Melting Ice (23 page)

They ordered steak and lobster and ate every bit of it, while talking about everything and anything, including horses, hockey, dreams, and demons. Isaac had pretty much told her about his demons, and they talked at more length about the upcoming meeting in which he’d be forced to spend three hours with his angry brother.

Isaac couldn’t remember ever enjoying simple conversation with another woman before, hell, even a man. He wanted this night to last forever, and he savored every moment from the twinkle in her eyes when she teased him, to the tilt of her head as she listened to him. Avery was bright, insightful, and not afraid to offer opinions different than his. He loved that.

And maybe, just maybe, he fallen in love with her.

* * * *

After dinner, Avery and Isaac strolled hand in hand along the Seattle streets, peering in shop windows and joking with each other.

An old couple sitting at bus stop watched them. Avery heard the wrinkled old lady declare to the equally wrinkled old man, “Aren’t they sweet? A young couple in love.”

She glanced at Isaac to see if he’d heard, but he gave no indication. Did they really look like a couple in love as they walked slowly, taking in the sights and sounds of the city at night? She felt like a woman in love, and Isaac looked happy, really happy, so, yeah, maybe he, too, looked like a man in love.

As they walked along, Isaac pulled a hundred out of his wallet and gave it to a homeless disabled veteran in a wheelchair. They stopped to listen to a musician playing a guitar. Isaac draped an arm over her shoulders and tucked her against his side. Avery sighed happily and leaned her head on his shoulder. She closed her eyes and let the music wash over her and wished she had the power to stop time or slow it down.

They sat on a bench near Bell Street Harbor and watched a pair of tugboats maneuver a ship into Elliott Bay.

It was well past midnight when they wandered back to the car and reluctantly headed for home.

Isaac grasped Avery’s hand and held it gently in his. Once again he helped her in the car then bent down and placed a soft kiss on her lips. Straightening, he smiled down at her flushed face.

“You’ve been holding out on me,” she accused once he pulled onto the street.

“How’s that?”

“You’re quite the gentleman when you want to be.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, you can thank my mother for that.”

She wanted to ask more about his mother but thought better of it. Not yet. But soon she’d know all his secrets and what he wanted for his future.

They drove home, singing along to eighties music on the radio. Avery could sing. Isaac could not, but it didn’t matter.

The evening ended too soon and next thing she knew, he’d walked her upstairs to her door.

“Do you want to come in?” Avery asked hopefully, staring up at him with a mixture of uncertainty and anticipation.

Isaac inhaled and blew out a long breath. “Cooper and Izzy trusted me with you, and now I’m going to earn that trust.”

“You are?” She shook her head not believing what she’d heard.

“Avery, I want to do this right. And as much as it pains me, doing it right is waiting before we sleep together. I don’t want you to be like every other woman. I want to take our time.”

“Shouldn’t that be my line? When did you become such a girl?”

He smiled his sexy smile.

“Besides, we’ve already slept together,” she pointed out.

“I know. I could never forget that. But I want our true first time to be different.”

“We had a first time.”

“Nope. We’re starting over. New rules. New life. New us. I want to earn this. Treat you like you deserve to be treated. Honor the trust Coop and Izzy have placed in me.” He was starting to sound like a sap, but he didn’t seem to care. His manhood wasn’t in question, and being human didn’t hurt him in her eyes one bit.

He put his hands on her waist and smiled. Bending down, he kissed one cheek then the other. “Sweet dreams, Avery.”

She gazed at him in absolute shock and nodded slowly in a trance. “Good night.”

“Can we do this again soon?” he asked.

“Yes, I would really like that.”

“We have Wednesday night at Coop’s house. Then I have a game Thursday night. How about Friday?”

Avery smiled. “I can do that.”

He grinned right back, looking as if he were walking on air. “Good.”

“And I’m riding with you on Wednesday. Izzy asked me to help anyway, and Tiff will be there. So will your brother.”

“I could use the moral support.”

“You can count on me.”

Isaac rested his forehead against hers and closed his eyes for a moment. She heard him swallow, and when he spoke, his voice was gravelly with emotion. “I know I can, Avery.”

