Page 19 of Hearts on Ice
That touch shot straight to his groin. He bit back a curse and skated backwards, away from her touch. Shit. He didn’t want her to realize he still had a reaction to her. His lack of impulse control was going to get him into trouble. Trying to play it off, he skated toward the the exit, and slipped on his skate guards. He was vaguely aware of Mrs. Santos and Mrs. Fletcher standing nearby, didn’t want to speculate on what they were thinking, what Colby was thinking as he exited the rink and closed himself in his office.
CHAPTER8
Colby wished she did have a lawyer, because honestly, she had to read each passage of the contract more than once to understand what it mean. Her brain just didn’t want to fold itself around these words. If she had a lawyer, she could have it interpreted for her. Of course Declan and Evan would expect that she did have a lawyer, so they wouldn’t dumb down the language.
She wondered if she could approach Meghan, Evan’s wife, and ask if he would explain it for her.
But no, to do that would be to swallow her pride, and honestly, her pride was all she had left, so it would remain unswallowed. Instead, she took another stab at the contract, a notepad and pen from the motel drawer in her hand. She wasn’t a dummy. She could figure this out.
An hour later, she sat with the translated list on her notepad and a burning in her gut. Did Declan really think so little of her that he felt the need to list this out?
He had the final word on the moves as coach. Okay, that made sense, but did he not think she would respect that?
He wanted final approval on the song. He hadn’t said no to her choice yet, but he also hadn’t approved it.
No conversation between them about anything other than the skaters.
She needed to give him advance notice before she stopped working for the families.
No physical contact. At all.
She reached for her phone and dialed his number, not really expecting the call to go through. The only number she had for him was the one they’d had when she left and…
It still worked. His voice sounded a little sleepy, very intimate. Heat rushed through her whole body. She remembered his fingers linking through hers earlier, his hand in the center of her back, so familiar.
“I think we’ve already broken some of the issues you have in your contract,” she said, matching her tone to his.
“Colby.”
Ah. Well, that was a definite shift in tone. Funny how she could hear it in just one word. She wondered, just for a moment, if someone was there with him. She hated the pit that the image formed in her stomach. Of course he should have someone in his life. He was a good man who deserved love. She regretted she hadn’t been able capable of giving it to him, and regretted he’d need to find it somewhere else.
“I’m going over the contract, as you said, and I have some issues with it.”
“Do you.” It wasn’t a question.
“For one, you haven’t given approval to the song. I don’t want to continue working on the routine unless I have your approval.”
“I need to make sure it fits the requirements of the competition.”
“Okay. And what about physical contact? Is that really something you thought was necessary to put in a contract?”
“There’s nothing in that contact that Evan and I didn’t think was important.”
“You said if I had issues, to let you know.”
“I said if I had issues, to have your lawyer call Evan. Not you call me.”
Oh. She hadn’t considered that if she called him, he would realize she didn’t have a lawyer. “I was going over it before I handed it over to the lawyer.”
“And you thought you’d call me to complain about it instead of bringing up those issues to your lawyer.”
He made a sound that made her think he was sitting up. Maybe he was in bed.
“I wasn’t a hundred percent sure I’d reach you. How do you still have the same phone number after all these years?”
He didn’t answer.
“Deck. Do we really need all these clauses? Can’t we just be adults about this?”
