by Lynn Rush
Screeching tires skidded against wet pavement. I whipped around, my bag sliding off my shoulder and crashing to the concrete. A massive black Tahoe with a chrome grill swerved directly toward me.
And I froze.
CHAPTER
NINE
Brodie
Piercing blue eyes cut through the rain and sliced my chest. Willow stood there, my bumper inches from her leg.
Rain poured over her, but she didn’t flinch.
Just stared.
I let out a long breath to try and calm my body. It felt like I’d touched a live wire, my skin buzzing with the adrenaline rush.
“You almost hit her,” Caleb whispered from the backseat.
He’d distracted me with a coughing attack. I should have pulled over to check on him, but I was anxious to get to the rink. I needed some ice time before the pick-up game, so I just glanced over at him to see if he was okay.
I’d looked way too long. Especially in this wicked rainstorm.
I could have killed Willow.
I sagged against my seat, suddenly feeling weak as the quick burst of adrenaline at the near miss dissipated. A car accident had ruined my life a year and a half ago, and that pain and grief swarmed through me in an instant, stealing my breath.
Willow grabbed her bag from the ground and then sprinted to the rink entrance.
Caleb smacked my arm. “Park,” he said, but his voice cracked, and it wasn’t a puberty type crack, either. I’d scared him, too.
“Sorry for freaking you out, little man. I shouldn’t have been going so fast.” I parked the car, and Caleb went to bolt out, but I grabbed his arm and tossed him his raincoat.
“Brodie,” he whined as he put it on.
“It stays on if you’re outside, Limp Lungs.” Sitting in a cold rink after getting soaked in the rain could be deadly for my asthmatic little bro.
He stuck his tongue out, then hustled toward the entrance. He hated coming here with me because he was stuck on the bleachers watching a sport he could never play. But it was either that or leave him at home with Rita. That didn’t seem fair, either.
At least here he was around friends, and he could pig out at the concession stand and play in the video arcade.
With thoughts of Willow’s huge, scared eyes rattling around my mind, I hustled into the locker room, threw on my gear, and found myself on the ice. I didn’t see her out here or in the bleachers, though. I really needed to apologize.
A few people filled the benches behind the goal. Woodhaven fans always showed up, even for pick-up games. Despite how much I didn’t like the small town up in my personal business all the time, I sure appreciated their support.
I tossed my bag down next to a wooden bench that stood outside the door to the ice. Hands still shaking, I kicked off my shoes and slid on my skates. Going through the routine usually calmed me, but after the close call a few minutes ago, I was struggling to focus.
After lacing my skates, I got up, shook out my shoulders, and entered the rink. I drew in a deep breath as I pushed off for my second warm-up lap. The cool air washed over me, finally calming my racing heart.
Caleb slouched on a bleacher a few rows from the top, staring at his phone, totally ignoring the group of giggling girls at the end of the bench.
Zeroing in on the ice, I leaned forward so I could sit into my stride more. My legs were still sore from the workout yesterday, but I pushed through the burn. Needed to flush that soreness out so I could really get moving.
The chilly arena air bit at my cheeks and energized my blood. This was exactly what I needed.
The scrape of someone skating behind me floated into my consciousness. I glanced over my shoulder and met two blue eyes.
Willow’s blue eyes.
They were etched into my brain forever because of almost hitting her, but now…wait…she’d kept up with me?
“You might want to watch where you’re going.” She peeled off.
Just as I smacked into the boards.
I bounced onto my butt and slid to the side. “Damn it.”
She turned around and faced me, continuing to skate backward. “You skate like the Wind, but…”
I scrambled to my skates and faced off with her, skating forward while she kept going backward. “But…?”
“But I’m faster!” And with a quick swoosh and a flip of her braids, she turned around and was off.
Naturally, the only thing I could do was chase after her. It only took a few strides, and I came up alongside her.
“Oh no, you don’t!” She sat deeper into her stride and darted ahead of me again.
I chuckled and picked up the pace with a few quick steps. This time she stayed with me, her chest heaving.
“Listen,” I said when I finally was right next to her. “I’m sorry for almost hitting you.”
“Lucky for me you’re not as spot-on with a car as you are when you slap a puck.” She flashed me a grin. “It’s fine. I’m fine.” She’d gone from fear stricken to calm, relaxed, and fast.
Really fast.
Maybe the ice did for her what it did for me.
“Hey, so what are you doing here?” I asked.
“Got the open ice times mixed up, so I figured I’d get my half hour in quick before you guys took over.” She pushed off and nodded for me to follow. “I really needed some time out here.”
I understood needing ice time, for sure. I came out here to skate quite a bit, especially after Mom died. A familiar ache settled in my chest as I pictured her face.
I followed after her, and we skated in silence for another lap, calm and quiet, listening to the scrapes of our blades. We passed by Caleb, and I gave him a wave, but his focus was still zeroed in on his phone.
“Who’s that?” Willow asked.
“My little brother. Likes to come and watch me play sometimes.”
