She fought against tears. “I love you, and I don’t want to let you down.”
“I love you, too, big sis and the only thing you could do that would disappoint me is quit.” She said good-night and they made arrangements to talk again after Jen’s finals were over.
Laney paced the tiny room. Had her father really decided to sell the cabin? She called his phone, but he did not answer. She longed to talk to Max, but her aching heart reminded her that Max was not what she’d thought him.
And what was that, exactly?
Her best friend?
The man she’d once been more than a little attracted to?
Old news. Old life.
She forced out a breath. Focus on the now. What can you do to help your father?
She could only think of one action to take. Retrieving the business card from her bag, Laney dialed the number.
“Hello,” she said to the answering machine. “Mr. Peterson, this is Laney Thompson. I’m sorry we got off on the wrong foot. I’d like to meet with you as soon as possible.”
*
Max lay perfectly still on his bed in the dorm, listening to the creaking of the floor boards as trainers and coaches tucked in for the night. Then in excruciating slow motion, the clock began to tick away the hours until morning. Though his body was tired from what seemed like an endless day, he could not fall asleep.
Why hadn’t he believed Laney?
There were certainly plenty of odd goings-on lately to make him think something nefarious was afoot—the disappearing skate, the guy in the parking lot. So all that in play, and he hadn’t believed she’d been forced into a trunk and left at the scene of their crash?
His disbelief was, he realized, not because of Laney. The fault lay deep within his own cowardice. Max Blanco did not want to be taken back to that place, not mentally, not physically. To believe that someone had forced Laney to that crash site purposefully meant that he, too, had been taken against his will to the darkest place, the time of deepest despair. He didn’t want to return there, so he’d told himself she hadn’t, either.
Coward. He’d run, sprinted, in fact, away from her claim just as fast as he’d been able.
But maybe it was better, after all. Here in the safety of complete isolation, he could allow himself to admit that he had begun to see someone else when he looked at Laney, not the athlete, not even the peer who had journeyed with him through the past arduous years. He’d started to see someone who knew him more than he wanted, who seemed to see Max Blanco as he wished he could be instead of as he actually was. The sweetness of her soul, the warmth with which she treated others, stayed in his memory. Her laughter lit his heart inside and almost illuminated the dark corners.
Almost.
He thought, then, of the bright lights of the hospital room when they had inserted the needle into his hip to harvest the bone marrow that would save his brother.
“See, Robby?” his mother murmured, tapping gentle fingers on Robby’s ankles and tickling him up his legs to the tummy. “Max is going to give you his good bone juice and it’s going to grow inside so you’ll be healthy like him.”
Robby, too sick to move, had answered with a smile, those wide eyes turned toward his older brother. And Max had believed it. His mother, his father, the chaplain, they all believed it. Max’s body would heal Robby’s. God had made him to save his brother.
He had thought that as the years passed, the sharp edge of pain would have dulled. It hadn’t. As agonizing as ever, it surged through him again.
Not strong enough for his brother.
No longer fast enough to win.
Not brave enough to return to the past, and without the courage to move beyond it. Stopped, like a skater with a broken blade. But Laney was not trapped. She could have a future, be a winner, but not if she looked to him for anything but training.
Good work, Blanco. You’ve destroyed the chance for anything more to grow.
Too weak to love her.
Too slow to be her equal.
But determined enough to help her win. That was all he had to give.
He checked the luminous dial of his watch. 3:00 a.m. Only two more hours until training time. He forced his eyes closed and went over the fitness regimen for tomorrow before he fell into a troubled sleep.
TEN
Laney immediately checked her phone the moment her eyes opened at four-thirty. No messages from her father, but one from Hugh Peterson.
“I don’t know what changed your mind, but I’ll take it. Can you meet me at the coffee shop in town tonight? I’ll be there at six, and I’ll stay until you show or they kick me out.” There was a pause. “You were smart to call me. There are things you need to know.”
She listened to the message twice. Things you need to know. Until a few days ago, she’d thought she’d known everything that mattered in her father’s life and her own. Now she felt uncertain about everything. Training was usually the constant, but even that was not enough to soothe her when she recalled Ancho’s not-so-subtle message. He did not want her to compete. Why? She’d not even known the man before he shoved her in his trunk.
But Dad knows Trevor Ancho. The thought burrowed into her gut and stayed there until she found herself pacing in little circles. A little worm of doubt wriggled stubbornly through her thoughts. Dan Thompson was a good man and an excellent father. She had never known her natural father and she had no desire to. He only crossed her mind once in a while, when she considered her hazel eye color and her left-handedness, which she knew did not come from Paige, her birth mother. Genetically, she was a blank, but thanks to Dan and Linda, she knew who she was in every other way.
And maybe a shred of credit had to be given to Paige, too. She’d gone through with having Jen and Laney when there were other choices to be made. On one startlingly sunny November Sunday, she’d even gone so far as taking them all to a neighborhood church, where the two girls had been delivered into a children’s class. It had felt as though everyone was speaking another language where they sang the same songs and recited the presnack prayer from memory. Though Laney politely refused to participate in craft time or the story circle, unlike her sister, both of them happily wolfed down as many goldfish crackers as they could pack away, since they had not eaten since lunchtime on Saturday. It might have been an excellent start to a new life if Paige hadn’t left midservice when her drug craving took over and had forgotten to pick up the children from Sunday school. Three hours, one police officer and two social workers later, the girls said goodbye to their mother and started their foray into the foster care system. Then God had brought Dan and Linda into their lives.
