Charlotte lifted one pale eyebrow over skeptical brown eyes. “Uh-huh. Right.”
Leah maintained steady contact, because if she backed down now, Charlotte might actually bend Kyle into a pretzel during class and laugh hysterically when he injured himself. “Seriously. And we’re done talking about this now. I need to get ready for class.”
“Leah,” Charlotte paused, searching for words, “do you really want to be around him? That man—”
“Is just another guy. He means nothing to me anymore.”
Her friend released a long-drawn-out sigh. “Fine. If you’re sure putting him in a headlock and choking him until he passes out isn’t a viable option, then I won’t say a word to him. But don’t expect me to be nice to the guy. He broke your heart and that makes him a dick in my book.”
Since she really didn’t have a response to that, Leah left with a little wave over her shoulder and the silent vow to get over it. Over the situation. Not over him. She’d gotten over him a year ago.
Then why is your stomach in knots and your heart beating a mile a minute?
“Oh, just shut up,” she muttered as she headed for the changing room. “He didn’t come back to get together with you again.”
And even if he had, she wasn’t stupid enough to take him back. Not after the number he’d done on her heart the first time.
Chapter Two
“Hey, man. Nice to see you again. Glad to have you back.”
Kyle took the outstretched hand of Derek Flaherty, returning the guy’s wide grin.
“Glad to be here.” Which, amazingly, was true. “How’s it going, D?”
“Not bad.” The guy tossed his sweat-soaked jersey in the bin and started stripping off his gear. “Season’s going pretty well so far, and I’ve only had my nose broken once.”
Laughing and shaking his head, Kyle pulled his t-shirt on. He hadn’t had time to talk to anyone other than the other goalie, Nate, and the coaches on the ice at practice today. By the time he’d finished checking in with the head office and signing all the papers he needed to sign, the rest of the team had been on ice.
He’d said hi to the guys he’d known from before, tried to get the names tied to the faces of the newbies. But he was genuinely psyched to see Derek. The guy made him laugh.
“Still can’t find a way to turn off your mouth, huh?”
Derek’s grin widened. “Never happen. At least my girl has learned to put up with me.”
“Hell, some nice girl took pity on you finally? How’d you manage that?”
Derek shook his head. “Don’t really know but I can tell you she’s a keeper. What about you? You find someone while you were away?”
“Nope. Still single.”
Though he was hoping to change that while he was here.
“You wanna meet my girl?” Derek said. “I’m headed over to her dad’s restaurant to get some food.”
“No, man, but thanks for the invite. Another time. I’m gonna catch a yoga class.”
“You still into that, huh? All that bendy shit. Must be good for sex, right?”
“Jesus, D, get a grip.”
The older guy who walked in behind Derek let his elbow swing out and smack into the side of Derek’s head. Not hard enough to hurt but enough to make Derek give him the finger. “Not on you, Will. You’d like it too much.”
The guys around them groaned. Kyle laughed his ass off.
“Dude, don’t encourage him.” The gangly guy sitting on the bench next to Derek rolled his eyes before he stuck his elbow in Derek’s side, then smiled. “He’s a fucking twelve-year-old in a grown man’s body.”
“Hey, we haven’t actually met.” The guy who’d hit Derek in the head stuck out his hand. “I’m Will. Nice to have you. Heard good things about you.”
Kyle shook and took the compliment with a grain of salt. He hadn’t played enough in the past year for anyone to have heard good things about him.
“Thanks. Looking forward to getting back on the ice.”
Even if he only played every other game, it’d be a hell of a lot more than he’d played in Phoenix.
“You need someone for extra practice let me know.”
“Your woman out scouting other men?” Derek’s sly grin surfaced again. “One of these days she’s gonna find a younger one and dump your old-man ass.”
Will didn’t bother to respond. “My fiancée’s been on the road for the past couple of weeks. She’ll be back before Christmas but I’m free ’til then.”
“Thanks. Appreciate the offer and I’m probably gonna take you up on that. I’m here to play.” He paused, considering his next words carefully. “So, D. You talk to Leah at all?”
The confusion on Derek’s face quickly turned to another of his shit-eating grins.
How the guy still had all his teeth was a fucking mystery.
“Ah. Now I get the yoga class.” Then his grin calmed into a more serious smile. “Yeah, I see her around sometimes. Always says hi. Always got a smile on her face. She’s nice. Too fucking nice for you. Besides, you dumped her when you left. I don’t think you’re gonna be seeing her again.”
Not wanting to get into that with the rest of the team in the room, he shrugged. “Just asking a question.”
Derek’s expression made it clear he didn’t believe that.
“Uh-huh.” Derek leaned closer, his voice dropping so he couldn’t be heard over the other guys’ conversations. “She seemed pretty depressed for a while after you left. Her smile never seemed the same. Know what I mean?”
Yeah, he did. Leah had a smile that made her glow. So fucking sweet, it could give you a sugar high. And he’d been the bastard who’d gorged himself on all that sugar then tossed her aside like an empty candy box.
Dick.
Yep, he was a total dick. But he was going to make up for it, goddammit.
