My eyes slide to his leg. It’s covered up beneath his sweatpants, but I can imagine the scars his road to recovery imprinted on him.
“That must have sucked,” I say softly.
Nat jolts as if he didn’t expect me to say that. “It was fine. It gave me a chance to… to see what everyone’s thinking.”
His tone is nonchalant, but I notice him adjusting his fingers on the steering wheel as his eyes dart back and forth.
Jimmy’s predictions about Nat’s future wiggles through my brain. Maybe the accident really is affecting his ability to return to hockey.
“Do you want me to beat them up?” I ask.
“Who?”
“All the people who are underestimating you.”
Nat’s head swings to me, his eyes wide. This time, when he laughs, it seems more genuine. “What?”
“You can beat up my problematic customers and I’ll beat up your haters. It can be mutually beneficial.”
Nat’s eyes slide over my body, and I feel a tingle of warmth. “You don’t look like you can do much damage.”
“You’d be surprised how many dangerous tools are in a mechanic shop.”
Nat covers his mouth in an exaggerated show of horror. “I never knew you were so violent.”
“You’re the one who started it.”
He drops his hand back to the gear shift. “When?”
“You wanted to go after my customer earlier,” I point out. “You asked for his phone number and address.”
“That…” Nat’s mouth opens and then shuts. “I just wanted to talk.”
“Yeah right.” I hunker lower in my seat. “The threat was insinuated.”
“Violence is never the answer,” he lectures.
“Says the guy who spent his entire senior year in the sin bin.”
A flush spreads on Nat’s face and he shakes his head. “You are something else, Riley Carter.”
He pulls the car into the parking lot of the ice cream shop but, instead of getting out, he looks across at me with an amused expression.
“What are you going to do now? Are you going back to being an airplane mechanic?”
I can’t, no matter how much I want to.
Rather than expose that bag of worms, I turn the question back on him. “Are you going to give up hockey?”
He inhales deeply, scrubbing his chin as he considers. “It would be easier to just give up, wouldn’t it?” Nat’s voice gets a quiet, thoughtful quality. “It would be easy, but it would also be the hardest thing in the world to do.”
“Then don’t,” I challenge.
His green eyes flick to me. “Back at yah.”
I smile.
Nat extends his fist. “Let’s make a pact.”