Their forever family. Dan had given them, given her, everything. But what had it cost him?
Forcing her mind away from the worry, Laney quickly showered, after consulting her “hot” and “cold” notes, and packed her gear.
Cubby turned up his nose at his cat food.
“I’ll bring you some fish later,” she said, giving him a kiss.
Opening the door she padded out into the kitchen, startled to see Beth already there with a cup of coffee. Her face looked unusually pale, and there were dark circles under her eyes.
“You okay?” Laney said.
Beth jerked. “Oh, yeah. Couldn’t sleep.”
“Man trouble?” Laney joked.
“Mom trouble. Kind of the same thing.”
Laney sat down next to her. “How so?”
“My mother hates my boyfriend. She’s never liked any of them.”
Laney had met several of Beth’s boyfriends and she had to admit she didn’t generally think much of them, either. “Did you break up with Cy?”
“He broke up with me.” She sighed. “Said I wasn’t much fun with all this training and curfews and such.”
“I guess it’s not easy dating a speed skater.”
“Yeah. Or maybe my mother gave him a call. She’s got this extensive reach that never fails to amaze me.” Beth cocked her hea
d. “I’ve been thinking. What about you and Max?”
“What about him?” Laney shifted. “He’s my trainer. I told you.”
“You two were out pretty late last night, I noticed,” Beth said, tapping her fingers on the rim of her cup. “Getting to know each other better?”
“That wasn’t a date,” Laney said, cheeks heating up, wondering if the girls had been watching through their window as she practically bolted out of Max’s truck.
“Mmm.” Beth traced the top of her coffee cup with her index finger. “So you and Max are completely professional? Even though he’s gorgeous and looks at you like you’re the world’s most perfect woman?”
Laney got up and helped herself to a bottle of water, her stomach tight. “He looks at me like I can win a gold medal. That’s what I am to him. A medal contender.”
“That’s it?”
Remembering the look of doubt on his face, she nodded firmly. “That’s it.”
“So you wouldn’t feel bad if he got together with someone else?” She toyed with her hair. “Say, a cute, witty, well-dressed hottie like myself?”
Laney was stunned. “You…you want to get together with Max?”
Beth shrugged. “Why not? Laney, you must have noticed the guy has the face of a model and the body to match.”
Laney fiddled with the water bottle. Of course she’d noticed, but it had been other things that kept her head turned in his direction—his respect for her father, the ferocious work ethic, the way he’d spent an hour after practice one day at the Zamboni operator’s house, fixing his mother’s washing machine when the lady didn’t have the money to hire someone. The way he cut out articles about white-water rafting and gardening for her, the times he’d researched churches in the area for her to attend and waited patiently outside while she’d done so.
Those were the things that drew her to him, that soft and tender soul that he hid so well from everyone. She realized Beth was staring at her, waiting.
“Beth, Max is my trainer, that’s all. If you want to pursue a relationship with him, go ahead.” She wondered if the words sounded genuine, since they’d felt like sharp glass as they passed her tongue. She began picking items from the buffet spread and tossing them into a paper bag for her midmorning snack.
Beth seemed to be saying something, but Laney was not listening until she repeated it again, more urgently.
“Not that,” Beth said, taking the cellophane-wrapped cookie from Laney’s fingers.
“What?”
Beth held the package up close to Laney’s face. “Peanuts, see?” she said, pointing to the ingredients list. “That’s why they’re in the bowl labeled ‘contains nuts.’ Last I heard you were allergic to peanuts, aren’t you?”
Laney nodded. “Thanks. I would have read the label before I ate it, though.”
“Well, let’s not take any chances, shall we?”
She sighed. “Yeah. Thanks again.”
Coach Jackie came in. “Laney, your dorm-room door is open. Aren’t you afraid the cat will escape?”
She gaped. “I left it open? Thanks.” She hurried down the hallway. What if Cubby had gotten out? He could have slipped outside the building as someone entered and exited. He’d always been an indoor cat and he would never find his way back, not through the snow. She was running now.
She rounded the corner and slammed into Tanya.
“Hey, watch it,” Tanya said, rubbing her arm where they’d collided. “Where’s the fire?”
“Sorry,” Laney called, darting around her. She made it to her room and pushed in. “Cubby?” she called. The cat was not on his cushion on the windowsill, nor under the bed. “Cubby,” she shouted now, tossing cushions aside and looking under the chair.
“If you’d waited a minute I could have told you where the cat is,” Tanya said from the door.
Laney jerked to her feet. “Did you see him?”
“Yeah, I walked by and he was about to escape so I put him in your bathroom and shut the door. I was going to tell you if you’d have slowed down long enough.”
Laney wrenched open the bathroom door. Cubby sat serenely on the tile floor, washing his whiskers with a delicate paw.