“Ah, so the puck head has a softer side,” she said with a playful nudge. “How old is he?” She leaned into another curve, and my shoulder brushed hers again.
It didn’t even phase her. She was solid on those skates. Strong. Confident, and if that wasn’t the sexiest thing I’d seen in a long time…
“Brodie?”
“Oh, um, he’s eight. Caleb.” I waved to him again as we zoomed by, but still he didn’t look up.
“He’s adorable. What happened to you?” She laughed, then took off.
“Oh, you did not…” I bolted after her, and it took me nearly a lap to catch up.
She raised her hands in surrender. “I was kidding! Don’t check me into the boards.”
I tapped her shoulder and laughed. “So, you’re saying I’m adorable?”
“Maybe. For a hockey player.” She kept her attention straight ahead, but I could tell she was smiling.
She looked absolutely tempting wearing tight workout pants and a white, fitted long-sleeve shirt. Her quads flexed with each stroke as she effortlessly glided over the ice.
“So why’d you need the ice time? Did something happen?”
“Got some pretty sucky news the other day, needed to process it.”
“Oh, right, that. I heard.”
“You did, huh?” She slouched, but only for a second, then fell back into a nice, solid stride. “Bad news travels fast.”
“Joys of a small town. It sucks sometimes.” I glided beside her quietly for another lap, then said, “This place is my church, too.”
“Everything falls into place when I’m on the ice.” She straightened up a little, slowing the pace. “I can’t think clearly anywhere else.”
“Same,” I said.
She drew in a deep breath, gave me a glance, then stared out ahead of her as we neared another curve on the rink. Behind the short wall, I saw the Zamboni guy getting loaded up to clear the ice before our pick-up game.
Her long, black hair flowed out behind her as she moved, but she didn’t shift her focus.
“What are you going to do? I mean, about…well, the bad news.”
“Show them they made the biggest mistake of their life. I’m going to spend every free minute I have on the ice, getting stronger and stronger each day.” She drew in a deep breath. “I’ll get back on an Olympic training team, even if it’s a different one.”
“So it’s a team?”
“Well, kind of. It’s not a team in the same sense as hockey, but we all train together at the same facility, with the same coaches. But we all compete individually, trying to place as high as possible all the way through the Olympics.”
“And you go to school at the training center, too?” I asked.
“Yep.”
“So, it’s kind of like Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.”
“Only I’m not a mutant and Professor X didn’t show up at my house.” She winked. “But we train as much as they do, at least eight hours on the ice every single day.”
Talk about grit. This girl had it. “How do you get into one of these training programs?”
“First, I have to land these damn jumps.” Her jaw twitched. “January is coming fast. I need to be a hundred percent by then if I have any chance of getting picked up by a coach at one of these programs.”
Damn, Willow was intense, and it was the sexiest thing I’d seen in a long time. Chasing her around the ice before school might be the perfect thing to whip both of us into shape.
“I think I can help you.”
She stood up straight and glided for a few feet, watching me. “What do you mean, help?”
“Training. Ice time. I mean, I—this Ice Den.” Oh my gosh, could I sound any more bumbling right now? “I have a pretty intense training program for hockey. Some of it could help you, I’m sure. And I have extra access to this place, so I could get you more ice time.”
“Because of your dad?”
I nodded, warmth creeping up from my chest. “But there’s also hockey. You…you could play hockey.”
She let out a huff. “Yeah, right.”
“Fall League. Tryouts are soon. We need a goalie.”
She stumbled two steps, her blades tapping across the ice. “Whoa.”
I reached out to steady her by the elbow, and she got her bearings again. “You good?”
“Um, yeah. But goalie? Me? I…I’m not sure that’s a good idea. And besides, you must have a backup for Josiah.”
“Izan Hernandez. He’s good but…” I glanced over my shoulder and found the rink empty, then faced her again as we came to a stop. “Honestly? You’re better.”
Her mouth fell open, and she said, “Me?” Her voice cracked, and she cleared her throat. “Really? A little Ice Princess figure skater as your last line of defense between the puck and the goal?” She batted her eyes exaggeratedly.
“Ha-ha. Very funny.”
“Doesn’t matter if I’m funny. I can’t do it. What if I got hurt?”
“What happened with Josiah was a fluke. You’re strong, and unless you plan on ripping off your helmet and getting into fights, you’ll be fine. Plus, I’ll show you a few things that’ll help keep you safe.” I nudged her good-naturedly with my shoulder. “You’ve got killer instincts. Izan is only a freshman and just isn’t there yet.”
Her cheeks flushed, and she cracked her knuckles, as if she was genuinely thinking it over.
My heart started pounding as the idea of her being on the team started forming in my head. “I need the best people out there, Willow. Winning Fall League, getting to and winning State… Without a good goalie, we’re toast. It’ll help your figure skating, too.”
“How?” She planted her fists on her hips.
“Weights and cardio program, time on the ice, growing strength back in your ankle, honing your balance and reflexes…you name it. Will you at least try out?”
