Page 3 of Heat It Up (Off the Ice)
We step into the sauna, Nik still laughing. A blond in a brown uniform turns around, her eyes wide. Before I can say anything, she blasts water at my good leg, almost hitting my package.
“Fuck.” I jump back as Nik bursts out laughing. Ass.
The girl shifts the nozzle so it blasts water into the corner, and frantically tries turning the water off. Not once does her gaze shift in our direction. I repeat Newton’s laws of motion in my head to distract where my thoughts are headed. The last thing she needs to see once she does look in our direction is me getting a hard-on. Unfortunately, I have no control over what goes on with Nik. Nor do I have any interest in checking.
She adjusts the nozzle, switching the water pressure from a blast to a spray. Nik says something in Finnish. She replies, but even I can tell Finnish isn’t her native language. I have no idea what she said, but the accent is all wrong for her to be a Finn.
I take the nozzle from her. “Newton’s third law of motion states that an object in motion will stay in motion if nothing acts against it.”
Shit. What the hell did I say that for? Apparently “Here, let me help” wasn’t good enough.
I don’t have a chance to say anything else. She runs.
“Wait,” I call out and make a move to go after her, but my leg says to hell with that. And what am I planning to do? Chase her down the hallway, naked? Like that won’t get me arrested.
“Dude, I told you women don’t like physics,” Nik says. “It’s boring.”
I turn off the water. “Physics isn’t boring. It’s the difference between you getting a goal or the opposition stealing the puck from you. Maybe if you appreciated it more, your scoring average would be higher.”
“Hey, there was nothing wrong with my average last season.”
I choose to ignore that and glance around. The benches are wet and the girl left a bucket of soapy water on the floor, along with a scrub brush. “What did she say to us?”
“Something about the sauna being closed. Who knows.”
I groan. Not what I wanted to hear.
Nik shrugs. “I guess it was closed while she was cleaning, but now that she’s gone, we might as well stay. The heat is still on.” He climbs onto the top bench.
• • •
I wander along the sidewalk toward my apartment, my leg no longer aching. The warm, late afternoon sun is still high in the sky. Cars drive past on the busy road, along with the occasional cyclist. Everyone is in a rush to get home.
Everyone but me.
Ahead of me is the small park I’ve hung out in a couple of times since arriving in Helsinki two weeks ago. It’s quiet here and a great place to work on my lesson plans for the next day. To think about each boy’s strengths and weaknesses, and to figure out how I can help them become better players. That’s why their parents spent money for the summer training camp for elite players.
I walk down the path to the pond and that’s when I see her. At least I think she’s the same girl from the sauna. Instead of the brown uniform, she’s wearing denim shorts and a simple white tank top. Her endless legs are toned, and her long hair is still in the messy ponytail.
She watches a swan on the pond then crouches and lifts her camera, aiming it at the bird.
I’m about to walk over and apologize for what happened in the sauna when her phone rings. She answers it and sits on the neatly manicured, grassy bank. I sit a few yards away, waiting for her to finish her call. She doesn’t seem to notice me.
I remove my notepad and pen from my backpack. I jot a few things down and study my coaching notes. I hadn’t originally planned to become a coach. My goal had strictly been to play in the NHL. But once my little brother was old enough to strap on skates, I’d taken up the role of coach for his hockey teams. In the end, that had worked in my favor.
I glance at the girl again. She ends her call and returns the phone to her backpack.
Sensing she’s about to leave, I push myself up to stand. My leg stiffened in the short time I was sitting, and when she looks toward me the limb is back. Recognition hits and she blushes.
“Hi, is it okay if I sit?” I gesture to the patch of grass next to her.
She nods and goes back to watching the swan.
“I’m sorry about what happened in the sauna. We didn’t realize it was closed.”
She smiles, a light blush hitting her cheeks. It’s not a big smile, but it’s better than nothing. “That’s okay. I’m sorry I hurt you. You startled me…and…and I thought you were someone else.”
“You didn’t hurt me.”