“I’m going to put that smile back on her face.”
Derek shrugged, his expression doubtful.
“You got your work cut out for you, man. You broke her heart. I don’t think she’s gonna forget that too easily.”
*****
“Hey, thanks for letting me tag along. I’ve been meaning to try this for a while but never made the time.”
“No problem, man. Happy for the company.”
And the possible buffer.
Kyle had spent most of yesterday afternoon at the gym working out with Nate and some of the guys. He’d been planning to catch a yoga class, but Derek’s last words had stuck in his head. He’d wanted to shrug them off, but they kept playing on a repeating loop and wouldn’t fucking stop. So he’d decided to skip yoga and get to know his new-old team.
He’d met Nate years ago at a US hockey developmental camp and they’d had a common interest, so they’d hit it off immediately. The other guys—Robbie, Nick, and Ian—were all under the age of twenty-one, all from different countries, all great players from what he’d seen on the ice. And they all seemed to be decent guys. No attitudes, no egos, no bullshit. Basically, the complete opposite of him at their age.
He’d been a cocky asshole, coming off a collegiate career at Princeton other guys would’ve killed for and a high, second-round draft pick by the Colonials. He’d thought he’d spend a year or so in the AHL then get moved up.
He’d believed his own hype.
Asshole.
Yep, he’d been a total asshole.
Didn’t mean he wasn’t good. But so were the hundred-plus other goalies in the NHL, AHL, and ECHL, not to mention the kids coming up in college and the juniors and the overseas leagues.
Nate hadn’t gotten a lot of ice time in his previous seasons with the Redtails because Shane Conrad had been phenomenal in net, which was why the Colonials had called him up. And while Nate had been playing a good game, the team couldn’t get to the playoffs on the back of only one goalie.
Now, Kyle had to live up to his hype.
“Sooooo…D said the instructor’s hot.”
Kyle whippe
d his head around, ready to tell Nate not to even think about looking at her.
Except Nate was grinning at him.
Kyle rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Derek’s gonna get his ass kicked next time I see him.”
“He also said not to look at her sideways or you’d kick my ass. You two dating?”
Stopping in front of the door to the studio, Kyle shook his head. “We used to. Before I got traded to Phoenix. We split up when I left.”
Which wasn’t exactly true, but Nate didn’t need to know the gory details.
“But you wanna get back together?”
“That’s the plan.”
Nate’s wide grin sparked an answering light in his dark eyes as he shoved a hand through a mass of unruly black curls. Nate’s mom was Greek, and he got his coloring from her. He got his skill on the ice from his Canadian father, who’d set records in the Western Hockey League for his goals-against average before he’d quit playing to coach.
“So you need a wingman?”
His immediate response was hell no. He didn’t need a damn wingman. Wingmen were for guys who couldn’t get a girl’s number without help. He didn’t need help.
But that was the old Kyle. The asshole.
“Yeah, sure.”
“Then let’s go do some yoga!”
Kyle shook his head and smiled as he walked through the door and that grin just got wider.
Because the first person he saw was Leah.
She stood behind the desk to the right of the door, a slight scowl on her face as she stared at the monitor in front of her. Leah hated computers. At least, she had before he’d left. She said they interfered with natural human interaction, with our ability to communicate.
To her, they were a necessary evil.
He’d thought it was just an affectation, like her refusal to wear anything that wasn’t a hundred percent cotton or to eat processed food. Like she was following some hippie guidebook.
What he’d realized after they’d dated a few weeks was that Leah didn’t have a fake bone in her body. She really was that sweet, that nice, and that real. She cared about the environment and animal rights and children’s health care and sustainable energy.
He’d cared about his next start and his goals-against average. Okay, maybe he hadn’t been that completely shallow but, next to her, he’d been a self-involved prick.
What she’d seen in him, he still didn’t know. Maybe it was because he’d realized how completely special she was. Or maybe because his granddad had set a really great example of how to treat a woman and Kyle had managed to pick up a few of those good traits. Which he hadn’t gotten from his own father.
Or maybe…
Hell, who knew. What he did know was that this time would be different.
He just needed to rein in his asshole tendencies.
She looked up at that moment and caught him staring at her.
For a brief second, he could’ve sworn he saw a glimmer of a smile light in her eyes. Then she shut it down and instead turned to smile at Nate.
Who took his life in his hands when he smiled back and headed straight for her.
“Hi, I’m Nate. I’ve been told you’re the woman I need in my life.”
Her smile widened as she began to laugh. “Well, I don’t know about that, but I will do my best to help out. What are you looking to accomplish, Nate?”
“My buddy, Kyle,” Nate smacked Kyle on the back so hard, it almost hurt, “has been singing your praises since he got back. Says you’re a miracle worker.”
She blinked, as if Nate had taken her off guard, and her gaze slid back to Kyle.
“Really?” Her eyebrows arched, and she looked like every word was a lie. “High praise. I guess I should be flattered.”
“It’s the truth,” Kyle answered before Nate could possibly dig Kyle’s hole any deeper. “You’re the best.”
She blinked, and he wasn’t sure, but he thought he saw a slight softening around her mouth.
