“Maybe I just want to keep holding your hand. Did you ever think about that?”
He didn’t even bother fighting the smile. “Fine.” Instead of skating backwards, he pulled her arm through his.
They made it about two feet before she closed her eyes and inhaled. “Why do you always smell so good?”
“Uh, I shower daily?” He nudged her. “You might want to skate with your eyes open.”
“It’s not that. There’s something about you. Maybe it’s just all those pheromones.”
“Pheromones?”
“You’re very…masculine.”
“Unless you want me to carry you off the ice like a caveman and fuck you in the Jeep, we’d better focus on skating.” When her eyes flared with desire, he chuckled. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. Pretend your right foot’s on a scooter. Now, use your left foot to scoot.” He let go of her.
Forehead creased in concentration, she made a slow, deliberate attempt to follow his instructions. “Oh, my God. It’s working.” Awkwardly, she hitched forward. And then she did it again. She blessed him with one of those big, bright smiles. “You’re very nice, you know.”
“Less talking, more skating.”
“No, I’m serious. You come off all gruff, like you can’t be bothered with anything or anyone, but it’s not true. You’re very loyal. So loyal you dropped out of school to take care of Sam. You’re so loyal to Kurt, you’re willing to lose your job.”
“Look at you. You’re skating.” He probably did come off gruff, but it was better than looking like a little boy whose crush just checked the Yes box in answer to whether she liked him. He didn’t think he’d ever met anyone who made him feel as good about himself as Phinny. “You’re doing great.”
“Oh, please. I look like a dog scooching on grass.” But she kept trying, pushing ahead. “It really was an amazing thing you did for Sam. I was talking to Tina this morning in the garden, and she said you had offers from NHL teams. You’d have been a number one draft pick. You gave up a lot to be there for him.”
“He gave up a lot for me.”
“She said a bunch of coaches offered to get him round-the-clock nurses so you could finish school and play for them, but you refused.”
“Like I gave a shit about hockey or advanced economics when my grandpa was dying.”
Phinny’s feature went soft as melted butter. “You said it.”
“Said what?”
“Grandpa. You didn’t really call him Sam, did you?”
He shook his head. “Come on. Switch feet. Now, your left foot’s on the scooter, and your right’s doing the work of pushing you along.”
“Calling him Sam gives you distance, so it doesn’t hurt as much.” She pointed two fingers at his eyes, then turned them to her own. “I see you.” After a few attempts to push forward, she managed to even glide. “You’re a good coach. You make things very clear.”
“Declan, man.” Steve LaRoue, one of the Renegades, came to a hard stop in front of them, shaving off a layer of ice. He grinned at Phinny and clapped Declan on the shoulder. “Do you have any time in the next few weeks? We’ve got our best players on left D and somehow, we still allow more zone entries on that side. Me and Charlie are already here, but our second stringers can come out whenever you have time to work with us.”
“I already know what’s wrong. Charlie needs a better pivot to get back on dumped pucks quicker. It’ll buy you guys an extra half-second.”
Steve grinned. “Yeah?”
“I watched you guys play this morning for the kids.”
He gave him an approving nod. “So, can you fit us in?”
“Sure. The rink’s closed this weekend for the Fourth of July, so how about next week?”
“I appreciate it, man. I’ll get your digits from Jaime to confirm.” Steve gave Phinny a nod before skating off. Her dazzling smile must’ve hit him between the horns because he tipped back, then nearly tripped over his own skates trying to turn around and get back to his group of kids.
She didn’t even seem to notice. “Have you heard back from the general manager yet?”
“No, but they’ve already made their decision.”
“Are you sure?”
“No.” He still held out some hope they’d give him leniency in this situation. “But it’s a critical time for coaching, and they’re not even sending me tapes or including me in video conferences. They’ve shut me out.”
“How do you feel about that?”
“I’m disappointed. But it’s one of those things I can’t control. I’m here. I’m committed to seeing this through.” He shrugged. It is what it is.
“Well, if the Renegades’ players are coming to you instead of their own coaches…it just seems like they might want to hire you.” She gazed up at him. “Are all of Kurt’s hockey boys as good as you?”
“Yes, but there’s a reason. Most of the guys we hung out with fell away over the years. Broken bones, concussions…and it wasn’t that they lost interest in what we were doing. It was because they couldn’t keep up. Eventually, it was just the four of us, and we kept pushing ourselves, looking for bigger and more dangerous challenges.” He smiled. “Good times.”
“Those experiences…I imagine they made you closer than normal friendships. You must miss them so much. What if they all said they’d own the team? Would you do it then?”
He hadn’t even contemplated that question since Booker had bailed on them, and it wouldn’t make sense for Cole to quit while he was killing it. “Since it’s not possible, I can’t really answer that.”
“Are you sure?” Phinny teased. “Because I saw that light in your eyes when I threw the idea out there.”
“And here I thought I’d perfected the art of the blank expression.”
“Oh, you did all right. Maybe I just pay more attention to you than most people.”
“Yeah? Why’s that?”
“Because I want to know more about you. I’m like a hamster, and you feed me these tiny, little pellets of information. I want more. I want the whole enchilada.” She pushed away from him. “In any event, it’s time to go.” She did the scooter-skate move until she stepped off the ice.
“Hey, you’re just getting the hang of it.” When they sat on the bench, he said, “What’s the rush?”
Eyes sultry, she leaned in close, and her tongue peeked out to lick her bottom lip. He thought for sure she’d kiss him, but at the last second, she bypassed his mouth and whispered, “You know that caveman you were talking about?”
“Yeah?”
“I’ve got a favor to ask him.”
Chapter Sixteen
Without windows and a roof, sex in the rink’s parking lot wasn’t possible, so Declan hauled ass home. But he wasn’t going to make it. Not when she kept squeezing his thigh, sliding her hand between his legs, and licking his earlobe.