Just In Time: An Alaskan Nights Novel (13 page)

“It doesn’t change the fact that you’ve been gone a long time.”

She saw the frustration cross his face in harsh lines and tried to defuse the situation.

“It’s not meant as an insult, Roman. I know what we had was a powerful thing, especially at the age we had it. But it doesn’t change the fact that it has haunted me.”

“It’s haunted me, too.”

Her gaze was drawn to his large hands where they were splayed on the countertop, and she marveled at how the tips of his fingers pressed into the wood. “You got the adventure.”

“I know I did. It doesn’t change the fact that I missed you terribly.” His fingers moved into a light tap on the bar and she guessed he didn’t even realize he made the gesture. “It took me over a year to be with anyone.”

A sharp spear of pain lit up her abdomen at his words. “What?”

“Years ago. When I went to New York. It was over a year before I slept with anyone.”

“Oh.”

Although the image of him sleeping with anyone was uncomfortable, the knowledge that he didn’t simply leap into bed with the first available rink bunny was touching.

“I meant what I said yesterday. I’m not a man-whore athlete. And I haven’t been with that many women. Haven’t wanted to be, either. But that first relationship was tough.”

“We grew up and went in different directions.”

“We did. And even though we did, I just thought you should know that.”

“Thank you.”

“Hat trick.” He glanced up from his drink and there was a smile in his eyes. “That’s the third time you said ‘thank you.’”

She smiled in return at the sweet little memory his words evoked. They’d teased each other as kids whenever one of them said something three times. “So it is.”

“So speaking of adventures. How was Ireland?”

The image of misty mornings and rolling green hills immediately filled her mind’s eye and she returned his smile with a broad one of her own.

“Take whatever magnificent image you have in mind about Ireland and fine-tune it. Do you have it?” When he nodded, she added, “Now understand you’re still only about halfway to right. It’s a glorious place.”

“You loved it.”

“I did.”

“And the woman who changed places with you?”

“Lena.”

Roman nodded. “I didn’t think my mom would be as open to her as she was, but she couldn’t stop singing her praises. I know she hopes Lena will come back for a visit.”

“She and her brother are fantastic. Her brother owns the hotel I went to.”

“Is that Declan? He of the sexy voice every woman in Indigo’s been talking about?”

She shot him a dark look as she tossed the wet rag into the small hamper they kept in a corner of the bar. “Do you really want to go there again, Caveman?”

“Not really.”

“Then suffice it to say Declan O’Mara has many wonderful qualities. But King of my Heart isn’t one of them.”

“Poor bastard.”

Avery came around the bar, unwilling to mar the lovely glow hovering between them. Rather than risk their conversation turning sour, she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek instead before leaving for the night.

“Damn straight.”

If she felt the heat of his cheek on her lips long after she’d returned to her room, she decided it was a fair exchange for the joy to be found in a quiet conversation with one of her oldest friends.

“A
re you really going to get your asses kicked by a girl?” Avery hollered over her shoulder, one of her most favorite insults. She usually saved it for mile four of their run, but the team was dragging and she pulled it out after their third lap around town.

“We’re keeping up, Miz Avery!” one of the boys hollered as he extended his legs to pass by her.

Tasty waved at them from his shop as they all passed, and she saw him shake his head as the boys tumbled past her like a pack of oversized puppies.

“You’re quite the slave driver.” Roman whispered it as he paced alongside her.

“They love it.”

“They also love your very fine ass and runway legs. Which is no doubt the reason why they run behind you.”

She turned to him, her mouth hanging open. “That’s not true.”

“It’s completely true. I heard Mike whisper it to Scott.”

“That dog.”

“Oh, cut the kid a break. He’s as smitten with you as his older brother.”

“You know about that?”

“Everyone knows about it. Half of Alaska knows about it. They talk about it in the bars down in Anchorage. Just how smitten Ronnie the bartender is for Avery the hot hotel proprietor.”

“You’re a jerk.” She pushed him, satisfied when the shove was enough to break up his steady, even pace.

He shrugged and lifted his hands out to the side. “I’m honest.”

“Besides, how would you know the gossip in town?”

“Ronnie’s been in love with you since he was a kid.”

Avery recalled a conversation she’d had the previous winter with Grier and Jess. “Yeah, well, he won’t make a move because of you.”

“What do I have to do with it?”

“You tell me. The way I hear it, you’ve put the fear of God in him.”

“I did no such thing.”

Avery caught the way he averted his eyes when he said that last bit and she pushed harder. “What did you say to him?”

“Nothing. I haven’t even seen the guy since I’ve been home.”

“Roman Andrew Forsyth. At any time in the past, have you said or implied anything to Ronnie?”

Roman kept his gaze straight ahead as they moved into the fourth mile of their run. “I might have suggested to him on a visit home a few years ago that he seemed awfully fond of his hands.”

“And?”

“And nothing. He works with his hands, making all those drinks, flipping beer caps off, that sort of thing.”

“What the hell have you been learning in New York? You’re like Tony Soprano or something!”

