Center Ice (Entangled Crush) (Corrigan Falls Raiders)

by Cameron, Cate

  “I’m not really all that strange.” His smile was slow and unbelievably sexy. I wondered just how much I smelled; I was sure my feet were toxic, but if I kept my shoes on, how bad would the rest of me be? “Where you headed, exactly?” He looked at the road in front of us. “There’s just farms out there… You going to one of them?”

  Well, that was awkward. “No. I was just walking. I got a bit lost, I guess. I’m new to town.”

  He nodded as if this all made perfect sense to him. “I don’t have A/C, but it’s not bad with the windows down.” He treated me to another grin as he added, “Come on, little girl; I’ll give you some candy.”

  I knew it was stupid, but I just didn’t care. I was hot and tired, and following the rules had gotten me stuck in this ridiculous excuse of a life, so maybe it was time to break a few and see what happened. “Yeah, okay,” I said. I strode over to his passenger door, and by the time I got there he’d slid back into the cab and leaned over to push the door open. It was a strangely gentlemanly gesture, and I felt even worse about my totally disheveled state. “I may smell,” I admitted as I climbed in.

  “Good thing the windows are open, then.” He raised his eyebrows at me. “So, where to?”

  “I honestly don’t care,” I said. “I’m just killing time.”

  He nodded thoughtfully. “I’ve got the afternoon off. You want to go swimming?”

  “Yes.” It was simple and honest. “Yes, I really do.”

  “All right, then.” He carefully pulled out into traffic, then said, “Buckle up. I’m a terrible driver.”

  It caught me by surprise, and I laughed. “I’ve never heard someone admit that before.”

  “No point in denying it,” he said cheerfully. “I’m a damn menace.” Then he glanced over at me and shifted around so he could extend his right hand. “Tyler MacDonald, squirrel tamer and chauffeur from Hell.”

  I wiped my palm as subtly as I could on the skirt of my dress, then shook his hand. “Karen Webber. Damsel in distress, apparently.” And for the first time in quite a while, I meant it when I smiled at him and said, “It’s nice to meet you.”

  Chapter Four

  - Tyler -

  I had no idea what I was doing. I mean, okay, she was cute and female, so I was probably doing that, just like I always did. But it felt different this time. More innocent.

  I’d only ever seen Karen wearing workout clothes and covered in sweat. Not that I had anything against hot, athletic girls wearing spandex, and I guess she was pretty sweaty this time, too, but the dress was a nice change. Made me think about running my hands up her legs, of course, but I managed to put that out of my mind, at least temporarily. She’d thrown me off, talking about how she might smell, and just being normal and friendly instead of what I was used to from girls. She was different, and I liked it.

  But I guess I should have been paying a bit more attention to her instead of to myself, because when I turned off the highway onto the rough dirt road, she asked, “Where are we going?” and her voice was tense.

  I had no idea what the problem was. “To the lake? To go swimming?” I tried to sound neutral, not like I thought she was crazy.

  “We’re swimming in a lake?”

  “Is that all right?” She stared at me like I was an alien, and it made me nervous. So I started babbling. “You know the Dead Sea Scrolls? We learned about them in ancient history class. But I missed the first class, and the teacher kept mentioning them afterwards, and I thought he was saying the dead sea-squirrels.” And that was probably enough of that weirdness. “I was just thinking, you know—there won’t be any lake-squirrels to worry about. They died back in ancient times.”

  “We should stop talking about squirrels.” She had a nice smile, especially when she was trying to hide it.

  “Sorry, yeah, I guess it’s a traumatic memory for you. You’re right, it’s best to forget.”

  I pulled the truck over at the same spot I always did, a little grassy clearing with trees on all sides. I had no idea who owned the property, but whoever it was didn’t seem to mind the occasional swimmer. I turned off the engine and said, “Just over the hill.” She didn’t look totally convinced, but she climbed out of the truck anyway. She was really careful to lock her door, even though both of our windows were still wide open. Strange girl.

