Razors Ice 04 - Hot Ice (27 page)

“Violet, you can stay with me as long as you need to. You know that.”

“No thanks. I’ll pass on your pizza and sex shack.”

Patricia threw a pen at her. “It’s not like that. Now, get off your ass and go call Jace and tell him the
good news.”

* * *

Violet drove to Healing Touch and with a few minutes before Mr. Molinari was due for his appointment, slipped into the bathroom to call Jace. When he didn’t answer—surprise, surprise—she left a message on his voice mail.

“Jace, it’s me. I understand what you said, but you also have to understand that everything is different now. Please give me another chance. I…can we get together soon? I can’t tell you what I need to tell you over the phone. There’s something you should know before you decide to never speak to me again.”

Well, he’d done that already, hadn’t he?

“Anyway, please call me. Thanks.”

Her phone rang almost immediately and a shot of electricity bolted through her. It fizzled when she looked at the caller ID. “Hi, Mom,” she answered. “This isn’t a good time.”

“Why? Are you and Phillip finally setting a
date?”

“The wedding is off, Mo
m,” Violet said a little harsher than she originally intended.

Her mother sputtered in response and then asked in disbelief, “Violet,
whatever are you talking about?
”

“The wedding is off,” she repeated, more for her own benefit than that of her mother’s. “Phillip and I broke up.”
Wow, that felt really good to say.

There was more sputtering. “But things were going so well.”

“Not really.” If Janie had truly listened to the conversations with her daughter than she wouldn’t have assumed that.

“I’m sure the two of you will work everything out. Couples have quarrels all the time.”

Violet sighed. “This wasn’t an ordinary fight. There isn’t going to be a wedding because Phillip is gay.”

Janie took
the sputtering to a whole new level. “I think we must have a bad phone connection because I think I just heard you say Phillip is gay.”

“No, you heard right.”

“Are you sure?”

Violet smiled at her mother’s
naiveté. It wasn’t like there was some medical test for homosexuality. “Yes, I’m positive. I can have Phillip’s boyfriend confirm it for you, if you want. His name in Marcus.”

Her mother
gasped. “I just don’t believe it. Or
understand
it.”

“Neither could I.”

“But, he was always so
polite
.”

Violet laughed out loud this time.
“Right. Because gay people are so rude.”

“I didn’t mean
that
…I just meant…”

This was the only time Violet had ever witnessed her mother speechless. She took advantage of the opportunity
and ended the conversation. “Look, Mom, I’ve got to go. I have a client waiting on me. We can discuss my shortcomings as a woman later.”

“Oh….okay
then.”

“Goodbye, Mom.”

“Bye, hon.”

* * *

With the grace of a zombie, Violet went through the motions during Mr. Molinari’s massage. Finally, when his forty-five minutes was up, Violet heaved a silent sigh of relief.

“May I have a moment to speak with you?”
he asked before she had a chance to slip from the room.

Violet gulped. “Sure. I’ll just step out to give you time to get dressed and then I’ll be back in shortly.”

Violet went out into the hall and felt a twinge in her stomach. She didn’t know what Mr. M could possibly want to talk to her about. She might have complained about him behind his, ahem,
back
, but she had never been anything but professional towards him during his appointments. She really didn’t need any more complications in her life. She was already up to her armpits in the ones she had now.

When Violet went back in
to the room, Mr. Molinari was dressed in slacks and a button-down shirt. He didn’t
look
upset, so that was good.

“Is everything all right, Mr. Molinari?” she asked
, clasping her hands behind her back.

“Yes. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I’ve been coming here for a few months now and I’ve had an excellent experience every time.”

Phew!

“
Oh, well, that’s always good to hear.”

“I don
’t know if you know this, but I’m the Executive Director at August Bluffs.” He handed her his business card.

Violet looked
down at the small white card. August Bluffs was an independent senior living community in Red Valley.

“I
’ve been looking into it,” he continued, “and I think massage would help the residents with their arthritis and might help improve their circulation and mobility. I just wanted to let you know that after recommending Healing Touch to the board of directors, they’ve agreed to make you our first choice in massage therapy. I think we could come to an arrangement that will benefit your business as well as our residents.”

Violet
’s eyes widened. “That sounds like an amazing opportunity, Mr. Molinari.”

“Please, call me Marvin.”

“Of course, Mr., uh, Marvin. I’ll just need to discuss this with Patricia, my business partner.”

“Great,” he clapped his hands together. “I’ll have my assistant call you and we’ll set up a more formal meeting to iron out the details.”

In spite of her current relationship turmoil, Violet beamed at the news. It was a good thing Patricia was already bringing in reinforcements.

Because Healing Touch was going to need them.

* * *

When
Patricia finally arrived at the office, Violet shared Mr. Molinari’s news with her. The two women celebrated briefly with enthusiastic hugs and squeals.

Violet couldn’t stand waiting any longer and found
herself driving the long, twisty mountain road to August Lake. She was familiar with the road now and thought back to the first day she had driven it. So much had changed since then. The seasons, the truth, her future. She found out the truth about Phillip and their engagement. She’d found out what love was. True, passionate, real-life love. The kind that grabbed you by the shoulders and refused to let go.

She’d also found out what she wanted out of life. It hadn’t changed too much, but now she wasn’t going to let her personal life take a backseat to her career. Her well-being was just as important as the bottom line.

