Zach frowned. “Oh.”
Mike punched him lightly on the shoulder. “Don’t look so happy for me, jerk!”
“Sorry, I just thought…I thought you weren’t…” He couldn’t find the right words through his confusion and heartache. If she was only home temporarily, then his hopes would have to be put on hold…again.
“I won’t,” she answered, shrugging and trying to look unconcerned, but he knew better. “For all practical purposes, it was a career-ending injury. I’ll never ski professionally again, but that doesn’t mean I won’t ever ski again. At least, that’s what my docs say.”
“Mike! Hey, Mike!” Jack Roberts waved at his cousin from across the room. “Come say hi to my bride, Erin!”
Mike turned a pleading gaze up at Zach. “Help! I need to get out of here for a minute.”
She hadn’t even finished before he was ushering her into the kitchen and out the back door, letting her lean on him to take the pressure off her bad knee. Once outside, he helped ease her down onto the top step, then settled next to her, reveling in the closeness he’d waited so long to enjoy.
“Sorry,” she said with a grimace. “I wasn’t expecting all this. I’m a little overwhelmed.”
“I’ll bet you are, and not just by the party.”
He noticed her shiver and took off his light jacket, draping it over her shoulders. Early September evenings got downright nippy at this altitude. She smiled her gratitude and watched moths dance around the yard light twenty feet away.
“Where are the cars?” she mused quietly.
“Huh?”
“Everyone’s cars. Where did they all park?”
Zach laughed. “You know your family is insane, right?”
“Indeed I do.”
“Your mom insisted on everyone parking down at the community center. There we all boarded a specially chartered bus to deliver us here.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Her eyes goggled.
“No joke!”
They laughed together for a bit, finally settling into a comfortable silence. Zach leaned back on his hands, mostly to keep himself from wrapping an arm around her shoulders. As much as he wanted to hurry things along, he knew he shouldn’t rush her. Just because he’d spent the last decade thinking about her promise didn’t mean she had.
“So Mike… How are you, really? This can’t be easy for you.”
She dipped her head and picked at her fingernails in the dim light. “That’s an understatement,” she whispered thickly.
This time he didn’t resist putting his arm around her. She leaned her head onto his shoulder, and he pressed his cheek to the top of her head, inhaling her coconutty scent.
With a brave sniff, she straightened and swiped at her eyes. “Really, how much longer could I have been competitive, anyway? A couple more years, max.”
“Are you kidding me? You’re only twenty-seven!”
“No, it’s the truth — at least, statistically speaking. Women skiers peak at my age, maybe a year or two later. After that, if they don’t get injured—“ she sighed heavily “—they plateau, and then slow down.”
“But you had the ligament repaired, right? Some of the top skiers in the world have had three or four surgeries, and they’re still winning events.” His next words tasted bitter, but he had to say them, for her own sake. “Couldn’t that be possible for you?”
Mike shook her head, and when she looked up at him, tears swam in her eyes. It was all he could do to not pull kiss them away.
“That’s what my coach said, but my doctor warned me one more tear might actually cripple me. Of course, me being me, I lived happily in denial all these months. I went to PT religiously, I followed the doctor’s orders to the letter, and I let my body heal.”
“But?” He could tell from her tone there was a but.
“But my first time on skis after getting the ‘go ahead’ from the doc told me more than all the medical professionals and MRI images ever could. My knee is…different now. It’s hard to explain, Zach, but I knew it on my first ride down a bunny slope. I can’t trust it, at least not for competition.”
“I’m so sorry, Mike.” And he was. As much as he’d wanted her to come back to Silver Springs, he also wanted her to be happy. “What are you going to do now? Any plans?”
She chuckled ruefully. “Not a one, other than to hide under the covers for a few months.”
Zach bumped his shoulder into hers. “And deprive the world of the wonder that is Mike Roberts? Uh uh, no way, chickadee.”
A surprised grin lit her face at his old nickname for her. “I haven’t heard you call me that in forever.”
“Get used to it. Now that you’re home, you’ll be hearing it a lot, I’m afraid.”
She bumped him back. “Oh, I could get used to it, but then you’ll have to hear me calling you dorkus malorkus, just like when we were kids. You cool with that?”
He threw his head back and laughed. “I’ve been called worse, sadly.”
“I bet you have, you little devil,” she teased.
Mike grew contemplative and went back to staring at the moths again. Zach wondered what she was thinking, but let her be. She’d talk if she needed to. He always had been and always would be a sounding board for her, regardless if things sparked between them.
“I’m lost, Zach,” she finally whispered into the darkness. “I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have someone telling me what to do — parents, teachers, trainers, managers, sponsors. Now I’m out here flopping around on my own like a dying fish on a river bank.”
His heart ached for her. After a lifetime of following a very singular focus, that focus had vanished. A woman as driven as Mike needed something, anything to pour her energy into. But he had to correct her on one thing.
“Mike, you’re not alone. You’ll never be alone. Not only do you have a gigantic, albeit certifiably insane family who love you to the stars and back, but you’ll always have me. Always.”
“Promise?”
The moment her eyes connected with Zach’s, his stomach cramped with excitement. He’d planned on giving her some space and time to sort things out before officially asking her out on a date, but his resolve was no match for the vulnerability in her gaze.
“Cross my heart and hope to die,” he murmured, a cold sweat breaking out on his brow. Summoning every ounce of courage, he opened his mouth to ask her to have dinner with him.
“There you are! “ Jack Roberts burst out the back door, dragging his lovely new wife with him. “Mike, did you hear I married Erin?”
“Congratulations you two,” Mike said. “Zach and I were just talking about what I’m going to be when I grow up.”
Jack slapped Zach on the back. “You couldn’t have picked a better life coach, cuz. He’s one smart cookie.”
The man’s mischievous smile worried Zach, but the utterly evil glint in his eye was downright terrifying.
“In fact,” Jack said, his gaze darting back and forth between Zach and Mike, “you should make him take you out to dinner to the River House tomorrow night to talk about your future.”
Zach gaped up at Jack, who winked and grinned. This wasn’t exactly how Zach had planned it, but now that he had a second to think about it, as long as the end result was the same, he didn’t care how the invitation was made.
Mike laughed and turned to him. “That sounds perfect, doesn’t it?”
It most certainly did.
Rocky Mountain Nights (Roberts of Silver Springs #6) Page 11