If he did, it was gone a second later when she looked back at the computer screen with a sigh.
“Kyle knows the studio. He’ll show you where the lockers are. I’ve got to figure out what I did wrong before class.”
“Want me to give you a hand?”
Her eyes widened again, and she looked like she was about to turn him down. Then she looked at the screen again and grimaced.
“I guess—”
“Locker room is straight down the hall.” Kyle nodded in the general direction for Nate’s benefit. “I’ll meet you in the studio in a few.”
“No problem, dude.” Nate saved his shit-eating grin until he was out of Leah’s sight line. Then he gave Kyle a thumbs-up before disappearing down the hall.
Kyle would have to thank the guy later. Not giving Leah time to object, he walked around the desk then leaned on the back of her chair. It put him directly above her, closer than he’d been to her in more than a year.
He had to make a conscious effort to unclench his hands but, damn it, he wanted to put his arms around her and pull her close. Every memory he had of this woman was a good memory. But it wasn’t the same for her.
And that’s totally my fault.
She stiffened as he got even closer, and even though he didn’t want to, he backed off a few inches. Not far, just far enough to give her some breathing room.
He waited for her to say something, for her to tell him to move away. If she did, did it mean she was still affected by him? Or did she truly not want him anywhere near her?
Sucking in a breath, he got a direct hit of her scent, a blend of sweet and sultry that had never failed to make him hard.
Damn it, he needed to rein that in. How much of a douche was he that he got a boner just standing next to her, especially when she’d made it clear she wasn’t thrilled to see him.
“So what are you trying to do?”
Watching her out of the corner of his eye, he saw her suck in a quick breath before she squared her shoulders and sat up a little straighter. Several long seconds passed before she answered.
“I accidentally pressed something and now I can’t see the rest of the schedule.”
She didn’t look up, and his jaw tensed. Damn, he really wanted to see her eyes, wanted to see what she was thinking. Was she affected by him at all? Did he have any chance at all to get back in her good graces and her bed?
Leaning even closer, until his chin almost touched her shoulder, he reached over her shoulder to put his hand on the mouse so he could attempt to figure out what was going on.
She sucked in a short, sharp breath. He knew that sound, had heard her make it many times.
Not afraid. Not angry. Definitely not indifferent.
It was the sound she’d made just before he kissed her. Or touched her. Or looked at her like he wanted to devour her. Or told her he wanted to make her come.
He fucking loved that sound.
Shutting down a shit-eating grin before it could form, he controlled the urge to pump his fist in the air and declare victory like he’d won the Stanley Cup.
Don’t get ahead of yourself, asshole. Still a long way to go before you can say you’re back in her good graces.
And if he never got there?
Nope. He couldn’t let himself consider that possibility. She was the woman he wanted in his life for the long haul.
Forcing his attention back to the computer screen, he figured out pretty quickly what the problem was. With a few clicks, he’d restored her ability to access the spreadsheet.
“Looks like you accidentally made the form read-only.” He showed her where and how she’d screwed up and showed her how to fix it if it ever happened again. “Common mistake. Happens all the time.”
Taking a few steps back, though he really didn’t want to, he watched as she spun the chair around so she could look up at him.
Damn, she was pretty. Every time he looked at her, he felt that catch in his breathing, and his heart pounded a little harder. But he did
n’t want her just because of the way his body reacted to her. Yeah, he thought she was hot, but his reaction wasn’t only about the way she looked.
No, there was a sweetness about Leah that made him want to hoard her away. He’d totally taken advantage of that before. He’d exploited her kindness and taken it as his due.
You were a total dick, asshole.
Yeah, he had been. But he wasn’t that guy anymore. He’d grown up. He’d wised up. And he wasn’t going to fuck this up a second time.
“Thank you.” Her expression had softened unmistakably. She even had the start of a smile. “I appreciate the help. You know I hate these darn things.”
The asshole he’d been before had seen her aversion to them as quirky, kinda sweet, but a little ridiculous, especially in today’s society. It’d made her less in his opinion. And though he’d never said it to her, he knew she’d been able to tell what he was thinking.
Another penalty on his record. He had so many damn penalties against him, he wasn’t sure he’d ever get out of the box. But damn it, he was going to try.
“I know. And I get it. They’re great when they work but they can be frustrating as hell when they don’t.”
Her eyebrows arched higher with his every word, as if she couldn’t believe what he was saying. And he figured now was the time to make his escape.
He cocked his thumb and pointed over his shoulder.
“I’m gonna get changed. See you in the studio. And if you need any more computer help, just let me know.”
Then he forced himself to turn and walk away.
He was pretty sure he could feel her watching him every step of the way.
*****
Leah brought her hands to heart’s center in the prayer position and bent her head.
“Namaste, everyone. Have a lovely day and do good deeds.”
Lifting her head, she smiled as the ten women and two men made their way to their feet and packed up their mats. Most smiled as they headed for the door; a few waved. Several of the women also smiled at Kyle and Nate as they passed the men at the back of the studio.
The Playboy: Redtails Hockey #5 Page 2