The Dating Plan(60)
“It was a hard life on the road.” Liam cleared a path through the bleachers to their seats. “I had to eat things much worse than that.”
“What’s going on down there?” Daisy pointed to a food service worker holding two pizzas at the bottom of the stairwell. He was talking with the hockey cam operator and pointing in their general direction.
Liam’s pulse kicked up a notch and he pulled down his shark head hat. “They’re going to give away free pizzas. We have to draw their attention.”
“How?”
“Jump up and down. Shout. Scream. Dance so the camera sees us. Wave your rally towel and your blow-up shark.”
Daisy shrank back in her seat. “I can’t dance in the seats. People will see us.”
He stared at her, incredulous. “You didn’t care five minutes ago when you were screaming at Noesen to get the lead out. And I know you have the moves. You are a dancing queen.”
“I just don’t want to embarrass myself.”
Liam wondered how screaming “Fear the Fin” while wearing a shark hat and waving a blow-up shark in the air could be less embarrassing than dancing in front of the seat, but then he’d never understood the inner workings of the female mind.
“I’ll take the hit. I’ll dance so badly, no one will be looking at you.” He jumped up, waving his rally towel in the air as he danced the way her father had danced in front of his television every time the Sharks had scored a goal. “Pizza!” he yelled. “Go Sharks!”
“You’re on the big screen!” Daisy jumped up beside him and danced his same crazy dance, waving her shark in the air and screaming, “Fear the fin!” The camera operator swung his camera in their direction, and suddenly they were immortalized on screen in a heart-shaped circle of lights with “Winner” flashing above them.
“We won! We won!” Daisy jumped up and down and threw her arms around Liam, nearly knocking him over as she pressed her lips to his in a delighted kiss.
Her lips were soft and warm and sweet with chocolate. The shock of them short-circuited his brain and for a moment he couldn’t breathe. And then he was pressing her lips apart, hungry for her, desperate for more.
She softened against him, sighed. He braced himself for her to retreat, but instead, she tightened her arms around him and kissed him back, her tongue tangling with his as she explored his mouth.
“Pizza!”
She pulled away, leaving him floundering, his brain struggling to understand why someone was shoving a box in his face when all he wanted was her sweet lips and her soft body and her sigh of surrender.
“Pizza selfie.” Daisy held up her phone and took a picture of them with the pizza box angled in the corner. She laughed when she showed him the screen. This time he was the one who looked dazed.
* * *
? ? ?
IT was an incredible second half. The Leafs allowed three goals in the third period and lost for the first time in four games, 5–2 to the San Jose Sharks with Radim ?imek scoring on an empty net with fifty-seven seconds left. By the end of the game, Daisy was best friends with the couple behind them, and had high-fived everyone seated in their section. They’d finished the pizza and the rest of the food and shouted themselves hoarse.
“This was amazing.” Daisy put her arm around Liam’s waist as they shuffled through the crowd. “Much better than a textile exhibition. I never imagined myself in a shark head hat, but I could become a convert.”
“Liam! Hey, dude!”
Liam gritted his teeth when he saw the two investment bankers coming toward them. Over the years, he’d wined and dined them countless times, taking them to bars, parties, and various clubs to convince them to invest in his companies. He’d also introduced them to Brendan when his brother took over Murphy Motors, and they’d become good friends. But here, now, with Daisy, they were part of a world he didn’t want her to see.
“Business acquaintances,” he muttered under his breath. “Tall dark one is Marco. Short one is Dan. They’ve had a lot to drink. I’ll say hello and then we’re out of here.”
“Are we engaged or just friends?” Daisy asked.
“They know Brendan, so being engaged might help our case.”
“Long time, dude.” Marco slapped Liam’s hand and he made the introductions.
“This is Daisy Patel, my fiancée.”
“You? Engaged?” Marco snorted. “To her? Get out of here. Who is she really? A client?”
The skin on the back of Liam’s neck prickled in warning. He needed to get Daisy out of there before this went very, very wrong. His shoved a hand in his pocket, feeling for his knife. Not that he needed a weapon, but he needed something to calm him down.
“She’s really my fiancée,” Liam said, struggling to stay calm. Except for his eyes, he didn’t look like his father’s side of the family, but he had inherited their Irish temper. “We met eight months ago, and when you know, you know.”
“Seriously? Weren’t you with that model eight months ago?” Marco frowned. “The one with the legs and the big boobs? Emma? Or Ella? She invited us to that hot tub party on the top of that hotel.”
“The hot tub girl was the one before the one with the legs, and after the one with the boobs,” Dan snorted, weaving slightly on his feet. “And I think he had a couple of models in between from the modeling agency start-up that he was considering adding to his portfolio.”