He shrugged but still wouldn’t meet her eyes. “It was nothing.”

“It wasn’t your place.”

“Look, I saved you a hassle.”

“How so?”

He did turn at this, his height advantage causing her to have to look up to meet his gaze. “If he really wanted you, a few comments from me shouldn’t have deterred him.”

Then Roman ran off, hollering at the boys to speed it up as they raced toward the finish at the entrance to town.

As she followed behind, Avery couldn’t completely fault him for his logic.

•   •   •

Roman shouted out orders like a drill sergeant. Most of the boys were in pairs around the gym at the Indigo Blue and he sent the last few off to their positions.

“Charlie. Greg. Get over there and spot Steven.” Roman pointed to the free weights. “Mike and Stink, go take the rowing machines.”

Avery shook her head as she put her hands on her hips. “Stink really needs a new nickname.”

“Have you smelled the kid?” Roman whispered as everyone took their places.

“I thought you were immune to hockey funk?”

Roman eyed her after he was satisfied each of the boys was doing his reps properly. “There’s funk and then there’s funk. He’s got the latter.”

“I’ll talk to his mother. I think he just needs some new gear. The grandmothers make an annual donation to the team scholarship fund. Maybe we can get him fixed up with some new stuff.”

Roman filed away the news of his grandmother’s generosity—not a surprise, but something he’d like to remember to thank her for all the same—and focused back on the boys.

“They’ve got a lot of talent.”

“They do. What they need is a coach who’ll stay put for the long haul.”

Roman had been thinking that very thing. “I do know a guy. I have no idea if he’d even consider taking the job, but he is worth talking to.”

“Who is it?”

“A guy I played with early in my career. He got out after an injury. Moved down to the minors for a few years and then has bummed around from coaching job to coaching job. He’s good, just a little restless, and the minors aren’t always the most dependable. Teams get relocated or local towns lose interest after the novelty wears off.”

“Restless is going to be a hard sell. The town wants someone to come and make a commitment.”

“He’ll at least commit to an entire season, unlike the last guy. Besides, that’s a bit of a shortsighted expectation, don’t you think? I mean, this is a hard life here. A good life, but a hard one. No one knows how they’ll handle it until they actually live here.”

Roman knew he didn’t have a full right to criticize every little thing happening in Indigo, but he did have a right to an opinion.

“Fair point. It’s not for everyone.” She cracked a broad smile. “I still say Sloan and Grier are in for a big surprise when the glow of sex wears off and they realize they’re smack in the middle of nowhere.”

“You don’t think they can handle it?”

She grew more serious, the question obviously one she’d thought of herself as well. “No, it’s not a matter of handling it or not. But I do think they’re going to have an adjustment all the same.”

“They probably will. I had one in reverse going to New York.”

“Really?”

“Hell, yeah. Here I was, in the middle of one of the largest cities in the world. I was a nobody on the team, getting my butt kicked on an hourly basis, and I was scared sh—spitless.” He caught himself just in time and censored his language in the event the boys were paying more attention than he gave them credit for. “And I missed my home.”

“Well, it figures.” She moved up into his personal space.

“What does?”

Her skin was still flushed from the run through town and her cheeks had a pink vitality to them that tugged at his insides. She was so close he could see the dark ring of blue that rimmed the edge of her dark irises.

“Maybe if you were getting laid you’d have enjoyed yourself a bit more.”

And maybe he should have faced the kids alone today, he realized with a start.

Spending the morning with a teasing, sweaty, happy-go-lucky Avery was wreaking havoc with his libido. Add to it the embarrassment of potentially being caught—the thin workout shorts he wore would do nothing to hide a raging hard-on—and he cursed himself a million times the fool.

Before he could curse himself any further, a shout from the corner pulled him from the moment and he headed for the fight brewing in front of the weight rack. Stink was surrounded by two boys and it didn’t take much to figure out who was the instigator.

Roman had had his eye on the two kids on the team with the weakest skills. Both had been overly aggressive with the hitting while on drills the day before, and he had a suspicion that if there were holes in the team’s camaraderie, it came from them.

The two of them had Stink against the rack of weights and a clearly menacing aura had descended over the interaction.

“Problem, gentlemen?”

“Stink over here is bothering the rest of us.”

Roman glanced quickly at the boy but didn’t react to the statement. A misplaced word and the kid would have it even harder. “How so, Will? I put him on the rowing machine to work his cardio for a bit. I haven’t called for a rotation yet.”

“He stinks, Coach.” Will’s partner, Zach, wasn’t quite as hot under the collar.

Working to keep it light, Roman offered up what he thought of as his Hollywood smile. “For the record, you all stink. It’s called a workout for a reason.”

The room had quieted and he got a good round of guffaws at that one.

“Not like this.”

So Zach was the mouthpiece
. Dropping his hands to his hips, Roman took a few steps forward, leveraging all of the menace six foot four inches could provide. “If you’re not enjoying yourselves, then maybe you should leave practice early.”

