Taking Charge (18 page)

“Look at girl with legs up over head. How she do
that?” Henrik wanted to know, sitting down and craning his neck to
see.

“Where did you tell Sarah you were going tonight?”
Wes asked Mickey.

“Go-karting,” he replied.

“That’s so funny! That’s what we said!” Robyn
remarked, taking another handful of nuts as a blond-haired dancer
came close to the edge of the stage.

“Couldn’t exactly tell her the truth, could I? She’s
been in a weird mood all day, anyway. Started throwing out a load
of women’s magazines and brochures, crying and sniffing. I asked
her what was wrong but she wouldn’t answer me,” Mickey
continued.

Robyn swallowed and took some more nuts. She knew she
was responsible for that. She shouldn’t have told Sarah what Mickey
had said about marriage. It had been cruel and unnecessary. She’d
been upset and thinking of herself, and now she had upset her best
friend. She would call her. She would try and make things right.
She didn’t want to be responsible for a relationship breakdown.

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about it, that’s what women do,
isn’t it? Cry and moan and make our lives that much harder,” Wes
commented over the music.

“You single, Wes?” Robyn questioned, looking at
him.

“Currently.”

“I’m shocked.”

“Whoa, boss is getting testy, look out,” Jon called
as Bob and Brad arrived with the pitchers of beer.

“It’s foreplay, obviously. She can’t keep her eyes
off me,” Wes replied, standing up and making a grab for the
beer.

“Dream on! And I’ll have pick of the first pitcher.
Bob, man, what are these glasses for? We don’t need glasses, get
some straws,” Robyn said, and she proceeded to drink the beer from
the pitcher.

“She is crazy, yes?” Henrik said, watching in
astonishment as Robyn downed half the pitcher in one go.

“Yeah, that’s Robyn,” Brad remarked, watching
her.

“I want this girl; excuse me, what is name?” Henrik
shouted to a dancer with long, red hair.

“Henrik, they don’t talk to you, they just dance for
you. Stick ten bucks in her panties,” Wade told him.

“Ten bucks?” Henrik said, looking at his team mates
quizzically.

“A ten dollar bill, here, give it to me,” Mickey
ordered, snapping his fingers at him.

Henrik passed a ten along and Mickey approached the
stage, put the bill in the girl’s panties, and pointed out
Henrik.

“Come on, man, she wants you!” Mickey said, beckoning
him closer to the stage.

“I feel, how do you say? Embashed?” Henrik admitted,
blushing.

“Bashful? Look, come on, don’t be a tool, man! Get up
to the stage!” Wes ordered, giving him a shove in the right
direction.

“If you won’t have the dance, I damn well will,” Wade
said, pushing past Henrik to get to the front.

“Well, that should keep them entertained for five
minutes. Pass me Wes’ pitcher,” Robyn said to Cole.

“You’re going to steal their beer? Shame on you,”
Cole remarked as he passed the pitcher to Robyn.

“Well, I figured it’s okay if I drink more than them
because I’m not playing tomorrow.”

“Good plan,” he agreed.

“Bob! More beer!” Robyn called, banging her fourth
pitcher on the table.

“Yeah, more beer!” Mickey agreed, putting his arm
around Henrik and swaying back and forth.

“So, aren’t you going into the room for the ladies?”
Wes asked Robyn.

“All the boys I need are right here,” she informed
him.

“Hey, hey, hey! I knew she had it bad for me!” Wes
yelled above the music.

“Before you get any ideas, I prefer you all with your
clothes on. Preferably in pads, with sticks in your hands,” Robyn
said.

“You’re welcome in the locker room any time,” Wade
remarked with a laugh.

“Don’t say that! She’ll come in and give us a hard
time about the game,” Brad told them.

“She won’t come in. Is private, for men only,” Henrik
said, spilling beer down his shirt.

“Oh dear,” Brad said with a shake of his head.

“I won’t come into the locker room? I’m the manager,
I can go where I like,” Robyn reminded him.

“Yes, but locker room is, how you say? Like church—is
safe,” Henrik said again.

“Hen, just quit while you’re not ahead, or she’s
going to be waiting for you when you come out of the shower
tomorrow,” Brad warned.

“It’s a sanctuary? Why? You don’t want me looking at
your scrawny white butts?” Robyn asked.