  And maybe she was thinking that I was a little strange, too, because she was watching me as if she thought I might pounce. I had no idea what her problem was, now. “I don’t have towels, or anything,” I said, sounding defensive even to myself. “Sorry.”

  “That’s okay,” she said. She still sounded a bit weird, but she followed me when I led the way along the sandy path up to the top of the hill. From there, we could see the lake, and she seemed to relax a little. Maybe she’d been back on that took-a-ride-from-a-homicidal-maniac thing and was relieved that I hadn’t lied about the lake, at least. “It’s so deserted,” she said, sounding surprised.

  “Yeah. On the weekends, there might be a couple more people, but it’s never all that busy here. People want to be at the public beaches, with snack bars and bathrooms and crowds.” She still didn’t look too convinced. “Shit, is that where you thought we were going? Somewhere busier?” I should have known. I liked coming here, but most people, and definitely most girls I knew, wanted to go somewhere more public, somewhere to see and be seen.

  “I didn’t really have any idea,” she said, and she sounded like she meant it. She started down the hill toward the lake. “But this is perfect. It’s beautiful.”

  “Yeah. I like it here. I’m not a huge fan of crowds.” Which was true, but was way more than I should be saying to some girl I barely knew. I was supposed to be confident and popular and outgoing, not a crowd-phobic recluse. But she didn’t seem too put off by my admission, and we scuffed along through the sand until we hit the band of smooth rocks down by the shore. “There’s a shallow part over there,” I gestured, “with warmer water. It’s pretty cold out deeper.”

  We wobbled over the beach rocks and made our way to the little cove. I realized that I’d never brought a girl here before, and I was glad that she was wearing practical shoes; heels on these rocks would have been brutal.

  I kicked my flip-flops off and pulled my shirt over my head, dropping it down to the rocks, and only then noticed that Karen was standing totally still, staring out at the lake. Once again, I had no idea what she was up to.

  “I’m going to rinse out my dress,” she blurted out. “I’ll swim in it, I mean. Because it’s sweaty and gross.” She looked a bit desperate. “It’s repulsive.”

  I honestly hadn’t given a lot of thought to what she’d wear in the water, but apparently she had. “Okay,” I said carefully. I dropped my wallet and keys on top of my shirt and figured it was time to get the conversation back onto more solid ground. So I said, “Don’t let me lose those. It’d be a long walk back to town.” Then I started toward the water, walking carefully but easily on the shifting stones, and hoped she’d just follow after me without more weirdness.

  But apparently I was being too optimistic. When I was about thigh-deep, before I made the final, critical commitment to the cool water, I turned around and saw her still standing on the shore. “You okay?”

  “Yeah.” She shrugged her backpack off onto the ground. “Just building up my nerve. You know, for the cold.”

  “It’s not that bad,” I said, and I waved my fingers through the water in what I hoped was an encouraging way. I wanted to swim, not drive this strange girl back into town. “On a day like this, it’s perfect.”

  She seemed to believe me because she started toward the water. I turned back around and looked at the horizon, but I could hear her wading toward me. She was slow at first but sped up as she went, and when she was just about level with me she flopped forward, no grace or style whatsoever, just falling into the lake with a splash. Then she headed confidently out into the lake, her arms cutting smoothly through the water, and I was following be
fore I’d even thought about it.

  I had almost caught up when she suddenly dove deep. I could see her through the clear water, skimming along the bottom like a mermaid, and I don’t think I would have been totally shocked if she’d stayed down there forever, maybe turning around to wave good-bye before disappearing into the cool depths.

  But she eventually came back up, and I guess I startled her by how close I was. I grinned. “When you were being weird on shore, I was worried that maybe you didn’t know how to swim. But I guess you do.”

  She didn’t say anything, just took a deep breath and then ducked back under the water. She swam right underneath me, and I was tempted to dive down to join her. I wanted to touch her skin and see if it had been cooled by the water or if it was still warm. But mostly I wanted to talk to her more, figure out who she was and what was going on with her. So I followed along on the surface, and she eventually came back up and stared at me.

