Kings and Queens

Mike smiled from the driver’s seat as soon as Bridgette and I got into the car, “You look incredible Bridge,” he smiled to her and then looked in the rear view mirror at me, “Looking good Lang.”

I rolled my eyes at my sister as Jeff turned around, “Happy birthday kiddo,” he handed a bag back to Bridgette.

She smiled and dug into the bag. She pulled out some shot glasses, which I figured were from Jeff, and an envelope. She opened the envelope, licked her lips, and shook her head, “Thanks.”

I reached for the envelope as Mike began driving but she pulled it away, “My gift.”

I raised an eyebrow just as my phone vibrated in my hand. I looked down at the text message and laughed: He put a key to a hotel room in there.

Jeff turned his head to me and we shared a laugh, “When are the others coming?” Bridgette asked.

“Most of the guys are showing up after dinner, “Mike answered.

She nodded and looked at the envelope again. I sent Jeff a text back: Think it’ll work?

He looked back at Bridgette and then gave me a wink before nodding. Bridge was starting to cave a little with each passing day. I could tell she was at least playing with the idea because she wasn’t putting him down as much as she had been prior to the Vancouver game.

“Dustin going to dinner?” she asked.

I looked at Mike and Jeff, but they didn’t give me much help. “Not sure,” I shrugged, as if I didn’t care.

Bridgette gave me a weird look, “You told him the time, didn’t you?”

“Yeah,” I answered.

“Then what’s the issue?”

“He had something come up and I haven’t heard much from him since this morning,” I finally told her.

“What’s more important than my 25th birthday?” she pouted.

“I’ll call him in a little bit,” I told her.

Mike looked at me in the mirror again, but I looked away before I could tell what kind of look he was giving me. They might have known more to the story than I did, but what I knew I didn’t like. He had called that morning to tell me that he had to talk to Jessica and that it was the only time he could do it, so he might not make it to dinner. I had questioned him a little, but not much because I wasn’t sure if I should or not. He texted me while I was getting ready to tell me it wasn’t going well, so I assumed he wouldn’t be around at all that night.

Jessica and I had ended our war or whatever, but some of her tweets were still directed toward me. I had tweeted something about how childish we were both acting and that real women shouldn’t act that way in such a public arena and had washed my hands of the situation. I was a role model and she was too because she had a daughter and fans, so neither of us should have been acting like teenage girls.

“We’re here,” Mike announced after putting his car in park.

Jeff and I hopped out quickly to allow Bridgette and Mike to walk together in relative privacy. I heard her giggling and tried not to turn around, but it was hard. I glanced behind us, as subtly as I could, and watched Mike pull her into his body with one arm. She playfully hit his chest and I nudged Jeff, “Maybe he’ll get a little kiss tonight.”

Jeff chuckled, “Think I could be so lucky?”

“Who knows, LA’s full of pretty ladies.”

He put his arm around my shoulders, “He’ll show up Lang, he’s one of the better ones. I won’t say good because he fucked up a few times, but he’s not a bad guy.”

Each and every time Jeff referenced a teammate or someone he considered a friend he managed to sound so soft and sweet. As much as I couldn’t stand some of the things that came out of his mouth, I liked the blond giant; his protectiveness of his friends was nice and something that was hard to come by in the City of Angels.

The hostess immediately got flustered when Jeff gave her his signature smile. He gave her our reservation, “Oh, come with me,” she gave Jeff the once over and looked like she approved.

I nudged him and he laughed. We were both cracking up as we walked up to the table and heard someone clear their throat. We both looked over and I gasped a little. Dustin didn’t look happy but he gave us a small smile. I heard Bridgette and Mike behind us and saw Dustin’s eyes look over, “Happy birthday Bridge,” his smile got wider.

“Awe, you’re here,” she walked right up to him and gave him a hug, "Lang said you might miss it."

"Said I'd be here," he smiled down at her as he reached for an envelope.

Bridgette shook her head as she opened it, “Dustin!” she bit her lip, “This is so sweet, thank you!” she hugged him again, “I’ll take Lang.”

I furrowed my brow, “Take me where?” I asked.

“Spa weekend,” she held up a brochure and a certificate.

I smiled too as Mike and Jeff took their seats. Bridgette walked over to sit between them and Dustin sat in the chair he was standing next to. He looked like he didn’t want to be there and he had hardly made eye contact with me so far, so I felt like he might be mad. I took a deep breath, “I’m going to go call a couple of the girls to see where they are,” I told the group, “I’ll be back in a minute.

I walked to the bar area and found a quiet corner booth to make the calls. In the middle of the second call I glanced to my side and saw Dustin walking around, looking for someone. He walked up to the bar and the bartender pointed my way. I turned my head and started talking again before he could see me. “Okay Beth, see you in ten,” I hung up as he sat down across from me.

I slipped my phone into my clutch, “How’d it go?” I asked.

“Not well,” he reached his arms over the table to take my hands, “I’m here though.”

“And Bridge appreciates that, thank you,” I smiled, “And thank you for the excuse to get pampered.”

He linked our fingers together, “You deserve it, both of you.”

I nodded toward the table, “We should get back.”

He nodded his head to the spot next to him, “In a minute.”

I got up and moved next to him. He put his arm around my waist and pulled me closer, “I’m going to tell you this once and then we go on with the night, okay?” he looked at me.

