Summer by the Lake

by Mandy Baggot

  Henrik passed a ten along and Mickey approached the stage, put the bill in the girl’s panties, and pointed out Henrik.

  ‘Come on, man, she wants you!’ Mickey said, beckoning him closer to the stage.

  ‘I feel, how do you say? Embashed?’ Henrik admitted, blushing.

  ‘Bashful? Look, come on, don’t be a tool, man! Get up to the stage!’ Wes ordered, giving him a shove in the right direction.

  ‘If you won’t have the dance, I damn well will,’ Wade said, pushing past Henrik to get to the front.

  ‘Well, that should keep them entertained for five minutes. Pass me Wes’ pitcher,’ Robyn said to Cole.

  ‘You’re going to steal their beer? Shame on you,’ Cole remarked as he passed the pitcher to Robyn.

  ‘Well, I figured it’s okay if I drink more than them because I’m not playing tomorrow.’

  ‘Good plan,’ he agreed.

  *

  ‘Bob! More beer!’ Robyn called, banging her fourth pitcher on the table.

  ‘Yeah, more beer!’ Mickey agreed, putting his arm around Henrik and swaying back and forth.

  ‘So, aren’t you going into the room for the ladies?’ Wes asked Robyn.

  ‘All the boys I need are right here,’ she informed him.

  ‘Hey, hey, hey! I knew she had it bad for me!’ Wes yelled above the music.

  ‘Before you get any ideas, I prefer you all with your clothes on. Preferably in pads, with sticks in your hands,’ Robyn said.

  ‘You’re welcome in the locker room any time,’ Wade remarked with a laugh.

  ‘Don’t say that! She’ll come in and give us a hard time about the game,’ Brad told them.

  ‘She won’t come in. Is private, for men only,’ Henrik said, spilling beer down his shirt.

  ‘Oh dear,’ Brad said with a shake of his head.

  ‘I won’t come into the locker room? I’m the manager, I can go where I like,’ Robyn reminded him.

  ‘Yes, but locker room is, how you say? Like church—is safe,’ Henrik said again.

  ‘Hen, just quit while you’re not ahead, or she’s gonna be waiting for you when you come out of the shower tomorrow,’ Brad warned.

  ‘It’s a sanctuary? Why? You don’t want me looking at your scrawny white butts?’ Robyn asked.

  ‘Hey, I won Butt of the Year at the garage,’ Mickey commented proudly.

  ‘Did anyone else enter?’ Robyn asked.

  Brad let out a snort of laughter.

  ‘You’re my team! You’re all asexual as far as I’m concerned.’

  She couldn’t help but look to Cole. This speech was to deter unwanted attention and to highlight the professional sporting boundaries. But she had the feeling she had said the words more for her own benefit. She had to stop wondering what it would be like to…

  ‘I’m not sure I like being called asexual,’ Mickey said.

  ‘Live with it, she doesn’t think you’re hot,’ Wade said.

  ‘Brad has the best chance with Robyn anyway, they’ve dated before, right? High school sweethearts,’ Wes reminded them.

  ‘Yes, well, that’s all in the past,’ Robyn said hurriedly.

  ‘I like childish romance,’ Henrik said.

  ‘Childhood romance,’ Wade corrected.

  Brad smiled over at Robyn and she hid her face in the nearest pitcher of beer. This was awkward and not how she’d wanted the conversation to turn.

  ‘Aww, he’s still got it bad!’ Mickey teased, jabbing Brad in the ribs with his elbow.

  ‘Anyway… who’s next for a dance? Wade! Which girl do you like?’ Robyn wanted to know, turning away from Brad and focusing on the other player.

  ‘Can’t say I’m that particular, they’re all good,’ he responded, licking his mouth in anticipation.

  ‘Here, this one’s on me,’ Robyn said, passing out some dollars.

  The majority of the team whooped and hurried off to the stage with Wade.

  ‘We should definitely take photos,’ Robyn said, laughing as she watched the team.

  She picked up a pitcher of beer, and that was when she noticed him on the other side of the room.

  Suddenly, there was no air, the music seemed to lower, the lights brightened, and she came to eye-to-eye with Jason. He was older and taller, but it was him. There was no case of mistaken identity this time. He sat at a table alone, holding a bottle of beer and looking directly at her.