“Hey, I won Butt of the Year at the garage,” Mickey
commented proudly.

“Did anyone else enter?” Robyn asked.

Brad let out a snort of laughter.

“You’re my team! You’re all asexual as far as I’m
concerned.”

She couldn’t help but look to Cole. This speech was
to deter unwanted attention and to highlight the professional
sporting boundaries. But she had the feeling she had said the words
more for her own benefit. She had to stop wondering what it would
be like to…

“I’m not sure I like being called asexual,” Mickey
said.

“Live with it, she doesn’t think you’re hot,” Wade
said.

“Brad has the best chance with Robyn anyway, they’ve
dated before,” Wes reminded them.

“Yes, well, that’s all in the past,” Robyn said
hurriedly.

“I like childish romance,” Henrik said.

“Childhood romance,” Wade corrected.

Brad smiled over at Robyn and she hid her face in the
nearest pitcher of beer. This was awkward and not how she’d wanted
the conversation to turn.

“Aww, he’s still got it bad!” Mickey teased, jabbing
Brad in the ribs with his elbow.

“Anyway…who’s next for a dance? Wade! Which girl do
you like?” Robyn wanted to know, turning away from Brad and
focusing on the other player.

“Can’t say I’m that particular, they’re all good,” he
responded, licking his mouth in anticipation.

“Here, this one’s on me,” Robyn said, passing out
some dollars.

The majority of the team whooped and hurried off to
the stage with Wade.

“We should definitely take photos,” Robyn said,
laughing as she watched the team.

She picked up a pitcher of beer, and that was when
she noticed him on the other side of the room.

Suddenly, there was no air, the music seemed to
lower, the lights brightened, and she came to eye-to-eye with
Jason. He was older and taller, but it was him. There was no case
of mistaken identity this time. He sat at a table alone, holding a
bottle of beer and looking directly at her.

The dancer on stage had Wade backed up against a pole
and was cavorting around him, while the other players cheered her
on. But Robyn didn’t see it. She was practically having to force
herself to breathe.

“Cole,” she said in barely more than a whisper.

Cole was laughing with Bob at Wade who was trying to
look like he was enjoying the performance but actually looked
terrified. He hadn’t heard her.

“Cole,” Robyn attempted again, keeping her eyes on
Jason.

She thought if she looked away he might vanish into
thin air and no one would believe he was ever there.

Jason got up from his chair and began moving toward
their table.

“Cole!” Robyn screamed at the top of her voice.

She leapt up from her chair and grabbed him by the
sleeves of his t-shirt. She was shaking now and had closed her eyes
tight. She couldn’t look at Jason. She clung to Cole.

“What is it?” Cole asked, putting an arm around her
and holding her trembling frame.

She carefully turned her head away from his chest,
but when she did, she came face-to-face with Jason. He was now
standing right by their table.

“Robyn, listen. Don’t freak out or anything. I…”
Jason began, reaching out to her.

“Don’t touch me! Cole, don’t let him touch me! Get
him away from me!” Robyn shrieked, clinging to him.

“Jason?” Bob questioned as if not sure.

“Listen, I just wanted to talk to you. I mean, it’s
been such a long time now, I thought…” Jason began again.

“This is Jason?” Cole asked Robyn.

She nodded as tears began to spill from her eyes. She
had to hold herself together. She couldn’t let him see that she was
still the terrified wreck she’d been back then.

“Robyn, I didn’t do it. I said that at my trial and
I’m still saying it now. I didn’t do it,” Jason said, looking
straight at her.

In one rapid movement, Cole sat Robyn down and
punched Jason hard on the jaw. He crumpled and fell back into an
adjacent table.

Robyn was practically hyperventilating. She couldn’t
bear to look at him. She couldn’t bear to be anywhere near him.

“Leave him, Cole! Cole! I said leave him! I’ll go and
get security,” Bob said, pulling Cole away from Jason and signaling
to the bouncers on the door.

“What the Hell is he doing here?” Brad questioned as
the team hurried back to the table.

“He’s freaking Robyn out, he tried to touch her,”
Cole replied, shaking his aching fist.

“I didn’t do what you all think I did,” Jason said as
he attempted to get to his feet.

He was winded, and his nose was bloodied and
misshapen. He clung to a chair to aid him.

