They went back and forth, and though Country scored first, Jenna took the next two. He worked his ass off to catch up, and they were both plum-faced and sweaty when Jenna got a breakaway to gain another goal on him. He was only up four to three.
“I think it’s getting too cold. We should probably stop there and finish another night.” Gentry grinned as they glided to centre.
“Drop the puck, Gentry.”
She’d won that night. He couldn’t remember if any part of him had let her, but he doubted it. They’d parked his truck in the driveway and raced into the house to find only the kitchen light on. That had always been the sign that his parents had gone to bed and the boys damn-well better not wake them.
Jenna had offered to go, but she was already shivering with all her layers damp with sweat. Country had insisted she put on something dry before hitting the road, and when he’d taken her down to his room to find her a sweatshirt, they hadn’t come back up the stairs for three hours.
That had been his first time. Hers too. He remembered the way the baby hairs on her skin had stood on end. How her breath had been slow and hot against his neck. How she hadn’t laughed when he remembered about birth control and had a momentary panic attack with her naked on the sheets under him.
She’d walked him through all of it with the tenderness of a mare nuzzling her newborn foal, and he’d been forever grateful. His whole life, he’d absorbed the message that he had to be the one in charge. Especially where sex was concerned. But he hadn’t understood what it would feel like to shoulder that responsibility.
In that moment, he’d never felt more vulnerable—more stripped bare. Jenna had wrapped him up and let him love her the way it made sense to him, not the way he thought he was supposed to.
Country’s eyes stung. He cleared his throat and blinked, forcing the snow dusted ice back into focus. “Want to test that theory? I think I have a pair of skates that would fit you in the garage.”
Jenna’s lashes shimmered with a thin layer of frost. Her tongue flicked over her lower lip, and Country wanted to ask if she remembered that night the way he did. If she was thinking about their whispers in the dark.
He knew he never would. Not now, when he couldn’t even gauge how she’d respond to a simple invitation out for drinks. That memory was too delicate to bear a tainted flick from her fingers.
Jenna dropped her eyes and inspected her gloves. “I need to leave around noon, and . . . I thought we should probably talk about Saturday.”
Country swallowed his disappointment like Buckley’s. “Right. Saturday.” He drew a deep breath and adjusted his toque. He didn’t want to show weakness now, just as he hadn’t wanted to then. But Jenna had always been safe, hadn’t she? “It’s not that I don’t want to do the show.”
Jenna waited, watching him. The weight of her gaze wasn’t helping him figure out how to organize his thoughts.
Country’s heart stuttered. “Things here at the ranch aren’t going well. Haven’t been for a while. Now that it’s winter, Polk and I are working on a strategy for the spring, and I don’t have much time to spare. Especially with the hockey season.”
Jenna shifted her weight on the snow. “I’m sorry, Gentry. I know you love this place.”
He nodded. “Well, it’s not dead yet. We’ve got some ideas.”
She looked up. “What kind of ideas?”
“I’ve been doing some research on agritourism. My dad doesn’t like the idea, but for better or worse, he doesn’t have an official say in it.”
“You’ve considered selling?”
Country exhaled. “Yep.”
“But then you’d have to take your parents’ home away from them.”
She understood like she always did. He nodded. “I looked at different options for parcelling it off. Doesn’t make sense without selling the plot with the house.”
Jenna considered this, her cheeks flushing pink from the cold. “Maybe we can strike a deal.” Country raised an eyebrow. “Analysis is kind of what I do for a living.”
“For hockey stats.”
“The same tools and principles apply, and I don’t only research hockey. I specialize in market research. Finding what appeals to people in different demographics.”
Country pointed to the twin silos past the pond. “I’ve got a team ready to make the silo into a bed and breakfast.”
“You have plans?”
“Rudimentary, but yes.”
Her eyes danced. “Send them to me? Include all the stats and I’ll put together a report on pricing and revenue projections.”