As her car zoomed past the sign welcoming her to August Lake, population 8,000, Violet turned the radio up and pressed her foot down harder on the accelerator.

The lake was still and peaceful, gently lapping at the shore. August Lake reminded Violet of Jace. Part of it was rugged and untamed like him, yet the rest gave way to beauty and serenity and calmed her heart. When she was here, she wasn’t searching for the next best thing or trying to make ends meet or fighting for her dream. All those things were already there.
Waiting for her.

All she had to do was take the leap.

* * *

On the drive back home, Jace reviewed the afternoon in his head.
In an ironic turn of events, his unemployment hadn’t lasted five minutes and he had a good agent to thank for that.

His agent,
who was eternally optimistic, presented Jace with several offers to join the UNHL channel affiliates in a commentative capacity. The job of color commentator for the Razors was his if he wanted it. All he had to do was sign on the dotted line.

Jace wasn’t sure at first
, but after he thought about it, it sounded like it might be fun. At least he had something to fall back on. But that was also like telling a race car driver “Sorry you lost your eyesight and can’t drive, but now you can stand around and
talk
about racing.” He had a lot to think about, but his retirement wasn’t looking quite so excruciating after all.

When Jace drove around the bend and saw Violet’s car in his driveway, he had to suppress his first instinct to jump out of the car, sprint into the house and gather her in his arms.

Instead, he took a deep breath, calmly pulled into the garage and parked. Inside the house, Violet was nowhere to be found. In the living room, he looked out the window and saw her standing outside on the shore looking out at the water. Her back was to him and her hair hung loose past her shoulders, the breeze playing with the ends and causing it to flutter around her neck.

Although he couldn’t see her face, he knew it was beautiful. Without looking, he could tell those green eyes would be dark and her mouth would be set, trying to work out her inner dilemmas. Jace resisted the urge to run to her, knee be damned, bring her to him and crush his mouth down onto hers. Instead, he calmly strode outside to the shore.

The gravel crunched under his feet as he made his way to where she stood.

When
Violet heard him approaching, she looked over at him. His jet black hair was in sharp contrast to the bright white snow on the mountains behind him. Despite the grim line of his mouth, his eyes were twinkling and maybe a little amused to see her there, she thought. All the anger and doubt slithered out of her. She couldn’t be mad at him. Darn, she’d had a speech ready to go and everything.

Jace was the first to speak. “Hi,” he said, stopping to stand next to her and look out over the water.

“Hi,” she answered back. She studied his profile and then turned her focus back on the lake.

“What brings you out to August Lake?” he asked.

“It turns out that Mr. Molinari is the Director at August Bluffs and he wants to hire Patricia and me.”

“That’s great,
Vi.”

“Yes. It’s a wonderful opportunity.”

“But you didn’t come all the way out here to talk about business.”

They both turned and looked at each other.

“No, you’re right. But I had to open with something besides “I’m a fool, now please take me back.””

The breeze ruffled her hair, reminding him of that fateful day on the sidewalk when he’d first laid eyes on her. His entire life had changed since that
blustery day. Some things were gone and some were still here.

He wanted to brush her hair from her face, but shoved his hands in his pockets instead. “Is that what you came all the way out here to say?”

“Phillip came out to me.”

“What? He came after you?” Jace’s eyes became wild and he put his hands protectively on her shoulders. “He didn’t hurt you, did he?
That son of a bitch. I swear, Violet, if he laid a hand on you—”

She put her hand
s over his and smiled. “No, Jace. He came
out
to me. Phillip is gay.”

“Seriously?
You’re not just saying that to make me feel bad for breaking the two of you up, are you?” he joked weakly.

“No, it’s true. He has a boyfriend and everything and the entire engagement was a hoax.”

“Wow, that’s a shocker.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Wow,” he said again, shaking his head.

Without thinking, he ran his hands up and down her arms to warm them.
“You’re frozen solid. How long have you been out here?” he asked before dropping his hands to his sides. Touching her might lead to something neither of them was ready for.

“Not long. I called you, but you weren’t answering your phone.”

“I had it turned off while I was at the doctor’s.”

“What’d they say about your shoulder?”

“I tore my rotator cuff.”

“Oh
, no! Are you okay? Are you in a lot of pain?” Her eyes filled with concern and that’s how he knew. If she could still show so much concern for him after the dozens of times he pushed her away, then she must really care about him.

He shrugged his good shoulder. “It’s better now that they gave me something for the pain. I’m scheduled for surgery next week.”

She reached out to comfort him, but let her hand drop because she was afraid he’d shrug away from her again.

“
I met with my agent today,” he said, shifting the conversation away from his injury. “The UNHL Network offered me a job as an analyst.”

She smiled.
“That was fast.”

“Yeah,
my winning personality finally paid off. I guess they were in the market for a snarky ex-player and his colorful unbiased opinion.”

“That’s
wonderful, Jace. You’ll be great at it.”

“I’ll have to get some glasses so I can at least
look
smart.”

She laughed and then remembered why she’d come here today.
“I came over to talk about us. I don’t see why we can’t still make things work. Just because it won’t be
just sex
anymore doesn’t mean there won’t be
any
sex anymore. Is that what you’re afraid of? Jace, we’ll always have sex and lots of it. Even when we’re old and gray. The only difference will be a rocking chair instead of a recliner.”