“No? Well, that isn’t what the jury said, was it?
Out! Now!” Brad ordered, roughly grabbing Jason’s arm and hauling
him up off the floor.

“I no understand. Who is this Jason?” Henrik queried,
his cowboy hat falling over his eyes.

“I want to go,” Robyn said, scanning the room for the
nearest exit she could make it to.

“No, he’s leaving, right now,” Brad informed them,
and he wrenched Jason’s arm behind his back.

“Robyn, please, just listen to me…” Jason begged as
the security team moved toward them.

“No one wants to listen to what you’ve got to say,
it’s all lies,” Brad hissed.

“I’m launching an appeal. They’ve got new
information. I want the conviction quashed. I want my good name
back, and I want Robyn to realize that I didn’t hurt her,” Jason
informed him.

“I don’t want to hear this,” Robyn said, biting her
fingernails and balancing on the outside edge of her tennis
shoes.

“You had photos of her all over your bedroom wall,”
Brad reminded Jason.

“Yeah, I had a crush on her, I admitted that. She was
the only girl in school that spoke to me, and I was the class
dweeb,” Jason said.

“Cole, please, make him go away!”

“You drag all this history up again, and I’ll make
sure you spend the rest of your life in a rehabilitation center,”
Brad threatened.

“I’m only going to say this once more. I did not rape
Robyn, and you’re all going to find that out soon enough,” Jason
informed them.

“Get out of here!” Brad ordered, pushing him toward
the doormen.

His fist was aching but he didn’t care. When she’d
said that he was her rapist, the blind fury had taken over. It was
how he had felt when his father had died, how he had felt when he
found out about Veronica and Bryn. But it wasn’t quite the same,
because tonight the feeling hadn’t been about him, it had been
about her. All he’d wanted to do was protect her. How could he feel
like that about someone he had only just met? He’d promised himself
never again. Caring was just too painful and it had no place in his
life any more.

“Ow!” Cole exclaimed as Robyn put a tea-towel
containing ice on his knuckles once they got home.

“Come on, if it’s that bad, it might be broken. Do
you want to go to the emergency room?” Robyn asked, sitting next to
him on the sofa.

“No.”

“Then quit with the dramatics.”

“It isn’t just the hand. I got worse from our
friendly hockey match the other night and Henrik jabbed me right
there when he was dancing with the chair,” Cole informed her. He
stood and pulled up his t-shirt, revealing a bruise on his back the
size of North America she hadn’t noticed earlier.

The washboard midriff was there again, just a few
inches away. She bit her lip.

“Who did that?” Robyn asked.

“Brad doesn’t like getting beaten to the puck, does
he?” Cole said, sitting down again.

“No,” she agreed.

He looked at her, his black eyes studying her face as
if it was important. Like she was important. Her heart quickened
and she had to moisten her lips.

“I wanna kiss you,” she said, putting the ice down on
the coffee table.

“You’re asking now?”

“I do have some manners.”

“What if I say no?”

“Are you going to? Because that would be really
embarrassing.”

“I don’t know, Robyn, I think things have changed. I
don’t want to do the whole random thing anymore,” Cole told her
with a heavy sigh.

“Oh, I get it. You’ve found out I’m not the easy
going girl you thought I was. You found out, not only have I been
raped by the town freak, but I also sleep with my boss because
that’s all the relationship I’m capable of.”

“No, it isn’t that,” Cole told her, his eyes meeting
hers.

“Don’t give me the eyes, please don’t give me that
look. I don’t want your sympathy. I know I’m screwed up. I’ve told
you I don’t want you to try and make me feel better, it isn’t your
job.”

She felt uncomfortable. She felt hot and she couldn’t
look at him. He was sitting so close to her, and it was making her
prickle with something like excitement or maybe anticipation.
Whatever it was, it was indescribable.

“Well, whose job is it? Clive’s? Because you told me
when he makes love to you, you don’t feel a thing.”

“Stop it! Don’t say that!”

“Why, because it’s so close to the truth?”

“I’m not some sort of project.”

“I think you feel it when we kiss. I think you try to
pass this off as something random, something unimportant, but that
isn’t true, is it?” Cole continued.

She could feel his breath on her face and, suddenly,
she couldn’t focus on anything but his full, fleshy lips.