Blind Ice (Razors Ice Book 5) (6 page)

“Some. I should probably run home and grab a quick shower before the morning conference,” he said, interrupting her thoughts. “We’re going to start discussing marketing strategies for VINCE. It’s all happening, Julia. Just like you said it would.”

Reluctantly, they ended their marathon phone conversation and Julia was left with thoughts of Gabe in the shower.

Chapter Six

Pink

Wednesdays were a half day for Kate and her staff. She had just finished up with her last patient of the day and was headed into her office to finish up some paperwork when Janis intercepted her.

“You had a delivery.” There was a mixture of jealousy and curiosity in the CPO’s voice.

“Thanks. You can take off as soon as everything’s cleaned up.”

“Thank you.” Janis disappeared, anxious to call it a day.

When Kate went into her office she was greeted by a bouquet of pink roses sitting on the desk. The unmistakable fragrance of roses perfumed the air.

She sat down and spun the crystal vase around in a circle. Every bloom was perfect and smelled sweet and spicy. It had been ages since she’d received flowers, much less
roses
. She’d had them at her wedding as was customary, but Carl didn’t court her with them like he should have.

These roses weren’t from her ex-husband.

Kate found the card and removed it from the little envelope. The card read: “Dinner was delicious.”

Delicious
. Her cheeks flushed and she pressed a palm to her heated face.

Just as Kate started to close her eyes and relive the events of the night before, Janis stuck her head into Kate’s office. “Jenny Shepard is here to see you. She said it’ll only take a minute.”

“Sure. Send her in.”

Janis nodded. “If you don’t need anything else, I’m taking off.”

“I’m good. Have a nice evening.”

Janis left and Jenny bounded through the door, trendy sunglasses perched on her head, holding her long hair behind her ears. “Ooh, pretty roses. They look expensive. My mom said I should make an appointment and that you’d probably be too busy to see me, but I had to come in and thank you. These contacts have literally changed my life, Dr. K.”

All this came out in one breath and Kate waved her in to sit down. “Are they working out all right? No discomfort or irritation?”

“Yeah. They’re great. It’s still totally weird touching my eyeball and I was scared to do it on my own at first, but it’s totally worth it. Boys are actually
noticing
me at school.”

“That’s great to hear, Jenny.”

“You wanna know the first thing I did when I left your office with ‘em on? I put sunglasses on! I’ve never been able to wear them before. Even though it was cloudy and I didn’t really
need
them, I just had to see what it was like to finally get to wear them.”

Kate smiled. “I’m so glad they’re working out for you. Call me if you ever need anything.”

“I will,” Jenny said and turned to leave. “Thanks again, Dr. K.,” she called over her shoulder.

Kate watched as Jenny practically skipped out of the office. The teen was obviously on cloud nine and Kate was glad to think she’d helped put her there.

Those were the kind of visits that made her job worthwhile.

When Julia began to lose her sight, Kate had been so scared. And not just for her sister. Kate had been secretly fearful that suddenly she’d be stricken with the same condition and lose her sight, too. It was a selfish fear, an ignorant one. One that she was ashamed of and one she didn’t share with anyone. The last thing Julia needed to hear was how afraid her sister was of suffering the same fate.

So, Kate had tucked away the fear and focused on the things that really mattered—Julia’s wellbeing and educating herself. Choosing optometry had been an easy choice, the only one, really. Ever since Julia’s diagnosis, Kate had only one interest, one obsession, and that was the study of the human eye. She knew that when she finally became an optometrist after years and years of school, she wasn’t going to suddenly find a cure her sister. But the field intrigued her nonetheless and it was the only career path she could see herself taking. During her adolescence it felt good to have a goal—something to strive for, something to keep her on track, focused.

The alarm on her phone went off, reminding her that it was time to meet Julia for yoga.

Kate sniffed the roses one last time and grabbed her purse. Julia would have no problem giving her hell if she was even a minute late.

* * *

Kate had been practicing yoga ever since her divorce—according to Carl, the practice was “inappropriate voodoo”—and had eventually talked Julia into joining her. From the first class, Julia became hooked. The two sisters had spent so much time preoccupied with everything around them that it was nice to focus on connecting with their own bodies once in a while. Julia had taken some private one-on-one classes with an instructor and had moved on to group classes once she was comfortable with the poses.

Julia positioned her yoga mat on the floor next to Kate’s and listened to the din of conversation around her. As usual, one of the women was fishing for compliments and was delighted when the instructor noticed her new yoga pants. Two women in the corner talked in hushed tones about—

Well, Julia thought, blushing, she didn’t care to eavesdrop on
that
kind of conversation.

It was amazing how much information people revealed when they didn’t realize someone was listening. Most of the time it seemed as if they
wanted
the whole world to know their business.

Tuning out the room, Julia focused on Kate. “How was last night?” she asked her sister. “I listened to Havergal Brian’s
The Gothic
in its entirety. And it’s two hours long.”

“I, uh, I made penne rigate and salad with that raspberry vinaigrette you like.”

Julia smirked. She could tell that tone of voice anywhere. “You got laid!” she whispered.

“Julia!” Kate whispered back. “How’d you—what makes you think… God, there’s no fooling you, is there?”

“Who is he and what did he do to get you so flustered?”

Phew, flustered wasn’t the half of it. Kate didn’t dare tell Julia that Logan was one of her patients. It was bad enough that she’d broken the sacred code of professionalism. “His name is Logan. He’s a hockey player. He plays for the Razors.”

“
How’d you meet?
” Julia drew out the question like a fifth grade girl would.

Sheesh, there it was. The inevitable.

Kate grimaced. She couldn’t lie to her sister. Besides, Julia would catch the lie as soon as it left her lips anyway. “At the office.”

