One Man Rush

by Joanne Rock

  “Congratulations on making it to the play-offs.” She turned toward his ear and arched up on her toes to say it, hoping the message made it a foot above her head. “You’re the man of the hour.”

  “Yeah, me and twenty-two other guys. Thanks.” He shouldered by another player who was next in line and deposited Marissa behind him.

  Where she couldn’t see a thing thanks to another massive set of shoulders. Damn it. Was Kyle really up there?

  She turned to apologize to whoever she’d cut off in the line and found Stacy Goodwell grinning ear to ear.

  “Hi.” She gave a little wave, but didn’t hug Marissa right away. Which seemed strange until Marissa realized she was on camera. “Act natural,” Stacy stage-whispered.

  Isaac stood beside the line, filming them with a small, handheld camera.

  “What’s going on?” Marissa asked, stepping outside the line to try to see around the player in front of her.

  Too bad Axel was right there crowding in front of her. Honestly, was this some kind of conspiracy? She adjusted her glasses on her nose and tried not to let them rattle her. Pivoting to Stacy and Isaac, she prepared to squeeze the answers out of her friends when…

  “Can I help you?”

  The familiar baritone rumbled, warm and engaging. Just the way it had the first time she’d heard Kyle’s voice. The crowd had magically thinned between her and the bar. Axel Rankin and the player who’d been blocking her view had both disappeared. She now stood face-to-face with the man she loved. The man who’d rendered her absolutely speechless the first time she’d looked at him.

  He watched her now, green eyes alert as if he was studying an opponent he needed to watch carefully. The gash on his jaw remained red, but the stitches were gone and the swelling had diminished.

  “Seltzer over ice,” she blurted, forgetting all about the words she’d rehearsed. The practical, well-reasoned plan for why they could still make this work.

  “Seltzer on the rocks coming up.” He took his time getting out the bottle, ignoring the line behind her.

  Actually, Axel came to the rescue then, entering the spot behind the bar next to Kyle and calling for the next in line.

  Kyle and Marissa shifted down to the end of the serving station while he poured her drink. Beside her, Marissa heard Stacy order a wine spritzer as she chatted with Isaac, so Marissa guessed that her awkward apology to Kyle wouldn’t end up on a new edition of Diva No More, thank goodness.

  “How have you been?” she asked Kyle while he turned to put the ice in the glass.

  “My stats are down but the rest of the team is playing well. Ax has had a goal in each of the last two games now that he’s not feeding me the puck all the time. I’m happy for him.” He passed Axel a bottle of vodka from underneath the counter, apparently tuned in to whatever the next patron had requested.

  “I’m sorry if I had anything to do with… That is, I’m sorry for what happened in Pittsburgh.” She twisted the chain on her purse, hoping she would have the chance to explain that she’d been emotionally burned out and not thinking clearly.

  What if he shut her down without hearing her out? What if he’d already moved on? The thought made her stomach knot, the butterfly fluttering turning to cold dread.

  “I was having a lot of fun until you bailed out on me.” He handed her the seltzer in a champagne flute, the bubbles still fizzing high above the rim.

  He took his time pouring a matching glass—for him?—making her wonder if he might join her for a drink. Heaven knew, Axel looked plenty capable of taking over the bartending duties as he flirted with an elderly lady, putting extra cherries in her Coke.

  “I think I might have had a panic attack,” she admitted. “Or maybe I was just overwrought seeing you get hurt. And while I don’t want to make excuses—” she moved her purse off the bar after another woman put her elbow on it “—I suspect the stress from losing the matchmaking gig and trying to find a way to help my mom had been eating away at me for a while. So I panicked with you.”

  “It probably wouldn’t have been healthy to be with a guy who made you worry so much.” He dropped a couple of ice cubes in his own drink.

  She swallowed hard, thinking this wasn’t going well at all.

  “You don’t.” She reached over the bar, her hand landing on his forearm. “I wouldn’t. That is, you’re not the one who causes all the stress. I realized that taking care of my mom has taken a toll, but I’m working with Isaac to—”

  “Who the hell is Isaac?” He straightened and she recognized the posture from the moment he’d thrown off his gloves that night on the ice in Pittsburgh.

  Could he be jealous? A wishful part of her heart hoped it was so.

