Icing (Aces Hockey #1)(40)
“Can you answer the question?”
She swallowed and caught the eye of her classmate Brandon sitting next to her. He grimaced. “No,” she replied honestly, heat washing into her face. “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear it.”
“Let me repeat it—what are the essential characteristics of a community, according to Robert Ezra Park?”
Chicago School. “Um. Population…territorially organized.”
“Yes.”
She searched her brain. “More or less completely rooted in the soil it occupies.”
“And…?”
“Individual units live in a relationship of mutual interdependence that is symbiotic rather than societal.”
“Correct. Very good.”
Shit. She’d totally been daydreaming. She needed to focus. She had only a couple more months of class. Midterms were coming up, then it was the homestretch. She had to do this. She couldn’t let a little hot sex distract her from her goal.
She made it through class, had coffee with some friends, met with her adviser about her thesis, then headed to the library to get as much work done as she could before Duncan picked her up at three.
Then they were going to work out together.
How crazy was that?
Sadly, she was not only distracted by thinking about Duncan, she was so, so tired. As the afternoon wore on, she found her eyes crossing as she stared at the screen of her laptop, her eyelids heavy. Her research made no sense. She just wanted to lay her head down on the table and sleep.
Near three o’clock, she wearily slid her laptop into the padded sleeve and then into her backpack. She slung it over her shoulder and left the library. Even an extra cup of Cool Beans Coffee wasn’t enough to revive her. How the hell was she going to keep up with Duncan in a workout or a run?
He probably ran twenty miles every day and bench-pressed three hundred pounds.
His truck was at the curb waiting for her when she walked along the sidewalk. Seeing him there made her feet slow momentarily because of the heat that swelled in her chest. Geez mama, get a grip, girl.
Determinedly, she strode forward and grabbed the door handle and yanked it open. “Hey.” She jumped in.
He smiled at her. He wore one of his usual ball caps, a green khaki jacket with pockets that looked suspiciously like he was going hunting, faded jeans, and boots. She breathed in his clean scent mingled with lingering new car smell, his big presence filling the cab of the truck. “Hey yourself. How was your day?”
“Long.” She sighed as she reached for the seatbelt. “I’m tired.”
He put the truck in gear. “Sorry.”
She settled into the seat. “It’s not your fault.”
“I did keep you up late.”
“I consented.”
“True. You were definitely a willing participant.”
A smile tickled her lips. “I guess I was.”
He maneuvered through heavy traffic with ease, confident and a little aggressive in his driving. She put a hand on the dash the first time he did a fast lane change, but he was so in control of the vehicle she soon relaxed.
“How was your practice?”
“Ugh. Hard. Coach ended it with a bag skate.”
“A what?”
“Bag skate. We just skate around as hard as we can. Until our bags fall off.”
She chuckled.
“Yeah, go ahead and laugh. Nothing’s more dreaded than a bag skate. Christ.”
“Um, why did he do that? Are you guys out of shape?”
“Hell no. We just haven’t been playing as well as we could. Some more than others,” he muttered. “But we’re a team so we all get the treatment. It’s a way of getting our attention. It’s not like we don’t know how to skate.”
He glided the truck down the ramp to the parking garage beneath his building.
“You still want to work out?” she asked.
“I can do some weights. My legs feel a little rubbery, so going for a run might not be the best plan.”
“Okay.”
When they were in his apartment, she paused. She hadn’t had a bag skate, but she almost felt like she had. She’d been getting by on such little sleep for so long, but managing, and last night’s nocturnal activities had really sucked the life out of her. “Guess I should change into workout gear.”
“Sure. Come on.” He led the way to his bedroom and she trudged along behind him, almost dragging her backpack.
He turned to her. “You’re really tired, aren’t you?”
“Yeah. But I’m okay.”
He shook his head. “I think you need sleep more than you need a workout.”
“I like working out. I need to.”
“Well, yeah, but missing one day isn’t going to kill you. Come on. I’m bagged too. Let’s just have a nap.”