Page 13 of Frozen Play

Asshole and perhaps some of his think-alikes had dented her confidence.

I met her gaze so she could see the truth in my words. “The difference is I’ve spilled my guts to you. I trust you. We’ve talked about more serious things than I have with…anyone.”

Sadly true. I couldn’t talk to my family, and I hadn’t gotten close enough to teammates to share. It wasn’t like I had a horrible past. I’d lost my mother when I was young, but for years Dad and Quin had been enough. I couldn’t even cast Lina as the evil stepmother. She was selfish, spoiled, and had tunnel vision when it came to anything outside of her and Dad, and maybe Quin. But by the time Dad married her I had my own tunnel vision with hockey, so I couldn’t complain about that. She wanted to make me happy. It was just that for her, money was happiness.

Poor Phin. Got a stepmother who gave me a trust fund and had this monstrosity currently sheltering us built because she thought it was what I wanted.

Skye was staring at me, lips twisted in thought. “We were kids together. And we’re stuck here with nothing else to do but talk.”

I wanted to tell her it was more than that. I spent hours on planes traveling with my teammates, hung out with them at practices and games and team events. I was close to my linemates. But I didn’t talk to them like I did with Skye.

I liked her honesty. Her forthrightness. And I found her attractive. If she was someone else, someone I’d met in Toronto, I would ask her out, see if there was something there.

But she was stuck here, helping her family in the garage that was in financial trouble because of my stepmother. I could imagine how she would respond to an offer of money. Maybe her brothers were different, but I doubted it. I had cut them off along with everyone else when I was a teen.

I didn’t think this evening would have gone the same if Oscar or Riley had been the ones to tow me out of the ditch. Once the initial awkwardness and apologies were over, we’d have joked, probably talked hockey. Not spilled my guts. Telling her that, even if she believed me, would make things awkward.

So instead I flipped the conversation.

“You said you didn’t know what you wanted. That means working in the garage isn’t it?”

Chapter 7

The best bad luck

Skye

Phin saidI somehow made him spill his guts. But whatever he thought I was doing, he was doing the same, because I answered the question.

“I don’t know.”

“If the garage was it, wouldn’t you know?”

There was the crux of the matter. “But I can’t do anything else right now. We don’t have enough money to hire someone to do my job.” I’d wrestled with this idea so often while waiting to fall asleep. I couldn’t leave, not till we had our finances in better order.

“Well, we’ve got time right now. What would you do if you didn’t have to worry about the garage?”

“Thinking about that doesn’t get me anywhere.”

“Hmmm.” He rested his head on his propped hand, firelight playing over his face. It was a good face, grown up now. His jaw was firmer, covered in brown stubble. A couple of strands of mahogany-colored hair fell over his forehead, his brown eyes studying me like I was game video he was reviewing. I shivered,not from the cold. “What do you like about what you’re doing now?”

I tore my attention back to our conversation. “Oscar and Riley. Helping them, working with them. Knowing I have them at my back if I need them and having theirs. I love my nephew, and my sister-in-law. This place is home. It’s me.”

Family was everything. We’d lost a lot, but never each other.

He was quiet for a moment. “So you like Newfell, but maybe not running the tow trucks?”

“I don’t do that, except when something like this storm comes up. I normally handle the office, the store and the pumps.”

“Do you like that?”

Nopopped into my head, but it felt disloyal to say it. Oscar and Riley hadn’t flinched about keeping the garage going when Dad died. Neither of them were good at administrative work, and we couldn’t afford to get someone else so I’d taken it over. Part of my pay was free rent above the store. I could not imagine anyone else accepting that deal and living with Oscar.

“You’re not rushing to say yes,” Phin noted.

I sighed. “It’s not a terrible job.”

“That’s a rousing endorsement.”

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