Misadventures of a Rookie (Misadventures #11)(19)

I shook my head, looking down as I covered my face so I wouldn’t be distracted by him. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do.

“I am so screwed.”

“What do you mean?”

I hadn’t realized I had said that out loud.

I couldn’t work without both feet. School would be fine, but I had to work. Well, I might be able to exchange the ice barrels at the games, but my private lessons and my ice skating classes? Fuck, I was screwed. They’d replace me without even a second thought! “Shit.”

“What?”

Shaking my head, I blew out a breath. “I can’t work. I’m going to lose my classes and clients at the rink.”

“Ice skating, you say?”

I looked over at him. “Yeah.”

When that sly grin came back and his eyes burned into mine, I was pretty sure I was in trouble. “Well, Ms. Bocephus Jane St. James, or as I like to call you, BJSJ, I am a great ice skater. I did it my whole childhood, I can teach your classes with you.”

I laughed at the absurdity of it. “You don’t want to waste your time on me and my kids. I can’t pay you. I really do need the money.”

“That’s fine. I don’t need your money. I just want to help,” he said simply.

“Why?”

“Because it’s kinda my fault you got that busted ankle.” When he waggled his brows at me, I rolled my eyes.

“I don’t know. Do you even know anything about figure skating?”

He flashed me a grin. “Actually, my mom is a coach back home. That’s how I got into hockey. I started in figure skating, but then I didn’t like how tight the pants were, so she put me in hockey.”

This was all very surprising. I thought maybe he came from a long line of hockey players. “Oh,” I said, and then I made a face. “Your mom worked?”

He shrugged. “Yeah, we work for what we want. She wanted more purses and shoes, so she worked.”

That made me smile. “Oh.” Well that was interesting.

He gave me an exaggerated wink. “Told ya you don’t know me.”

And if I was honest with myself, I wanted to know more. Did I have him all wrong? No, I didn’t. He was too flashy and too obnoxious to not come from loads of money.

With a flash of a grin, he said, “I’ll do a great job.”

I didn’t doubt that. He was obviously a great skater, but how could I take help from the one guy I was supposed to stay away from? I didn’t know anyone else who could fill in. The girls I worked with all had their own clients, and I couldn’t risk my students getting taken from me. I needed the income, and I loved the little buggers. Plus, this could work to my advantage. There would be no goofing off if some hot guy was there to teach them. I knew the girls would eat him up. Shit. Was I saying yes?

Shit.

Ugh.

“There is a catch, though.”

I furrowed my brow. “I should have known.”

He chuckled. “It won’t be that awful.”

“Whatever, Bus. What’s the catch?”

His grin grew, his pearly whites flashing as he went on. “Well, Bocephus, I do this, and you go on a date with me.”

I glared. Not because he used my real name but because he was insane if he thought that would work. “What? Seriously?”

“Yes. At the end of the week, we go out.”

“I don’t want to go out with you.”

“Then you don’t want my help, and let’s be honest, no one else can help you the way I can. You know that’s true.”

I stared at him as I racked my brain for anyone else who could do it. Blinking, I went through everyone I could trust. That list was very short. Actually, there was only Lizzy, and she didn’t figure skate; she only ice skated. I realized in that moment I had no one, and it was a very scary feeling. Especially since I was about to depend on the one person I swore to hate.

I was about to say something I never thought I would say. Something I promised myself I wouldn’t say.

Yes.





Chapter Twelve





Gus





I was pretty sure by the look on Bo’s face that she’d rather take a puck to the mouth than see me walking toward her. I didn’t care though. She looked good—great, even, with her leggings and large sweatshirt that reached almost to the bottom of her thighs. Her hair was in a long braid down her shoulder, and she was makeup free, looking as if she had just rolled out of bed. But those eyes were in slits, and she did not look happy.

“I sort of thought you wouldn’t show up,” she called to me, and then her face twisted in confusion. “What’s that? I thought you said you knew how to skate!”

I placed the balance checker in front of her. “It’s for you. I figured you can come out on the ice with us and just follow carefully.”

Her face relaxed, but she held back the smile. “Oh. I didn’t think of that.”

“Yeah, my mom tore her ACL when I was like nine, and she had to do it this way.”

“Oh,” she said. I was starting to love the way she said that word. Her lips formed a perfect circle for my cock to fit right into. Was I wrong for thinking that?

I didn’t think so either.