The Mighty Quinns: Thom (16 page)

“No, you’re going scouting first. And after that, I want you to work in player personnel. I want you to get a feel for how we handle our players, from the time we first spot them in the junior leagues to the time they step onto the ice with the Blizzard. If you’re interested in learning the business, you’re going to have to get your hands dirty.”

“I am interested,” Malin said, tears swimming in her eyes. “I’ll work very hard for you, I promise.”

When they got back to the office, Malin pitched in with getting the fan convention materials sorted and packaged. She was putting together the stacks of photos to be used for autographing when she came across a packet labeled with Thom’s name. She pulled back the brown paper wrapping and withdrew a photo.

Malin smiled as she ran her fingers over the details of his handsome face. His hair was longer in the photo, and there was a fresh scar on his lower lip that had now faded almost completely, but it was an image of the man who’d slept beside her for the past few weeks.

“Malin?”

She turned and found Natalie standing beside her, clutching a piece of paper tightly. “Hey, Natalie. How are you? Have you recovered from the benefit?”

“I—I wanted to apologize for that,” Natalie said.

Malin frowned. “For what?”

“For the photo. I want to assure you that it was purely platonic, and the—”

“Stop!” Malin said. She pointed to a spot beside her on the floor. “Sit.”

Natalie did as she was told, sitting primly, her hands folded in her lap. “I didn’t want you to think I was trying to steal your boyfriend.”

“Is that what you’re worried about?” Malin laughed, pressing her hand to her lips and looking around to see if anyone in earshot had noticed. “He’s not my boyfriend,” she whispered.

“But I thought—”

“No, it’s just not going to work out.”

Natalie bent closer. “Then you wouldn’t mind if I let a few people think that the photo of us dancing is, well, a little more romantic than it really is? My parents have been on my case to get me to settle down.”

“Go for it,” Malin said.

“He really is sweet. And I’m sorry that it didn’t work out for you.”

Malin pulled a photo from the package and handed it to Natalie. “You’re going to need one of these,” she said. “You can put it up on your refrigerator. And kiss it every morning.”

Natalie giggled.

“Go ahead, give it a try,” Malin urged. She held up her own photo of Thom and on the count of three, they kissed the shiny surfaces. In the end, they couldn’t seem to stop laughing. All the emotions that Malin had held so tightly inside her didn’t come out in tears, but in laughter.

She was in love with Thom Quinn. Tommy the Beast had stolen her heart. But the memory of what they’d shared was bittersweet. It had had an extraordinary beginning, but the end was near.

Could they make it work with such a big distance between them? Could she survive on just sweet summers?

She wiped the tears from her eyes and glanced over at Natalie. “I do have an important question to ask you.”

“Anything.”

“I’m going to be working in scouting and player personnel starting next month, and I need someone to take over new media. Would you be interested?”

Natalie stopped giggling for a moment, then clearly thought the job offer was part of the joke. “A new job and a new boyfriend, all in one day. What a lucky girl!”

“I’m serious. I’m moving on, and I’d be very happy if you took over the job.”

As Natalie enthusiastically accepted, Malin felt tears gather her eyes. There were so many emotions rolling around inside of her, but she’d have to sort them out later. When she was alone.

9

A
FEW
WEEKS
LATER
, Malin sat in the
center of Thom’s bed, dressed in one of his old hockey jerseys and a pair of
sagging socks. The weather outdoors seemed to match both of their moods—gray and
restive. Dark clouds had gathered on the horizon. The weather service had issued
a tornado warning, but there was no delaying Thom’s departure.

She’d continued to live at his place over the last few weeks,
but they had avoided talking about anything serious. And now Thom wished they’d
at least had a few more discussions about what would happen when he drove
away.

“Are you sure you have everything?” Malin asked.

He stood beside the bed, dressed in faded shorts and a loose
T-shirt. His hair was still wet from the shower.

“I suppose if I’ve forgotten anything, you can send it to me.
I’ve got sticks and the rest of my gear in the truck. There’s still room for
you,” he teased. “Just a tiny little spot beneath the dash.”

“Tempting,” she said. “But you’re going to have to find someone
else to take care of your manly needs.”

Thom sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled her into a
kiss. “How many times do I have to tell you, Malin? You’re the only one I
want.”

Malin threw herself into his arms and pushed him back into the
soft mattress. Her lips found his, and she began a slow seduction that had
always worked on him in the past. But Thom refused to join in, and when Malin
drew away, he smiled at her.

“Sweetheart, I’ve already put the trip off three days. But now
I’ve run out of time. Training camp starts the day after tomorrow, and most of
the guys have been on the ice for weeks now.”

“You’ve been skating,” she said.

“I haven’t done anywhere near the training I usually do. I’ve
been a bit distracted this summer.”

“And I suppose you’re going to blame me if you have a slow
start to the season?”

Malin crawled on top of him, her legs straddling his hips. Over
the past few weeks they had desperately avoided any talk of the future by having
as much sex as humanly possible.