“Wow. So, your new persona is working!” Julia was happy for Kate and excited to hear that she’d met someone new. She’d sat with her as she packed away tubs of ice cream after her divorce from Carl. And then, after allowing a sufficient grieving period, Julia had nudged her sister back out into the real world to reclaim her life. And it was starting to look like it had worked.

Kate blew out a breath and moved from half lotus position into lotus pose. “Like you wouldn’t even believe.”

The fluid movements put Kate even more in tune with her already happily humming body and she felt like a hormone-fueled teenager by the end of the class.

* * *

Logan was wearing his jersey, but it wasn’t a game day. Today he would join his teammates on a trip to the Red Valley Children’s Hospital. There, they would spend some time with the kids and show their support. The visit would put things in perspective by allowing them to step into another world for the day and experience what the kids were going through. It would be nice to see a smile on their faces; a smile here and there was all Logan and his teammates could offer.

“Best behavior, boys,” Cody Lambert, the team’s captain reminded them as they strode into the hospital as a group.

“Yeah, you’d better watch the f-bombs, Trik,” Pete Fontaine commented.

A pained expression settled over Trik’s face. “Oh, fuck, I forgot.”

Pete doubled over with laughter and Cody and Logan shook their heads at the genuine look of horror on Trik’s face. The guy really did have a difficult time watching his language. Hopefully when they passed through the front doors of the hospital his brain would kick on the propriety filter.

The big, burly hockey players dressed in jerseys and jeans looked out of place in the halls of the bleak hospital. A few of the nurses eyed the players like they had never seen a man before—or at least had one warm their bed in a long, long while.

Logan didn’t pay much attention to the appreciative glances sent his way by the female staff. He was here for the kids. Trik, on the other hand, was a completely different story. He would probably be discovered humping a nurse in a broom closet somewhere before the day was over.

One of the nurses approached Logan and fluttered long spidery eyelashes at him. “Hi, my name’s Kammie.” She pointed to the nametag that was pinned awfully close to her left breast. By the mischievous look in her eyes, she had meant to graze her fingers across her nipple while needlessly pointing out her name to him. “Kammie with a
K
,” she added.

“Hey Kammie.” Logan looked around the lobby. As expected, there was some confusion as the event coordinator attempted to give direction to twenty guys so that they could make the most of their trip and visit as many patients as possible.

“Let me know if you need anything while you’re here. Anything at all.”

“Okay.”

“Here, why don’t I give you my number so you can call me if anything comes up?”

Logan almost winced at the double entendre, but he didn’t. He was here for the kids and he was also representing the Razors organization as a whole.

Once again, he found himself disinterested in the woman in front of him doling out advances like an ATM.

Before he knew what was happening, Kammie with a
K
had taken his phone from him. With a sensual cock of her hip and a tilt of her head, she typed in her number and handed the phone back to him—but not before she made sure her hand brushed against his during the exchange.

Logan shot her a polite smile that she couldn’t tell was just to placate her. When he could free himself of her grasp—just because he was a pro athlete, some women thought they could get extra handsy with him—Logan got back to the real reason he was here.

He and Trik paired up together, but when they were separated in the hoopla of taking photos and meeting excited parents, Logan moved on to the next room without his linemate.

Inside, a little boy lay in the big hospital bed, bandages wrapped around his head. He looked helpless, unable to see the world around him—the dangers and the wonders.

Logan cleared his throat to alert the little guy of his presence. “Hi, I’m Logan.”

The kid perked up and Logan was glad to see it. “You play for the Razors, right?”

“Yeah.”

“They told us you were coming.”

Logan moved further into the room and away from the sound of Trik flirting mercilessly with one of the nurses in the hall. Kammie-with-a-K was spreading herself awfully thin.

“We stopped by to give you guys some pucks and trading cards,” Logan told the kid.

The boy held his hand out and Logan dropped a signed puck onto his palm.

“Thanks.”

“Sure, no problem.”

Unable to see, the kid felt his way around the tiny ridges on the puck with his finger.

The image of the small boy clutching the puck to his chest would stay with Logan long after he left the hospital.

After saying goodbye to the boy, Logan walked into the next room and found a little girl sitting up in her bed. Tubes snaked from her frail body and her slender shoulders were slumped over the tray that stretched over her lap. Her tongue was sticking out, clamped between her teeth and she was attempting to paint her fingernails. Her little hands were shaking and the nail polish brush kept slipping from the nail and onto the skin.

She was probably eight or ten, but Logan didn’t really know. He wasn’t around kids enough to recognize what age they were just by looking at one. Either way, she looked like she belonged playing in a bouncy castle rather than lying in a hospital bed. Hell, all the kids here did.

“Hey there,” he said gently so as not to startle her. “My name’s Logan.”

She looked up at him and Logan found himself staring into the brownest eyes he’d ever seen.

She licked her cracked lips and gave him the barest hint of a smile. “I’m Rebecca.” She put the applicator brush back into the bottle and looked him up and down. “You’re very tall.”

He smiled. “Yeah. Watcha doin’?” he asked, not sure of what else to say.

She examined her nails and picked pink polish from her cuticles. “Painting my nails.”

“That’s cool,” he said lamely but she didn’t seem to mind. “I brought you a puck and some cards.”

She took the autographed trading card from him and looked it over front and back. “You’re a hockey player.”

“Yeah. Do you like hockey?”

Standing over her, he felt like Goliath to her David, so Logan pulled a chair over and sat down next to the bed.

He wanted to ask what was wrong with her. Why she had so many tubes and machines hooked up to her. But he didn’t. That wasn’t what he was here for—to remind her of her condition, whatever it was—he was here to hopefully put a smile on her face and take her mind off of her diagnosis and bring some light into her life.