Fresh Ice (7 page)

She
kept telling herself she was just as good as these women. Her past might not be the most glamorous or heartwarming and probably belonged on a police report or an episode of
COPS
, but she deserved to work among them.

And Maeve had loved her
sassy new haircut! Pride blossomed through Sarah’s body when Maeve had smiled at her own reflection in the mirror. Oh, it was such a wonderful feeling! Sarah hugged her arms around herself and grinned. That grin turned into a giggle and she laughed herself silly.

And it didn’t end with Maeve.
The clients Sarah had the rest of the day left her chair happy, too. Best of all, Sarah was pleasantly surprised at how generously her clients tipped. Ideally, she needed to save up to buy a car because it would serve two purposes. Transportation and she could always live in if absolutely necessary.

For dinner
, Sarah sat cross-legged on the double bed and ate her muffin from Abigail. It was as dry as sawdust, but Sarah had eaten worse.
Survive
d on worse.

She looked around at the dingy
motel room and smiled. She had a lock on the door and a roof over her head and a job to go to the next morning.

It was the best muffin she
ever had.

Chapter Seven

Peach Blossom

Nathan parked his truck in front of Peach’s Salon. The space next door was empty and obviously under construction. Tony’s truck was backed up to the building and full of lumber as usual. Plastic hung in the window and the door was propped open with a can of paint.

So, Peach was finally expanding the salon. As long as Nathan had known TJ, it was all she could talk about.

Nathan got out of his truck and went into the new space. He’d go over to the salon and say hello to Peach later.

Inside, t
he room was a mess. Sheets of plastic lay on the floor and there were pieces of drywall scattered everywhere.

TJ looked up from the paint can he was opening with a screw driver and grinned when he saw Nathan.
“The Con Man is here!” he announced.

Tony chuckled and shook his head in disbelief.
“Look who’s here. If it isn’t Nathan Connors in the flesh.”

Tony hugged Nathan and gave him a friendly slap on the back.
Other than a few more wrinkles on his forehead, Tony looked the same. Rough and tattered on the outside, teddy bear on the inside.

Nathan felt a brief t
winge of emotion at seeing TJ with his father. He pushed the past back where it belonged and surveyed the room. “The place looks great,” he told them.

“It’s coming along,” Tony said.
“I’d have my crew here but they’re all over at the house. Peach said I could finally put in my rec room. Then she got a wild hair up her ass and wanted the salon expanded,” he said on a heavy sigh. “And what the wife wants, the wife gets.”

“What’s this I hear about wild hair?” Peach
said, coming through the doorway. She fluffed her hair and when she saw Nathan her eyes grew wide.

“Hey, Peach
,” Nathan said.

“Nathan!”
Peach squealed and flung herself into a noisy hug.

As always, Peach smelled like peaches and hairspray.
Nathan bit back the emotion clawing its way up his throat.

Peach pulled back and looked him up and down.
“We haven’t seen you in ages! You look great, honey. How’s Kayla?”

“Good.”

“And the little one?”

“Robbie’s great. He’s
growin’ like a weed.”

“
Wonderful. Tell Kayla to bring him by the salon. We’d love to see them.”

“I will.”

“How are you, Nathan, honey? You all settled in?”

“Yep.
We’re renting a place.”

“This guy doesn’t bother to settle in,” TJ put in. “He just goes straight to the rink and works
and works and works...”

Nathan grinned at TJ’s accuracy. “Pretty much,” he agreed
with a shrug.

“I haven’t been on the ice all summer,” TJ admitted.

“Well, don’t you work too hard, sugar,” Peach told Nathan. “Or else you’ll burn yourself out before the season even starts.”

“Don’t baby him too much,” Tony said. “I was hoping to put him to work painting.”

“Oh.” Peach thought about it before adding, “Well, if it means it’ll get done that much quicker, then…” She snapped an invisible whip and chuckled. “Get to work!” She flashed Nathan a smile before addressing her husband. “By the way, I liked that part about what the wifey wants, the wifey gets.”

Tony playfully rolled his eyes and leaned over to peck his wife on the cheek.

Peach swatted Tony’s rear end and told Nathan over her shoulder, “It’s good to see you, honey,” before sashaying through the door.

“You’re just in time for the easy part
, Con,” TJ commented. “The ceiling was a bitch.”

“You don’t mind
helping out, do ya?” Tony asked as he handed Nathan a paint roller.

“N
ot at all. I’ve got time to kill until training camp starts.”

“Good, ‘
cause I’d hate to put you out.”

“It’s no problem.” In fact, s
ome time with TJ and Tony sounded like just what Nathan needed.

Besides that,
Nathan had the feeling he was being watched. He looked over at the doorway to the salon but no one was there. He’d at least stick around until he found out who was making the hair on his neck prickle.

* * *

When Sarah went to the back room to mix color men’s voices drifted through the sheet of plastic hanging at the end of the hall. She easily recognized Tony’s deep voice and TJ answered him from across the room. Then a third unfamiliar voice chimed in.

Curiosity compelled her to
take a closer look.

The plastic was pulled back
just enough to where she could see into the new salon space. Sarah positioned herself so she could see into the room but they couldn’t see her. Tony worked off to the side out of sight. Then the stranger came into view.

He was talking to TJ. They joked about something and he laughed at something TJ said.

She bit down on her lip as a jolt of awareness shot through her. As a stylist, Sarah usually noticed a person’s hair before anything else but in his case, she noticed his height. He had to be at least a foot taller than she was.