She scooped him up and kissed him between the ears, returning to the outer room. “Tanya, thank you for shutting him in there. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost him.”
Tanya shrugged. “No biggie. I used to have a beagle named Pedro that was a complete escape artist, so I’m good at pet wrangling.” After a slow look around the room, her eyes landed on Laney’s prayer poster. “What’s that for?”
“People I’m praying for. I used to be able to remember the list, but since the accident I’ve got to write everything down.”
A frown crept across her face. “Why am I up there?”
“You said your grandma had a stroke.”
Tanya’s eyes widened. “And you remembered that?”
Laney nodded. “Sure.”
“Why?”
“Because we’re a family here and we’re supposed to take care of each other.”
Tanya shifted and looked away. “I’m not sure everyone sees it that way, Laney.”
“Well, I do. How is your grandma, anyway?”
“Much better. She went back to her house and that helped her more than anything. She just wants to putter around in her vegetable garden and she’s happy. That’s why she lives in California, so she can plant all year round. I’m going to visit her after the trials if I can come up with the cash.” She laughed. “It’s her goal before she passes to teach me how to cook, and so far all I’ve mastered is the art of the grilled-cheese sandwich.”
“I’m so glad she’s better.”
“Me, too.” Tanya turned to leave. “But maybe you can leave my name up there, anyway.”
Laney gave her a smile. “Of course. Anything in particular I should pray about?”
Tanya heaved a deep sigh. “Just everything,” she said as she left.
Laney gave Cubby a good scratch behind the ears and made sure his cushion was in the perfect spot on the window sill to catch the afternoon sun. As she let herself out and carefully closed the door, she wondered how she could have been so careless before.
Or maybe someone else had opened it? Don’t get paranoid, Laney. Trevor Ancho was out to get her, but he didn’t have access to the athlete dorms. Nevertheless, she made sure this time the door was definitely locked.
*
Max didn’t bother to ask Laney if she’d eaten breakfast, and she didn’t offer her cheerful morning hello. As a matter of fact, she avoided eye contact altogether, enlisting Tanya to assist her with the series of turn-belt exercises, the arduous process of wrapping a long nylon belt around two people, then, as one held steady, the other used resistance to lean hard and simulate the moves they would replicate on the ice. It wasn’t Laney’s favorite, he knew. They headed directly into a round of weight lifting, stationary biking and exercise-ball routines. He led her through the activities without extra comment. She worked hard, she always did, but her pacing was off, and he had to wait for her to refocus several times when she kept sneaking peeks at the door.
They were both relieved to see Dan show up at the gym.
Laney wrapped him in a hug, such joy palpable on her face that it made Max’s heart speed up a fraction.
“Where have you been?” she asked.
“Had some paperwork to do.” Her dad squeezed her. “How’s the training going?”
Max shrugged. “Slow start.”
Dan gripped her shoulders. “Listen, kiddo. You’re here to make the team. That’s your only job. Don’t forget it, okay?”
Officer Chen entered and caught the attention of every athlete in the place. He smiled cordially at Coach Stan, who approached him immediately.
“I’m here to talk to Laney Thompson,” he said.
“What is the problem?” Stan asked.
Chen offered him a thoughtful look. “I’ll leave it up to Ms. Thompson to fill
you in. May I talk to her for a moment?”
Coach Stan agreed and stepped back to allow them some privacy.
Max didn’t consider extending the same courtesy. If there was something to be learned about the current situation, he wasn’t about to be shuttled aside.
Chen greeted Laney, Max and Dan. “I’m just reporting back.”
“Did you find anything to prove he did what I said?” Laney demanded.
“Actually—” Chen shook his head “—no. Mr. Ancho’s foreman corroborated his story that he was at a job site for several hours before we got the call about you.”
“His foreman is lying,” Laney said. “To keep his job.”
Chen continued. “And Mr. Ancho does not own an Aston Martin, according to the DMV records.”
Laney bent as if bowing under a crushing weight. “I can’t believe he’s going to get away with it.”
“Still investigating,” Chen said. “Filling you in on what I’ve got so far.”
They thanked him and he left, promising to call again soon.
It did not take long for Stan and Jackie to join them, faces troubled.
“Look,” Stan said, over the whirring of stationary bikes and the clang of free weights, “I appreciate your right to privacy, but I need to know what’s going on.”
Laney shot him a worried look. “It’s nothing. Everything is fine.”
“When you have a police officer coming to visit,” Stan said quietly, “that kind of thing draws attention. Since the missing-skate problem, that makes two visits from law enforcement since you arrived.”
“It’s not her fault,” Max said. “She hasn’t done anything wrong.”
“It doesn’t matter about fault,” Jackie said. “It matters about propriety. We can’t have the trials painted by scandal. We’ve had that before and it’s not fair to these athletes who have given their lives to the sport. You need to make it clear what happened.”
“It doesn’t affect anyone but me,” Laney said.
Though Max had never seen Coach Stan angry before, the man’s face darkened. “Look around, Laney,” he said quietly. “Every single athlete in here has an eye on you, wondering what’s going on. You are affecting each one of these kids. I need to know the truth.”
Love Inspired Suspense January 2014 Page 50