“But it’s him, Coach.” Will added a shoulder shove at Stink for good measure.

The move was enough to pull a clearly agitated Stink into the fight and bedlam broke out immediately. The force of Stink’s movements and Zach’s block had them tumbling away from the rack of weights, into Roman.

He stumbled backward, his footing off as he jammed his leg against one of the machines. He lost his balance, his own arms waving to right himself when he heard Avery’s soft cry as he fell into her.

A few of the other boys ran up, pulling Will and Stink away from each other, but in the midst of the melee, Roman wasn’t able to move off Avery all that quickly.

“Avery. Are you all right?”

“Damn it, but you’re heavy.”

“Well, yeah. I didn’t even know you were behind me.” He dragged himself off her, rolling back over to grab her hand to pull her to a sitting position. As he did, he immediately caught sight of the red splotch next to her eye.

“You’re hurt.” Roman reached out, cupping her cheek in his hand and running his thumb over the red mark.

“I grazed it on the bench of the machine on the way down.” She smiled ruefully as his thumb ran over the rim of her eye socket. “At least it was padded.”

“I don’t care.”

The hum of excitement that had gripped the room fell silent as Roman stood and bent down to help Avery up. The adrenaline that was rapidly fading—along with the knowledge he was about to mete out punishment—had the boys waiting in quiet anticipation.

“Practice is over. And since this is such an excellent example of your teamwork, I don’t want to see Zach, Will or Stink until Friday’s practice. Take a few days and cool off.”

Cries of “But Coach!” and “Not fair!” rose up from Will and Zach, and it didn’t escape Roman’s notice that Stink was noticeably quiet.

“Since Avery got caught in the cross fire, let’s call it a day.” With a pointed look at Zach and Will, he added, “I’ll see the rest of you tomorrow.”

Stink was already out of the room, his shoulders hunched as he slammed through the door to the gym. The other boys filed out shortly after, and Roman turned back, anxious to see to Avery.

“Are you sure you’re all right?”

“I’m fine, Roman. I think Stink’s the one you need to worry about. He’s a lot more bruised than I am.”

“If I call him out or favor him, the kids’ll only make it harder on him.”

“I know.”

He crossed the room and grabbed a cold water from the small fridge that sat in the corner. Walking back to Avery, he handed it to her. “Press that to your eye for a few minutes. You’re going to have a shiner all the same.”

“I’ll consider it a badge of honor.”

“It pisses me off. They’re a group of boys who should know better.” He took her by the shoulders and led her to one of the weight benches. “Sit down for a few minutes.”

“And they’ve got hot heads and the tempers of young men.”

“You could have gotten really hurt. Hell, scratch that. You
were
hurt.”

Roman was surprised at the quick and ready anger that still simmered under his skin. He knew she was okay—the bruise was minor and she’d get a few good stories out of it around town. He also wasn’t sad to have a reason to get Will and Zach out of the team environment for a few days so he could assess what the team looked like without them.

But things with Stink bothered him.

“You’ve gotten awfully clumsy since the last time I saw you.”

Avery’s words were quiet but she could have screamed them, they echoed so loudly through his head.

“I’m fine.”

“You sure? You’ve tripped a lot and that was quite a fall you took against the machines. Didn’t you see them as you went down?”

“I was sort of focused on the gaggle of teenage testosterone getting ready to explode.”

She cocked her head, the motion oddly charming with the water bottle still pressed to her eye. “So what’s the excuse for last night with the glasses? Or the other day on your run?”

Panic balled up in his gut, reaching up to tighten his chest with hard squeezes that matched the pounding of his heart. Despite the immediate reaction, Roman fought to keep his voice level.

He would not discuss this. Would not admit there was anything wrong. Because it damn well wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle.

“I’m a tall man. Believe me, I trip more than I’d like to admit.”

“Don’t bullshit me, Roman. You’re so fucking graceful the ballet would take you.”

“What do you want me to tell you? That I feel good about the fact that I almost got my ass kicked by a bunch of kids?”

She dropped the water bottle and stood. “And the run? And the wineglasses? You’re going to sit there and tell me they’re nothing?”

“You said yourself glasses get broken all the time. I just had the bad luck to swipe out an entire row.”

The doubt persisted, plastered all over her face in twin lines of skepticism and annoyance, but she backed down.

Sort of.

“You’d tell me if something was wrong, wouldn’t you?”

Frustration of his own crawled through his veins like a poison. He’d lived with it since his injury the previous season, the self-doubt and fear coiled and hissing at him like a snake.

Unwilling to give it any more power, and anxious for a way to change the subject, he went on the offensive. Closing the narrow gap between them, Roman moved back into her personal space, pleased when that light flush rose once more in her cheeks.

Even better, instead of the flush of exertion, this blush of pink smacked of something far more interesting and enticing.

Arousal.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” He ran a finger along her cheek, brushing lightly against her cheekbone. Her skin was still cool from the water bottle and Roman marveled at the difference between her cool flesh and the body heat he felt emanating against his chest.