Taking Charge (22 page)

“Absolutely not,” Wade said, wetting his hair.

“So Cole, I guess getting on the score sheet makes
you an official Panther,” Mickey said, splashing him with
water.

“I can’t believe it went in. I caught it all wrong,”
Cole said with a laugh.

“Speaks the pro! Who cares? We won! We beat Reading.
Did you see their faces, man? They were freaked,” Mickey said.

“What the Hell is this?” Brad asked, picking up
Cole’s shower gel and holding it up for all to see.

“Oh man, come on, it isn’t mine. I picked up the
wrong one, it’s Robyn’s,” Cole tried to explain.

“It’s purple and it’s called Exfoliation. Is that
even a proper word? And it’s got grapefruit and guava in it.
Interesting,” Brad teased.

“It is very purple,” Wes commented.

“Give it here,” Cole said and he made a lunge for it,
knocking it out of Brad’s hands.

The bottle fell out of the shower and onto the floor.
Cole got out of the shower and bent down to pick it up just as
Robyn walked passed on her way out.

She looked straight at him. There was no hiding his
nakedness, and she found herself immediately reddening and not
knowing what to do. She couldn’t turn away; she couldn’t stop
looking at him. If ever there was an advertisement for the perfect
man the image before her would be what they would use. He was toned
and molded in all the right places and he was hot and wet from the
combination of the game and the shower. She chewed on her thumb and
closed her eyes as soon as she remembered she should.

“Sorry,” Cole said hurriedly, turning his back to her
and returning to the shower.

“Hey, Boss! Get your kit off and get in the shower!
We freaking won!” Mickey yelled, and he leaned back and howled the
loudest howl he could manage.

“Jesus! Man!” Wes exclaimed, holding his hands over
his ears.

“Woman in locker room is not right,” Henrik said,
covering his private parts with a lather of soap.

“Listen up! I just wanted to say something before you
all disappear to the bar and start celebrating. First off, training
tomorrow at twelve, don’t be late. We may have won today, but we
need to keep up the momentum. And second—well—I am so God damn
proud of you!” Robyn exclaimed, clenching her fist and gesturing it
at them.

The team let out a group cheer and started singing
the Portage Panther’s team song as they linked arms and swayed in
time under the showers like a group of kids.

“Where’s Grant?” Brad questioned when the singing had
finished.

“Grant and Bob are in charge of the kitty for the
celebration drinks. They’re getting them as we speak. But listen,
before we get all excited about more freebies, club funds are all
but gone and I have a limit on my finances. I won’t be doing this
every time you win, which I expect every game now,” Robyn
explained.

She still couldn’t keep her eyes off Cole. He was
showering, rinsing off the shower gel, water running through his
hair and down his face, along his chest, and over his buttocks…

“Okay, so, one other thing. Barbecue tomorrow at
Cole’s place. 3540 Woodhams Avenue. From after training ‘til the
last person passes out. My treat for you doing so awesome today.
They’re predicting record October temperatures so bring your
trunks,” Robyn informed them.

“3540 Woodhams? Isn’t that one of the million dollar
houses? Man, are you loaded or something?” Mickey asked of him.

“I’m renting,” Cole replied.

“I love party!” Henrik said, slapping Cole on the
back and grinning widely.

“Great, right, so, I’ll just go and give my
commiserations to the poor, dejected, rather useless Reading
manager and let you all get decent,” Robyn said, backing toward the
door.

“I want to smile right in the face of Gillies. The
tool,” Wade said, speaking of the Reading enforcer.

“Just let Mickey do the wolf howl in the bar, that
will be enough to piss off everybody,” Brad told them.

“Okay, so, I’ll see you in the bar,” Robyn said,
still looking at Cole as he grabbed a towel and began to dry
himself off.

“Tradition that the boss gets in the shower after a
win,” Brad called to her.

“Since when?”

“We had Eddie in here last season,” Mickey informed
her.

Robyn bolted from the room. She slammed the door shut
and leaned against it, trying to get the image of Cole’s nude body
out of her mind. They were all supposed to be asexual to her here,
even her fiancé.

“Dad? Can you hear me? Dad?”

“I’m here! Jeez, Max, quit with the barking for
Christ’s sake! Robyn’s on the phone. He’s coughing his guts up
again. That’s what you get for smoking sixty Marlboro a day since
time began,” Eddie replied.