  The dancer on stage had Wade backed up against a pole and was cavorting around him, while the other players cheered her on. But Robyn didn’t see it. She was practically having to force herself to breathe.

  ‘Cole,’ she said in barely more than a whisper.

  Cole was laughing with Bob at Wade who was trying to look like he was enjoying the performance but actually looked terrified. He hadn’t heard her.

  ‘Cole,’ Robyn attempted again, keeping her eyes on Jason.

  She thought if she looked away he might vanish into thin air and no one would believe he was ever there.

  Jason got up from his chair and began moving toward their table.

  ‘Cole!’ Robyn screamed at the top of her voice.

  She leapt up from her chair and grabbed him by the sleeves of his T-shirt. She was shaking now and had closed her eyes tight. She couldn’t look at Jason. She clung to Cole.

  ‘What is it?’ Cole asked, putting an arm around her and holding her trembling frame.

  She carefully turned her head away from his chest, but when she did, she came face-to-face with Jason. He was now standing right by their table.

  ‘Robyn, listen. Don’t freak out or anything. I…’ Jason reached out to her.

  ‘Don’t touch me! Cole, don’t let him touch me! Get him away from me!’ Robyn shrieked, clinging to him.

  ‘Jason?’ Bob questioned as if not sure.

  ‘Listen, I just wanted to talk to you. I mean, it’s been such a long time now, I thought…’ Jason began again.

  ‘This is Jason?’ Cole asked Robyn.

  She nodded as tears began to spill from her eyes. She had to hold herself together. She couldn’t let him see that she was still the terrified wreck she’d been back then.

  ‘Robyn, I didn’t do it. I said that at my trial and I’m still saying it now. I didn’t do it,’ Jason said, looking straight at her.

  In one rapid movement, Cole sat Robyn down and punched Jason hard on the jaw. He crumpled and fell back into an adjacent table.

  Robyn was practically hyperventilating. She couldn’t bear to look at him. She couldn’t bear to be anywhere near him.

  ‘Leave him, Cole! Cole! I said leave him! I’ll go get security,’ Bob said, pulling Cole away from Jason and signaling to the bouncers on the door.

  ‘What the hell is he doing here?’ Brad questioned as the team hurried back to the table.

  ‘He’s freaking Robyn out, he tried to touch her,’ Cole replied, shaking his aching fist.

  ‘I didn’t do what you all think I did,’ Jason said as he attempted to get to his feet.

  He was winded, his nose was bloodied and misshapen. He clung to a chair to aid him.

  ‘No? Well, that isn’t what the jury said, was it? Out! Now!’ Brad ordered, roughly grabbing Jason’s arm and hauling him up off the floor.

  ‘I no understand. Who is this Jason?’ Henrik queried, his cowboy hat falling over his eyes.

  ‘I want to go,’ Robyn said, scanning the room for the nearest exit she could make it to.

  ‘No, he’s leaving, right now,’ Brad informed them, and he wrenched Jason’s arm behind his back.

  ‘Robyn, please, just listen to me,’ Jason begged as the security team moved toward them.

  ‘No one wants to listen to what you’ve got to say, it’s all lies,’ Brad hissed.

  ‘I’m launching an appeal. They’ve got new information. I want the conviction quashed. I want my good name back, and I want Robyn to realize that I didn’t hurt her,’ Jason informed him.

  ‘I don’t want to hear this,’ R
obyn said, biting her fingernails and balancing on the outside edge of her tennis shoes.

  ‘You had photos of her all over your bedroom wall,’ Brad reminded Jason.

  ‘Yeah, I had a crush on her, I admitted that. She was the only girl in school that spoke to me, and I was the class dweeb,’ Jason said.

  ‘Cole, please, make him go away!’

  ‘You drag all this history up again, and I’ll make sure you spend the rest of your life in jail,’ Brad threatened.

  ‘I’m only going to say this once more. I did not rape Robyn, and you’re all going to find that out soon enough,’ Jason informed them.

  ‘Get out of here!’ Brad ordered, pushing him toward the doormen.

  *

  His fist was aching but he didn’t care. When she’d said that he was her rapist, the blind fury had taken over. It was how he had felt when his father had died, how he had felt when he found out about Veronica and Bryn. But it wasn’t quite the same, because tonight the feeling hadn’t been about him, it had been about her. All he’d wanted to do was protect her. How could he feel like that about someone he had only just met? He’d promised himself never again. Caring was just too painful and it had no place in his life any more.

