by Elise Faber
Backhand
Gold Hockey Series, Book 2
Elise Faber
Blue Tulip Publishing
www.bluetulippublishing.com
Copyright © 2017 BACKHAND
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and events are fictitious in every regard. Any similarities to actual events and persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental. Any trademarks, service marks, product names, or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if any of these terms are used. Except for review purposes, the reproduction of this book in whole or part, electronically or mechanically, constitutes a copyright violation.
BACKHAND
Copyright © 2017 ELISE FABER
ISBN-10: 1-946061-13-1
ISBN-13: 978-1-946061-13-3
Cover Art by Jena Brignola
Formatting by Jill Sava, Love Affair With Fiction
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FRONT MATTER
DEDICATION
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
CHAPTER FORTY
EPILOGUE
AUTHOR’S NOTE
BLOCK & TACKLE (Offsides-Gold Hockey #1.5)
CHAPTER ONE
BLOCKED (Gold Hockey #1)
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ALSO FROM BLUE TULIP PUBLISHING
To my hockey girls. Thanks for the hard-fought games, wild nights at certain not-to-be named places, and daiquiris. Definitely the daiquiris.
CHAPTER ONE
THE LIGHT WAS perfect… until it wasn’t.
Sara glared up at the large, brick-wall style shadow that was marring her perfect view.
Did the person not understand just how freaking long she’d had to wait for the moon to peek out from behind the fog, to gild the rotunda at the Palace of Fine Arts and reflect off the water in perfect symmetry?
She clutched her pencil — the same one that had been sketching furiously just seconds before — and leaned to the left, trying to get one more glimpse of the scene, to commit it to memory before it was…
Gone.
Son of a—
“I know you.”
The male voice was chocolate ice cream with hot fudge and marshmallow fluff, warm sand sifting between her toes, the perfect ending to a dramatic rom-com all rolled into one.
The hairs on her nape rose, and she shivered, wanting to snuggle into the sound, to pull it close like a cuddly sweatshirt—
At least until alarm flared to life, and she remembered she was totally alone.
Suddenly, skulking around the Marina District in the middle of the night seemed like a horrible idea.
Her sketchbook fell to the ground, the book light that had been clipped to the top making a sickening crack as it hit the concrete and went out.
She blinked, trying to get her eyes to adjust. Darkness descended as the sliver of illumination disappeared, fog swallowing the moon back up. She gripped her pencil like a knife and held it threateningly… or at least as threateningly as a pencil can be held. “Back off.”
Her attempt at a growl, a warning.
And not a very scary one at that, if the man’s reaction was anything to go by.
A soft chuckle was the only thing she heard before the pencil was plucked from her fingers. Sara opened her mouth to scream, but instead of jumping her like she’d half-expected, he sank into a crouch and handed the pencil back.
“You shouldn’t be out here by yourself,” he said.
“Noted,” Sara muttered and shoved it into her pocket before bending over to search for her sketchbook and light. “And you shouldn’t ruin a perfect setup.”
A flash of white teeth penetrated the darkness. “Noted,” he said, putting a palm to his knee, as though to push himself to standing.
Her eyes dropped. They’d adjusted enough to see his hands. And those hands were gorgeous.
Long, lean fingers, neatly trimmed nails, enough character to make them interesting.
She flipped to a blank page of her sketchbook, flicked the switch on the light, and spread his fingers on her thigh.
The contrast, the shadows, the scars on his knuckles. His hand was the perfect juxtaposition and she had to get it on paper.
“Umm—”
“Shh.” Her pencil flew across the page. It made a soft scratching sound as she worked, outlining, shading in the image, blending and building until his hand was captured on paper.
She didn’t know how long she worked, just that when she’d finished, her neck ached and her legs were stiff and… a strange man had his hand on her thigh.
Her breath caught, and she looked up.
He was beautiful. Oddly familiar with his face half-illuminated in the lamplight, eyes as dark as ink, several days of scruff on his cheeks and chin, nose just slightly askew, as though it had been broken a time or two. And was that a bruise just above his right cheekbone?
Sara didn’t have a chance to look closer.
His fingers flexed on her thigh, and every one of her thoughts beelined straight for that particular body part. She was in jeans, so it wasn’t like he was touching her skin. But he might as well have been.
The warmth of his palm seeped through the thick material, made her quads flex. He was huge, his hand spanning the width of her thigh easily, and just the kind of man she liked. Big and strong, tall and wide-shouldered. Here was a man who could do all the clichés: protect her, shelter her, weather proverbial storms.
“You done?” The soft question held just the slightest hint of amusement, except there was a bite to the humor, as though that piece of his personality hadn’t been used in a good long time.