  I had no idea what we were doing, but I was ready to experiment a little. I started off toward the middle of the lake; we were in Lake Huron, the opposite shore far beyond the horizon, so it wasn’t like I thought I was actually going to get there, but it felt good to have a goal. And Karen followed right alongside me.

  I finally stopped, and she started treading water beside me, giving me a look as if she wanted me to explain the game I was playing. Of course, I had no idea, so I shrugged. “Nobody here. Just us.” I should have had a better explanation, something that would tell her what a rare treat that was for me.

  She obviously wasn’t quite understanding. “Okay, if you’re going to drown me and bury my body in the trees, you should just get it over with. You know?”

  I had no idea what to say. “If you think there’s a chance of that, why the hell did you follow me out here?”

  “I didn’t think there was. But then you said we were alone, and it just… I don’t know.” She ducked back under the water, but I understood what she was doing, now, finding a little solitude down there until she was ready to deal with me again.

  Or, I guess, until she ran out of oxygen.

  When she finally bobbed back to the surface I said, “Karen, I promise not to drown you.”

  She was ready for that, and added, “Or kill me at all. Or rape, or torture, or—”

  “No crimes,” I said quickly. “No assaults. No unwanted physical contact of any sort. I promise.”

  She squinted at me. “Of course, that’s exactly what a torturing-rapist-murderer would say, isn’t it? I mean, with a list of sins like that, I don’t think you’d have to worry about a little lying.”

  “Those aren’t the sins on my list,” I said. And I didn’t want to get into all that, so I waved my arm toward the shore, defaulting back to my tour guide persona. “Down that way is the public beach. Sand right to the water, and all the conveniences. And there’s a kids’ sports camp over that way. That’s where I worked this summer, off and on. Beyond that is mostly trees. A few cottages, a few small beaches like the one we’re at, but otherwise, just forest.”

  She was obviously bowled over by the sudden tidal wave of information, but she found her balance and said, “That’s nice. In Toronto we have Lake Ontario, but it’s not like this. Almost all developed, along the shore.”

  “That’s where you’re from? Toronto?” I’d known she was from somewhere different, but not that different. “Damn. How’d you get stuck up here?”

  She ducked back under the water again. I got the message, and when she surfaced I didn’t press her for an answer to my question. But I couldn’t think of what else to talk about, so it was a bit awkward, the two of us just treading water, staring at each other. “I’m getting tired,” she finally said. “I’d better go back to shore. But you can stay out here.”

  I didn’t say anything, just flipped over onto my back and started kicking. She swam right alongside me. Sometimes we’d be on our backs, sometimes we’d roll like otters, onto our sides, our stomachs, back again. There was no hurry, and by the time we got to the shore, Karen seemed calm. She swam in to the shallows, tucked her skirt under her ass and sat on the cool stones, watching me like she was expecting an answer to some question I was pretty sure she’d never asked.

  I swam around a bit more but didn’t go far, and eventually I worked my way into the shallows and sat beside her, my elbows resting on my drawn-up knees. I kept myself from edging in too close to her, even though of course I wanted to. Her dress was wet and clinging to her in lots of interesting places, and it would have felt totally natural to explore those places a little. And, okay, I admit it, I snuck a few peeks. But I kept my hands to myself, even though I wasn’t really sure why. I mean, Karen was different from other girls I’d known, sure, but that wasn’t really what was holding me back. It was more like I was different, or at least like I wanted to be.

  So I didn’t make any of the moves I knew so well. Instead I said, “Must be lots to do in the city. This is probably boring, eh?”

  “No. It’s not boring. It’s really nice.” She seemed to mean it, and I took her at her word. I checked in a few times through the day, making sure she wasn’t ready to leave, but she always seemed totally content to stay there. We just hung out, swimming and lying in the sun and talking about stupid stuff. I got a lot better at knowing when she was about to get uncomfortable, and she started to loosen up a little, like she was trusting me to not push in somewhere that was none of my business.

  Finally, though, I looked at my watch and said, “You probably need to get home for dinner?” It wasn’t that I wanted to leave, but I didn’t want to start creeping her out again.

