Back Check Part 6

He blinked, not sure what to say about all that. "What did you do after you graduated?"

"I kept working at the country club."

He frowned. "Really?" She'd worked summers there, waitressing, but it seemed like a waste of a business degree if that's what she'd done after college.

"Yes. But not as a waitress. The last summer I worked there I got involved with some of the events they host...golf tournaments, weddings..."

"Ah." He was getting the picture. The country club where she'd worked was a first-cla.s.s private club, with a champions.h.i.+p golf course and extremely wealthy members who enjoyed the opulent atmosphere and rich history of the club. He'd golfed there a few times and had been intimidated by the plush decor, fine dining, and stuffy etiquette. He could totally picture Katelyn flitting around directing people where to put big bouquets of flowers or fine china or s.h.i.+t like that.

"So they hired me as an event coordinator. It turned out I really enjoyed doing that, and I was good at it."

She would be. She was smart and organized and she'd always been...He wasn't sure what the word was to describe her. "Stylish"? "Cla.s.sy"? Whatever. She liked pretty things and making stuff look nice, from her bedroom at her dad's house to her color-coordinated pens and notebooks, and the clothes she wore. She still had that cla.s.sy air about her.

He knew what she was like beneath that cla.s.sy exterior, though. He knew what a dirty girl she was in bed. He knew how she liked to be touched, how to make her wet, how to make her moan, and how to make her beg. He'd loved messing her up, her hair all tangled from rolling around in bed, marks on her perfect skin, her lips swollen from kissing and biting.

Jesus. Now his d.i.c.k was remembering all that too and was getting stiff. He s.h.i.+fted on the couch and cleared his throat. "So you like being an event planner?"

"I love it. It's challenging but very rewarding."

"You have your own business?"

"I do now. I worked for someone else for a couple of years when I first moved to Chicago." She made a face. "It was good experience but she was, uh, difficult to work for."

"Now you're your own boss."

"I am. With all the ups and downs that go with that."

"You're good at what you do. I'm sure it'll be fine."

She tipped her head and sipped her wine. "How do you know I'm good at what I do?"

He paused. "Because you were good at everything you did." She'd been an overachiever for sure, who looked after her dad and the house they lived in, got good grades, and had lots of friends.

"Not everything," she murmured, with a wry smile.

Tension crackled between them as he pondered what she meant by that. Was she referring to the three stooges-er, fiances? What had happened there?

"Do you like living in Chicago?" she asked.

He sucked in a breath and let it out. "Yeah. I do. I still go home to Minneapolis in summers. I bought a place there, on Lake Minnetonka. A log cabin." Well, that wasn't a completely accurate description of the place, which was over four thousand square feet, with cathedral ceilings and huge windows overlooking the lake. But that was what he always told people...a log cabin.

"That's nice. Your parents are still there?"

"Yeah." He gave a short laugh. "Both of them divorced again."

"Get out."

"Nope. Good thing Dad has money to support all those ex-wives."

"Yikes. I'm sure he had pre-nup agreements."

"Huh. I don't know. I never asked him. Apparently he's seeing someone new. Maybe I should mention that to him in case he gets marriage ideas again."

"You haven't met her?"

"No." He rubbed the back of his neck. "They'll probably come see a game sometime this season. Dad came back in October."

"I'm sure he's proud of you."

Tanner snorted. "Yeah, no. He likes having a son in the NHL, sure, but I don't think he's particularly impressed with me." He'd always known that.

His eyes met Katelyn's and the soft warmth there startled him. She'd looked at him just like that, back then...She was the only one he'd ever really talked to about his f.u.c.ked-up family.

A loud burst of laughter from the kitchen had their heads turning toward it.

"We're ordering pizza," Lovey called. "Any requests?"

"I should go." Katelyn set her empty gla.s.s on the coffee table and stood. "You all are having a party and I'm just the wedding planner."

Tanner watched her hasten over to talk to Lovey, unreasonably disappointed that she was leaving.

Just the wedding planner? What the h.e.l.l?

He couldn't hear what Lovey was saying, but her frown and shake of her head, then an entreating smile, told him she was convincing Katelyn to stay. Sure enough, Katelyn wandered back and picked up the gla.s.s. Lovey tailed along behind with a bottle of wine and refilled it.

"Need another beer, Tanner?" she asked.

"Better not." He grimaced. "I had a few too many last night and I'm driving."

"So am I!" Katelyn's eyes widened.

"You'll be fine by the time you've had some pizza," Lovey said, patting her shoulder. "So are you two catching up? It's so funny that you knew each other already."

"Yeah, we've been catching up." Tanner leaned back into the couch, trying to be casual. "It's been a while."

Katelyn gulped her wine.

