For several long seconds, neither spoke. Until Krista realized that the ground wouldn’t in fact swallow her up and suck her away into nothing.
“Well, um—”
“That was—”
“Yes,” Krista snapped. Slowly, she straightened and went to move away, but something tugged her back. Reaching behind her to pull her torn pants together, her worst fears were confirmed. Threads from the ripped material had caught on Shane’s fly.
“Jesus Murphy,” she hissed.
Shane chuckled behind her.
“It’s not funny.”
“You’re right,” he said, his hands fumbling against hers as they both tried to free her pants. “It’s hilarious.”
Asshole. Krista swotted his hands away, twirled her finger around the caught threads, and snapped them free.
“Thanks for your help,” she managed, and just when she thought the evening couldn’t get any worse, she noticed Michael Adams a few feet away, watching the whole sorry show.
Beauty! Now she’d embarrassed herself in front of not one, buttwopro swimming stars. If she kept this up, Team Canada wouldn’t allow her anywhere near the Olympics.
Hauling a smile onto her face, Krista looked from Shane to Michael and back to Shane again, who was sucking his cheek, like he was trying—badly—not to laugh.
The jerk.
“Well, um, yeah. I’m just gonna...yeah...” She smacked her lips together then bolted up the stairs sideways like a crab.
Way to go, Kool Krista! Way to go!
***
“Did I interrupt something?” Mikey asked, his lips twitching.
“No. In its loosest form, that was me actually trying to help a damsel in distress.”
Mikey snickered. “She kinda looked like she hated you.”
“I have that effect on women,” Shane said and strode out of the hotel by Mikey’s side. “Some have even been known to run away from me.”
“Not Zoey.”
“Still with that?” It wasn’t like his quiet-mannered friend to play matchmaker, but he knew Mikey’s comments were a good-natured attempt at getting him tomove on. Not many people outside of Australia knew about the messy state Shane had been in after Fiona, but Mikey had eventually found out. News had spread through the swimming grapevine when Shane had missed one too many training sessions because he’d got too drunk the night before with another nameless woman.
Yep, for a few weeks last year, Shane McDermit had become unrecognizable. Even to himself.
“All I’m saying is, Fiona screwed with your head,” Mikey was saying now as they walked up Banff Avenue. “Everyone makes mistakes, everyone experiences a downward spiral once in a while, but you picked yourself up, brushed yourself off, and now look at you.”
“Gee thanks, Pops,” Shane drawled.
“Are you meeting Zoey later?” Mikey asked as they crossed the street toward the noodle restaurant they’d chosen. “Because I was thinking you should ask her to take my place tomorrow.”
Shane stopped. When Mikey’s dad had called earlier, it was to tell him to head back to Vancouver for a new sponsorship deal he’d just landed. The money from this deal would finance Mikey’s training for the next couple of years, but he was hating having to forfeit the hiking trip. Shane didn’t want Mike to feel bad about leaving him to hike alone. Maybe if he did ask Zoey to join him, even for a day or two, it would ease Mikey’s conscience.
“Do you think she’d wanna come?” Shane asked, giving it some serious thought.
“She was all over you at the bar earlier, bud,” Mikey said, “and it’d be a shame to waste those national park permits.”
“Hmmm.” Shane rubbed his chin.But what if she said no?“I’ll think about it.”
