Melting The Ice

by Amy Leigh Napier

  “You just worry about being ready for school to start next week and let us worry about the reporters.” Macy picked up the remote that controlled the webchat. “I’ll either call or email you with the details. Love you.” Jameson told her he loved her too and signed off. Macy carefully shut off the monitor and slowly turned to face Cian. Her hazel gaze considered him for long seconds, before turning her gaze on Max. “Will you leave us for a moment, Max?” Max looked disappointed but nodded in agreement as he came to his feet. “Go down to the kitchen and grab you a beer or whatever.” After Max had closed the door behind him, Macy turned back to Cian. “Do you want to leave?”

  Cian’s sad eyes met hers and he shrugged. “I should leave…”

  “I didn’t ask what you should do; I asked what you wanted to do?” She snapped, his pity party getting on her nerves. His brown eyes narrowed with irritation.

  “Hell no, I don’t want to leave.” He ground out. “If I stay, though, the reporters will camp out at the gates. It’s not fair to any of you if I stay.”

  “I can’t believe I’m saying this.” Macy muttered, looking up as if for divine intervention. “I think you should stay.” He was incredulous at her words. That wasn’t what he’d expected at all.

  “If I stay, it will only hurt Ava more.”

  “No…I don’t agree. I think you’re leaving will hurt her more.” Macy was back to pacing. “Ava has been happier these last few weeks than I’ve seen her in a long time. If you’re serious about loving her, then you can’t just walk away without even trying.” He nodded in agreement and started to speak but Macy continued on. “If you’re not planning on continuing your relationship with Ava after you leave here, then walk away and don’t worry about it.”

  “Then I’ll stay.” He stated, looking directly into Macy’s eyes so she would see he meant it. She smiled and nodded.

  The rest of the evening was spent getting settled into the Barracks and on conference calls with team management, his agent, public relations and his attorneys. By the time it was over, a plan of action had been laid out. He was going to be spending the next two days granting one interview after the other. The interviews would only be with reputable news organizations but the press conference tomorrow morning would be in front of anyone who cared to attend and apparently, there were a lot of reporters that cared to attend. He was going to read a prepared statement; in and out. He could handle in and out. He was dreading the whole circus but it had to be taken care of before he could turn his attention to repairing his relationship with Ava. Macy said they would give Ava a couple days to calm down and then they would launch their offensive. Macy hadn’t discussed her plan with him and when she referred to it as the offensive, frankly it scared him. He hoped she knew what the hell she was doing. His life depended on it.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  “How old are you?” Macy’s biting voice rang out. Ava continued to lounge on her float in the middle of the pool, refusing to acknowledge Macy’s presence as she popped her earbuds back into her ears and cranked the volume on her IPod. Macy had been standing beside the pool for the last fifteen minutes trying to talk Ava into talking to Cian, but Ava had adamantly refused then stopped talking altogether. Two days had passed since she had discovered Cian was playing her for the fool and she hadn’t seen hide or hair of him except on television. She had immediately changed the channel when one of his many interviews had been broadcast. She’d witnessed his press conference being broadcast live from her front gates…damn Macy and her interference anyway. He had looked as sinfully handsome as ever in jeans and a white dress shirt, his big brown, thickly lashed eyes looking oh so sincere while he read his facts-only statement and thanked everyone for coming out. Max stood behind him with his hands shoved in the front pockets of his jeans along with several security guards that were keeping the reporters back and under control with the assistance of local police. Seeing Cian made her sick to her stomach at her own stupidity. She could have handled it if that was the only emotion but he had also made her heart hurt when she watched him so she made sure not to watch any other interviews.

  Macy and Max had both dropped in to check on her but had carefully refrained from mentioning Cian so she was totally unprepared when Macy had shown up a little while ago and immediately went on the attack. Macy had pushed and pushed for Ava to hear Cian out until Ava had responded childishly that Macy couldn’t make her, prompting her friend to question her maturity. Ava drifted on her float with her eyes closed, soaking up the sun and listening to Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger sing about following her home. She wondered idly if Macy had given up or was still standing beside the pool glaring at her when she found herself flipped unceremoniously off the float, the water closing over her head. She came up coughing and spitting water, her ruined IPod dangling from the earbuds still in her ears to find Macy in the waist high water with her hands on her hips. “What the hell is wrong with you?” Ava sputtered as she yanked the earbuds from her ears.

  “You’re being childish by ignoring me…”

  “And you dumping me into the water was so damn mature.” Ava muttered as she headed for the steps. She dripped her way to the lounger where she had left her towel and glared at Macy who was getting more towels out of the cabana since she was wet herself from leaping fully clothed into the pool. Macy tossed Ava another towel for her hair before wrapping her own in a towel and trying to dry her body with the second one.

  “You have to listen to me, Ava. This is too important for me to just let you tune me out like you do when someone says something you don’t want to hear.” Macy stated as if she hadn’t just knocked Ava into the water. Ava shook her head in disgust.

