Slap Shot by Lily Harlem Read Free Book Online

and casting long shadows at my feet.
    “Wow,” I said. “Your pool is bigger than the entire floor plan of my place.”
    He stooped to pick up a white towel lying on the ground, tossed it toward a wicker basket. “Yeah, it’s big, but not much good for fitness. It’s more for lounging around in, mucking about in. I use the gym in the basement for training when I’m not at the rink.”
    Suddenly my stomach let out an ear-splitting growl. I clutched my hand to my abdomen. “Oh boy, I’m sorry.”
    “No, I’m sorry. I should feed you. I asked you out to dinner and here you are having a house tour when you’re absolutely starving.” He slotted his hand into the small of my back once more and urged me back toward the kitchen.
    “Sit,” he said, dragging out one of the scarlet breakfast stools. “Wine?”
    “Yes, please.”
    He reached into a glass-fronted fridge and pulled out a bottle. “Chardonnay okay?”
    “Perfect.” I locked my fingers together. The marble surface was cool on my forearms as I leaned forward and watched him uncork and pour.
    He set the drink before me, popped a beer for himself and tied a blue-striped apron at his waist.
    “You like to cook?” I asked.
    “Yes, when I have someone to cook for.” He frowned. “That came out wrong. I’m not trying to make you feel sorry for me. I have plenty of people to cook for. With three older sisters and two younger brothers, there is always a pile of relatives with hungry mouths. I’ve got three nieces and four nephews all under the age of fourteen. It can get pretty wild in the pool when they all come around.”
    “Wow, I can imagine.”
    “They haven’t visited for a while though.” He took two fillets of bass out of the fridge.
    “Oh, why is that?” I took a sip of the deliciously oaky chardonnay.
    His lips flattened and his brows dropped low. “I guess I should tell you.”
    “Tell me what?”
    He spun back to the fridge and deposited dill and cream onto the counter. “The reason I couldn’t take you to a restaurant tonight is more serious than paparazzi.”
    “Oh?”
    “I’m having some problems with a woman.”
    A woman! Why the hell has he invited me here if there is already a woman in his life? I swallowed another mouthful of wine, but for some reason it tasted a little bitter now.
    “Her name is Laurie Sharp, she’s twenty-eight and I slept with her once, a year ago.” His fingertip rubbed at the patch of hair beneath his bottom lip. “There is nothing between us anymore.”
    “So why are you telling me this?”
    “Because she has it in her head that I owe her something, like marriage, kids, a picket-fucking-fence.”
    “After a one-night stand?”
    His face darkened. “Yeah, after a damn one-night stand, only she doesn’t think of it as that, she thinks I’m in love with her but just don’t know it yet.”
    “Are you in love with her?”
    “God, no.”
    I raised my brows. “Were you terribly mean to her?”
    “No.” He paused. “I gave her a damn good night, she was flying high and it was obviously very memorable for her.” He shrugged. “It just wasn’t for me.”
    “Did you let her down gently?”
    “If you count never calling as being let down gently.”
    “Did you say you would call?”
    “I asked for her number.”
    “So why did you ask for it?”
    “It seemed polite.”
    I wrinkled my nose. “If she was expecting a call and you didn’t that’s classed as mean.”
    His wide shoulders shrugged and he tipped the fish into a sizzling pan. “I know, hindsight and all that.”
    I watched the sleeves of his T-shirt tighten on his upper arms as he shook the pan over the heat and reached for a chopping board.
    “I thought she was in it for the same thing as me, one night of fun, a bit of sharing sweat. But it seems we were on different wavelengths, very different wavelengths.”
    “So what’s the problem now?”
    “The problem now is she’s broken three restraining orders, been caught