30. Indie
The cold seeped through my jeans after landing on my ass for the third time in less than half an hour.
Who invented skating anyway? Someone just up and decided to strap knives to their boots to make an already difficult task to walk on a slippery surface even slipperier?
Ten feet away, Theo skated backward like he wasn’t the biggest show-off in the universe. How dare he make skating look as easy as breathing when he did it.
“You okay, baby?” Amusement tugged at his lips; he was wise enough to keep any laughter inside. “You’re getting the hang of it, I promise. You sure you don’t want me to hold your hand?”
The hands that were currently holding me apart from meeting the icy, concussed fate that waited for me two feet lower? Not likely. Yeah, I should have taken him up on that hand-holding thing when we’d first stepped on the ice, but I honestly hadn’t thought it would be this tricky.
“Yeah, right.” I sulked, still not game to attempt to stand up .
“Well, when I first started CanSkate, the first thing they did teach us was to… fall.” His infuriatingly handsome face made it hard to even pretend to be annoyed with him for very long.
Theo skated around behind me and pulled me (or scooped me; it happened with entirely too much ease) back to standing.
He held out his hand, palm up, not saying anything that would make me admit that I really did want his help. That soft, marshmallowy feeling ballooned in my chest again. It pressed up all the sharp edges of the feelings I kept buried deep.
With a sigh, I put my gloved hand in his bare one.
I wanted to distract him from my hopeless skating skills. Not being immediately good at something rankled. This kind of thing rarely happened to me. I hadn’t failed so spectacularly at something since Emery tried to teach me to paint landscapes. My painting had looked more like Mr. Potato Head than a scene of mountains. I hadn’t picked up a paintbrush since.
There was nothing wrong with sticking with things I was good at.
I turned my head just enough that I could look Theo in the eye. Even with him holding my hand, I didn’t want to upset the gods of balance that he’d just restored by holding me steady.
There was no need to tempt chaos by doing something as crazy as… moving. Breathing seemed like a stretch at this point.
Could a bruised ass hurt when I breathed? It seemed like it.
“You learned to skate here?” I was confused. We’d both spent our childhoods in the suburbs of San Jose. I’d assumed that Theo had learned at one of the arenas in the city.
The expression in his eyes softened, but his jaw clenched minutely. He cleared his throat before speaking.
“Uh, yeah. Not here in Toronto, I mean. But Vancouver, yes.” He paused on another inhale. “I don’t remember exactly why, but Mom was still working jointly with the University of British Columbia, even though she’d officially left her adjunct professor position there.” He rubbed the back of his head, looking a bit uncomfortable with the turn in conversation.
I didn’t know if it was right or wrong to talk about his mom. I’d loved Alice too, but Emery rarely wanted to discuss her mom, and I wondered if Theo was the same. On the other hand, what if he wanted to and he never had anyone to listen before?
“I don’t want to upset you, Theo. You don’t have to tell me more unless… you want to?” I kept my tone soft but wanted to show him I was here to listen if he wanted to share with me. I looked up at him from under my eyelashes, trying to show I was paying attention but not staring at him as if he were under a spotlight.
Why the hell was it so hard to communicate sympathy-empathy-understanding-protectiveness-openness-true-interest in just a few words? There was that messy, gooey feeling again.
Theo turned his head to look me in the eye. “No, it’s okay. I want to tell you.”
I didn’t say anything in reply, not wanting to fill the space between us with empty words. It felt surreal to have Theo being this vulnerable. I was afraid if I breathed the wrong way, I would screw up the moment.
“So, yeah. Mom was back up in Vancouver for whatever reason for a couple months, I guess? Since it was the fall and the height of Dad’s football coaching season, she brought me with her, and I stayed with Gong Gong during the day while she was at work.” Theo’s voice was quiet; the only competing sound was the scraping of his blades on the ice.
Because, let’s face it, he towed me along more than I was actually moving my feet at this point. My knees were locked straight, despite his previous reminders to keep them loose.
I’d only had the chance to meet Theo’s grandfather once during a quick girls’ trip with Emery and Abbie. What I did know was that he’d been Theo’s biggest fan.
Theo’s lips tightened briefly. “Having a three-year-old in the house full-time must have been a big change. But I never remember him getting frustrated with me. Anyway, somehow, he or Mom must have thought skating lessons would be a good activity to keep me busy. He and Por Por had emigrated to Canada before Mom was born, but neither of them had been skating before. Somehow, Gong Gong sweet-talked the instructors to let him learn along with me. I don’t know if Mom ever knew about that part…” He laughed. “God, as an adult, all I can think now is we were lucky he never fell and broke his hip or something.”
I squeezed his bicep that I’d been holding on to for dear life but offered him a gentle smile.
“I think it’s pretty amazing that he would do that for you. From what I’ve seen, adults typically don’t really go out of their comfort zone unless it really matters.” I couldn’t think of one thing my parents had ever changed with me in mind.
“And then skating lessons led to hockey the following winter.” He smiled.
I left his relationship with his dad alone. There were enough difficult emotions coming to the surface for a first date.
