Home Ice (15 page)

Madden cocked his jaw to the side then shook his head and smiled. “I’m gonna let that one go because I can tell your heart hijacked your head. This has to do with the lovely Lorelai. Am I right?”

Dylan bit the inside of his cheek and nodded.

“Okay.” Madden set both hands atop his club, giving his full attention. “Let me save you some time. Don’t do it. Whatever it is. There’s already a vibe. You don’t do deceit. It’s not in you, and it’s never a good idea. Trust me.”

God, that was annoying. Dylan was capable of more than he got credit for when it came to helping the people he cared about. “Can you not call it that? This is hard enough. Will you just listen?”

Madden sighed. “Fine. But chances are, my advice will still stand.”

“Noted. So, while Lori’s injured, she has no income. She can’t skate in the show, and her last sponsors dropped her.”

“Ouch.”

“Yeah. And if you don’t know, figure skaters don’t have a salary. It costs them to train, and it costs a lot. Not to mention living expenses.”

“Tell me you didn’t offer to be her sugar daddy.”

“I …” He shook his head. But wasn’t that exactly what he offered? In a roundabout way?

“Uh-huh. And let me guess. She didn’t exactly jump for joy.”

“I offered to sponsor her. She said no.”

“No means no, Coler.” Madden adjusted his visor under the sizzling Vegas sun.

“But it’s so simple. This is something she needs, and it’s not like I can’t afford it. She’s under so much stress and might have to walk away from her dream. If I can help, why shouldn’t I?”

“I could answer that, but I can tell you’re already set on this, so let’s get down to brass tacks. What do you want to do?”

“What if I set up a third-party sponsor? I’d fund it, but she wouldn’t have to know that. She gets to keep training and nothing changes in our relationship except she doesn’t have to worry every day. What do you think?”

“I think your Mother Teresa instincts are going to blow up in your face this time. I know it sounds good, but the worst ideas always do.” Madden turned, shuffled into a relaxed stance, and took his swing. Impressive shot. He moved out of the way, and Dylan lined up.

“Thanks. I was actually hoping you’d tell me how to pull it off.” He swung and connected with the ball, following through in a practiced arc.

They got back in the cart, and Madden drove them down the course. “You’re really sure about this? Whether or not you’re processing it right now, this
is
a big deal. If it ever got out that you’re funding your girlfriend, she could take flak for it. A lot. Are you willing to risk your relationship and her image?”

“I don’t know what else to do. I just know I can’t sit back and watch while everything slips away from her when I can do something about it. She’s worked too hard.”

“Anyone ever tell you that you are too good for your own good?”

“Once or twice.” It was an image he tried to live up to, but no one could be perfect
all
the time. And trying could be its own kind of hell. “Getting tired of hearing it, though.”

Madden’s brows rose, and he was quiet for a second. Apparently even his roommate hadn’t known how troublesome the St. Cole nickname was. “All right. Well there are a couple of things you’ll have to consider. You need someone you can trust. Implicitly. Someone who won’t sell you out to make a media buck. I’m gonna triple underline that one. You need to create a person or business who would honestly be interested in sponsoring a figure skater. She’ll see right through some random guy coming out of the woodwork offering to be Daddy Warbucks. I recommend an individual versus a business, because a business would expect her to appear in an ad or commercial in exchange for its money, and that’s just too complicated. Not that any of these options will be easy, but that’s definitely the hardest one. Finally—and please really consider this—a layer of separation wouldn’t hurt. Find a real sponsor. Keep your money. That way, if she ever discovers your involvement, she’ll only maim you as opposed to killing you outright.”

A real sponsor. That could work. Worth trying first anyway. “All good points. But I don’t have time to cold call people. We have games three, sometimes four times a week.”

“Yeah. I can’t believe I’m advocating this, but you should talk to Saralynn. She’s connected and scary smart with these things. Plus, she wants to get back on your good side.”

Voluntarily involving Saralynn just about made him break out in a cold sweat. But again, Madden talked sense. If anyone could help him work out these details and do it right, it was Saralynn. She had power. She might as well use it for good. Maybe her evil genius had an upside. “Okay. I’ll stop by her office tomorrow.”