“I don’t know…” She rubbed her hands together, then blew on them. Her fingertips were a little red, as was her nose. It looked perfect on her, though. “I can’t believe you have to try out for a Town League.”
“It’s basically the high school team, really. But regulations prevent us from practicing, you know? Town League keeps us all sharp and working as a team during the off season, but we lost a few seniors last year, so there will be a few people trying out.”
“I guess I’ll think about it.” She blew into her hands again. “You know, you do still owe me coffee from the other day. Don’t forget I blocked your shot.”
“As if I could ever forget. Why do you think I’m here asking you, a ‘little Ice Princess,’ as you called yourself, to try out?” I reached out and grabbed her hands, then brought them to my heart in a supplicating gesture.
She froze, her eyes wide.
What. The. Hell. Was. I. Doing?
“Oh shit.” I dropped her hands. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine.” She smiled, her cheeks three shades redder. “No biggie.”
“I can’t believe I did that. Total invasion of—”
“It’s fine, Brodie.” She patted my chest, her gaze lingering on mine.
I loved that she called me Brodie. Everyone else called me Wind, for the most part, but her using my given name, it was refreshing. And the way she bantered with me. It was like she didn’t think I was a big deal because my name was on the building, which was very cool. I wanted to be known for my talent, not my name.
Warmth from her hand lingered on my chest and seeped through my shirt, kicking my heart rate up another notch as the heat crawled into my neck and my face.
Time stopped. Neither of us breathed, but neither broke eye contact. Everything else but her stunning eyes blurred out of focus. She was at the end of a tunnel.
Only her.
Those lips.
A spray of ice settled over us, and I jerked away from Willow’s touch.
“Willow!” Preach put his fist up for her to knuckle bump. “You here to play? We need an extra goalie with Josiah being out. Izan has one of them covered. Not that we’re begging or anything, but if you don’t say yes, we’re going to have to put Pax’s sorry butt in the other one.” He chuckled.
“And Pax hasn’t been able to touch his toes in five years,” Nathaniel said, skating by us.
She looked at me, then Preach, and then around the arena. A few of the guys started filing onto the ice. I’d lost track of time.
“I…still don’t know,” she said.
I tilted my head down, giving her a knowing look. She was intrigued, I could tell. “Come on, Toe Pick. You know you want to…”
CHAPTER
TEN
Willow
I didn’t know what the hell I’d been thinking. I was a figure skater, not a goalie.
“Ouch.” I brought my hand to my cheek and clenched my teeth, looking around my gramps’s basement.
Brodie sprang to his feet. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay. Totally my fault for missing it.” I waved him off before bending down to pick up the tennis balls he’d been whipping at me for the last thirty minutes. He’d pegged me with at least five, and I’d let way more than that go sailing past me. “I think I was lucky at the rink, blocking a few shots.”
I needed to face the facts. Nobody picked up a new sport their senior year. This was a complete waste of time.
Brodie scooped up a few balls that had rolled back toward him. “Let’s take five.”
We plopped down on the cool cement floor in the middle of my basement. There was one window, about the size of a shoebox, so it was pretty closed up in here.
Sweat dripped down my back. Even though the temperature usually hovered right around sixty-five, it felt like we were in one of those hot yoga studios. I grabbed my shirt by its hem and whipped it of
f. Sitting in my sports bra and a pair of shorts, I let my head fall into my hands, and I propped my elbows against my knees.
A crashing sound behind me had me whipping around. The bucket of tennis balls Brodie had been holding was on the floor, sending the neon green missiles rolling in every direction across the cement.
“Shit,” he said as he frantically gathered them up. His skin flushed along his neck and up to his cheeks as he looked every direction except mine.
“You good?” I asked, watching him stumble around. He normally wasn’t like that. Funny how it coincided with me taking my shirt off…
“First of all, your stopping those shots at the rink wasn’t luck,” Brodie said as he chased the last ball down. “You’ve got natural talent, and you’re better on your skates than a lot of the guys out there. Plus, you’ve played before—it’s just been a while.”
I glanced up. “What about Izan?”
“You saw him the other day—he’s not ready yet. He can’t hold his own in the net.”
“Isn’t he going to be pissed if I swoop in and become goalie?”
“Does that matter?” Brodie squatted beside me, resting on the balls of his feet, and his closeness demanded I look at him. “If you had the chance to take your spot back on your skating team right now, but there was someone else who wasn’t as good standing in the way, would you just give up?”
“No.” My heart cramped at the thought of being on a skating team again.
“Exactly.” Brodie placed his hand on my back. “So, enough with the pity party. Let’s get back at it.”
He wasn’t kidding when he said he’d train me. Today was the first day we’d been able to connect since he’d offered to help me two days ago, and we’d been down here for three hours already.
I still couldn’t believe he’d asked me to try out for the team. I’d practically made a fool of myself by falling over, I was so shocked. But the thought of getting more ice time and some good cardio and strength-training opportunities sealed the deal. Plus, if I made the team, it was only for a couple of months.
Then again, for how much I was sucking at blocking tennis balls today, I probably wouldn’t even make the team.