  Twenty

  ‘Ow!’ Cole exclaimed as Robyn put a tea-towel containing ice on his knuckles once they got home.

  ‘Come on, if it’s that bad, it might be broken. Do you want to go to the emergency room?’ Robyn asked, sitting next to him on the sofa.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Then quit with the dramatics.’

  ‘It isn’t just the hand. I got worse from our friendly hockey match the other night and Henrik jabbed me right there when he was dancing with the chair,’ Cole informed her. He stood and pulled up his T-shirt, revealing a bruise on his back the size of North America she hadn’t noticed earlier.

  The washboard midriff was there again, just a few inches away. She bit her lip.

  ‘Who did that?’ Robyn asked.

  ‘Brad doesn’t like getting beaten to the puck, does he?’ Cole said, sitting down again.

  ‘No,’ she agreed.

  He looked at her, his dark eyes studying her face as if it was important. Like she was important. Her heart quickened and she had to moisten her lips.

  ‘I wanna kiss you,’ she said, putting the ice down on the coffee table.

  ‘You’re asking now?’

  ‘I do have some manners.’

  ‘What if I say no?’

  ‘Are you going to? Because that would be really embarrassing.’

  ‘I don’t know, Robyn, I think things have changed. I don’t want to do the whole random thing any more,’ Cole told her with a heavy sigh.

  ‘Oh, I get it. You’ve found out I’m not the easygoing girl you thought I was. You found out, not only have I been raped by the town freak, but I also sleep with my boss because that’s all the relationship I’m capable of.’

  ‘No, it isn’t that,’ Cole told her, his eyes meeting hers.

  ‘Don’t give me the eyes, please don’t give me that look. I don’t want your sympathy. I know I’m screwed up. I’ve told you I don’t want you to try and make me feel better, it isn’t your job.’

  She felt uncomfortable. She felt hot and she couldn’t look at him. He was sitting so close to her, and it was making her prickle with something like excitement or maybe anticipation. Whatever it was, it was indescribable.

  ‘Well, whose job is it? Clive’s? Because you told me when he makes love to you, you don’t feel a thing.’

  ‘Stop it! Don’t say that!’

  ‘Why, because it’s so close to the truth?’

  ‘I’m not some sort of project.’

  ‘I think you feel it when we kiss. I think you try to pass this off as something random, something unimportant, but that isn’t true, is it?’ Cole continued.

  She could feel his breath on her face and, suddenly, she couldn’t focus on anything but his full, fleshy lips.

  ‘That sounds like psycho-babble to me,’ she responded, pulling at her ponytail and averting her gaze for a second.

  ‘Is it? Believe me, I really don’t want to feel this way, but no matter what I do, I can’t get away from the fact that we fit, Robyn. I don’t know why or how, but we fit.’

  ‘You’re so obviously drunk. Shame on you.’

  ‘I think you feel it, too, but you won’t admit it, because Clive and whatever “make-do” life you have back in England is familiar—no matter how shit it is.’

  ‘Oh my God, Cole! Where is all this coming from? I have a bit of a thing with the rapist turning up and you go all caveman on me and want to be my protector? I appreciate you having my back with Jason, but…’ Robyn began.

  ‘Close your eyes,’ Cole told her.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I’m going to kiss you. And although I know I shouldn’t, I want it to be a prologue to something,’ he whispered.

  Her eyes closed of their own accord, like a magnetic clasp had drawn them shut, and she felt the soft, smooth lips on hers, tempting her mouth to open. She wanted to let the feeling he gave her fill her whole body and take away every horrible memory. She reached for him, drawing his head closer to hers, her lips demanding more from his, until tears were seeping from the corners of her eyes.

  She broke away, out of breath, her cheeks damp and her heart hammering in her chest. Cole took hold of her hand and gripped it tightly in his.

  ‘You felt that, right?’ he asked.

  Robyn watched the rise and fall of his chest and nodded her head. She had felt more from every kiss they’d shared than she had felt for the last nine years. Her heart was racing, her palms were itchy, and she couldn’t stop looking at him.

  ‘Marry me,’ he said, his eyes not leaving her for a second.

