Chapter 38
Chase leads me into a bedroom that’s lit only by the New York skyline. Those floor-to-ceiling windows make the place feel like a movie set. “You need anything?”
“Not really. I’m already wearing pajamas.” Not sexy ones, either. That’s what I get for running out the door impulsively. And the big bruise on my chin doesn’t make me any more attractive.
He turns back the covers like a hotel employee. Then he makes a stop at his chest of drawers and pulls out a pair of flannel pants. “I’ll bring you a glass of water, too. One sec.”
I get into Chase’s bed alone. How am I supposed to sleep here? It smells like Chase. I lie back against his pillow and gaze out at the Manhattan skyline. This room faces the opposite direction from the terrace, so I have an oblique view of the Empire State Building.
A few minutes later, he enters the room shirtless, in pajama pants. I practically swallow my tongue at the view. He sets a glass of water beside me on the table, then sits on the edge of the bed. “Are you okay? You had a wild day.”
He isn’t wrong. “I’m okay. I’m better now, actually. I needed to know the whole story.”
“Mmm,” he says, lifting a hand to cup my face. He inspects the bruise on my face by gently tilting my chin and passing his thumb across the spot. “When you showed up here, it stirred up a lot for me. I’d been angry for a long time, but I never had to think too hard about why.”
“I…” My throat closes up. “I thought maybe you wouldn’t even remember me.”
His thumb halts its path across my face, and he stares. “Remember you? Zoe, I measure every woman I meet against what we had that summer. And they’ve all fallen short. I spent ten years trying to forget you, and I couldn’t do it. Not even for a single day.”
It’s the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me. By a country mile.
So I ruin it by crying.
“Oh no. Oh, honey,” he whispers frantically. “Hey now.” He sweeps a tear off my face with his thumb. Then strong arms scoop me into a hug. A fantastic hug. The kind I’ve been needing for a decade.
I rest my cheek against his chest and feel eighteen again. “I want…” I take a gasping breath. “I want a do-over. B-but…”
He goes absolutely still. “But?”
“But it aches to want something so much.”
His arms close more tightly around me. “I want that, too. Just breathe, Zoe. We’ll be okay. And today was a lot. Do you need anything?”
“Just… hug me awhile?”
“That’s easy,” he says, nudging me over so he can get into bed. “Come here.”
I lay my head down on his chest while he strokes my hair, and I fall asleep.
Some hours later, I wake up to blinding sunshine streaming through the window, and Chase snugged up against my back. His hand rests firmly on my hip, and I like it so much that I don’t move for a minute, even though the sun is roasting me.
“Mmrrph,” he says a moment later. “Too sunny.”
I roll onto my back. “That’s what you get for living in an aquarium, Hotshot.”
Eyes closed, he fumbles for a small remote on the bedside table. He pushes a button, and the window blinds slightly adjust their angle, blocking the worst of it but leaving the room pleasantly bright. “There.”
“You pampered thing,” I say. “It’s a marvel you haven’t lost your edge.”
He reaches over and squeezes my hip again, extending his fingers just slightly onto my tummy. Where I’m horribly ticklish.
I shriek.
He laughs. “Watch the commentary, lady. I can still push your buttons.” He sits up. “Coffee?”
“Am I breathing?”
He gives me a catty smile. “Splash of milk, right? Just like mine?”
The memory of all our synchronicities socks me in the chest. “Yes, please.”
“Help yourself to anything in my bathroom. And I think I know where I can score you a pair of sweatpants that might fit. Hang on.”
He leaves the room, and I investigate his luxury bathroom, done up in light wood and sage-colored glass tiles. I treat myself to a quick shower under an outrageously overdesigned showerhead and then snag a fluffy white towel off a stack of them.
I’d bet a hundred bucks, which is all the money I have, that someone else cleans this bathroom.
In Chase’s medicine cabinet I find an unopened toothbrush from United Airlines and help myself to the toothpaste.
When I’m feeling refreshed, I venture out into his bedroom in my fluffy towel just as Chase is entering the room with a tray containing two glasses of orange juice and two mugs of coffee.
The tray wobbles suddenly, and I extend a hand to steady it. “Oh heck! Problem?”
“Hmm?” Chase asks distractedly. Then he peels his eyes off my cleavage and meets my gaze. “Um, coffee’s ready.”
“That’s so nice,” I say, taking the tray from his strangely incompetent grasp. “Is it getting late? You probably have morning skate.”
“It’s optional today, and I’m blowing it off. This is for you,” he says, pointing at the bed, where there’s a pair of sweatpants with the Brooklyn Bruisers logo running down the leg.
“Enemy sweatpants?” I yelp.