No. She wanted to sketch his face, flip his hand over and draw the lines of his palm, but she’d submitted enough to her artist-crazy for the evening. And her hand was sore.
“Yeah,” she said, ignoring the slightly breathless quality to her voice and standing.
Sketchbook into her pack, light off and into her pocket, stiff and aching hip, ribs, and shoulder from sitting too long on the cold, hard ground. Yup. All was as it should be.
The man stood as well. His size on the ground hadn’t done his real breadth justice.
He. Was. Ginormous.
Okay, so she was petite, barely five feet three, but this man towered over her.
Yet she didn’t feel scared. Embarrassed, maybe, that she’d hijacked his hand for — she pulled out her phone and glanced at th
e time — an hour and a half. But definitely not scared.
And she’d focus on that at a later time. For now, she should probably make an escape before she looked even more crazy cakes.
“Sorry I messed up your sketch,” he rumbled.
She nibbled on the side of her mouth, biting back a smile. “Sorry I stole your hand for so long.”
He shrugged. “My mom’s an artist. I get it.”
Well, there went her battle with the smile. Her lips twitched; her teeth came out of hiding. If there was one thing that Sara had, it was her smile. It had been her trademark in her competition days.
Which were long over.
Her mouth flattened out, the grin slipping away. Time to go, time to forget, to move on, to rebuild. “Thanks,” she said and extended a hand.
Then winced and dropped it when her ribs cried out in protest.
“You okay?” he asked, head tilting, eyes studying her.
“Fine.” And out popped her new smile. The fake one. Careful of her aching side, she shrugged into her backpack. “I’ve got to go.”
“I know you.”
She froze. That was the second time he’d said that, and now they were getting into dangerous territory. Recognition meant… no. She couldn’t.
There had been a time when everyone had known her. Her face on Wheaties boxes, her smile promoting toothpaste and credit cards alike.
That wasn’t her life any longer.
“Thanks again. Bye.” She turned away.
“Wait.” A hand clapping on to her shoulder stopped her, and she hissed in pain.
“Sorry,” he said, but he didn’t release her, just exerted gentle pressure until Sara was facing him again. “I just know I know you.”
No. This wasn’t happening.
“You’re Sara Jetty.”
Her body went tense.
Oh God. This was so happening.
“It’s me.” He touched his chest like she didn’t know he was talking about himself, and said the worst thing ever, “Mike Stewart.”
Oh shit.
CHAPTER TWO
SARA FUCKING JETTY.
Mike watched the horror cloud Sara’s face, drawing her brows up and her mouth down. Even in the near dark, he watched her skin go ghostly white.
“It’s been a long time, Jumping Bean.”
Her head jerked up at the old nickname, and that horror turned to anger. He understood why. Didn’t mean he liked it, though.
“I need to go.” She whirled away.
“Hey. Wait.”
She didn’t, just took off along the path, not running exactly, but definitely not waiting either.
Which didn’t matter. Because he was taller. And faster.
He caught up to her in a couple of strides, snagged her shoulder, and tugged her to a stop.
He expected to catch up with her, to be able to stop her from escaping. What he didn’t expect was the shit fuck of a crocodile-death-roll she pulled on him.
Sara spun, struggling in his hold and probably bruising her arm to hell and back. “Let. Go.”
Jesus. “All right. Fine.” He released her, raised his hands in surrender. “I was just trying—”
“I know all about men trying,” she muttered. “Just leave me alone.”
“Christ, woman. It’s been ten years. I only wanted to find out how you’re doing.”
“You’re kidding me, right?” she asked, brows practically in her hairline.
Why did he suddenly feel like this was a trick question? “Uh. No.”
Her arms flopped down to her sides, and Mike was reminded of how small she was. Her backpack straps practically dwarfed her shoulders, and she was still so dang short. Put-her-in-his-pocket, Teacup-Poodle-in-a-world-of-Great-Danes short.
“You have to be kidding,” she snapped, “because you cannot possibly be serious about asking me how I’ve been.”
Okay, now Mike was starting to get pissed. Here he was, trying to be nice, trying to catch up with an old friend, and she was being a total bitch. He ignored the voice in his head telling him that he should really know what she was talking about.
“Sweetheart, I haven’t got a clue what you’re spouting off about,” he growled. “So either tell me what’s up or answer the damn question.”
“I’ve been fucked, Mike. Royally and permanently fucked. Okay?” Whipping around, she started stomping away.
What the hell did that mean?
“Sara—”
“Oh. My. God.” Her feet skidded to a stop, and she threw him a dark look over her shoulder. “Just leave me alone. This isn’t like when we were kids. You can’t fix it, you can’t fix me.”
The weight of those words hit him in the gut, stole his air more effectively than getting checked into the boards on the ice.
