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  Published by The Hartwood Publishing Group, LLC,

  Hartwood Publishing, Phoenix, Arizona

  www.hartwoodpublishing.com

  Meet Me on the Ice

  Copyright © 2016 by Laura Jardine

  Digital Release: December 2016

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination, or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Meet Me on the Ice by Laura Jardine

  Elise Campbell wants to learn how to ice skate. It's one of the many things—like biking and swimming—she never learned how to do in her screwed up childhood. When she goes to the outdoor rink one brutally cold morning in January, she hopes no one will be there to see her fall all over the ice. Instead she meets Zach, who's so sexy that looking at him makes her fall even more.

  Zach Adams is trying to work off his anger over the tragic death of his best friend. He's tired of punishing his body at the gym, so he goes to the rink instead, where he ends up helping the cute woman who's never been skating before.

  He continues to meet her every Sunday to teach her how to skate, even though he knows he's no good for her. His best friend was the relationship man, the family man. Zach never wanted anything serious, and his lone relationship was a disaster. But he can't ignore the way things have been heating up on the ice with Elise…

  Acknowledgements

  Thank you to my editor, Andrea Blundell, for helping me make this story the best that it could be, and to everyone at Hartwood. Thank you also to my beta readers, Crystal and Kat for their valuable input, and to everyone at AbsoluteWrite and Toronto Romance Writers. And lastly, thanks to my husband for all his support.

  Chapter One

  No one else was on the ice, and Zach was glad. He wanted to skate alone.

  The empty rink probably had something to do with the weather—gray, windy, and much colder than a typical winter’s day in Toronto. Very cold for skating outdoors. It was also pretty early—nine in the morning—for the families he assumed would frequent Mel Lastman Square on the weekend. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been here; he hadn’t even been skating in a couple years. The last time had been with Darren and his daughter.

  Zach laced up his skates in a hurry, sitting outside even though there were warm benches indoors for this purpose. Then he hit the ice.

  He’d developed an insatiable need for physical activity in the past five weeks. He went to the gym every day now, and he was getting sick of it, which was why, after lying in bed staring at the ceiling for two hours this morning, he’d come here.

  The rink wasn’t all that big, and it didn’t take long for him to complete a lap. And then another. And another. Skating around and around in circles was not exactly satisfying, but it was something. The cold wind stung his cheeks, and his jeans were doing a terrible job of keeping his legs warm. It wasn’t pleasant, but he kept on skating, feeling as though he deserved this brutal weather.

  He’d done twenty laps of the rink when a woman stepped out of the nearby building, bright white skates on her feet, and walked tentatively along the padded path to the ice.

  Zach groaned. The rink was no longer his.

  He skated five more laps, and she still didn’t step onto the ice. Perhaps she was afraid. Perhaps she couldn’t skate.

  She wore a helmet and snow pants, which seemed like a smart idea even if she could skate, given the cold. Her red scarf was wrapped around and around her neck and over her mouth. Zach rubbed at his icy cheek; she looked much warmer than he felt. She touched one skate to the ice and then abruptly pulled it back.

  Two more laps and she was still standing beside the rink, her knees bent slightly and her arms out in front of her. He wondered if he should offer to help. He wasn’t keen on the idea—he preferred his solitude—but it seemed rude not to offer when it was only the two of them here.

  Fuck it. Zach Adams did not do nice just because it was the right thing to do.

  But when he was on the far side of the rink, she finally did step onto the ice with both feet.

  And promptly fell on her ass.

  Before he knew what he was doing, he’d skated over to her. He bent down and held out his hands. “You okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine.” She laughed. Her laughter sounded slightly nervous—he didn’t want to make her nervous. “I’ve never skated before.” Her voice was a little muffled by that big scarf.

  She had large brown eyes and a cute nose. He didn’t usually pay attention to a woman’s nose, but the rest of her face was covered. A few freckles dusted her upper cheeks. He itched to unravel the scarf and see the rest of her features.

  She wrapped her hands, cloaked in red mittens, around his. He pulled her up.

  “Thanks,” she said.

  Now that he’d seen her up close, he was no longer wholly opposed to helping her learn how to skate. Yeah, he was a little shallow, but so it was.

  “Don’t mind me.” She waved him off.

  He started around the rink, watching her as he skated. She stayed at one end, and it looked like she was practicing how to stand on ice. Then she took a few steps and nearly wiped out again. Her movements were awkward, unsteady.

  It wasn’t long before she did fall. She quickly got up this time. Then fell again. And again. Was she trying to practice falling? It was rather entertaining, and he admired her for it. An unusually cold mid-January morning—it would probably set a record—and she was trying to teach herself to skate and was falling all over the ice.

  After a couple minutes, she tried walking on the ice again. He stopped beside her after his next lap. “You need to bend your knees more, or you’ll fall backward.”

