“When you were one of those young hooligans.”
He patted her on the rear, and she felt a blush in her cheeks. “I could chase you around the living room if you’d like.”
“Not now, Roland. We have guests.”
“All right, Helen. For you, I’ll wait. Forever if I have to.”
Helen watched her husband walk away, still doing her heart good after all this time. She sighed, quit her mooning and returned to work. There was still much too much to do.
“MY, MY. Back again?”
Rebecca greeted him at the door in the terry-cloth robe and this time, her red wool socks. He tried to ignore the thump-thump-thump in his chest.
Which immediately put him on the defensive. “Don’t start. They took my battery cables. Tell me what kind of whack job disables cars in the middle of a snowstorm?”
She folded her arms across her chest. “Battery cables, huh?”
“You want to go down there and see for yourself?”
“No, I believe you,” she answered in a voice that called him a liar.
Ah, hell. He should have known she wasn’t the “forgive and forget” type. Rebecca Neumann looked as if she could hold a grudge forever.
“Okay, I shouldn’t have left like that. I’m sorry, but I’m doing the right thing here. You should understand that. I’m doing the right thing.” The hard slate-gray of her eyes didn’t seem to comprehend the truth in his words.
“I don’t need you to do me any favors.”
“And you don’t need my problems, Rebecca.” It was the understatement of the year.
Time to start over, he decided. She was leaving on Tuesday. He could stay a day, maybe two, if only to show her that he wasn’t worth the effort. Cory planted a small smile on his face. “Look. I’m still stuck, so let’s make the best of it, okay? What do you want to do today? Sky’s the limit, and well, actually the weather’s the limit, but I’m game to whatever you want to try.” There weren’t many options, and in Cory’s mind, most didn’t involve clothes. It was a win-win all the way around.
“Let’s go outside,” she said. He examined the froufrou paraphernalia she had littered around the room. Outside?
“In the snow?”
“Well, duh. We could walk to town.”
Cory made a rude noise. “Bunch of antique stores? No, thank you,” he said, still thinking an afternoon lying in bed would be prime. “We could go ice-skating,” he offered. A compromise and better than antiques.
“I can’t skate.”
“Good. You can learn.”
“You can?”
“Hockey. Junior high. Put a stick in my hand and I can fly.”
“So you could teach me?”
“Hockey?”
“I think I have to learn to skate first. You’ll have to teach me.”
“I can’t teach.”
“I can’t, either, but they did pay me for it.”
She had that sultry gleam in her eye, and he knew she’d beaten him. Maybe deep in his black heart he’d wanted her to beat him. Fan-tastic. Today was whatever Rebecca wanted. “I’ll try, but if you break your ankle or something, I’m not liable.”
* * *
After breakfast, they went to the lake situated close behind the inn. There was a small crowd, couples, a few families, but most people seemed to have stayed in.
Rebecca eyed the ice nervously. It seemed very hard, very cold. “Maybe we should go back.”
“Now who’s being a chicken-shit?”
“My blood runs deep yellow.”
“I thought you wanted to do this. Do it.” He dragged her out on the ice, skating backward, guiding her around in a slow circle. It was like a glorified car-tow.
“You should move your feet,” he told her.
“But then I’ll fall. Car-towing is good.”
“Come on,” he said, his voice warm and coaxing, and for a second she caught a glimpse of Cory the Seducer. How many high school girls parted with their virginity because of that crooked attempt of a smile? The dark eyes never quite bloomed alive, but sometimes you saw a flash of humanity, a flash of a man who should’ve been.
Her feet stuttered in perfect time with her heart. Then one foot slid in front of the other.
“Do it again,” he said, still coaxing, still seducing.
Rebecca kept moving along, a shuffling gait more suited to a senior citizen’s walker than ice. She didn’t enjoy being gawky or flawed, especially in front of other people. But she didn’t do it for her, she did it for him. The momentary flash of his smile made all the embarrassment worthwhile.
“See, you’re skating,” he said, a complete overstatement. Then he let go of her hands. She screamed and promptly fell on her butt. He moved behind her, steady arms hooked under hers, easing her upright. Just as she was ready to fall again, he quickly propped her back up.