Crossing the Ice (21 page)

We eased down together on our knees, and my hands slipped under his T-shirt and along his waistband, getting a tantalizing taste of his warm skin. It only made me starve for more.

I nudged up his shirt, and Josh did the rest, tossing it aside. I placed my palm on his smooth chest and felt the rapid thump-thump of his heart. Mine was beating with the same heady rhythm. Leaning forward, I touched my lips to his neck and kissed my way across his tense shoulder. His arms tightened around me, his hands massaging my back more urgently. He laid me onto the blanket, and I opened my mouth to him, drinking in all his hunger and need. His lips felt like fire, and his tongue fanned the flames.

His hand moved down my shirt, opening the line of buttons, and his mouth followed, leaving a trail of kisses from my neck to my stomach. The heat of his breath on my belly made me squirm with desire, and I lifted up, letting Josh slide the shirt from my shoulders. His eyes lowered to my body, and his breaths came harder and quicker. He tangled his fingers in my hair and captured my mouth once more. I fell into him, and we tumbled onto the blanket, Josh pinned beneath me.

I kissed his silky lips again and again and didn’t realize he’d unhooked my bra until I felt air on my back. The surprise and a little bit of fear shocked me out of our kiss. I pushed myself up so I was straddling his waist, and I watched a hint of uncertainty skim across his eyes as if he wasn’t sure he should’ve made that move.

I’d never let anyone see this much of me, but I wanted it with Josh. I wanted to press myself to him and feel his heart race even faster. I wanted to see the look in his eyes when he touched me. It scared me how much closer I wanted to be with him, but it was the good kind of fear… the exhilarating kind.

I pulled down the straps and let the material fall away. Josh gazed hotly at me, all uncertainty gone, and he grasped both my hands.

“Come here,” he whispered.

I bent over him, and my hair draped around us. His kiss was slow and gentle, as were his hands, thrilling me with every touch. We rolled onto our sides, and I trembled as his fingertips traced the length of my spine.

“Are you cold?” he asked, holding me closer to his chest.

I stared into his beautiful eyes. “I’m perfect.”

He smiled and kissed my forehead. The fire crackled quietly behind us but was then overshadowed by the ringing of Josh’s phone. He groaned and reached onto the coffee table to take the call. His brow knitted as he looked at the screen.

“Steph?” he answered.

I looked at the clock on the cable box. Why was she calling so late from New York? I curled up and covered myself with the edge of the blanket.

“You’re home?” he said.

My eyes grew big, and Josh raked his hand through his hair.

“I um… I’m on Martha’s Vineyard. I came for the day with some friends and our ferry was cancelled because of the weather.”

A pause followed, and Josh said, “Yeah, we’re at a hotel.”

I watched as he fidgeted with a book on the coffee table. The number of lies we were telling was multiplying at an astronomical rate.

The conversation continued only another minute. Josh put down the phone and joined me under the blanket, hugging me against him.

“She’s home?” I asked.

“She flew back early because of bad weather in New York tomorrow.”

“And I guess she saw your car was there but you weren’t.”

He twisted one of my long curls around his finger. “I don’t know how much longer we can keep this a secret.”

“I know. I hate lying to Em and Sergei. I’m just dreading Mark’s reaction.”

“After Skate America we’ll have to decide what to do.”

I hooked my arm around him and closed my eyes. The truth had to be told, but I wanted to hang on to our peaceful existence as long as possible. As soon as everyone knew, they were going to hate all over our relationship. Josh and I only had a few months left together, and dealing with constant negativity and people who wanted to split us up wasn’t how I wanted to spend the time.

Chapter Sixteen

The hotel lobby at international skating events was always a fascinating scene with conversations in various languages filling the air. Standing among the loud chatter at the High Peaks Resort, I examined the colorful practice and competition schedule on the bulletin board. I was so antsy to get the ball rolling and compete the next night. I was also antsy to get the meeting between my parents and Josh rolling. There was nowhere in the little town of Lake Placid we could meet privately, so Josh was going to “run into” us in the lobby in a few minutes. I’d told my parents we were dating on the down-low, so they were aware this had to appear to be a casual spontaneous conversation.

“Hey, Honey.” Mom came up and put her arm around me.

