Any Man Of Mine Read Online Free Page B

and approached the bride and groom. “Congratulations, Ty,” he said, and shook the groom’s hand. He didn’t know if the bun in the oven was common knowledge yet, so he decided not to mention it.
    “Thanks for coming.”
    “Sam.” The bride reached out and gave him a big hug. She was beautiful and soft and smelled great. She’d make Ty a good wife. Hell, any man a good wife. Any man but Sam. Sam wasn’t the marrying kind of guy. Obviously.
    “You’re a beautiful bride,” he said, and pulled back to look into her face.
    “Thank you.” She smiled. “And don’t think I’ve forgotten about that conversation we had in St. Paul.”
    They’d had a conversation? She was smiling, so he must have kept it clean.
    “I couldn’t get you all invited to a party at the mansion, but I did invite a few Playmates here tonight.”
    Oh, that conversation. She’d promised him and the guys an invitation to the Playboy mansion if they won the Stanley Cup. “I noticed.”
    “I’m not surprised.” She laughed. “I had the wedding planner make sure she sat you at their dinner table.”
    Under normal circumstances, that would have been welcome news. He pushed up the corners of his mouth. “Fabulous. Thanks.”
    “I hope that makes up for my broken promise.”
    “We’re square.” He took a step back, and general manager, Darby Hogue, and his wife stepped forward to offer the bride and groom their congratulations.
    Sam took a drink, and over the top of his glass, he spotted the Playmates. They weren’t hard to pick out in a crowd. They were the four girls with big hair and bigger breasts, surrounded by Blake, Andre, and Vlad. Four on three was an uneven play. He figured it was his duty to even things out. He lowered his glass but didn’t move.
    Autumn. He just couldn’t work up the proper enthusiasm required to chat it up with women in short skirts and low-cut blouses. Not while his baby-mama circled, looking for a reason to hate him even more than she already did. If that was even possible.
    Instead, he struck up a conversation with Walker and Smithie and their wives. He smiled and nodded as the women talked about their own weddings and the births of all their children. Thank God Walker interrupted his wife just as she was warming up to a poop story.
    “Did you hear the front office is looking to trade Richardson?” Walker asked.
    Yeah, he’d heard. He liked Richardson. He was a good, solid wingman, but with Ty retiring, they needed a more versatile guy. One who could kill penalties as well as play the wings. “Do you know who they’re looking at?”
    “Bergen, for one.”
    “The Islander? Huh.” The last he’d heard, Bergen was still in a slump.
    “And then,” Walker’s wife said through a laugh, “he called out, ‘I poo in the potty, Mommy.’ ”
    Screw it. “See you around,” Sam said, and headed for the playmates. He didn’t care what Autumn thought. She was an uptight ball-buster, and there was nothing wrong with a little conversation with four beautiful women.
    A utumn knelt between the bride’s and groom’s chairs and went through the rest of the schedule. Autumn was a list maker, both in business and in life. When it came to weddings, she knew the list by heart. Just in case, though, she had every detail written in her folio.
    It was after eight, and the dinner and toasts were just about over. Faith looked exhausted, but she only had to get through the cake cutting and first dance before the groom could take her home.
    Autumn herself might get home at midnight. If she was lucky.
    “Thank you,” Faith said. “You’ve kept everything running smooth.”
    “And on time,” Ty added, who’d never made an effort to hide his desire for a very small wedding. But like most grooms, he’d caved to the desires of the bride.
    “You’re welcome.” She looked at her watch. “In about five minutes, Shiloh will invite everyone to meet you in the Rainier Room.”
    “Could you do it now?” Ty asked,