many strangers—to be honest, this many opportunities to do a speed round of did-you-know random facts and general weirdo knee-jerk responses to having to be around new people—would have overwhelmed her, especially without the added backup of having her girls with her. None of it seemed to matter when she was with Cole, though; it was like she was safe at home.
Of course, that realization hit right as he let go of her hand and made a leap up onto the stage, startling the DJ and cutting off his friends before they could get to their target. Her jaw dropped as she tried to figure out if she was in too deep with him to get away in one piece. Short answer? Nope. Long answer? What in the fuck had she been thinking? This was a fucking disaster.