I stared into his beautiful eyes and nodded. He took a deep breath, “Jessica wants me back and she said she’s not going down without a fight. She’s pissed about the whole Twitter thing and thinks that you made her look bad by ending it and taking blame, like you did that on purpose.”

“We’re both in the public eye and we shouldn’t have done that.”

“I know,” he nodded, “I’m glad you did that though. It was stupid and childish, funny, but childish,” he smiled.

“So, what are you going to do? You two haven’t been divorced that long, I mean you could work on it,” I stated as I played with the clasp on my clutch.

Dustin put his index finger under my chin and lifted it so I was looking into his eyes again. those eyes were so light and so perfectly blue that I could have stared into them for hours, maybe even days, if I was allowed. “I’m going to move on,” he said quietly, his low, soothing voice mixing with the jazzy music playing through the restaurant. “I’m going to be happy,” he licked his lips as his eyes searched mine, “And I’m going to kiss you now and everything's going to go away,” he tilted his head to the right and slowly lowered his lips to mine.

My eyes closed slowly, allowing him to be the man and do all the work to find my lips. The second they touched mine I felt a shock and my entire body relaxed. His finger was still under my chin, but I felt his thumb brush my cheek as his mouth opened so slowly it was antagonizing. My brain managed to tell my lips to part and when they did it seemed he relaxed too.

My hand that was on the table moved to his forearm, holding it for dear life because I wanted to melt. For such a rough looking man, it surprised me every time he did something so gentle or so sweet and this kiss was both of those plus forty other things that I had no words for at the moment.

He moved his hand so his fingers were in my perfectly curled hair, holding me close to him. His arm that was around my waist pulled me in as close as I could be without being on his lap. I set my hand on his thigh as the kiss deepened and his tongue slowly brushed against my bottom lip. i cut him off though and moved my head back, “Public place,” I whispered.

He looked down and chuckled, “I forgot.”

I nodded, “Me too.”

Dustin sighed, “If she starts anything with you again, I’ll take care of it, okay?”

I nodded, not wanting him to feel emasculated by me taking over a fight, “Okay.”

He kissed me softly again, “Your sister is probably naming our children by now, we should get back.”

I slid from the booth and waited for him to stand. He stood, took my hand, and linked our fingers before walking back toward our table. When we were close he lifted my hand to his lips again and kissed it, like he did at La Bella. I looked to see if anyone had noticed, but everyone seemed to be in a conversation when we were back at the table. Dustin pulled out the chair next to him for me and when I moved to sit he whispered, “You look gorgeous tonight baby.”

I felt my cheeks turn red, “Thank you Dusty,” I whispered back.

Bridgette looked over at us and raised an eyebrow, “When are the girls getting here?”

“Should be here soon,” I said as Dustin sat in his chair and set his hand on my knee.

A few minutes later our friends showed up and Jeff was eying them, probably wondering how he could work a threesome into their minds. Mike was telling some story about their last road trip, but Dustin’s thumb was drawing a circle on my thigh, tickling me and making me giggle a little. He stopped after a few minutes and leaned over, “I leave tomorrow afternoon for our Canada trip.”

“How long is it?” I asked.

“We’re up there a week and then do Chicago, St. Louis, Dallas, and Phoenix the next week.”

“Two weeks?”

“Basically,” he had moved away from my ear while he was listing the cities.

“That’ll be fun, a lot of bro time,” I smiled.

“I’m going to miss you,” he said out loud, like he didn’t care if everyone else heard.

I bit my lip as the waiter set my meal in front of me, “Will you have time to do that?”

“I’ll have a lot of down time,” he nodded at me, “A lot of time to sit and wonder what you’re doing.”

“I’ll be busy with meetings, fittings, and events.”

“Too busy to miss me?” he pouted.

“Maybe,” I teased him.

Dustin leaned over and gave me a light, sweet kiss, “I’ll have to change that.”

“Fifty!” Mike yelled.

“Fuck you Richards, I said by the time the appetizers came, you said…”

“Meal Cartsy, I said by the time the meal came and what’s in front of us?”

I rolled my eyes and Bridgette looked down at her plate, “You’re both wrong, I won,” she said with a devilish smile, “They kissed while she was making phone calls.”

Dustin laughed next to me but I shook my head, trying to suppress a laugh, “I hate you all.”

“Who won?” Mike asked us.

“None of you,” he looked at me and then back at them, “When you were pouting about not going out after the Vancouver game,” he looked at Jeff, “And when you ran after Bridgette to say some smart ass comment,” he looked at Mike, “I followed and kissed her then. Pay up.”

Bridgette stared at me, “You didn’t tell me…”

“You dindt ask,” I shrugged, “So I’d say you all owe us. What was the bet? Fifty bucks?”

“You’re lying,” Mike shook his head, “I would have noticed.”

I shook my head, “You were all focused on being the bitchier one that you two wouldn’t have noticed if the sprinkler system went off. By the way,” I picked up my fork and pointed it at them, “Who is the bigger bitch out of you two?”

Bridgette threw her napkin at me as she laughed, “You know the answer to that one.”

Dustin and Jeff both laughed, “Mike,” they said together.

He threw them both a glare, “I’ll kill you both in your sleep.”