Page 32 of Ice Melts

Her smile faded, but not in a bad way. In the way that made her eyes go soft, her guard lowering inch by inch.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” she whispered, her voice barely more than a breath.

He swallowed, feeling the weight of the moment settle in his chest. “I’ve loved you since we were seventeen.”

Sarah blinked, her breath hitching. The fire crackled in the silence, but neither of them moved.

“I think I knew,” she whispered back. “And I think… I’ve loved you just as long.”

The words hung between them, fragile but undeniably true.

He didn’t say anything, just leaned down and kissed her, soft and slow, like they had all the time in the world.

But when they pulled apart, she pressed her forehead against his. “One more?”

He nodded, brushing his nose against hers. “Yeah.”

She took a deep breath. “Sometimes, when I wrote those articles… it wasn’t just about holding players accountable. It was about pushing you away. I thought if I made myself the enemy, it would be easier not to love you.”

Travis felt his heart ache, but he didn’t pull away. Instead, he cupped her face gently. “Sarah… you could’ve written a thousand articles, and I still would’ve loved you.”

Her eyes shimmered, and for a moment, they just stared at each other, seeing everything they’d been too scared to admit for years.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

He shook his head. “I’m not. Because we’re here now.”

She smiled, a little watery but completely real. “Yeah. We are.”

They didn’t need any more words after that. They just held each other, letting the years of unspoken feelings settle between them, knowing that from this moment forward, there was nothing left to hide.

They knew each other—truly knew each other—and that was the most intimate thing of all.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The next morning they both turned their phones on. It wasn’t planned. They didn’t talk about it. But during breakfast the phones went on and both sat in unhappy silence as they read through way too many messages, emails and social media posts. Sarah didn’t know what Travis was reading but she was pretty sure it was similar to what she’d been blasted with.

She laid her phone down and looked up at him.

He sensed her gaze and did the same.

“So basically the Seahorns seen leaving Bombles, driving under the influence, some arrested and many found with possession. Travis.” She lowered her head in her hands. Then she jerked back up. “And half the world is speculating about how you’re involved. People haven’t seen you in a couple days and everyone either thinks you’re the ring leader and in hiding or you got hurt or you’re seriously ill.”

“Why can’t they just think I’m out of town with my secret lover?” He wiggled his eyebrows. And Sarah tried to smile. She did have a couple stomach flips over the secret lover part, but basically this whole situation was a nightmare that she would not be able to ignore. “My boss wants me to cover the story. Shewants me to expose every player on your team and do a special piece about you full of speculation.” She looked away. “I know how bad that sounds.”

“It sounds terrible. She wants you to make up stuff about where you think I am? And sell it to the public. She’s worse than terrible. She is the problem. Have you ever paused to consider that the young impressionable youth would have no idea what hockey players did in their spare time if you didn’t tell them? Your newspaper is the problem.” He was obviously ticked off but his words hurt. And she tried not to respond, but words started forming anyway. “So you’re going to blame me? What about the players doing the drugs, using the women, driving under the influence? What about the team owners and coaches who don’t have deterring consequences? No? This is going to all go down as my fault.” She shook her head. “Travis, you can’t really believe that.”

He brought his dishes to the sink. “I don’t know what I believe.” He started to pace. “The team is not perfect, but they aren’t nearly as bad as all this looks. You have to know I was working on this. Without the press interfering and making everything worse, blowing it all out of proportion, I was talking to the guy who…the one who invited everyone. I had him half convinced he needed to make a better life for himself.”

“Well, that’s good. But no one is blowing anything out of proportion…yet. It sounds like they’re just saying what happened?”

“Oh? What about the speculation about where I am? What about my reputation?”

She conceded. “Well of course, that’s terribly exaggerated. Why don’t you call someone and let them know you’re out of town?”

“I’ll take care of it. But honestly, it’s none of their business. Or anyone’s business. If I want to go somewhere quiet, spendtime with someone special, I don’t need everyone talking about it. It’s none of their business, can’t they see that? Can’t you?”

“Of course I see that. I’m not the bad guy here.”

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