  She nodded. “It looked so much easier in all the YouTube videos, but now I’m overwhelmed. Thank you.” She took a few more steps—still awkward, but it no longer looked like she was in imminent danger of falling on her ass.

  For ten more minutes, he continued to skate laps, and she continued to walk up and down the ice, occasionally falling, occasionally attempting to glide on two feet. The wind picked up and it started snowing a bit—certainly not the nicest day for this.

  He kept wondering what she looked like without all those winter clothes, if she was pretty. He thought she was, but he couldn’t make a proper judgment without seeing her mouth. Her hair was light brown and ended below her shoulders—some of it poked out from under her helmet. She was thin and a little on the tall side. Likely she was a few years younger than Zach.

  This was a good distraction from his usual thoughts.

  Now he wished he knew how to teach someone to skate. He didn’t remember learning himself, couldn’t remember a time before he could skate. It was just something he knew how to do, and he didn’t think much of it. Most people here learned as kids. Why hadn’t she?

  Darren would have known—he’d taught his daughter how to skate. Zach wished he could ask his friend for advice.

  But he couldn’t.

  H
e clenched his hands in his not-so-warm gloves and picked up his pace. He couldn’t take his eyes off her though, and after another five laps, he stopped at the end of the rink.

  She paused in her ice walking. “It’s very frustrating. You make it look so easy. But I think I’m making progress. Sort of. Maybe. A little bit.” She laughed nervously again.

  “It’ll take time. I wish I knew how to help you, but—”

  “But you’ve been skating since you were a little kid and it’s like walking to you.”

  “Exactly.”

  He wished she would pull down that damn scarf.

  “I’m Elise.”

  She stuck out her hand and managed to lose her balance in the process, but he caught her before she fell. She laughed again, a bolder, brassier laugh that went straight to his groin. God, it had been a long time since he’d wrapped his arms around a woman.

  When he had her solidly on her feet, he stepped back and introduced himself. “I’m Zach. We won’t bother with the handshake.”

  “Nice to meet you, Zach.” She pushed the scarf down to her chin, exposing her mouth. “I wish I’d learned how to do this as a child.”

  Elise was very beautiful. She had gorgeous full lips, and they fit with the rest of her face just perfectly. Now if he could see her without the helmet…

  “—completely fucked up childhood.”

  “Oh.” For some reason, it shocked him when she swore. Something about her just screamed innocence. She was the kind of woman a man wanted to protect.

  “Pardon my French,” she said. “Anyway, I had a royally screwed up childhood, and I never learned to skate or swim or ride a bike. But I’m tackling them all this year. New Year’s resolution.”

  “Take lessons for swimming,” he said, simultaneously concerned for her safety and picturing her in a bikini. Mostly the latter.

  “I will. But I’m much more afraid of water than ice, so that’s why I’m starting with skating. And biking—in the spring.”

  He couldn’t imagine not knowing how to ride a bike. He’d never met anyone but Elise who hadn’t learned. No one who’d ever admitted it to him, anyway.

  “My brother and sister learned how to ride a bike from their friends. But I spent my childhood holed up in the library.”

  He was a little curious about this childhood of hers, but he would not ask. Instead he thought of Maddie and Ethan. Eight and five, their father—Zach’s closest friend since he was a kid—in the ground over a month. Thirty-three-year-old men were not supposed to die of heart attacks while shoveling snow, but Darren had. A heart abnormality, they were told.

  Zach grabbed Elise’s hand, not quite sure what he was doing. But he needed to move. Now.

  “Zach?” she said as he started to skate. “What—”

  “Just hold on and keep your feet on the ice.” He tried to keep the anger from his voice. He wasn’t angry with Elise, after all. “It’ll be fun.”

  Being in motion helped him channel his anger. But what he really wanted was to forget. Forget about this stupid world where Darren was allowed to die so young. This stupid world where children were allowed to be left fatherless, and nothing Zach did could make a damn bit of difference.

  She laughed and egged him on, and this actually made him smile. But a quick lap around the ice was no miracle worker, unfortunately. He could never quite forget, dammit.

  It didn’t take long for him to realize she’d fallen—he was holding her empty mitten. He skated down the rink to where she was lying on her back, her limbs spread out like she was going to make a snow angel. Or like she was going to have sex.

  Zach gave his head a shake. She was wearing snow pants, for God’s sake. But underneath…

  Maybe he would forget if he was inside her. As he stroked in and out and clutched her body to his and kissed her beautiful lips… Maybe that would do it. He had a vision of her laid out naked before him. Her cheeks rosy like they were now, but for different reasons. Her breasts full, her nipples hardened.

  She shifted her body slightly on the ice, and he imagined she was squirming for him.

  Though he felt ridiculous, he lay down on the ice beside her.

  “That was great,” she said. “I hope I can skate like that one day. I’m going to practice lots.” She adjusted her helmet, and he could see more of her hair. “Did you play hockey when you were a kid?”

  “Sure did.”

