Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CATALINA
I skidded to a stop, ice spraying up behind me. I turned around, my long plait flying out behind me. I flicked it back over my shoulder and grinned.
"How was that?"
"Not bad." Dad scribbled my time down on his clipboard.
"Not bad?" I scoffed. "That has to have been one of my fastest times since I've been back in Opal Springs." It felt good. Every bend was almost effortless. If I was in form like that, or better, for the trials, I'd be on the Olympic team in a heartbeat. I'd leave my competition in my wake.
"There's always room for improvement." He looked up from his clipboard before tucking it under his arm. "You need to bend your right elbow less when you come out of the band."
"Why have an A+ when you can have an A+ +," I said dryly.
"Anything less won't get you where you want to go," he said steadily.
"But that was definitely better than you've done in a while.
You're more confident than I've seen you.
More so than before you hurt your knee. Does this have anything to do with a certain hockey player who took you out the other night? "
"Is this where you swap your coach hat for your dad hat?" He'd always worry about me, no matter what I did or who I went out with. I loved him for it, but I was too old to be fussed over.
"After Jason—" he started.
"Easton isn't Jason," I said. In response to Dad's raised eyebrows, I continued, "He's nicer. Much more…"
"If you're about to say humble, I'll laugh now and get it over with. He seems all right, but at the end of the day he's ambitious. He'll do anything to get ahead. Just like Jason."
I couldn't help bristling. "You don't even know him."
"Neither do you," Dad pointed out. "One date doesn't make you an expert on him and his motives."
"His motives?" I raised my gloved hands and dropped them to my sides with a slap.
"Are you concerned about my virtue now? I didn't realise we stepped back into the nineteen fifties.
" What was it with people in this town? The assumption I couldn't take care of myself was starting to grate on my nerves.
"I care about you," Dad said firmly. He ran a hand over the back of his neck. "Let's talk about this later, at home. We have twenty minutes left, let's not waste it."
"You could save yourself some time and get off the ice now." I hadn't seen Cruz and Shaw approach, but they both stood at the side of the rink, dressed for training.
I narrowed my eyes at Cruz. "What the fuck are you talking about?"
He clicked his tongue condescendingly and gestured over to my father. "What language is that in front of your coach?"
"None of your fucking business," I retorted. "If you have something to say, come out and say it."
He shrugged. "Fine. You're wasting your time skating around like that. Go and empty some anal glands and leave the ice to the experts."
I was tempted to kick him in the anal glands with the blade of my skate. Instead, I stood my ground and glared at him and Shaw, who seemed to agree with everything he said.
"Mind your own business," I snapped. I turned to Dad and rolled my eyes.
He helpfully gave me an 'I told you so' glance and smirked at both players.
I shook my head. He was just as bad as they were. It must be a man thing.
"Let's go again," I said. Hands behind my back, I skated back to the starting cone. I couldn't let Cruz get to me. I had to keep my focus.
"What happens on our ice is our business," Cruz called out. "Right, Shaw?"
"She shouldn't be here," Shaw said, his tone dark. Even darker than Cruz's.
I turned back to look at him.
Shaw's jaw clenched. The expression on his face sent chills down my spine.
Every nerve in my body told me to move away from him as far and as fast as I could.
And stay as far away from him as possible.
I could almost see him thinking he wanted to wrap his hands around my throat and squeeze hard enough to crush my windpipe.
I pictured his face looking down at me while I struggled for breath.
Squeezing. Squeezing. Only letting go when there was no life left in me.
I swallowed and looked away. I'd like to think I wasn't easily scared, but he freaked me the fuck out.
"What are you dickheads waiting for?" Easton shouted out cheerfully. Dean was right behind him.
"Princess bitch is still occupying the ice," Cruz replied. "Shaw and I were just about to—"
"Shut the fuck up!" Dad snapped. "Catalina is training. She's just as entitled to her time as you are yours."
Cruz muttered something that sounded like, 'entitled sounds about right,' but he didn't say anything further.
I shot Dad a grateful look, which he responded to with a grunt and a grimace.
I leaned forward, ready to start another lap.
"Sorry about that, Doctor Ryan," Easton shouted. "Cruz doesn't know when to shut up sometimes."
I straightened up, frustrated by the distraction.
Why had Easton spoken right then? I glanced around to see him grinning and accepting a high-five from Cruz.
The asshole did it on purpose? Of course he did.
Dinner last night was all about him winning a bet, he didn't give a shit about me.
Thank fuck I hadn't slept with him when I wanted to.