“Hey.” I gave her a hug and did the same with Dad behind her. “Did you get settled in?”

“The room is beautiful,” she said. “We have a great view of the mountains.”

“It’s so pretty here. Liza and I walked all around yesterday and took a million pictures.”

Dad pushed his glasses higher on his nose and glanced around the lobby. “So, do you have to send The Piano Man the secret code word to come down?”

“Did you just call Josh
The Piano Man
?”

“Well, I thought we should have a code name for him in case anyone’s listening when we talk about you, and your mom said he plays the piano.”

I laughed and shook my head. Dad’s goofy sense of humor had caused me many moments of embarrassment when I was a teenager. He didn’t look like a guy who would crack jokes with his thick glasses and always-buttoned-up shirts, but he’d quietly sneak in the funny when least expected.

“He should be here in a few minutes,” I said.

“Are The Piano Man’s parents here this weekend?” Mom asked.

My laughter resurfaced. “You don’t have to call him that. No one’s listening to us right now. But yeah, his mom is here.”

“I wish we could meet her and spend more time with Josh. He seemed like a sweet boy when I saw him at the rink… and from what you’ve told me.”

“He is. He’s—” I spotted him coming out of the elevator, and my heart beat a little faster. “The sweetest guy I’ve ever known.”

Josh’s eyes brightened as they connected with mine, and then he quickly looked away. He walked with purpose toward the restaurant off the lobby but slowed when he approached us, giving us a little wave.

“Hey, Court.”

I waved back, laughing internally at the ridiculousness of the charade. “Hey, what’s going on?”

“I was just going to check out the dinner menu.” He extended his hand to Mom. “It’s good to see you again, Mrs. Carlton.”

“It’s wonderful to see you, too.” Mom smiled bigger than a casual meeting would inspire.

“Dad, this is Josh Tucker,” I said.

Josh shook his hand. “Nice to meet you, Sir.”

“Same here.”

“Are you having dinner with your family?” Mom asked.

“Um… yes. My mom and Steph are supposed to meet me later.”

“Maybe we’ll see you all in there.”

“I was thinking we could take a walk down Main Street and find something to eat there,” I said.

If we were in the same restaurant as Josh, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from looking at him. We hadn’t been able to spend any time alone since we’d been in Lake Placid, and I was having serious withdrawals from his boss kisses.

“Josh, I hear you graduated from UCLA,” Dad said. “That’s impressive you finished in four years while also skating.”

“It was pretty hectic. I wish I’d had more time to enjoy the college experience. I didn’t see much outside the classroom.”

Dad rubbed my shoulder. “I’m glad Court waited to start so she’ll able to get the full experience at BC. Those were some of the best years of my life.”

“Don’t jinx it, Dad.”

“No such thing as jinxes. We make our own luck, and you submitted a great application.”

“Her essay was awesome.” Josh smiled at me.

I opened my mouth to thank him, and it hung open as Stephanie and Mrs. Tucker entered the lobby from outside. Both of them carried multiple shopping bags. Stephanie came to a halt, her jaw tightening, but then I thought I saw a sinister smile narrow her eyes.

Oh, crap. Can I please click my heels together and poof myself upstairs to my room?

She and her mom came directly toward us. Josh saw what must have been terror on my face and turned to the door. His face took on its own look of alarm.

“Hello,” Stephanie said, her eyes critically scanning my parents and myself.

Between her examination and Mrs. Tucker’s equally strong stare, my cheeks burned. It was like they were cataloguing everything about us. I could see Mrs. Tucker’s disdain as she took in Mom’s bright yellow sweater, handmade knit scarf, and “mom jeans.”

“I thought you were shopping,” Josh said as he stood in front of us like a protective shield.

“There were only a couple of decent stores.” Mrs. Tucker removed her leather gloves and tucked them into the pocket of her stylish white coat, which appeared to be cashmere.

She looked even more plastic than I’d remembered. She had the same shade of creamy skin as Stephanie and Josh, but it was too smooth, too perfect, and her lips had apparently received a recent injection of some sort. No one had lips that full.

“Mom, you haven’t met Courtney, have you?” Stephanie asked, sounding way too friendly. Warning bells went off in my head.