  ‘What?’

  ‘You heard me,’ Cole said steadily.

  His expression was serious. The inky eyes were focused on her and the intensity made her shiver.

  ‘Is this a dare? Have one of the team put you up to this?’

  ‘Marry me,’ Cole repeated.

  ‘I heard you, but one more time and I’ll think you actually mean it. I’ll hold you to it,’ Robyn said with a swallow.

  ‘Marry me.’

  ‘We’ve known each other three days.’

  ‘You haven’t given me an answer.’

  ‘We have a game tomorrow, the biggest game of the season. I have to focus on that.’

  ‘You’re changing the subject.’

  ‘Of course I am. You’re being crazy!’

  ‘Yeah, maybe I am. I mean, I’ve never thought about marriage before, you know that. And I really didn’t ever have a scrapbook of potential outfits. Hell, after the year I’ve had, I was never having any sort of relationship ever again. But then I met you and you’re messing things up, messing me up.’

  ‘We should rewind. We can forget I said I wanted to kiss you, we can forget you kissing me and we can go and ask the refrigerator what it suggests we snack on at this time of night.’

  ‘Are you saying no?’ Cole asked.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Yes? You’re saying yes?’

  ‘No! I’m not saying yes. This is insane.’

  ‘Do you want me to ask your dad first? Because I’m serious about this. I don’t know why, I can’t explain it, just call it a chemical reaction I can’t analyze yet.’

  ‘Jeez! Are you for real?’

  ‘I’m going to ask one more time. Robyn Matthers, will you marry me?’

  She pulled at a section of hair in her ponytail while biting the inside of her cheek. She raised her eyes to meet his.

  ‘Yes,’ she answered.

  Twenty-One

  ‘Did you say yes?’ Cole asked.

  ‘I… I don’t know. Did I?’

  ‘I think so.’

  ‘This is weird.’

  ‘Yeah. I wasn’t sure you’d say yes.’

  ‘Why did you ask me?’

  ‘Because yo
u make me feel… I don’t know… better. When I’m with you it’s like finally something else matters. D’you know, since you’ve been living here, I haven’t thought about work once when I’ve come home. Not even when you made me sit through every replay of the Red Wings game twice last night. I can switch off, I can be twenty-five, playing hockey, being who I am without the white coat and the safety glasses.’

  ‘I’m not like other girls. I don’t do emotion and Meg Ryan films or the color pink.’

  ‘I know that. I live with you,’ Cole reminded her.

  ‘I’m screwed up, and I’ve been sleeping with someone who pays my bills and keeps me in crisps and beer.’

  ‘I know that, too. And I hated it. I hated it so much, I almost had another crack at the mirror in the Gen-All bathroom.’

  ‘You’re smart, Cole, and really clever… and whenever you walk into anywhere, every woman checks you out.’

  ‘Now you’re making things up.’

  ‘They look you up and down and mouth wow as they nudge their friends.’

  ‘They do not!’

  ‘You’ve played for the Wolves, and you’ve had a nice, normal relationship with someone called Veronica. She sounds very sensible and attractive and probably had a really high-powered job wearing expensive suits and make-up. I don’t do make-up, by the way, just lip-gloss,’ Robyn continued.

  ‘Come on! Normal? She had an affair with my brother.’

  ‘But I bet she was normal once. She hadn’t been raped and she hadn’t slept with her married boss. She liked Meg Ryan, too, didn’t she?’

  ‘Listen to me. Make that fresh start and make it with me. We can both start again. Just be Robyn. That’s who I met at the airport and on the plane. That Robyn had a mouth full of opinions and she said I was cute,’ Cole told her, taking hold of her hands.

  ‘I did, didn’t I?’

  ‘Yes, you did.’

  ‘Must have been the altitude.’

  ‘Or maybe the jetlag.’

  ‘Or maybe the hostesses nudging each other and going wow.’

  ‘Maybe that did it,’ Cole replied with a smile.

  ‘This is weird,’ Robyn said.

  She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know if she was thinking straight. It had come so out of the blue. But she had reacted with her gut and her gut had said yes. Her instincts had told her that saying yes was the right thing to do. Her instincts were rarely wrong. They were about the only thing she still trusted. But wasn’t it madness agreeing to marry someone after only knowing them three days?