She began to trail kisses down his chest, and Thom knew exactly
where she was headed. He gently grabbed her waist and pulled her beneath him.
“We have to stop,” he said.

“I know,” Malin said. “I’m all right. Really.”

Thom bent down and kissed her, just a tiny taste before he
crawled back off the bed. From the moment the trade had been announced, the
clock had begun to tick on their relationship. He’d gone to BlizzardCon and
tried to smooth over the anger of the fans. After that, he and Malin had filled
every free moment with physical contact, whether it was holding hands or making
love. But now it made the thought of leaving entirely impossible.

“How far will you drive today?”

“I’m not sure. I’m going to play it by ear. If I feel like
going straight through, I will.”

“I wish you wouldn’t,” Malin said. “Not without someone else
there to keep you awake.”

“All right, I promise to stop.”

“And are they going to help you find an apartment?” she
asked.

“They’re putting me up in a hotel to start, and then I’ll find
a place to rent. I’m beginning to wonder if I should just stay in the hotel. I’d
have room and laundry service and a maid to make the bed. That way, I’ll save
all my free time for missing you.”

She smiled. “And you
will
miss me.
I promise you that.” Malin reached out and took his hands, then placed them on
her hips. “All right, then, give me one more kiss goodbye and I’ll let you
go.”

Her words brought an unexpected pain to his heart, and for a
long moment, Thom couldn’t breathe. This was it. When he’d gotten up this
morning, Thom had decided that he would set the example and remain upbeat and
unemotional, so he tried not to let his misery show. “So, you have a key. You’ll
check on the place every now and then. I’ve got someone to take care of the
plants on the roof and shovel the snow in the winter.”

“Can I come over every weekend and sleep in your bed?” she
asked.

“I’m counting on it,” he said. “I want to imagine you here,
naked, between my sheets.”

“Maybe I’ll break my own rule and take a few pictures.”

“Don’t tease! One last thing. Will you walk me down?”

Malin nodded. She clasped her arms in front of her as if she
were trying to keep her body from flying apart at the seams.

When she shuddered, Thom slipped his arms around her shoulders
and pulled her close. “Are you cold?”

“No,” she said. “Just scared.”

When they got downstairs, Malin was trembling so much that he
was forced to wrap both his arms around her and hold her against his chest.

“Don’t worry,” he whispered. “Everything will be all right. The
fall will go so fast, and I’ll be back home twice. Then there’s the Christmas
break and the all-star break. And just a few months after that, the season will
be over and I’ll be home for three months.”

Malin nodded. He hooked her chin with his thumb and stole one
last kiss. And then, summoning every ounce of will he possessed, he stepped
back. “I love you, Malin.”

Her eyes were wide and filled with tears, and with every step
he took away from her, his heart felt as if it were being ripped out of his
chest.

“I love you,” she murmured.

He walked out the door, and she followed.

Thom took a ragged breath, and then another and another. By the
time he slipped behind the wheel of his truck, he felt like he’d run a marathon.
He took one last look at her slender figure standing on his front stoop, dressed
only in an oversized Blizzard jersey.

Three months ago, he hadn’t known her. And today she was the
center of his universe. How the hell had that happened? And how was he going to
live without her?

* * *

L
IFE
ON
THE
ROAD
was an adventure that Malin had
never expected to experience. And yet here she was, driving through a snowstorm
to get to a college hockey game in North Dakota, where she would spend about an
hour watching a promising young forward.

She’d started her new job at the beginning of the season,
bouncing around the country, landing in obscure airports, driving rental cars
across windswept highways, sitting in freezing-cold ice rinks, all in the hopes
of finding a diamond in the rough before another team did.

It was all so awful, and yet Malin appreciated the chance to
prove herself.

“I think we’ll have enough time to check in to our motel before
we go to the rink.” She glanced over at Jimmy Callahan, one of the team scouts
and her mentor for the month. The first part of her training involved shadowing
each scout on staff. She had just two scouts after Jimmy before she could
officially get off the road.

“What did you think of that Rowland kid?” Jimmy asked.

“I watched the film. He’s a big kid, and he’d have to drop some
weight if we’re going to expect any kind of speed from him. His transitions are
shaky at best, but he leads the conference in assists. Ultimately, he’s a
project, and I don’t think he’s for us.”

Malin stared out the windshield at the worsening snowstorm, the
flakes rushing at the car. The winter would have seemed almost endless, yet it
ticked by, marked with regularly scheduled games that she caught on her
computer. She couldn’t help but follow Thom’s own transition.

He was having a less than spectacular season so far. Though he
tried hard, he just couldn’t seem to adjust to the system in New York. He seemed
distracted, flat-footed and slow. When asked in interviews, he’d blame himself
and talk about what he was doing to get better. But Malin could see the
frustration in his eyes, and she couldn’t help but wonder if she was the real
cause.

“I heard the Blizzard’s management is planning on making a few
more moves before the holiday. Any clues what they’re planning to do?”