Her hands gripped his biceps, and they stood like that for a long time until finally Isaac straightened. “Good night, sweetheart.” The endearment tumbled from his mouth as if it were the most natural thing ever. She wondered if he’d ever called a woman that before. She didn’t know, and she really didn’t care because she was the woman in his life in real time, and she planned on staying right where she was.

Besides, she liked being called sweetheart.

Chapter 17—A Man in Love

Wednesday night came too quickly for Isaac, yet didn’t come quickly enough. He was torn between wanting to see Avery again and not wanting to see his asshole brother.

The Sockeyes won their Tuesday night game, and Isaac was feeling pretty good about their playoff chances. Unfortunately, he wasn’t feeling good about another possible confrontation with Tanner.

Sometimes love and hate were so close when it came to emotions, a guy wasn’t really sure how he felt about a person, which pretty much summed up how Isaac felt about his brother. At some level, he loved him. Tanner was blood. They were brothers, but they’d been continually pitted against each other as kids to the point where any brotherly affection had been squashed by the man who held control over them physically and emotionally during their childhood.

He’d given up on his fantasy father years ago, and his sister’s death buried what little feelings father and son might have had left for each other. John Wolfe practiced tough love, or maybe the man had just practiced
tough.
His sons were a means to an end for him, to be exploited for whatever monetary value he could wring out of them, and Isaac had ceased to give a shit about the man who contributed half of his DNA.

But his brothers, well, Isaac admitted to himself that their dislike of him hurt, a deep-down hurt that never really stopped. Karen, their sister, had held them together as best she could, but once she died, all the old anger and resentment rose to the surface. Tanner outwardly hated Isaac, while Zeke just went away and refused contact with either brother, almost as if they didn’t exist and never had.

Isaac didn’t blame him. They were a screwed up mess, thanks to their father and thanks to themselves.

A few months ago, Isaac would’ve walked into this event, not giving a shit that his brother was there. In fact, he’d probably be looking forward to an altercation, hopefully, a physical one so he could knock that smug smirk off Tanner’s pretty face. Only now, he didn’t feel that way, not really. Funny how a good woman had dissolved his anger and frustration with his life. Her acceptance of his flaws and past mistakes gave him hope, made him feel he deserved to be forgiven, even if his family didn’t see it that way. He wished they could forgive him, but at least he was on the road to forgiving himself. He owed his new outlook on life to his teammates and to Avery and even to Tiff, who struggled with insurmountable tragedy and fought to rise above it, humbling him in the process.

Unable to prolong the inevitable any longer, Isaac picked up Avery, Emma, and Tiff at the barn. Along with Blake, they drove together to the meeting. Cooper and Izzy’s new pet project had come about when Cooper’s nephew was a victim of a school shooting. Riley, shot in the arm himself, saw many of his friends die that day and wanted to do something to honor their memories and help prevent these tragedies in the future. These first organizational meetings focused on brainstorming ideas for raising money and building awareness of youth at risk to commit violent acts.

Isaac suspected both him and his brother could contribute quite a bit to the group considering their violent upbringing, as long as Tanner could get beyond his resentment and hatred.

Several minutes later they were ushered into Cooper and Izzy’s large living room overlooking Puget Sound. Avery held Isaac’s hand in a show of support, advertising to the world they were a couple. Isaac’s chest swelled with pride that she’d give such a public display and claimed him as her man. He’d never liked it before when a woman tried to lay a claim on him, but he did now. He swore he’d make her proud.

Tanner sat in the corner flirting with Bella. He pointedly ignored Isaac, which was just as well. Isaac and Avery took a seat across the large room. On Bella’s opposite side sat Cedric. Not his usual smiling self, he glared at Tanner with malicious intent. Isaac raised an eyebrow and tilted his head in their direction. Avery shrugged.

“What’s the deal there?”

“Cedric and Bella are an on-again, off-again item, as are Brad and Bella.”

“Dang. She’s playing with fire.”

“She always does.”

Isaac had never paid much attention to personal dynamics, but this entire scene was too fascinating to ignore. Riley waved at Tiff and patted the empty chair next to him. Tiff glanced at Isaac and Avery as if needing their approval. Flattered, Isaac smiled reassuringly at her, as did Avery, and Tiff crossed the room to sit with Riley. Soon they were deep in conversation, heads bent close together.