I reminded myself that was only because he stopped it before we went too far. If he hadn't, I would have fucked him.
You need to make some better life choices, I told myself.
Easton caught my eye and smiled. He even had the nerve to wink.
I gave him a filthy look and flipped him off.
By now, most of the team was standing on the edge of the rink, watching. All of them laughed, except Shaw and Dean. Shaw's expression hadn't changed, and Dean looked bothered. I couldn't tell whether it was by my presence or the way his team was treating me.
Either way, I looked away and gathered up every bit of focus I had left. I shut out all of the assholes and waited for the word from Dad.
"Go," he said with more urgency and meaning than usual. He was as pissed off as I was and wanted me to show those assholes what I was made of.
I started to skate, flying across the ice until the rest of the world washed away. Nothing was left but me and the air rushing past my ears, the power of my legs, the slice of my skates and the joy of doing something I loved more than just about anything.
I slid into the first corner, taking it effortlessly.
The fingertips of my gloves grazed the surface of the ice, but I barely needed the contact to stay up on my skates.
My left knee bent almost double before I came up out of the bend.
Even that was almost effortless. My knee felt stronger today. With any luck it would stay that way.
I skated hard, leaning forward, arms back, hands tucked away to make me more aerodynamic. I flew into the second bend.
I knew the moment I hit it that my angle was off. Nothing I couldn't fix. I'd corrected myself a million times before. I did so again, but a twinge in my knee forced me to drop to the ice. I landed on my side and slid until I crashed into the boards at the side of the rink.
I hit and bounced with a jolt of pain through my shoulder and hip, but the impact wasn't enough to break any bones. This time.
I slid to a stop and got to my feet to howls of laughter from the watching hockey players.
I turned to glare in time to see Easton start a sarcastic clap which was taken by the rest of them one by one.
Cruz was grinning like he'd never seen something so amusing in his life. He held his phone in one hand and was clapping his thigh with the other. Recording my fall, like the asshole he was.
Dean was clapping, but looked uncertain, uneasy. He glanced around at his teammates, his lips pressed hard together.
I saw no sign of Shaw. No doubt he could watch Cruz's video over and over and have a good laugh later. If he knew how to laugh.
"You okay, Cat?" Dad called out.
"I'm fine," I said as lightly as I could. I glanced at the clock on the wall. It read a minute before eight. Time to get off the ice. I nodded to Dad, and followed him through the gate and passed the players who were ready to file on for their training.
"Nice display," Cruz said as I stepped past him. "Very elegant."
I stopped to look up at him. "I thought so. Maybe we could practice some synchronised board smashing some time. I'm pretty sure you'd be good at it. You seemed to spend enough time being slammed into them during the game the other night."
He smirked. "That's supposed to happen when you play hockey, not when you ice race. Or was that ice slip?" He exchanged glances and grins with Easton.
"You're both ice holes," I told them. I couldn't help but give Easton a particularly bitter, dirty look. I thought we had a nice time last night, but clearly I was wrong. He was laughing behind my back along with the rest of them.
"Yeah, she's hot for you," Cruz said to him. "I see what you mean when you said she was panting for your cock."
Easton said that? He was a bigger asshole than I suspected.
The only thing I didn't understand was why he didn't sleep with me.
That was the point, wasn't it? To get laid.
Especially knowing he could come back and tell the team all about it and have another good laugh at my expense.
Apparently he did that anyway. He probably told them I sucked him off or something.
The stupid thing was, I would have and, for that, I felt like shit.
Not as bad as I would have if I'd done it.
Dad stopped, turned around and came back to stand beside me. "That's my daughter you're talking about. May I remind you I am a fully qualified medical doctor. I know at least a hundred ways to end your careers without anyone suspecting me." He smiled unpleasantly.
"I can fight my own battles," I said under my breath.
He patted my shoulder. "Of course you can, I thought they might need a reminder. I'm sure they already know a vet knows more than a hundred ways to get back at them if she wants to. And dispose of the evidence inside one of her patients."
"I don't want to get back at them," I eyed Cruz and Easton in particular. "I just want them to stay the fuck away from me."
"That's all we want too," Cruz said. "Not to have some princess hanging around distracting us and fucking with our team unity."
In the corner of my eye, I saw Dean watching Cruz. He looked as though he had something to say, but was holding back. Once again, I wasn't sure if he agreed with Cruz or wanted him to lay off me.
I didn't care, he could stay away from me too.
I shook my head, turned and walked away. I didn't give a shit what any of them said, I wasn't going to stop practising. I wasn't going to let them distract me either.