  “He designs graphics chips. And he’s the new boyfriend of my former client. The client responsible for us meeting, by the way. She’s turned a new leaf and left her father’s controlling ways behind.” Marissa was so proud of Stacy, and so grateful to her, too. “Stacy Goodwell has been instrumental in helping Isaac—the chip maker—film my mother’s house for a new 3-D visual environment that will make it easier for me to move her to a safer, staffed facility.”

  The decision had been difficult in spite of the new technology Isaac had offered. But after discussing it with Brandy’s doctors and weighing the benefits of both options, they’d all agreed the change might be beneficial to Brandy’s recovery.

  Kyle lifted his brows.

  “Do you want to have a seat?” He gestured to a row of tables tucked against the historic hotel some distance from the band and the mayhem. Only two of the four were taken; the rest of the crowd was on their feet.

  “I’d love that,” she admitted, grateful to have some time alone with him. Well, alone amidst five hundred other people.

  “You’re moving your mom?” He carried both their glasses, bending his head in her direction so he could hear her response.

  The intimacy of the gesture warmed her. Made her feel like part of a couple again.

  “I realized, with the help of friends, that I may have been using the excuse of taking care of her to hide from taking chances.” She’d done a lot of soul-searching during a long, hard week. “And not just since the accident. Since always. She’s never demanded anything from me. I just gravitate toward the helper roles. I’m good at them.”

  Reaching a wrought-iron table near a patio heater that warmed a small ring of air around them, Kyle pulled a chair out for her.

  While she took a seat, he settled their glasses on the table and stole a candle from a nearby empty table to put on theirs, casting them in a golden glow.

  “You know, I understand if you want to achieve dreams of your own and explore other career options. But I also know there’s nothing wrong with being there for your friends and your mom. Your clients. Helping people find love and happiness is important. Something to be proud of.”

  His words touched her.

  “I guess I don’t think about it like that, but I should.”

  “Damn right you should. Bringing two people together…that’s a whole hell of a lot more special than hoisting the Stanley Cup. But we all have to play to our own strengths, right?”

  A lump formed in her throat and she had to bite her lip before she could speak.

  “Thank you.” She reached for his hand across the table, needing to touch him to make her case. “Kyle, I know I have a habit of putting up barriers with everything from my glasses and my matchmaking questionnaires to fake wedding bands and excuses for how a relationship could never work. But they are all total B.S., and I know that now.”

  She took a deep breath, needing to continue before she lost the head of steam.

  “I actually… I’m falling for you.” The magnitude of the gamble made her head feel as fuzzy as the seltzer still fizzing away in the glass beside her. “I realized it after you got hit that night in Pittsburgh, and that was half the reason I was scared and babbling—”

  “Marissa.” He squeezed her hand, his gaze so tend
er that she’d felt brave enough to pour out her heart even though she hadn’t meant to. “I should have fought for you that night, but it hadn’t sunk in that you were really planning to leave. I guess I thought right up until you walked away that I’d somehow make you change your mind.”

  “I try so hard to be practical when it comes to relationships and things between us just felt so out of control. So many feelings, so fast.” But she didn’t want to be practical anymore. She wanted to take a bold chance with a man worthy of the risk.

  “I’ve got something for you that might help put your mind at ease.” He dug into his pocket and slid a folded sheet of vellum across the table.

  She recognized the crisp stationery from her office.

  “A matchmaking questionnaire?” She remembered asking him to fill one out. One of her many deflections when he’d tried to get close to her.

  “I thought it was time I wrote down everything I wanted in a relationship so you could see it on paper.” He unfolded it for her and smoothed it out, then moved the candle closer so she could see the writing. “Maybe then you’ll see how well we fit together.”

  He dragged his chair closer while she read aloud.

  “Three most important qualities in a potential mate.” Her finger followed the prompt to his neatly written answers. “Loyalty. A generous heart. Wears glasses.”

  She smiled, a warm glow filling her heart.

  “Keep reading,” he urged, pointing to the next question, his expression giving nothing away.

  But by now, she guessed she was going to like what she saw.

  “Are you emotionally available for a relationship, one (lowest) to ten (highest).” Again, she traced her way along the paper with a finger that now trembled. “You wrote in your own response, ‘I am only available to Marissa Collins.’”

  “See?” He took the paper from her and read a few other excerpts to her. “I’m also a sports enthusiast, but don’t care if my potential mate goes to every game. I marked that I have a big family and only want to be with someone who understands the importance of family.”