“Word of warning. She likes to take ideas and run with them. Don’t give her any leeway. Be specific like you’re dealing with a lawyer. Or a genie. She can grant wishes, but they don’t always turn out the way you intended.”

“Got it.” He still wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do, but he had to try.

Monday, November 17th

“This is a bad idea.”

“Saralynn …”

The head of Sinners’ PR sat behind her desk, arms folded, shaking her head at him. “Cole, consider the source. If
I’m
telling you it’s a bad idea, that should be a flashing neon sign of cease and desist.”

Dylan hadn’t wanted to play this card, but she left him no choice. “You owe me.”

Saralynn stared at him evenly for an uncomfortable ten seconds in which it felt like she might be reaping his soul. “Fine. But for the record, it’s under duress, and if this is a disaster, you can’t blame me. We’ll be even, and you can’t hate me anymore. Deal?”

The corner of his mouth tipped up despite his mood. “I don’t hate you. There was a period of time when I really didn’t like you.”

“Totally fair. So you talked to Madden, and he sent you to
me
?”

“He did.”

Her pleasure was genuine and unguarded, which was rare and only seemed to happen when Madden was around or mentioned. Normally she had an eye-of-the-tiger look and a camera-ready Miss America smile. Maybe she’d accept Mad’s proposal after all.

“So …”

“Right. Well, I have some ideas. A few people owe me favors. I think businesses are out, because it would raise curiosity if a Sinners rep went soliciting for a sponsor for a figure skater I have no personal connection to. The world knows you do. The only chance we have to keep this secret is to use an individual. And that person is going to need more incentive than doing me a favor.”

“What kind of incentive are we talking?” For the first time, it felt more complicated than he’d thought. Was this really do-able?

“This person is a Sinners fan and a sponsor of the team. Independently wealthy. And last week I got a letter from his sixteen-year-old daughter, asking if you would take her to her school dance.”

“Huh?”

“It would be a small price to pay, Cole. This guy would buy his daughter real estate on the moon if he could. He’d definitely agree to fake sponsor your girlfriend if it meant you’d give Precious a night to remember.”

“Is that really her name?”

“No, it’s …” She shuffled through some papers on her desk and pulled out a lined piece of notebook paper marked up in purple ink. “Harmony.”

“And that’s it? You really think he’d do this if I took Harmony to her dance?”

“I do. And hell, he might even want to sponsor Lori for real. Guy’s all about image. Owns one of the casinos on the strip, contributes to our team. Being able to take credit for saving America’s skating sweetheart’s career could appeal to him. If I’m right, it’s a win all around. You take Harmony to the dance, we play it up in the media, and you earn another badge toward sainthood.”

The way she put it left a bad taste in his mouth. The point of this was not to make him look good. But it did sound like a possible solution. “Okay. Let’s do it.”

She picked up her phone, flipped through the index on her desk for the right number, and dialed. “Ron. Saralynn Reese from the Las Vegas Sinners. I’m wonderful, thanks, how are you? Glad to hear it. Listen, I’ve got Harmony’s letter on my desk and Dylan Cole sitting across from me. He’d be happy to take her. That’s right. I knew you’d be happy. And while we’re talking, I’ve got a proposition for you. Have you heard of Lorelai Kelly?”

From there, Dylan let his attention wander and stared at a snow globe of the Strip on her bookshelf. He couldn’t shake the guilt. Going behind Lori’s back felt wrong, really wrong. But she wouldn’t let him help, and she was
scared
. If there were other sponsorships out there, she didn’t make it seem like she had a shot at them. If he could do something, shouldn’t he? Wouldn’t she be happier in the end?

“Think of the good press it would be. You could even have her appear in the casino for autographs. You are a humanitarian, sir. Thank you for supporting this girl’s dream. Yes, it’s a done deal. The Sinners have a day game that Saturday, but he’ll be happy to take Harmony to the dance that night. Thank
you.
Goodbye.” Saralynn put the phone back in the cradle and gave a thumbs up.

“It is scary how good you are at that.”

“Some men consider themselves such professional manipulators they don’t realize people do it to them all the time. Don’t worry. You’re too observant for anyone to manipulate you.”