S
arah didn’t know who the tall, good-looking guy was, only that he’d shown up to help paint and looked to be friends with TJ. Sarah had heard him talking to Peach earlier when she’d gone to the supply room for more foil. Whoever he was, Peach sure had been excited to see him.

S
arah stood, frozen behind the plastic and watched him work. Although he was dressed casually in jeans and a T-shirt, there was something about him and the calculated, deliberate way he moved. Every action was meticulous and thought out.

His muscles bunched and moved under his shirt
as he painted. He bent over to roll his roller in the paint pan and his shirt rose up, revealing a patch of smooth skin above the waistband of his jeans. Then, when he reached up over his head to paint, his shirt lifted again, this time unveiling, not a blubbery belly hanging over his belt, but a flat, toned stomach.

S
arah gulped. She knew she shouldn’t gawk at him but, for the life of her, she couldn’t tear her eyes away.

After years of living with Dwight’s beer belly and Troy’s ever-growing junk food belly, Sarah could appreciate the painter’s athletic physique. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on his
magnificent body.

There was something else Sarah noticed about the painter. Instead of sloppily slapping the roller on the wall and going to work, he
precisely moved the roller up to the top and back down again. He painted the wall like it was the most important task he’d ever completed.

This was odd to Sarah.
She’d never actually seen a man work. Troy spent his days slumped in front of a blaring television and Dwight specialized in destroying things and the people around him. The man in front of Sarah obviously took care and pride in his work.

T
hat man now had his back to the wall and was looking directly at her.

Sarah held her breath.

His eyes were the color of the sky just before it rained. They looked right into hers, searching them. They didn’t scrape down her body like Skeet’s had but stayed focused on her face. She felt her cheeks flush just the same.

Sarah realized her mouth was hanging open so she snapped it shut and swallowed.

The man straightened his spine but didn’t look away. Paint dripped from the roller.

Sarah’s
fingers clenched around the bowl of hair color. Oh my, she’d forgotten all about why she was here! To mix Mrs. Heniman’s Brunette Truffle, number 502. Shampoo, cut and color.
Not
to gawk at a mysterious painter with the body of an Olympian.

She
flashed him a quick smile and dashed into the supply room.

* * *

Nathan had seen her watching him. She was as quiet as a damn mouse, but he’d caught her once or twice and he could feel her eyes on him on more than one occasion.

When he looked up and caught her gaze, her eyes got big and she cast them to the floor ashamed. Then she gave him a small smile and it was like a precious gift. Before he could smile back, she had scurried off
back into the salon.

Nathan
wasn’t used to shy girls. Once women found out he played hockey for a living, they became like static cling and he couldn’t seem to keep them away.

This
woman was the complete opposite of those girls and the loudmouthed women in the salon. She was quiet and kept to herself. As a goaltender, Nathan could relate to that and he respected it. Not to mention he was deeply intrigued by it.

Across the room, Tony’s cell phone rang and Nathan tore his gaze from the empty doorway.
Tony stepped outside to take the call, leaving Nathan and TJ to finish painting the main wall. They were almost finished with the first coat and Tony was eager to start installing the new stations.

Nathan
poured more peach paint into the tray and chuckled to himself. It was just like Peach to have the entire place slathered in her signature color.

Painting was hard work but the monotonous rolling calmed him. It was nice to see progress as he went. It was rewarding and the mindless repetition was good for him.

TJ sighed and tossed his roller into a nearby tray sending droplets of peach paint splattering on the plastic covering the floor. “I can’t believe I let my Dad talk me into doing this.”

“You’re just here for the ladies,” Nathan pointed out.

“What? In Mom’s salon?”

“Yeah.”

“Having my mom around sorta messes with my game, ya know? It’s kind of hard to hit on chicks with her hovering around all the time.”

“You have your eye on anyone in particular?”
Nathan asked.

TJ shrugged. “Abigail’s married and Kim’s a cold fish. Destiny’s kind of hot though.”

“Which one is she? The blonde?”

“No. Destiny
is the one with brown hair and big boobs.”

Nathan nodded in acknowledgement.

“The blonde is new. She just started on Monday. Her name is…” He snapped his fingers in an attempt to remember. “Sarah. Yeah, that’s it, Sarah. All that my Mom said about her was that she’s from southern California.”

So, she was new in town. That would explain why she was so timid. But it didn’t explain that haunted look in her eyes.

“You wanna come to a party tonight?” TJ asked.

“Nah.
That’s not really my scene.”

“You sure?
A bunch of the guys are going to Club 21.”

“I don’t want to go to some nightclub
, Teej.”

TJ shrugged and went back to work.

Nathan
decided he’d come back to the salon the rest of the week to help out. He told himself it was to get his mind off of hockey, but he knew it was just to see the girl with the big blue eyes. Sure, she was the prettiest little thing he’d ever seen, but she had this presence around her that…well, Nathan didn’t quite know what it was exactly. He just knew he was drawn to her and couldn’t give up the opportunity to be around her.

There was one thing Nathan knew for sure. S
he had that spooked look that Kayla still got once in a while. She might be desperately trying to fit in to the culture of the salon, but she was also scared shitless. Nathan saw that look on rookie’s faces all the time.

Nathan wondered what it would take to get her to smile again.

* * *

Back inside the salon, Sarah cleaned up her station for the night along with the other girls. Destiny had turned up the radio and shimmied to the music as she swept around her station.