  “I don’t want to discuss Cian…”

  “Too damn bad because that’s exactly what we’re going to discuss.” Macy said, irritation pouring from her voice. “What the hell is wrong with you? That beautiful man loves you…”

  “I’m not listening to this shit…” Ava made to push past Macy but Macy grabbed her arm in a tight grip and refused to let her pass.

  “You will listen to this shit.” Macy gritted out, looking like she would like nothing better than to slap Ava. In all the years they had been friends and family, Ava had never had Macy mad at her and the experience had her falling silent. “Cian loves you and I know you love him.” Macy’s warning look had Ava closing her mouth. Macy let out a sigh of exasperation. “You’re a thirty-nine year-old woman that has finally found someone that makes you happy. Don’t you think you owe it to yourself to at least hear him out?”

  “I don’t know…” Ava’s fingers rubbed at her temples, the headache she had been fighting for the last two days coming back. Her head always hurt when she cried too much and she had cried off and on for the last forty-eight hours.

  “Are you really gonna push that gorgeous man right out of your life without letting him try to explain his actions?” When Macy saw Ava looking uncertain, she moved in for the kill. “Ava…I’ve talked to him; he really loves you. Just hear him out.” Macy pleaded. Ava closed her eyes for long seconds before nodding her agreement. Macy let out a sigh of relief. “Is seven good for you?”

  Ava hesitated before nodding again. “Yeah, seven’s fine.” She let out a shaky breath and set down on the edge of the lounger. Macy sat down across from her and reached out to pat her knee.

  “Hey, you’re doing the right thing.” Macy said in a soothing tone, hating to see her usually self-assured best friend so shaky and uncertain. “If there is any chance you can work things out with him, you need to try. You won’t be any more miserable than you already are, right?” Ava chuckled with irony.

  “There is that.” Macy laughed with her before giving her a big hug and taking off. Ava sat beside the pool for a while longer, coming to terms with the fact she was going to have to act like an adult and deal with Cian face to face. She had broken her own cardinal rule by getting involved with him in the first place; falling in love with him was just the icing on the cake.
She laughed to herself; only she would end up falling in love with a professional hockey player, twelve years her junior that was embroiled in a scandal with a supermodel. When she did it, she did it up right. She glanced at the huge sundial clock on the cabana and seeing that it was already four o’clock, headed into the house to get herself ready to face Cian. She had a feeling she would need more than three hours.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  “You will never defeat me, mon ami.” Max grinned broadly at Cian as he dribbled the basketball with his left hand. They had taken advantage of the gym facilities in the Barracks since it was almost impossible for them to come and go without an armed escort. The press was still camped at the gates, but Cian had hired extra security so that was as close as they were getting. Max feinted to his left before changing direction and crossing over to his right. “I am like the great Michael Jordan…” Cian had been playing one-on-one with Max too long not to know his tricks. He easily defended his position and stole the ball from Max, heading down the court to dunk at the other end while Max swore the air blue behind him.

  “You’re full of shit, Max.” Max was one hell of a hockey player but he pretty much sucked at basketball. Cian laughed as he jogged to the side of the court where he had left his towel and phone. The screen of the phone lit up indicating he had a text message from Macy. He hit the button to check the message while he ran the towel over his face and hair and let out a loud whoop, interrupting Max’s running commentary on his non-existent basketball skills.

  “What is it?” Max inquired, taking a long drink of his Gatorade. Max had been Cian’s best friend for a lot of years but his tireless support of him throughout this whole ordeal had really shown him the kind of friend he had.

  “Macy got Ava to agree to talk to me this evening at seven.” Cian’s wide grin exhibited his happiness at this turn of events. Max slapped him on the back with a loud laugh.

  “Do you know what you will say?” Max inquired as he slid down the wall to set with his knees drawn up, towel drying the sweat off his face.

  “Not exactly.” Cian seemed uncertain for a moment before shrugging it off. “I’m gonna do my damndest to make her see when I told her I loved her, I meant that shit.” Max looked impressed.

  “How does one go about that?” Max asked with avid interest. Cian let out a snort of laughter and looked embarrassed.

  “I’m not sure but my guess would be lots of begging being involved.” Max burst into laughter at Cian’s words. They adjourned to the weight room for some serious lifting and relaxed in the sauna before heading to the showers to prepare for their evening. Max had made plans with Macy to get some dinner and hit a few clubs while Cian talked to Ava. They took off around six leaving Cian with an hour to kill alone. He fixed himself a glass of Johnny Walker Black Label and sipped on it while he flipped channels in the media room before settling on a Red Sox game. His eyes were on the screen but he wasn’t actually seeing anything. He was a nervous wreck waiting to talk to Ava. He had never been in love and the thought he might not be able to make it right with her scared the hell out of him. He didn’t even want to contemplate not having her in his life. He had to fix this. Finally, it was time to leave. He had dressed in jeans and a pale blue button-down shirt that he knew Ava liked on him. It had always seemed to turn her on to unbutton his shirt and he wanted to be prepared in case she became so moved. He stood at her front door, running his hand through his hair nervously as he rapped his knuckles against the wood. The door opened and she stood in the doorway looking more beautiful than ever in snug jeans and a lavender halter top. It was obvious she had taken extra care with her appearance which he took as a sign of hope. If she wanted to look good for him, she couldn’t be completely set against him.