And by the time he recovered, she was running, running down the path that led to the street.
Running straight out of his life.
Damn, was that a familiar feeling.
NOTHING WAS BETTER than being on the ice. Nothing.
The way his skin went tight when the cold hit it, the crunch beneath his skates, the sounds — laughter, pucks colliding with the glass, pinging off the goalposts, the Zamboni rumbling to life. He even loved the smell.
Akin to wet asphalt after a rain, there was already the slight odor of moisture in the air, not in a bad moldy way, but in the best hours of his childhood.
Escape. Friends. Camaraderie.
Family.
“Looking awfully introspective for a hockey player, Stewie,” Blue, the rookie, said.
“Rookies who tease better watch themselves,” Mike responded, his tone falsely threatening.
Since Blue wasn’t exactly a rookie, not any longer anyway. He’d had a phenomenal season the previous year that had him in the upper echelon of NHL stat charts — sixty goals, thirty assists, and a gritty, tough-as-shit work ethic.
“Good thing then that I’m not a rookie.” Blue grinned, not intimidated by Mike in the least. The kid had always had way too much confidence, but they were at a better place this year. Namely, Mike had turned in his asshole card and started acting like a good teammate.
He bumped his shoulder to Blue’s, and Blue, thinking he was returning the friendly gesture, leaned in to do the same. But Mike scooted away, just enough that Blue was off-balance, then dropped his gloves and stick.
In a flash, he had Blue’s jersey up and over the kid’s head.
“Still a rookie in some ways,” he said, patting him on the back, grabbing his gear, and skating away.
“Oh look! A present!” Brit shouted from the net. “For me? Aw. Mike, you shouldn’t have.”
Blue wrestled with the fabric encasing him, pulling it down and knocking his helmet askew in the process.
“Fucker!” he called, but he was grinning, and so were the rest of the guys.
Family.
Mike hadn’t thought it possible, but somehow the shit in his life had settled, and he’d found his family again.
Then he thought of Sara, running head down, shoulders bowed through the street, and his grin faded.
CHAPTER THREE
THE BELL TO the shop tinkled as a customer pushed through, but Sara didn’t bother to put her pencil down. She’d worked at the gallery long enough to know with a simple glance if a person was buying or not.
And this one wasn’t.
Then the bell jingled again. Her eyes flicked up, and her pencil hit the paper. She straightened and tried to look professional when a well-dressed man came in and approached the counter.
He was hot, had a body like Jason Momoa, and he was… her boss.
He also, unfortunately for the female population, wasn’t straight.
“Sara, honey,” Mitch said, leaning over the artfully cut piece of granite to buss her cheek. “I’ve told you before, I don’t care if you draw while you work, honey.”
He had. Many times, but Sara couldn’t just put the oh-God-her-boss-is-looking-at-her fear aside.
She’d never been friends with her teachers or coaches because she had a problem with authority.
Namely with always bending to its will.
“Pathetic,” she muttered.
“No, you’re not,” Mitch said fiercely, and her eyes flew up to meet his. “You’re talented and sure as shit shouldn’t be working behind the counter of my shop.” He bent close, his voice softening. “Hun, your stuff should be all over my walls.”
Sara let her gaze slide away, tracing the display of metal sculptures in the store’s windows. They were good, way more intricate than anything she could ever come up with.
Then again, her strength wasn’t sculpture; it was pencil sketching.
“My stuff is fine. Nothing inspirational, nothing amaz—”
Her words cut off as he snatched the sketchbook from beneath her hands and strode over to the older gentleman, the not-buyer, who was now perusing a set of postcards. Mitch flipped through pages as he walked, stopping on a drawing of the Golden Gate Bridge.
The sketch was her favorite, though probably not her most technically sound, with the swirls of shadow and light, her version of the notorious fog curling around the span, creeping over cars and pedestrians alike.
Done all in shades of gray, it had only the barest hint of the bridge’s famous coppery red.
“What do you think of this?” Mitch asked the customer.
Sara’s throat closed up, sweat broke out on her forehead, and her heart absolutely galloped in her chest.
The man’s eyes went wide, brows climbing almost to the wisps of white hair sparsely covering his shiny scalp. “That’s amazing,” he said, his voice soft and practically breathy. He raised a hand as though to touch the image, and Sara winced.
Mitch slid it out of reach. “How much would you pay for it?”
“Is it an original?”
“Yup.”
“Two grand.”
Sara’s heart was no longer galloping. It had stopped, frozen in her chest, along with every other part of her body.
Mitch laughed and put on his master negotiator hat. “It’s worth three times that.”
“I’ll give you four.” The man pulled out his wallet.
“Fifty-five hundred,” Mitch countered.
