The Penalty Box by Deirdre Martin

Author:Deirdre Martin [Martin, Deirdre]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Women College Teachers, Alcoholism, Sports & Recreation, Bars (Drinking Establishments), Hockey, Hockey Players, Hockey Teams, Hockey Coaches
ISBN: 9780425208908
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
Published: 2005-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

“So much for those cha cha lessons I was planning on this week.”

Katie shot Paul a sidelong glance, unsure if he was kidding or angry. It was hard to tell; his face was screwed up with concentration as he hobbled to her car on the crutches they’d just been forced to rent in the emergency room. His left foot was encased in an air cast. It was badly sprained, but not broken. Thank God.

“I don’t know what to say,” Katie murmured feebly, unlocking the car.

“You do realize this is the second time you’re responsible for sending me to the emergency room, don’t you?” Paul pointed out as he threw his crutches into the backseat.

“The first time was your own fault,” Katie replied, glancing away so he wouldn’t see her wincing as he hopped two steps on one leg and maneuvered himself into the passenger seat.

“If your reflexes were faster you wouldn’t have hit me,” Paul countered sweetly, closing the car door.

Katie smushed her face up against the window. “If you weren’t such a retard, you wouldn’t have run in front of my car in the first place,” she said. She marched over to her side of the car and slid behind the wheel. She’d already put the car into drive and was wheeling out of the hospital parking lot when she noticed Paul grinning at her.

“What?”

“You called me a ‘retard,”“ he said tenderly. ”Does this mean you care?“

“Bite me, van Dorn.”

“Again?”

Heat flashed though Katie’s body. “You’re bad.”

“I try.”

They drove in silence for a few blocks. Finally Katie burst. “Okay, I’m sorry! It was nuts to make you climb out the window!”

“Ah, the things we do for love,” Paul mused.

Katie nearly smashed into the car in front of her. That word. The L word, as unexpected as a snowstorm in June. Did he mean it? Or was he just using the expression as a figure of speech? Probably the latter, but what if he meant it? That would be… not good. Because if he loved her, he’d expect her to love him back, and while she did, just a little bit, she was still leaving. She was outta Tinytown in eight more months and no one was going to interfere with that—

“Can I point something out?” Paul asked, oblivious to the tempest he’d created inside her.

Katie swallowed. “What’s that?”

“Well, thanks to the wonders of gravity, your mother found out about our little sexcapade anyway. So my climbing out the window was all for nothing.”

“If the trellis hadn’t pulled away from the house, she’d be none the wiser.”

Paul leveled her with a stare. “Despite my jacket and boots in the coat closet?”

He had a point.

“Maybe I’ll sue you,” he murmured, gazing out the passenger window.

“Feel free.”

He turned back to her. “At least I wasn’t naked. If this were a sitcom, I would have been naked.”

Katie laughed. “Yeah, and there would have been an old woman outside pruning her flowers who would have fainted.”

“I love it when you laugh,” Paul confessed. “It’s like your whole being lights up.

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