  Karen didn’t answer, but I could hear her stomach growl, and we both grinned. I got dressed, and she pulled her sandals on, and we walked slowly back to the truck. I was warm and relaxed from the sun and the swimming, but it was more than just that. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d spent a whole afternoon with someone where hockey hadn’t been mentioned a single time.

  We didn’t talk as we drove back to town, but it was a comfortable silence. We were both tired, and there wasn’t anything that needed to be said until I had to ask, “Where am I taking you?”

  She paused before giving me the address, and I worried that she was back to the old he’s-a-psycho thing, but she finally coughed it up and asked, “Do you know where that is?”

  “I know the street. You can point out the house when we get there.”

  When we turned the corner onto her street she said, “It’s the yellow brick one with the pillars, halfway down on the right.” We got a little closer, and I could feel her tensing up as she said, “The one with all the people out front.”

  I recognized a few of the faces and had a sudden urge to keep driving. We could just keep going, maybe circle around and go back to the lake. We could live on wild strawberries and fish, and maybe sleep in the truck, or build a shack on the beach…

  But Karen already thought I was psycho; I didn’t need to give her further evidence. So I pulled up to the curb and watched as everyone turned to look at us. I saw the recognition, and forced myself to stare straight ahead. I didn’t know what Karen was doing, living with these people, but I knew that at least one of them would really prefer that I drop dead.

  I didn’t think I’d mention that to Karen.

  Chapter Five

  - Karen -

  When we pulled up to the curb, the heads of the perfect family all swiveled in our direction. The grandperfects were there, dressed as if they’d been playing golf, and as I watched, Matt pulled a set of clubs out of the back of their SUV. Of course—the twins had been bonding with Grandma and Grandpa. How sweet.

  I should clarify that these were Natalie’s parents, not my father’s, and after that I probably don’t have to go into a lot of detail about their expressions as they looked over and saw the evidence of their daughter’s humiliation sitting there in a pickup truck. Honestly, it was a disgrace that I was even allowed to walk around and be seen with civilized human
beings.

  “You live here?” Tyler asked. “With the Beacons?”

  I really wasn’t up to explaining. “Shining Beacons of hope,” I said earnestly. “We can only pray that they’ll be able to reach a sinner like me.” I opened my door and slid out before he could say anything more. My dress was still a bit damp and it stuck to the seat and dragged out behind me; I think my lack of mortification about that makes it clear just how awkward the situation already was. Flashing my ass at a cute boy was the least of my worries. “Thanks,” I said quickly as I shut the door. “Fun afternoon,” I added through the window, and then I turned toward the house. I would have liked to just slink around the back and find my way in through the kitchen door, but one look at the crowd made it clear that wasn’t going to fly.

  “Hi,” I said as calmly as I could manage. I was dimly aware of the truck driving away behind me, and that was a relief, at least. “I’m going to go get changed.”

  “What the hell happened to you?” Matt asked. I was tempted to reprimand him for using strong language in mixed company, but I was sure his conscience would provide him with punishment enough.

  I looked down at myself and shrugged. “Yeah. I’m a mess. So I’ll just go get changed.”

  “What were you doing with Tyler MacDonald?” This time it was Miranda talking. Apparently the twins were the designated spokespeople for the group, and everyone seemed interested in hearing my answer.

  “Just hanging out. Swimming.” I tried to toss my hair nonchalantly, but it was still a little wet and totally tangled from driving with the windows down, so it just sort of slapped against the side of my head.

  “With Tyler MacDonald?” she said scornfully. Her eyes were cold as she added, “I hope you used protection.”

  “Miranda!” Natalie exclaimed, and the grandparents turned to her with round eyes.

  “I’m not the one who just climbed out of Tyler MacDonald’s sex-wagon,” Miranda said haughtily. “And honestly…she should use protection. I know it should go without saying, but obviously she wasn’t getting a great example at home, if you know what I mean. Maybe she hasn’t been living here long enough to unlearn the slut-washing.”