Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 113072 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113072 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
“I see that now,” Darcy admits. “Even so, you’re crashing girls’ night, Steve. We came here because we thought it was safe from interruption. You’re going to have to make it up to us.”
He sighs. “Ma’am, could we have three of your mocktails, please? And put it on my bill. Nothing says I value your time better than a watermelon-ginger shrub. Right, girls?”
I snort, but Darcy nods. “Yes. You’re doing much better now.” She whips out her phone and snaps a quick picture of Steve with his feet in the tub. “For blackmail later,” she says. “Now what did you need to discuss with me?”
He leans back, hands behind his head. “You can’t blackmail a happy man, Darcy. And tonight’s business is with Zoe.”
My stomach drops.
He waits to elaborate until the manager brings us three tall glasses on a tray. The mocktail is pink, with a jaunty sprig of mint at the rim. It’s too pretty to ignore, so I take a fortifying gulp and wait to hear Sailor’s demands.
He takes a sip and smiles. “Delicious. We should do this more often.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Darcy says. “Just put Zoe out of her misery already. She looks like a prisoner on her way to the gallows.”
“Okay, it’s like this,” he says. “Before the playoffs begin, we’ll have our annual charity jamboree benefiting the owner’s favorite cause—Save the Children.”
My eyebrows lift. “That’s a great charity. But what’s a jamboree?”
“Oh, it’s a fun time,” Darcy explains. “They sell out every seat in the practice rink, plus standing room. That’s over a thousand tickets at five hundred bucks each. People come early for pictures with the players, autographed swag, and free drinks…”
“Free?” I gasp. “Don’t you mean five-hundred-dollar drinks?”
“Accurate.” Sailor grins. “After the cocktail hour, the show starts. There are some three-on-three matches, but with all the players in the wrong positions. You get to watch the goalie score on the center. Or sometimes it’s three on three with the right players, but the puck is a beach ball. Or the stick is a pool noodle.”
I smile in spite of myself as I try to picture Chase swatting a beach ball into the net with a pool noodle.
“There’s usually a mascot fight,” Sailor adds. “And raffle winners can put on skates and try to score on the goalies during intermission.”
“Yeah, okay. That sounds like fun,” I admit. “But I don’t see what that has to do with me.”
Sailor’s smile turns cunning, and I’m instantly on guard. “You’d be the star attraction, Zoe. You and Chase will do your thing.”
“Our thing,” I repeat slowly. “We don’t have a thing.”
“The internet disagrees!” he cackles. “I need you and Chase to perform a figure skating number. You’ll raise the profile of the event, which means higher-priced tickets. We can even auction off the last hundred seats. Zoe, you could help us raise a hundred thousand extra dollars for charity. Don’t let the children down.”
“Oh, Steve.” Darcy shakes her head. “You manipulative bastard. So if Zoe doesn’t want to spend a month rehearsing a sport she left behind with a hockey player who’d rather be anywhere else on Earth, then she’s harming sick children? Do I have that right?”
“Sick and hungry children.” He shrugs. “I don’t make the rules.”
I groan. Loudly.
“She’d also be harming Chase,” he adds. “That man needs to get back into the fans’ good graces, and Zoe should help him. It’s her fault that the internet thinks he punched a fan. I mean—what better way is there to make him lovable again?”
“Just devil’s advocate,” Darcy says, sipping her drink. “He could win some damn hockey games. That’s what the fans really want.”
“Not all the fans,” says my pedicurist abruptly. “As far as I’m concerned, he could fall down a flight of stairs instead.”
I gasp, and for the first time since he arrived, Sailor looks alarmed. “Wow. Aren’t nail salons supposed to be soothing?”
“This is Toronto,” the young woman says. “What would you expect?” She looks up at me suddenly. “That said, I’m going to need you to skate with Chase Merritt again, because that was hot. Even Toronto fans enjoyed the hell out of that video.”
Et tu, Kim?
“You see?” Sailor crows, and his smug tone of voice makes me want to stab him with the straw from my drink. “The whole world thinks you should do it.”
“Not the whole world,” I insist. “Chase won’t. He needs to focus on his game. He’s fighting for his life this year and you know it.”
Sailor waves away my argument with a flick of his hand. “How hard could it be to skate pretty for three or four minutes?”
My head goes thunk into my hands.
“Oh, Steve,” Darcy says with a shake of her head. “You were doing pretty well until right this second.”
“This is a terrible idea,” I moan. “Chase will hate it. He’ll never do it. He shouldn’t, either. It would only be a distraction.”