Hell, I’d pretended to date a guy throughout my four years of college in order to keep my parents off my back, and we’d never shared a single childhood story with each other. That could have been because our parents were family friends and we’d basically lived the same life, but we’d never gotten past complimenting the other’s appearance on our many “dates. ”
A thought leaped to the front of my mind. “Didn’t your Gong Gong go to all of your home games?” I bit my bottom lip after asking, afraid I had just made Theo sadder.
He reached up with his free hand and gently tugged my lips from between my teeth, brushing his hand along my jaw on its retreat back to his side.
“Don’t worry. You’re not going to upset me. And to answer your question, yeah, he did. I had a standing season ticket for him from my very first game with the Frost. He even tried to make it to most of my games up in Abbotsford. I’d try to tell him that it was too far for game days, but he always said that the drive was worth it. And I’d always cook him a terrible breakfast before he drove back the next day. He never complained, and I never gave him food poisoning, so that was a win.”
I laughed. “Yeah, I can’t cook either. If I can’t buy it precooked or eat it raw, it just doesn’t happen.”
“I know.” Theo smiled warmly. “It’s on your list.”
“Ugh.” I wanted to rub my face in embarrassment, but I dared not let go of the pillar of stability next to me. “I wish you hadn’t seen that.”
“I’m glad I did.” Theo was unrepentant in his purse-sleuthing activities. “I’d go with you, you know. Somewhere we could learn not to poison people with our cooking.”
The thought of Theo in an apron and an oversized chef’s hat had me smiling at him in return.
“I’ll think about it,” I offered.
“Okay, are you ready to try this on your own again?” he asked.
I realized he’d taken us on a full loop of the rink while we’d been talking.
“No. Can’t you just pull me over to the side? I bet it would be great to watch you skate from the players’ bench?” I looked at him hopefully.
“Nice try. Give it one more go, and then I’ll take you home, okay?” He gently detangled his arm from my death grip as he spoke.
Damn it. He didn’t fall for my charm. That was the trouble with knowing someone from childhood—they knew all your tricks, even if we hadn’t seen each other in years.
“Fine.” I steeled myself for another fall. Trying to keep my knees from locking straight again, I pushed myself a few inches forward before looking back at Theo. “But you are taking Giz out for her walk for me when we get home.” I jabbed a finger in his direction to let him know I was serious.
Unfortunately, my arm threw me off-balance, and I fell on my ass.
Again .
“This is your fault.” I glared at Theo in the mirror, switching between staring at the beginnings of a bruise that was bigger than both my hands that had started to form on the lower-right side of my ass cheek and continued around to the top side of my thigh. The dark red mark had already started to turn purple.
Theo, down to his boxers and a T-shirt, leaned against the headboard of my bed. Giz was lying next to his thigh, both having just come back from their walk while I got ready to shower. His gaze, firmly fixed on the bare skin of my ass that was revealed by my thong, darted quickly up to mine before returning to my backside.
“I’m sorry you’re hurting. But as long as your beautiful ass cheeks are in front of me, I can’t think of anything else but getting my hands on them.” He licked his lips, and his stare became more intense.
I grabbed the sides of my thong and pulled it by the sides out and away from my bruised flesh. Just to fuck with him, I bent over almost until my fingertips touched my toes and stepped out of the flimsy black silk one foot at a time. I widened my legs when I removed the garment from each leg. I made sure to show him the full menu I had on offer. Too bad he wouldn’t be dining at this restaurant tonight.
“God-fucking-damnit-shit!” The pained curses rolled off Theo’s tongue like they were one word he was groaning instead of many. “Rocky, what are you doing to me?” His tone turned growly. Mmm, my favorite.
I stuck my ass out for his maximum viewing pleasure as I slowly brought myself back to standing. Once I was upright, I met his eyes in the mirror. A glance at his groin showed his dark navy boxers tenting obscenely as he gripped the base of his now rigid length over the fabric.
He reached over to my side of the bed with his free hand and put my pillow in front of Giz, who was so little that she was hidden completely.
“Jesus, Rocky. She is just a baby. We can’t expose her to this kind of thing.” He gestured to my now hidden pup behind the white pillow, sweeping his hand toward his erection and then to my bare ass. “Just let me put her in her bed in the living room and…”
I made an exaggerated O shape with my mouth, bringing my hands to my bra, the only remaining piece of clothing I had on. I turned to face him while reaching around behind my back to release the clasp.
The bra fell to the ground with my other clothing. Theo made another low sound in his throat and put his arms on the bed to push himself up.
“I’m just going to grab a shower. You know, get as much hot water on these sore spots as possible.” I gestured to my ass. “No need to move Giz. You just relax, and I’ll be back in a bit to sleep .” I channeled my inner cartoon villain.
If he thought he was getting lucky tonight after bruise-a-palooza, he had another thing coming. As in, a matching set of blue balls. Not the kind of coming he had in mind.
A laugh escaped me when he flopped back onto the side of the bed he seemed to have claimed and earned himself a startled little growl from Giz.
I heard his petulant whisper as I crossed the threshold into the ensuite.
“Sorry, baby girl. I didn’t mean to scare you. You’re okay. But your mommy is super mean, did you know that?”