  “I wanted to figure skate. I used to watch it all the time on TV. When I wasn’t at the library, you know.”

  Elise moved her arms and legs to make a snow angel in the thin cover of snow. Zach remained motionless.

  “Why are you out skating on a Sunday morning?” she asked. “I was just hoping to avoid embarrassing myself in front of other people.”

  He looked up at the sky. “I’m getting sick of the gym, and I hadn’t been skating in a while.”

  “Do you live nearby?”

  “Not too far.” He had a whole house to himself, just off Yonge Street. Unnecessary.

  Zach had never picked up a woman on a Sunday morning before—he saw it as some kind of challenge. But he looked over at her, and she was half-turned toward him, swishing her arms and legs over the ice, and her eyes… She looked so goddamn innocent. Something about those big, light brown eyes. He didn’t want anyone—including himself—to screw Elise and send her on her way.

  For a split second, he considered asking her out for coffee. Then he almost laughed at the ludicrous idea. Zach did not do things like ask a woman out for coffee.

  He stayed on the ice with her for a few more minutes before they needed to get off for the Zamboni, cleaning the ice for who-knew-what skaters. They took their skates off indoors, and he got to see her without a helmet. She was pretty and sweet and he didn’t want anyone to hurt her ever.

  Elise slid on her boots and stood up. She sighed with pleasure, and Zach tried to ignore the lust that was rapidly building inside him. What was she sighing about anyway?

  “Boots never felt so comfortable,” she said. “It’s such a relief to get out of those skates.”

  He nodded curtly and wiped off his blades. He needed to get out of here—it was driving him nuts to be in her presence when he’d decided he couldn’t have her.

  She fingered the laces on her skates. “Do you want to grab a coffee? There’s a Starbucks around the corner. My treat—you’ve been so helpful.”

  “I have work to do.” This was true, but it could have waited an hour. Though he didn’t think he’d been all that helpful.

  “Well,” she faltered, and he was sorry he’d disappointed her. “Thank you for your assistance.”

  “No problem.”

  He took one last look at her and headed out the door. As he walked home, skates slung over his shoulder, he wished he was the kind of guy everyone knew he wasn’t.

  He wished he could be like Darren.

  He’d tried before. It had been a disaster.

  »»•««

  Elise had given Zach an idea. He’d told Tracey, Darren’s wife, to call him if she needed anything, but he had yet to hear from her. Maybe it would be better to have a suggestion, and she could just answer yes or no. So he gave her a call, wincing as he looked at the contact listed in his phone: Darren & Tracey.

  “How are you?” he asked and then immediately regretted his question.

  “Managing. Sort of.” Tracey’s voice sounded distant.

  “Why don’t I take Maddie and Ethan swimming next weekend?”

  Tracey could swim a little, but she didn’t enjoy it. When they’d all gone to the beach together back in the day, she’d rarely ventured into the water. But the kids loved swimming, and Darren had taken them regularly.

  “They’re at my parents’ next weekend,” she said. “The following Saturday—could you do it then?”

  “Sure. That’s just fine.”

  “Thank you.”

  It sounded like she’d choked up. Zach really wasn’t good at this sort of thing. He kept
the call short.

  He went up to his home office and before doing any work, he looked up “learning to skate.” Tried to figure out how he could help Elise, if he ever saw her again. Maybe he could go skating next Sunday and—

  He slammed the mouse down. He should not be thinking about Elise. Should not be thinking about her big brown eyes, or her lovely laugh, or her hair sticking up from under that stupid helmet. Or the way she looked lying on the ice with her legs spread apart.

  Next Sunday morning, he would go to the gym.

  Chapter Two

  Elise Campbell power-walked home, the cold wind whipping at her face, but her feet were so, so comfortable in her boots. She would figure out how to skate this winter. She was determined to do it. She’d go several times a week until she was speeding around the rink like Zach.

  And Zach…

  Well.

  He was part of the reason she kept on falling. Looking at him did a number on her concentration. Tall with cropped brown hair—she’d finally seen his hair when they’d taken off their skates—gray-blue eyes, strong jaw. And when he’d pulled her around and around, she had an overwhelming sensation of his power—she bet that navy winter jacket hid large muscles.

  Once or twice, he’d looked at her peculiarly, and she had the feeling he rather liked the look of her, too. Which made her heart skitter in her chest and her legs feel all wobbly.

  In short, Zach made her ass attracted to the ice. It was hard to skate in his presence. But if she could master skating with him around…

  She’d probably never see him again. Thinking he was attracted to her—that was just wishful thinking. She’d gathered her courage and asked him to have coffee, only to be shot down. But it shouldn’t have been surprising. Men who looked like Zach would never say yes to her.

  Damn, she felt like a fool for asking.

  But she felt better once she was home and had an enormous mug of hot chocolate in hand. With mini marshmallows. This year she was going to have the childhood she’d never had. She was going to learn all the things she’d never learned and have a ton of fun.