Josh slid slightly to the left so he was no longer a buffer between us. I stuck out my hand and then quickly realized Mrs. Tucker wasn’t going to reciprocate. All I received in return was a cool gaze. I brought my hand up to my hair and nervously combed the flyaway frizzies.

“It’s nice to meet you,” I said.
And by
“nice”
I mean terrifying.

“I think we met at a competition before.” She looked me up and down.

I was ninety-nine percent sure we hadn’t, but I wasn’t going to start a dispute. “Perhaps we did.”

Mom leaned around Josh and smiled at his mom. “Hi, I’m Courtney’s mom, Karen, and this is my husband Tom.”

“Bethany Tucker,” she said, still not offering a handshake.

I finally realized who she reminded me of — Meryl Streep in
The Devil Wears Prada
. She had the same frosty, piercing stare that could make grown men cower in fear.

“You must be so proud of Courtney,” Stephanie said to my parents. “How she works almost every night to pay for her skating.”

So her fake nice behavior was a ploy to make sure her mom knew we weren’t wealthy. I shook my head in disgust.
Classic Stephanie.

“Mom, Courtney works as a bartender,” she added.

Mrs. Tucker hummed quietly as she eyed me once again. “You should give the staff here some tips. The martini I had last night tasted like well brand. It was terrible.”

“Well, if the service is bad, they make up for it with the beauty of the rooms,” Mom said. “I’m not going to want to leave here.”

Mrs. Tucker smoothed her shoulder-length brown hair. “My room is ridiculously small. I was expecting a lot more from a resort.”

Mom’s smile never wavered, and I wondered what she was thinking behind it. She was familiar with Stephanie’s attitude from all my years of competing against her, but I hadn’t given her a heads-up on what Josh had told me about his mom. And speaking of Josh, one of his eyes was twitching, and his lips were pressed together in a tight line. He looked like he was going to lose it at any second.

“We were headed out for a walk, so… it was nice meeting you.” I tipped my head at Mrs. Tucker and urged my parents toward the exit.

“Wait, Hon, we need our coats,” Mom said.

“Oh. Yeah. Let’s go up and get them.”

I turned around toward the elevator and high-tailed it out of there. Behind me I heard Mom and Dad echoing my “nice to meet you” sentiment.

I punched the elevator button, and Mom and Dad caught up to me as the doors opened.

“Good quick thinking, Court,” Dad said. “I didn’t know how we were going to escape from Cruella de Vil.”

“Tom,” Mom scolded him.

“What? All she was missing was a pack of Dalmatians.”

I rubbed my hands down my face. “She was even scarier than I’d expected. And I had pretty grave expectations.”

“I can see where Stephanie gets her… personality. They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” Mom said.

“Then what happened to Josh? A tornado must’ve blown his apple across the orchard,” I said.

My phone chimed at the same time the elevator stopped on my floor, and I told my parents I’d meet them at their room in a few minutes. I clicked on my inbox and read the text.

Josh:
I’m so sorry. They weren’t supposed to be back so soon.

Me:
It’s okay. Why not knock out all the awkward meetings at once?

I slid the card key into my door and went to the desk for my coat. Liza’s team jacket lay draped over it. I knew Em must’ve had a hand in making sure the federation assigned Liza and me as roommates.

My phone dinged again, and I read as I slipped my arms inside my pea coat.

Josh:
Your parents are really nice.

What could I say complimentary about his mom? She hadn’t burned the flesh off my face? Maybe I should just keep the conversation away from her.

Me:
They like you a lot.

Okay, so maybe Mom and Dad hadn’t said that (although I knew they would once they got to know Josh), but compared to Cruella and Cruella Jr., he was freaking Prince Charming.

Josh:
My mom is rude to most people, so please don’t take her behavior personally.

That was
so
much easier said than done. I shivered at the memory of Mrs. Tucker’s sharp gaze boring an icy hole into me. If she was that repulsed by me as just a random skater, how much was she going to hate me as Josh’s girlfriend?

****

“Show time, go time,” Mark said, holding his hands up for a double high five.

I slapped them and exhaled a long breath. We were next to take the ice in the short program event, also known as two-and-a-half minutes of high stress. Missing one or two elements in the short could bury a team in the standings.