Nearly everyone in the organization knew that Malin was the
owner’s daughter. And though most might assume she had gotten her job through
nepotism, once they worked with her, they saw that she put in the hours and the
work to become a valuable part of the staff. She still felt she had a long way
to go to prove herself, though. It seemed she had traded her mission of
impressing her father for impressing everyone in the company.

But no one knew that she was involved with Thom Quinn. With the
exception of a few trusted people, their affair was a deeply held secret. When
his name came up in conversation, she nodded and acted as if her heart wasn’t
pounding for him.

At night, alone in her room, she’d strip off her clothes and
crawl between the sheets and try to imagine his naked body curled up against
hers. Sometimes she could make herself dream of him, and she’d wake up on the
edge of release.

Early in the season, they’d talked on the phone nearly every
night. But then, as things began to go wrong for him, he called less often.
Malin knew she needed to give him space to work through his frustration. He’d
been the one to choose New York, but it was becoming clear that it had been the
wrong choice.

She tried to imagine where they’d be if he’d stayed. Would they
still be wild for each other, the way they had been last summer? Or would the
passion have cooled to a low burn like most relationships did? And while he’d
been the one who’d ultimately decided to go, she’d been the one who’d refused to
entertain any notion of a long-term relationship. She hadn’t even told him she
loved him until the day he left. Would things have been different had she said
it earlier? Malin was left with a very long list of what-ifs.

An image of him danced in her head—broad shoulders, muscled
chest, flat belly. She drew a deep breath and imagined the scent of his shampoo.
And then the feel of his hair between her fingers.

By the time she realized the car was sliding, it was too late
to recover. Startled, Malin yanked the wheel to the left as the car spun on the
snow-covered highway. The back bumper hit the snowbank at the side of the road,
and the car came to a stop.

Her breath, which she’d been holding tightly during the spin,
burst from her throat. She looked over at Jimmy, whose normally ruddy complexion
had turned ghost white. “Are you all right?”

He nodded. “I need a drink.”

“We’re almost to the motel. We’ll check in, you can relax for a
bit and then we’ll go the arena.”

Jimmy nodded.

“Sorry about that,” Malin said. “I should have been paying
closer attention.”

“Do you want me to drive?” Jimmy asked.

“I’ll be fine,” she said. But would she? What if things were
only going to get worse? What if Thom decided to put both of them out of their
misery and end things for good? If that was the case, she needed to know.

She and Jimmy checked in to their motel at six thirty with an
hour left until puck drop. The campus and the hockey arena were only about a
mile away, so she took a hot shower, then wrapped herself in her thick terry
robe and sat down on the bed.

She picked up her phone and scrolled through her apps until she
found Thom’s schedule. He wasn’t playing tonight but he was on the road, staying
at a hotel in Winnipeg. Her breath caught and she groaned. She was about a
two-hour drive from Winnipeg. She was just a couple of hours away from his warm
body and sweet kisses.

Malin dialed his number. When he answered, she curled up
beneath the covers and closed her eyes, trying to imagine what he was wearing.
“Hi,” she said. “Are you busy?”

“Nope. Just hanging out in my room, catching up on some
reading. I didn’t expect to hear from you tonight.”

“Guess where I am?”

“I don’t know. My bed?”

“No. I’m not home. I’m on the road. Just a few hours south of
where you are, actually. Grand Forks, North Dakota.”

“Two hours?”

“Well, maybe a bit more. One-hundred forty-five miles. That’s
the closest we’ve been in weeks.”

“I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.”

“It’s snowing here,” Malin said. “And it’s so cold. Maybe you
could sneak out of the hotel, steal a car and come visit me.”

“That would be against the rules,” he said. “And I’m strictly a
good boy now. Maybe you could drive up here. We could spend the night together
in my room.”

“I have to watch a game. And the storm is getting worse.”

“God, I hate this,” he said. “I feel like we’re drifting around
on two boats and the currents are pulling us apart. I can see you, but I can’t
touch you.”

“I understand exactly what you mean. I knew long-distance would
be difficult, but I didn’t think it would be this bad.”

“Christmas is only a month away. We can last until then,” Thom
said. “Don’t give up.”

“I won’t if you won’t.”

“There’s something else I need to tell you, and I don’t want
you to get upset.”

“I’m already upset,” Malin said. “What is it?”

“I’m hearing whispers about another trade.”

Silence spun out between them, and Malin’s eyes filled with
tears. “Another trade? Where? Do you know?”

“Montreal.”

She drew a deep breath but couldn’t cover the sob that escaped.
“I have to go. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, all right?”

“Malin, wait. We need to—”

She switched off the phone, then tossed it onto the bed before
pulling the covers over her head. Malin let the tears flow, releasing all the
emotions she’d been holding on to so tightly since he’d walked out of her life
nearly three months before.

She couldn’t live like this. She didn’t have the patience or
the fortitude to love a man and not be with him. They’d be together for a few
days around the holidays, sure, but then it would go back to the same old
routine for another four months.

Cursing softly, Malin picked up her phone and dialed Natalie’s
number. “Hi, Nat.”