Page 25 of Ice Queen

Then he gives me his back and walks toward the door, but pauses just before pushing it open.

In a completely unexpected turn of events, he delivers a lifeline I didn’t know I was reaching for. “I know you don’t need validation from me, but you should be proud. This is awesome, you did all this despite everything you went through.”

Then he pushes through the door, taking every ounce of available oxygen with him.

* You’re a terrible actress

* Yes, I know

* Just a little bit, yes.

CHAPTER 9

Markus

We’ve been two laps around the lake, and Maggie’s pulling ahead of me, her turbo jets apparently engaged. My lungs are still burning off the most recent nightmare, the crash, the cold, the same ending it always has, and I let them. I let the burn drown out the pain.

My watch buzzes. I glance down, thinking it might be one of my teammates. What a mistake that was.

“Is Markus Samuels a liability for the Hawks?” What the hell does that even mean?

I push harder. Blue line to red line, red to blue, except I’m running around a lake at six in the morning, and there’s no red line. Just me and Maggie and a very specific type of rage that only comes from being misrepresented and blasted to the masses by some dick of a reporter trying to get their foot in the door, one who’s never even met you.

My watch beeps, eventually. A whole 5k, heart rate zone four the whole way. Maggie looks up at me, her tongue lolling out the side of her mouth, but otherwise unbothered.

“You always run at this ungodly hour?” A voice calls from my left.

I startle, tripping slightly, but Maggie takes it in stride. A smile grows across my face as I take one of my headphones out and slide it into my pocket. “Well, if it isn’t my stalker-ish not stalker.”

Her face drops, but only for a second before she’s shooting me a smirk that has my already rapidly beating heart beating faster in anticipation for what she’s going to say.

“Considering I live above the bookstore.” She pauses, pointing at me with one perfectly manicured finger. “I’d say it’s you who’s stalking me.” She takes a sip of her coffee, her brow hikes as she waits for me to respond.

But I can’t think of anything else other than the fact that she said she lives above the bookstore. There are no apartments in this area. Sure, that’s an older building, but I’m pretty sure none of the other stores here have apartments above them. Which means at night, when everything is closed, she’s literally here alone.

“What’s got you thinking so hard? Not used to an uno reverse, huh?” She rolls her bottom lip against her teeth, but then smiles when Maggie pulls on the leash, cautiously sniffing her before deciding she likes her enough to let her rub her head.

“And who might you be?” Kaitlyn asks as she picks up Maggie’s puck-shaped name tag. “Ahh, the infamous Maggie. I thought your daddy was lying to me.”

I choke on my spit at the sound of being called daddy. My hand hits against the middle of my chest. What is happening to me right now? I haven’t had any caffeine. That’s it, that has to be it. That’s the only explanation of why one, I’m tripping over the safety of someone I barely know. And two, why the sound of the person I barely know calling me daddy has my brain short-circuiting.

“I may be many things, but a liar is not one of them,” I say a little too gruffly.

She looks up at me from where she’s squatted down, fingers lost in the density of Maggie’s fur. “Didn’t say you were, Casanova.”

“Casanova?” My fingers brush against my beard that definitely needs to be trimmed, my head falling to the side a bit as I try to figure out if she’s calling me handsome or being a brat.

She looks away, focusing on my dog. “Mhm…” Maggie licks up her face, and her laugh sends a chill racing down my spine. That’s new.

“Markus Samuels, Tampa Bay’s Casanova, seen with a single mom at Sports Romance Night. Are team-sponsored events the new online dating site for athletes?” She says like it’s nothing.

My blood slows to a crawl. What? A freaking nother one? You’ve got to be kidding me. I can’t do anything right. I should have known to back up when I heard the camera click the first time. “I’m not…”

She laughs, finally looking up at me. “Don’t worry, I saw what actually happened when you were getting that little girl ice cream. But the media thinks they saw something different.”

My hand flexes against Maggie’s leash as anger floods me. I feel like I’m seconds from saying something really stupid, so I clear my throat and straighten to my full height.

“It was nice seeing you, but we have to get coffee and be on our way. So, see you around,” I bite out, tugging at Maggie’s leash. She fights with me for a second before giving in.