“We won, Dad, we beat Reading,” Robyn said, holding
the phone closer to her ear.

She was smiling as she looked at her team sitting
together drinking pitchers of beer and filling the jukebox up with
tunes of glory.

“I know, Buttercup, I heard every God damn second on
the radio. I wish I could have been there. What was it like? Was it
a big crowd?” Eddie asked.

“The biggest all season, so Grant said. It was almost
like the old days. There were families there and two of the local
school football teams came. There was probably almost three
thousand,” Robyn told him.

“And how did it feel when Cole hit the back of the
net? The commentator went crazy, said he’d never seen a goal like
it. Did he look every inch Wolves material?”

“He was awesome, Dad. The goal was awesome but so was
the whole team. They really played as a unit. They supported each
other after the equalizer and they never gave up—not once,” Robyn
continued.

“That’s because of you, Buttercup.”

“They’re your team, Dad, and I told them to do it for
you.”

“Did they get you in the shower?”

“I’m still a fast runner,” Robyn said, grinning.

“Max, can I tell Robyn about your bet? Okay, Max
doesn’t want you to know, but he backed the Panthers…won a grand,”
Eddie said with a hearty laugh.

“I knew he wouldn’t dare bet against us! You can tell
him I won five,” Robyn replied.

“Five what?”

“Five grand.”

“What? How much did you lay out?”

“A hundred bucks. I got good odds.”

“Jeez, Robyn, a hundred dollars! Where did you get
that sort of money to spend on gambling?”

“That’s my business.”

“Is it illegal?”

“No, Dad. Listen, I’d better go, I’ll come and see
you tomorrow,” Robyn said.

“Okay, well, you can bring Cole if you like; I want
to hear about the goal from the guy who scored it,” Eddie said.

“Sure. Now, listen, eat all your dinner and no
staying up too late watching boxing. Tell Max the same.”

“You’re sounding old, Buttercup. Max, no boxing,”
Eddie called to his bedmate.

She could hear Max grumbling in between coughs and
she ended the call.

Brad came over to her and handed her a glass of
beer.

“Was that Eddie?” he questioned.

“Yeah, he’s excited over the win, but he wishes he
could have seen it,” Robyn said with a sigh, taking a swig of the
drink.

“When’s his operation?”

“Wednesday, if all goes as planned. If he keeps his
blood pressure down, if his sugar levels are stable, if there are
no other more urgent cases, if the wind’s blowing in the right
direction, you know, that sort of thing.”

“And when does the roadhouse reopen?”

“Friday! Don’t remind me about that, it’s going to be
a disaster. I haven’t got a band and Nancy thinks all the kids will
be freaked out by the clowns I’ve booked to do balloon animals and
plate spinning. The chef needs some special sort of cheese I’ve
never heard of to make the new roadhouse signature dish, and I’m so
stressed I’m eating my way through the dill pickles I bought for
the stock room and having to replenish them almost every day,”
Robyn exclaimed.

“Hey, if they’re the only things you have to worry
about, it sounds like you got it covered,” Brad replied, touching
her arm.

“Yeah, well, then there’s Jason.”

“He hasn’t been near you again?” Brad asked,
immediately stiffening.

“No. but he’s dragging it all back up again. He’s
hired a lawyer to get the case reopened. If the police do reopen
the case, they’ll want to talk to everyone again, talk to me again,
make me relive it all over again. I can’t do that,” Robyn said.

“It’s never going to happen. It was an open and shut
case. There’s no way they’ll reopen anything without good cause,
like new evidence or something,” Brad reassured her.

“Well, what if he has some or he gets some?”

“Did he say he had some?”

“Well, no but…” Robyn began.

“Then stop worrying. I’m telling you, nothing’s gonna
come of it. Anyway, you think my daddy’s going to let him reopen
the case? He worked hard on that case; he made sure justice was
done for you, Robyn,” Brad reminded her.

“I know, but you said he was retiring.”

“Not yet. And definitely not if Jason’s back in
town,” Brad assured her.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t even be bringing any of this
up now, I mean, Hell! We have a victory to celebrate!” Robyn said,
leading the way back to the group.

