“It is. With a little twist here and there to make it my own.”

   “Oh, my God. I’m so intrigued. And now I’m hungry.”

   Amelia slid a cheese and cracker plate over toward Laura. “Have a snack. And there’s iced tea in the refrigerator.”

   Laura grabbed a glass and poured herself some tea, then retrieved a small plate and piled it with cheese, crackers and the olives Amelia had prepared.

   “So when you cook, you get hungry?”

   Amelia grinned at her. “Absolutely. Which is why I have to have snacks nearby.”

   She slid the casserole into the oven and set the timer, then pulled up a chair to the island and put some cheese and crackers onto her plate.

   “How did the event go last night?”

   “It went very well.” She filled Laura in on everything, including Flynn’s disastrous date, meeting Tara and Mick Riley and what happened after the party.

   “So another woman decided camera time was more important than hanging out with that gorgeous hunk of man? What is wrong with women, anyway?”

   “I have no idea. I’m truly flummoxed why so many women would risk a relationship with such a nice guy like Flynn to get some face time on camera. Do television cameras have some kind of bewitching quality we’re unaware of?”

   “You’ve got me, honey. If someone stuck a camera in front of Jon, I’d run like hell to get away.”

   “That’s because you’re special. And you love your husband.”

   Laura popped an olive in her mouth. “I do love that man. So now you’ve got a date next week, too? Awesome.”

   “Ugh. Not awesome. But there didn’t seem to be a polite way to get out of it.”

   “Why would you even want to? This is your opportunity to meet new people. And a guy who might be perfect for you.”

   “No guy is perfect.”

   “Of course not. But some guy might be the right one for you.”

   She sliced a piece of Gouda and laid it on a cracker. “That’s what I thought the first time. I was wrong. Clearly I have no intuition when it comes to men, and I’m not interested in trying again.”

   “You’re burned, honey. I get it. But go anyway, have some fun. No one’s asking you to marry the guy on the first date. Even if you just find someone to have a hot fling with, it’s worth it. Don’t you miss sex?”

   She nearly choked on her wine. “Of course I do.”

   “All that body-to-body action, a sexy mouth kissing on you, some tongue action taking a slow, delicious ride on the Hot Body Train down to Lady Town.”

   She shot a glare at her best friend. “Laura. Stop.”

   Laura seemed unfazed. “What? You know you want some. Just because some asshole broke your heart doesn’t mean your vagina has gone out of business. The two organs don’t have to be connected to each other, ya know. You can have sweaty hot sex without falling in love.”

   Laura was right. It had been a very long time. Even before she and Frank had divorced, the sex had stopped. Which didn’t mean she was ready to . . . board that train again just yet.

   Still . . . just the thought of having some wild uncontrollable sex with someone sounded really good about now.

   Then again, that might be the wine talking.

   “I can see your mind working over there,” Laura said. “You’re thinking about sex.”

   She hid her thoughts by leaning over to jot down some notes about the recipe. “No. I’m thinking about food.”

   “No one knows you better than I do. And you never blush about boeuf bourguignon. You’re not only thinking about sex, you’re thinking about hot, dirty, up-against-the-wall sex.”

   Amelia shot a direct look at Laura. “I’ve never even had hot, dirty, up-against-the-wall sex.”

   Laura tilted her glass of tea toward her. “Then you’ve been doing it wrong. We need to find the hottest guy in the world for you. I hope he’s at the party Tuesday night.”

   Amelia thought about denying Laura’s statement, but truthfully, so did she.

 

 

SEVEN

 

   After a grueling loss to Cleveland on Sunday, Flynn and his team regrouped and tried to figure out where they’d gone wrong.

   Special teams had made some errors, and the opposing team’s eighty-yard runback for a touchdown hadn’t helped. Defense had seemed off-key the entire game. The Sabers offense had put up two touchdowns and a field goal, so they should have been able to defend Cleveland and hold them.

   They hadn’t been, which had made them even more determined to go into their home game this weekend with a mind-set to win.

   They’d watched game films today, and Flynn had paid particular attention to the defensive line. It wasn’t as if Cleveland’s offensive line was better. But Cleveland’s offense had gotten off the mark faster, and had protected the quarterback, which meant Flynn hadn’t been able to touch him. Nor had the other lineman. Cleveland had looked solid and the Sabers defense had been scattered.

   Time to shake off that loss and do what they knew they could.

   It was a grueling workout, but the day was cool and they dug deep exorcising the demons from the previous game. Whatever had gone wrong last week was over. He and his line were solid now, and after the rest of the week’s practices he knew they’d be ready for Green Bay come Sunday.

   “See you tonight?” Mick asked as he walked by him in the locker room.

   “For sure. I’ll be there.” Though he wasn’t all that jazzed about the idea of being fixed up. He much preferred to choose his own woman.

   Then again, that hadn’t been working out all that well for him lately. He was still pissed about what had happened with Jameson. And if he was honest, he was pissed about the long stream of women who had been using him for camera time.

   He should just give up on dating and concentrate on football. He didn’t like failure. Losing wasn’t acceptable to him, whether it was a game or a relationship.

   At least he’d won more games than he’d lost. The whole relationship thing had been one giant loss lately, and that just fucking sucked. Something needed to change in the romance department.

   Maybe having someone fix him up would work out better than him finding his own dates, so he might as well give this a try.

   After he got home he checked his phone messages. One from his mother, so he clicked on her number. She answered right away.

   “Hey, Mom, what’s up?”

   “Not much here. Wedding planning.”