He started to nod then caught himself and looked at her warily. Was she doing it right now?

“Anyway, it’s done. But I do feel like I need a couple of showers. Lori should get the good news today. Ron sounded pretty excited about the idea.”

“That makes this not so bad, right? I’m not really sponsoring her. I just helped an interested sponsor find her.”

“That’s a good spin, sweet pea. If you ever leave hockey, there’s a spot for you in this department. Yes, it’s better than you sponsoring her with your own money, but let me warn you. Men like Ron are always looking for the next best thing. They get bored easily and move on. If Lori doesn’t take the national spotlight soon so he can share in that praise, he could drop her, and you’re back at square one.”

Great. Well, it was a solution for now. If it fell through later, he’d deal with it then. “That’s okay. So. What color is my cummerbund?”

Saralynn glanced at the letter and smiled, this time in a way that made his stomach hurt.

“Pink.”

Tuesday, November 18th

“Can you believe it? It’s incredible!”

“That’s amazing.”

Lori sat back against the booth and frowned. “Your face doesn’t match. You okay?” She’d asked him to pick her up for lunch, and Holsteins was never a bad idea. She was being good with a salad and water, but the look on Dylan’s face was killing her buzz.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry. That really is great news. You can relax now, right?”

“Yeah.” Relax in terms of having a sponsor and knowing she could afford to keep healing and training. Except now she had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach that her boyfriend wasn’t being totally open. And he was always totally open. “Come on. What’s up?”

He was quiet for a beat. Either figuring out how to put something or making up a cover for the discomfort in his eyes and stiffness in his posture. “I had a bad practice this morning.”

A rush of relief almost left her dizzy, but then she felt guilty for it. She shouldn’t be happy he had a bad practice. It was just nice to know his mood wasn’t about her.
If
that’s all it really was.
Stop it
. Old habits died hard, and it was still a struggle to take people at face value and not look for motives. All her relationships in figure skating had turned out to be shallow and fake, but that didn’t mean
everyone
was like that. “I’m sorry. What happened?”

He sighed and relaxed a little. “Well, you know I’ve been doing well in games the past few weeks. Like I’ve been back to my old self almost. Even better sometimes. In the back of my mind has been this fear that it’ll go away again. I keep pushing it down, but it’s there, and this morning sucked. I was missing passes again, missing shots.”

She reached across the table and curled her fingers into his palm, giving it a hard squeeze. “But you
did
get out of the slump. You got your game back when you weren’t sure you would. Your skill isn’t going anywhere. It’s always in you. But what did Kally say? Sometimes it’s blocked by the pressure you feel. You even said that fear’s been on your mind. You just have to find a way to keep it from getting loose. How have you done it the last few weeks?”

He stared at his half-eaten burger, and a smile flickered at his lips. “I’ve been taking care of you.”

“’Scuse me?”

“I’m not saying you needed it. I liked being there for you. Doing little things or big things when you’d let me. It’s been nice. And I think focusing on that took my mind off the slump.”

“Oh …” That was actually really sweet. Now she felt even guiltier for assuming his mood had something to do with her. “Well, glad I could help out. But if that’s it, what happened today? It’s not like you stopped taking care of me, Mr. White Knight of Lunch Date.”

His eyes widened slightly like something occurred to him, but his face went blank just as fast. “Guess that fear just got louder. I’ll have to focus on you more.”

“Right …” Curious. But not grounds for an inquisition. Time to take the high road and have faith. “Well, you have a day game on Saturday, right? What if we get dressed up that night and go to a show? Have you seen
Divas
?”

His normal smile came back but was cut short. “Uh, no, I haven’t, but Margo told me about it. I wish I could, but I have an obligation that night.”

“Obligation. That sounds ominous.”

“You have no idea. I have to go to the Las Vegas High School fall dance.”

“What?”

“Yeah. Some girl wrote in to the team asking if I’d take her. Saralynn thinks it’ll be a great PR opportunity. It’s a nice thing to do, but I don’t know what to expect. I’m not that far out of my teens, but it feels like it. I didn’t go to any school dances. I was barely in school, thanks to hockey. I wasn’t a normal teenager. I don’t know what they’re like.”