  He paused and put the paper down. “That’s you all over.”

  She nodded, speechless and overwhelmed, but in a very good way.

  “Marissa, I want you by my side as my equal.” He took her hand again and folded his fingers around hers, looking up at her in the glow of the candle and the stars. “If you can’t go on the road with me, we’ll find extra time to be together when I’m at home. If you want to come on the road, I’ll make sure you fly home as often as you want. As often as you need to. I’m compensated too well for the job that I do and I’m happy to share that with someone who does a job as unselfish as yours.”

  “Kyle—” She gulped back a little yelp, so happy she still couldn’t quite get the words out. She’d never expected such an outpouring from Kyle, the man who’d staunchly denied that he wanted a relationship when she’d tried to talk him into trying her matchmaking services. “That’s so romantic.”

  “But it’s practical, too,” he insisted. “You weren’t sure how it could work between us, but I’m willing to work hard and make plans to show you how it could happen so we’re both happy and together as much as possible.”

  Marissa didn’t have the eloquence that he did. So she laid her hand on top of his and took a deep breath.

  “Yes.” Once she got that much out, it freed the rest. “I want that, too.”

  The next thing she knew, she was in his arms, wrapped up tight, his strength and warmth all around her.

  “You won’t be sorry, Marissa. I promise.” His whispered words in her ear sounded as happy and as relieved as she felt.

  Nearby, a handful of players burst into wolf whistles and cheers. Axel Rankin whooped it up like a frat boy, jumping onto the stage with the band to take the microphone.

  “Congratulations, Murph!” Turning the mic back over to the band, he left the stage and the pianist broke into the familiar strains of “At Last.”

  Marissa could hardly take it all in. Stacy jumped up and down beside Isaac’s shoulder, shaking the camera he was trying to keep trained on Marissa and Kyle.

  “Did they all know about this?” she asked, her face buried in Kyle’s white tuxedo shirt, his jacket long gone. He smelled so good, so familiar and so sexy. She couldn’t wait to be with him. To begin a life together on their own terms.

  “No. But I did tell Axel that I hoped to make up with you tonight. Possibly the rumor spread a little from there. It hasn’t exactly been a secret how miserable I’ve been without you.” He rose, bringing her to her feet along with him, his arms sliding around her waist.

  “Your shots did look a little off without me around,” she teased, liking the idea that she could take care of him and he’d take care of her back.

  Just like it should be.

  “It’s tough to play when your heart is broken.” He lifted one hand and kept the other around her waist, twirling her around while the lead singer belted out the romantic song.

  “We’re going to fix that,” she assured him, her fingers skimming his chest.

  “We’re also going to have everything you want and more, including a guest house for your mom when she stops by to stay with us on her next cross-country tour.”

  “I’d like that.” She prayed that would happen. The rehab staff had been really supportive of her idea for a new environment for her mom, helping Isaac find ways to tailor the three-dimensional images to the treatment center room.

  “But I don’t want you to sell your mom’s house just for the sake of the medical bills. And if that means I have to buy it, I will.” He twirled her again, giving her a moment to process the idea.

  “Thank you,” she said simply, accepting the gift for her mother’s sake as much as her own. She knew in her heart that this was going to work. She and Kyle wanted a future together too much to fail now. “Thank you so much.”

  Their song ended and a few of the partygoers whistled. Kyle and Marissa remained on the sidelines of the gathering, but Kyle lifted her hand in victory, claiming her in front of all his teammates. His coach. His brother.

  “So I have tonight off,” he said, turning to her again and pulling her flush up against him.

  The warm rush of heat through her body was a heady feeling that—just a few days ago—she’d feared she might never feel again.

  “Are you sure you don’t need to go to bed early and rest up for a game?”

  “Positive.” He captured her chin in his hand and tilted her lips to his. “I want to spend the night with you.”

  “That can be arranged.” She could almost taste him. “I know this great little spot where we can park the car and make out.”

  “What if I want to do more than kiss you?”

  “I know a bed where you can have me any way you choose… .”

  And that’s when the speed and strength of her superstar hockey player really paid off. He swept her off her feet, barreling through the crowd, to have her all to himself.

  * * * * *

  ISBN: 9781459225831

  Copyright © 2012 by Joanne Rock

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