On Isaac’s opposite side, Blake rolled his eyes at Brick and Rush who were entertaining that section of the room with a tale of one of their outrageous escapades. Emma sat rigid in her chair next to Avery and kept stealing glances across the room in Tanner’s direction.

Isaac leaned over and whispered in Avery’s ear. “Emma? Tanner?”

Avery laughed softly and leaned into him so that her silky hair tickled his nose. “She’s had a major crush on him ever since he was drafted by the Steelheads. It’s harmless, and he’s oblivious to her.”

“Let’s hope it stays that way. He’s a player.”

“Yeah, he is.”

“And an ass.”

“Just like you once were.”

Isaac conceded that one. “You could say that, only Tanner is fake. With me, it was always what you see is what you get. With Tanner, you never know what’s really going on in that head of his.”

“He made it pretty obvious how he felt about you.”

“It goes a lot deeper than the accident.”

“How deep?”

“It’s complicated,” Isaac hedged, not wanting to share that particularly dysfunctional part of his childhood.

“How so?”

“Let’s just say we weren’t raised to be loving brothers, but to compete with each other at all costs where the punishment for the losers was extreme.”

She gave him such a look of compassion, he wanted to melt at her feet.

“I want to hear it. Later,” she said with steel in her voice, and he knew he wasn’t going to get out of this one.

“The accident isn’t all he won’t forgive, and I will tell you. All of it,” he promised, and he meant it. He really did want to unburden his past and share it with her because she mattered. In order to understand him, she needed to understand his past and the younger years that had shaped him into the man he was.

Avery squeezed his hand, and Isaac drew strength from her quiet support.

Izzy and Cooper seemed to note how close they were but didn’t comment. In fact, Izzy seemed to go out of her way to make Isaac feel comfortable. Cooper shot him a warning glare, but after that he treated him like anyone else in the room, except for Tanner. Cooper didn’t bother to hide his dislike for Tanner and watching the two men spar with each other amused Isaac to no end. Yeah, he was starting to like his captain—a lot.

All in all, the meeting was productive with various plans for fundraising and possible programs to be taken to local high schools and parents’ groups.

Even though Isaac didn’t volunteer for anything, Cooper drafted him for a couple projects, none of which included Tanner, thank the heavens above.

A few hours later, the group dispersed. Avery and Emma helped Izzy clean up, while Isaac and Blake gathered up dishes and cups and carried them to kitchen.

“You know, I’m not certain this town is big enough for the two of us,” Tanner said at his elbow.

“Well, get over it. I’m here to stay.” Isaac didn’t even bother to look at his brother. He’d be damned if the dickwad would dictate to him where he lived.

“I’d have thought the Sockeyes would’ve come to their senses and have cut you by now.”

“I thought the same thing about the Steelheads cutting you. At least, I’m a contributing member of the team.” Yeah, it was low, but Isaac couldn’t stop the words.

“Asshole.” Tanner frowned and hurt flashed briefly in his eyes, which gave Isaac a rare twinge of guilt. He thought he was immune to any kind of sympathy when it came to family. Obviously, his newfound empathy for others even extended to his asshole sibling.

“Watch it, Tan, you’ll ruin your rep as a nice, easy-going guy if they see what a prick you are to your own family.”

“You’re not my family. You ceased to be my brother three years ago, probably longer ago than that.”

His brother’s animosity wore on him. Isaac turned and faced him, eye to eye. “I’m sorry,” he said with more sincerity than he’d ever possessed in the past.

For a split second Tanner’s expression flashed from confusion to blankness, then the anger came flooding back. “That’s bullshit, and you know it. You don’t feel anything for anyone but yourself.”

“That was true once, but things have changed. I’d like to start over, maybe see if we can find a way to fit in each other’s lives, mend the past.”

“Never happen.” Tanner spun on his heel and stalked off, slamming the door behind him.

“You okay?” Avery asked.

“Yeah. Fine.” Isaac stared after his brother and tried to gather his wits. Tanner’s rejection stung.