Toby shrugged.“Guess you’ll find out.”
Sam cast a look Angie’s way that had so much packed behind it.A mixture of elation that the team had won the first playoff round and sadness they’d done it without him.Guilt that he was attending a celebration tonight he didn’t feel he’d earned.A wish that she’d be there with him.Hope that he’d be able to join his teammates on their upcoming road trip to Nashville to take on their next opponent.Doubt that he’d make it.
Her own hope melded with his, but rather than lift to the sky, reality kept it in a state of frustrated flutter.His progress was slower than it should have been.He wasn’t there yet, and she couldn’t falsify her reports and say he was—not that he’d asked her.Where her sessions with him were only a few times a week, the team trainers now worked with him daily, and they knew as well as she where he stood with his rehab.They wouldn’t be clearing him for play in this next round.Maybe not this season.
He’d been diligent about his therapy, and she’d helped him as much as she could, but high ankle sprains were unpredictable, and this one had a stubborn streak as wide as the sheet of ice in the arena.The longer it hampered him, the more his confidence slipped.She could see it in his eyes anytime they discussed the injury.
He side-eyed her.“Catch up with you later?”
“I’ll be here.Don’t forget we still need to run through your exercises.”
He sent her a secret wink.“Oh, I won’t forget.”
She squelched the urge to watch him walk out the door—no need to fuel Toby’s suspicions—and turned back to her desk, her gaze landing on nothing and everything.
With a lung-cleansing breath, she tunneled her focus and got back to work.
A half hour later, finished with her morning reports, Angie sat outside, basking in the late April sun and sipping iced tea during an early lunch break, when her cell phone vibrated.She stared at the screen and chewed on her lip, debating.A text buzzed at the same time.
Answer me or I’m calling the police.
Angie picked up and braced herself.
“Are you ghosting me?Where have you been?”Jenna demanded.
Angie recoiled at the shrillness in Jenna’s voice, though she probably deserved the tongue-lashing.She had evaded her cousin for over a week, ever since she and Sam had taken their relationship to the lover’s level.She’d been too busy floating in her blissful bubble of Sam—the one where the rest of the world didn’t exist, where worry was light years away, and where answering to people like her cousin wasn’t a blip on Angie’s radar screen.Sam was the brightest star in her universe, and her only desire was to bask in his rays.
But Jenna’s concern was currently poking a hole in that bubble, and Angie needed to return to reality long enough to reassure her cousin she needn’t worry.
“I’ve been busy,” she offered.
“With what?”Jenna barked.
“The usual.Work, the shelter, life.”
“A man?”
Anger flushed Angie’s cheeks.“Why would it be a man?”
“Because youalwayscall me back.You never let this much time pass without talking to me, so I figured you were either dead or were too busy getting your hoohah serviced to return any of my calls or texts.”
Angie nearly spewed her drink.
“Aha!So itisa man,” Jenna shrieked with triumph.“Then you’re forgiven, but you have to tell me every dirty detail.And before you do, all I can say is thank God you found someone to distract you from sulky Sam Durbin.”Tongue-tied, Angie sat still, trying to string together words, anything that would throw Jenna off the trail.But her cousin was a bloodhound.“Oh shit, Angie.Please do not tell me the manisSam Durbin.Tell me you’re not cruising down the Catastrophe Highway again!”
Angie pulled in a fortifying breath.“We’re friends, Jenna.He’s helping me at the shelter.”Lame, but true.
Angie rushed to fill Jenna in on her time with Sam at the shelter.“Omigod, Jenna, he’s amazing with the animals!So patient and kind.And they’re drawn to him too.Animals can sense that energy.”She paused, hoping for an encouraging sound, any hint she was breaking down Jenna’s walls of suspicion.When she got no sign, she raced on.“His photography is amazing, and he’s been taking all the animals’ pictures.He even posted pictures of the bunnies and gave them cute little sayings.You should go online and check it out.”
Scenes of Mr.Claws climbing Sam flashed through Angie’s mind.The kitty had taken a particular liking to Sam’s curls, perching on his head like a miniature lion basking in its Kenyan kingdom.Sam’s feigned look of annoyance while a tiny tail had swished across his face like a windshield wiper had been the icing on the cake, and Angie had barely held back a giggle.If her heart hadn’t softened toward him before that, it would have been impossible for it to stay intact after their visits to the shelter.It was mostly in puddle form these days.
Jenna was silent for so long Angie thought the call had dropped.When her cousin did speak, her voice was laced with caution.“Please tell me he’s just a temporary boy toy and that you’re not falling for him again.Or have you forgotten what happened last time?Now that he’s a hotshot hockey star, his ego is even bigger.”
“What’s ego have to do with it?”Angie shot back.
“Oh.My.God.You’vealreadyfallen for him, haven’t you?And a bigger ego translates to a bigger crater for your heart when he up and leaves you without a word.”
“It’s not like that.”Heat rose from Angie’s chest to her cheeks, but Jenna wasn’t done.