  “Hey.” He said softly, his smile looking uncertain. She smiled back at him warily and opened the door wider to let him in.

  “Hey.” She responded. He walked past her and stood in the foyer looking around while she shut the door. She hadn’t changed anything, he thought to himself appalled at his own ignorant thoughts. He’d only been gone for forty-eight hours but it felt like he had been gone for months. She led the way through the house to the main living area she rarely used and offered him a drink as he settled on the edge of the massive leather sofa. When he requested the scotch he had been drinking earlier, she raised an eyebrow in surprise since he rarely drank anything stronger than beer. She placed ice in a highball and reached for a bottle of rare Johnny Walker Blue Label and poured it over the ice before handing him his drink. She sat on the sofa across from him with a glass of wine in her hand, looking nervous. The silence continued for long moments before he took a long drink of his scotch and cleared his throat noisily.

  “I play hockey for the Boston Blaze.” He stated unnecessarily since Ava knew that and had spent over an hour on her laptop today reading through some of the thousands of entries on the Internet but she remained quiet and let him talk. “I get invited to a lot of events and I met Lani Mason at one of those. She was in Boston for some reason and attended a game and asked Tate Ross, my team’s owner to introduce us later that evening. She’s a beautiful woman and all the guys wanted to meet her after drooling over her pictures in Sports Illustrated and Victoria’s Secret ads but she only wanted to meet me. Needless to say, it was a real boost to my ego to be seen with the biggest supermodel in the world and for people to refer to her as my girlfriend.” He continued the story as if he were an uninvolved third party, telling her about discovering Lani’s drug use, how he had dumped her and the lies she had told to gain an invite to Miami. Ava never said a word but listened intently, her facial expressions showing her interest in his words. When he told her about being arrested and the raft of shit that followed, she actually appeared to feel sorry for him. He told her about the media stalking him no matter where he went and how she came into the story. “My parents were going crazy with the press everywhere; I was ashamed to even face them and needed to get away badly. Jay called and said his mom was going to Cancun for a few weeks and I could stay at his home without anyone the wiser. I could work out and get in shape for the season without reporters harassing me every moment plus who would look for me in West Virginia? Lani had started making the rounds of the talk shows and was portraying herself as the innocent while I ended up looking like some drugged out, dumbass hockey player that thought he was above the law.” He took a deep breath and let it out, staring into Ava’s blue eyes. “So I took Jay up on his offer and ran like a chickenshit. Jay and I discussed it and decided it would be best to not tell you the entire truth because of your aversion to the media.” He looked down at the glass of scotch in his hand before looking back up at her. “You know the rest of the story. We kept things from you that ended up hurting you and that was never the intent.” He set his glass down and moved to set beside her on the sofa. Her eyes widened in alarm but she didn’t try to move away when he picked up her hand and looked deeply into her eyes. “Ava, if you believe anything, believe me when I tell you I love you. I never lied to you about that. Please believe me.” His deep brown eyes gazed pleadingly into hers. She seemed to be studying him before she gave him a wry smile.

  “I believe you love me, Cian.” She said softly, her hand squeezing his back. “And I love you…” He cut off her words with his mouth capturing hers in a hard kiss, his arms dragging her onto his lap, hands wandering over her body trying to relearn all he had forgotten in the last two days. She was shocked into inaction at first but quickly got into the spirit of things and returned his hot, wet kisses. His mouth moved across her cheek to her ear and down the column of her neck, murmuring love words all the way. It took him a moment to realize Ava had stopped responding and was pushing against his chest. He immediately released her, not wanting her to move from his lap but unwilling to keep her there against her will. She quickly scooted off his lap and put some space between them on the sofa, breathing hard as she regarded him warily.

  “Was there a but to that statem
ent?” He asked, leaning his head back against the sofa, his own breathing erratic while he tried to bring his body under control. She sighed and nodded her head.

  “I love you but I don’t trust you.” She said softly, her eyes looking big and sad.

  “I would never cheat on you, Ava.” He stated his voice and expression irritated.

  “How am I supposed to know that?” She asked derisively, her eyes questioning.

  “Because I’m telling you, that’s how!” He bellowed angrily, moving to the edge of the sofa again. “I’m not a liar.”

  “Really?” she asked skeptically.

  “Yeah really!” he growled. “I never lied to you about anything important.”

  She regarded him as if he were stupid. “You don’t call lying to me about who you really are important?” her words were laced with disbelief.

  “I didn’t lie to you about who I really am!” He gritted out, his eyes flashing with his anger.

  “Then what would you call it?” the sarcastic tone of her voice had him coming to his feet and striding towards her. He reached out and gently gripped her chin despite his anger and turned her face up to his. When he saw the tears in her eyes, his expression changed to one of sorrow. He leaned down and kissed her mouth softly.