"Katelyn's been so much help already with the wedding," Lovey said. "I don't know how you managed to find a dress for me so fast."

"It was Malvina." Katelyn smiled. "She's talented that way."

"But you must have told her what I wanted. I didn't even know that."

"You showed me enough pictures to give me clues about what you like and don't like."

"And you've got so many details nailed down already-the musicians, the photographer, videographer. Where to register for gifts. She gave me homework," Lovey told Tanner. "So she can book rooms for the out-of-town guests. What's next?" She turned back to Katelyn.

"Flowers."

"That'll be fun!" Then Lovey wrinkled her nose at Tanner. "You probably don't want to hear about all this. Every time I talk to Marc about it, his eyes glaze over."

Much as Tanner hated weddings, he found himself weirdly fascinated by Katelyn's chosen profession.

"So where were you guys last night?" Lovey asked him. "Where you had a few too many."

"Indigo."

"Probably picking up girls, like your usual man ho selves."

He gave her a strained smile, avoiding Katelyn's eyes. "Possibly."

"Did your friend have his baby?" Katelyn asked. "That night we were here he left because his girlfriend was in labor."

"Yeah. They had a girl." Tanner paused. "What's her name again, Lovey?"

She elbowed him. "Aubree. Isn't that nice?"

"Very nice." Katelyn smiled. "I'm happy for them."

"We need to have a baby shower for Sidney!" Lovey's eyes widened. "I can't believe I didn't think of that. Do you plan showers, Katelyn?"

"Um, sure. I have."

"Perfect! We need to get on that."

Tanner took in Katelyn's slightly dazed expression.

"Let me touch base with the other Aces Ladies next week," Lovey continued. "I'll call you. Well, we'll be talking anyway. Oh, this is awesome!" She jumped up and called, "Amber! Jenna! I just had the best idea!"

Tanner looked back at Katelyn.

"Wow, she's a ball of fire," Katelyn said.

He laughed. "Yeah, that she is. She has a good heart."

"Oh, I can see that. I kind of love her." She met his eyes. "Sorry."

He squinted. "For what?"

"For taking another job that means I'll be hanging around with your friends."

"Oh."

"I know you weren't happy to see me. I know this is awkward. Do you want me to tell her I can't do it?"

Yeah, it was awkward. Yeah, seeing her again had stirred up a lot of memories, all that old hurt he'd tried to leave behind in East Lansing. His chest tightened. Should he ask her to do that?

Hold the f.u.c.k up. How could he? This was how she earned her living.

"Nah," he said carelessly. "Not necessary. It's really not that big a deal." With a shrug, he stood and walked away.

Chapter 6.

"We need to postpone the wedding. Again."

Katelyn shook her head, her cellphone to her ear, sitting across the table from her friend Rachel. They were in a restaurant just off Michigan, waiting to order lunch, when she'd gotten the call.

"I'm sorry," Caroline Corrigan said. "My future daughter-in-law's mother isn't well. She wants to hold off on things until we know more about her prognosis."

Well, that didn't sound good. "I understand."

This was the third time they'd pushed the wedding date back, which made Katelyn wonder if this wedding was ever going to happen. Caroline Corrigan had been planning the celebration for her son and his fiancee for months, but it seemed one thing after another caused them to delay it.

"I'll let the vendors know," she said. "I'll take care of everything."

"Thank you so much, Katelyn. I'll be in touch."

She ended the call and looked across the table at Rachel. "Sorry about that."

"Problems?"

"Oh yeah." She related what had happened, then grimaced and sipped some ice water. "Hopefully this wedding happens eventually. I can't afford to lose a big job like that one."

"At least you have that policy about the deposit, which you get to keep. That helps protect you against s.h.i.+t like this."

"Yeah. Somewhat. I'd rather have payment for the full job, though."

Their server approached the table and they both ordered salads.

"How are things with the hockey wedding? That is so cool. I know you'll get tons of work after it, when all those rich people see what you can do."

Katelyn smiled. "That's my hope. It's going well. Lovey has a good sense of what she wants, but she's flexible and reasonable, so that's making it easy. Also, the unlimited budget doesn't hurt."

Rachel's eyes widened. "How rich is this guy?"

"No idea. When the Islanders offered Tanner a contract eight years ago, it was for something like eight hundred thousand a year, plus some bonuses. It was all kind of complicated." She waved a hand. "It sounded like a h.e.l.l of a lot of money back then, but I wasn't paying much attention to that part of it, because...you know."

"Yeah." Sympathy warmed Rachel's brown eyes. "I know. But Marc Dupuis must make a lot more than that. Hang on." She pulled out her phone. "Let me Google it."

Katelyn had resisted the allure of Google and all the information it probably held about Tanner and what he'd been doing the last eight years.