He smiled as he watched her mount a chair with Mickey
and sway in time to “We Are the Champions.” He’d seen the way she
looked at him when she’d caught him in the shower. And her seeing
him had affected him, too. His groin had reacted, and he’d had to
clamp down on that feeling before it had gotten out of control.

Last night, after he’d proposed and they’d lain in
bed together, he couldn’t go back to sleep. He’d feigned fatigue,
closed his eyes and waited for her to drop off just so he could
have a moment looking at her. He loved her. It was four days since
he’d met her, and he loved her. That’s why he’d asked her to marry
him. That depth of feeling couldn’t be ignored, but he knew she
wasn’t ready for anything physical. He was okay with that. It
seemed secondary somehow. This was different from anything else
he’d had before—so different. He still couldn’t quite believe it.
How did something like that just happen?

“When is pig ready? I need pig, I have much hungry,”
Henrik stated, swigging from a bottle of beer.

“Pig’s been cooking all day, just about to reach
optimum succulence, apparently. Have some chips,” Robyn said,
offering him the plate she was carrying.

There were over twenty people in Cole’s garden the
following day. They had trained in the morning, despite most of the
team being hungover from the victory celebrations that had lasted
late into the night. Now they were drinking, chatting, and dancing
to the music coming from the outside surround sound while eating
chips, dips, and steaks from the barbecue Bob was happily tending
to. Everyone was enjoying the Michigan heat and the previous
night’s game was still being relived.

Mickey let out a loud werewolf howl and Sarah slapped
his arm.

“Stop doing that! No one thinks it’s funny and you
sound ridiculous,” she told him, taking a sip of her white
wine.

“Oh, lighten up Sar, it’s a party! You know…fun,”
Mickey snapped, downing his bottle of beer.

“Yes, I vaguely remember fun. It’s what we used to
have before you were out with the boys all the time,” Sarah told
him.

“Hey, come on you two, Robyn’s gone to a lot of
effort here, let’s enjoy it,” Brad ordered them, handing Sarah
another glass of wine.

“Oh, thank you, Brad. I didn’t really need another
one but…” Sarah spoke, blushing slightly.

“This house is amazing, have you seen the size of the
TV?” Mickey asked Brad.

“Yeah, and the Jacuzzi’s almost as big as a pool,
Henrik’s dying to get in it,” Brad said.

“What’s stopping him?” Cole asked as he joined the
group.

“Can we use it?” Mickey asked, his eyes wide with
excitement.

“Sure. You got trunks, right? Robyn told you to bring
trunks.”

“Henrik isn’t going to care about trunks,” Brad said
with a laugh.

“No, you know what those Danes are like,” Mickey
replied, taking another beer from the cooler filled with bottles
and ice.

“Danes? I thought he was Icelandic,” Cole
remarked.

“I thought he was German,” Sarah admitted.

“He’s Swedish,” Robyn insisted as she joined the
group, holding a plate of chips out to everyone.

“I thought the twins were supposed to be
waitressing,” Sarah said, taking a chip from Robyn’s plate.

“They are. Pam’s getting them into outfits,” Robyn
said with a snicker.

“No way! They’re going to hate that!” Sarah
exclaimed.

“Yeah, I know. There’s no telling her though, is
there? Cole, lend the guys some trunks if they haven’t got any.
Sarah, come up with me, I’ll show you the house and you can borrow
a bikini,” Robyn said, taking one of the glasses of wine from her
friend and grabbing her hand.

“Hey, Robyn! How many pairs of trunks d’you think I
have?” Cole called after her.

“He has at least three pairs, I found them when I was
rifling through his drawers checking out his t-shirt collection,”
Robyn whispered to Sarah.

“Has everyone had some pig? Sienna and Sierra, the
ones in the French maid outfits, have some plated up if anyone
wants any more!” Robyn called from the Jacuzzi. She shared the
water with Sarah, Mickey, Henrik, Brad, and Cole.

“Pig was good,” Henrik said with a nod, drinking from
a shot glass and grimacing as the burn hit his throat.

“Yeah, the pig was great, Robyn,” Brad told her.

“Thanks, I’m hoping we can have a hog roast at the
roadhouse on opening night and fireworks. Oh, and I must organize a
band. Are Special Guest still around? They used to rock,” Robyn
said, stretching an arm out behind Cole.