He grins. “Tremaine’s hookup left them in his apartment to be obnoxious. They’re clean, and they’re probably your size. I found you a Legends sweatshirt to counterbalance it, though.”
“Good thinking. Right back!” I grab the clothes and dash into his bathroom again to get dressed.
When I emerge, Chase is seated on the freshly made bed, still shirtless, which I appreciate. He smiles over the rim of his coffee cup when I appear. “Get it while it’s hot.”
Oh, I wish. I join him on the bed, and he hands me a mug. The coffee is the exact shade that I would have made it for myself. I take a sip. “It’s perfect. Thanks. But you don’t have to blow off morning skate for me. Nolan Sharp is still not your biggest fan.”
“Yeah.” He chuckles. “I know, and it’s a problem. But I was planning to skip anyway. I have a meeting later, but it’s a secret.”
“A secret meeting? With who?”
“Hold on.” He trades my coffee for the OJ. “Try this. Fresh squeezed by Marnie.”
“Wow” is all I can say after my first sip. “Maybe I’ll marry her. Now what’s this meeting?”
He takes a sip of his juice, too. “It’s a lunch with an old friend who plays for Montreal. I’m pretty sure he invited me out because they’re thinking about making an offer.”
It takes me a second to understand. “Oh. Do you want a contract with them? You’d have to move to Montreal?”
He takes a thoughtful sip. “Honestly, I’m not sure. I have a nice setup here. I think you called it my Mojo Dojo Hockey House?”
I cringe.
He grins. “The thing is? I love New York, and I love living next door to my two best friends. But I’m twenty-nine years old.
This contract will be my last one. I want to go somewhere they appreciate me, Zoe.
I don’t want to end my career as Nolan Sharp’s whipping boy.
Montreal is a good option. And if a little competition makes Sharp appreciate me more, that’s not the worst outcome, either. ”
“That’s great,” I say, forcing a smile. Even though I can’t imagine the Legends team without him. “When will you have to decide?”
“Not for a while. I can’t sign with anyone else until July. Bess will use the time to get Sharp’s offer up a bit. He’s lowballing me a little.”
“A little,” I repeat. “Does this mean the bar shove hasn’t tanked your career?”
He takes a slow sip of the coffee and sets the mug down on the bedside table. “Since we’re in our honesty era, it’s only fair to tell you that I never thought it would ruin me.”
My heart leaps. “And your sponsors? They’re staying?”
“Looks like it. IronForm wants to book a new photo shoot, and they wouldn’t do that if they were going to bail.”
“IronForm?”
He grins. “Men’s athletic underwear.”
“You model underwear?” I’m totally googling that the minute I get home. “And that means…” I drain my excellent juice and hand him the glass. “You’re not losing a million dollars?”
Slowly he shakes his head.
And then the other shoe drops. “So why did you say yes to the jamboree? If you didn’t really have to?”
He sets my glass aside and leans back against the headboard.
I get a little distracted by his shifting six-pack and the blond hairs coalescing into a trail beneath his navel.
“I told you how confused I’ve been since you showed up.
This season had been a disaster from the jump.
The truth is I just… wanted to skate with you again. I said yes to Steve on impulse.”
“On impulse,” I repeat slowly. “Like that usually ends well.”
He shrugs, causing another delicious ripple across his chest. “I don’t know, Zoe. I’ve never believed that impulse is the devil you think it is. Sometimes it feels like the reason we’re alive.”
The reason we’re alive. Suddenly I can’t stop staring at all his golden skin. “Oh. I never thought of it that way.”
He tips his head to the side, and his blue eyes track me just the way they used to. With love and attention. “I know, Ice Princess. Breaking old habits is hard.”
“Usually,” I agree. But Chase has always been an exception for me. And maybe he still is.
Maybe that’s why I’m able to stretch out a hand and place it on Chase’s chest, my palm over his heart. “I’m glad you said yes,” I whisper.
“Are you?” he whispers back. But I think we’re not talking about the jamboree anymore. His gaze drops to my hand and then returns to my mouth. And he licks his lips.
Fuck it. It feels risky to tip forward and kiss his chest, right over that weird, spidery scar. But I do it, because it feels even riskier not to.
Chase makes a shocked noise in his throat.
But a half second later, he wraps his hand around my hair and tugs me upward, until we’re nose to nose.
My whole view is a pair of blue eyes that I’ve missed for nearly a decade.
Those beautiful eyes dip to my lips for half a second.
And then he claims my mouth with one slick motion.
Oh.
Oh damn. I’d forgotten how a kiss from Chase is a whole-body experience. I sink onto his hard chest as his hands draw me in. His knee cocks against my hip, holding me steady, anchoring me in place.