The Job Offer (26 page)

"I told you to stay away from
him."  He finally said again.

He spoke English with very little of a
Japanese accent, but the little that was there gave his voice a quality that
made the hairs on her arms stand up.  His voice was like smooth dark velvet.

"I don't think what I do is any of
your business."  Her voice came out strong.  She grew up with four
brothers and knew how to hold her own.

"Maybe not, but Rathbourne is only
interested in one thing from you,
Shoujo
."

"What does that mean?"

"
Shoujo
?"

"Yes."

"It means 'little girl' or
'virgin', both of which describe you.  You are Kerri Sullivan, correct?"

His explanation of what he called her
caused Kerri to blush angrily.  This man was as arrogant as he was handsome. 
She ignored his question about who she was.

"You can't be serious?  David is
seeing Shannon Ellison."

"That hasn't stopped him, yet. 
Stay away from him, Kerri.  You'll only get hurt."  He looked deeply into
her eyes for a moment as if he was looking into her very soul, but she would
not look away.  Her body became warm, and her nerve endings prickled.  His
nostrils flared with each of his deep breaths, and she saw his pupils dilate. 
The spell he cast her in was broken when Kerri heard a woman speaking Japanese
softly and Jake answer with a quick reply that sounded almost like a bark.  He
did not look away from Kerri, though, when he spoke.  After giving Kerri one
last look where he raised his eyebrow in a sort of command, he turned to walk
up the corridor with his female teammate, Izumi Sasaki, who stood by watching
them closely.

Kerri shivered but did not stay to watch
him leave even though she wanted to do so.  Coach Baranski would be waiting for
her, and she did not like to be kept waiting.  Hurrying into the ladies' locker
room, Kerri quickly removed her skates and stuffed them into her duffle bag. 
She would not have time for a shower now, so she just put her team sweats on
over her practice clothing and slipped on a pair of athletic shoes.  Then she
hurried up to the main entrance just as Coach Baranski walked out the door.

Kerri climbed onto the team bus and made
her way to the back row dropping her duffle bag on the seat next to her.  Coach
Taylor stood at the front of the bus, said something about the ice dancing
teams needing to be ready and back at the bus at noon, so they needed to eat as
soon as they arrived back at the dorms and everyone else could wait until they
had gone through the line.  As they rode away on the team bus, Kerri did not
look over at David sitting a few rows up from her talking to another teammate. 
Instead she sat in silence looking out the window, still seeing the intense
look from Jake Takeda, and tried to shake off the feeling of being burned.

Chapter 1

Kerri gritted her teeth and concentrated
on bending her right knee and climbing the stair step.  The pain was intense
but not as bad as it was three months before when she felt her ACL tear loose
in her knee after trying to land a jump at the Skate America competition. 
Eight weeks ago she had a full ACL reconstruction and was now starting her
third week of more intense physical therapy that included climbing steps and
lifting her leg with small ankle weights.  Soon she would be working in the
swimming pool.  Her recovery was not going fast enough for Kerri's taste.  She
was tired of doing nothing but keeping her leg elevated for months on end
interspersed with the few stretching exercises so that her knee joint did not
freeze.

The combination of inactivity and pain
made her cranky on most days, and fighting off what felt like a losing battle
with depression on other days.  She yearned to be back on the ice so much that
her mother began to drive her to the local rink in Iowa City where Kerri
learned to skate.  It was only for a few hours twice a week, and she went when
a group of children learning how to skate met with their figure skating school
instructor.  Kerri knew the woman and offered to help.  As much as she could
with her limited movements on the bench, Kerri worked with the young skaters on
improving their form by giving them gentle instructions.  Her times with the
children helped see her through the darker times of her recovery.

The current skating season was in full
swing.  It was the first season Kerri had missed in her seven years on the
women's world tour and in her three years in the juniors.  She was now twenty
three, would be twenty-four on President's Day in February, a month and a half
from now, and had the rest of the year to heal up and get ready to compete. 
The first competition was in Omaha in eight months.  She would make it there
and all the way to the Olympics.  She had one more Olympics left in her.  Kerri
could feel it even if nearly everyone in the sport was telling her to retire,
that it was over.  But she did not want to leave yet, to be forced to retire due
to an injury, because she still wanted the one medal that had eluded her thus
far.  The Olympic gold, the medal of all medals, was still missing from her
awards cabinet at home.

She would heal up.  She would come back
and show everyone that she had what it took to go out on her terms as an
Olympic champion.  Gritting her teeth, she put her weight on her knee and
pulled herself up determined to make it to the top of the four step platform.

"Good, Kerri.  Now come down the
other side and lead with your right."

Kerri did what she was told by Karen,
her physical therapist, and walked down the four steps before hobbling over to
a nearby chair.  Her forehead was wet with sweat, and she wiped the sleeve of
her Iowa Hawkeye's sweatshirt across her forehead.

"That was good, Kerri.  I'm
impressed with how far you've come even with the brace.  On a scale of one to
ten, can you tell me your pain level now that you've done a few exercises? 
Kerri said "five" even though it felt like much worse.  Once she got
home, she would ice her knee and take some pain killers then elevate her leg
again.  Kerri looked over at Karen who was busy scribbling down notes in
Kerri's file.  Then, after telling Kerri to wait, the therapist left for a few
minutes and returned carrying several sheets of paper with photographs
depicting different exercises.

"Now, I want you to do these four
that we did today plus the others at least twice a day.  Ice when you get home
and after your exercises.  I don't want you trying the stairs at home unless you
have someone there with you.  You see the orthopedist again on Friday,
right?"

"Yes."

"I'll have my notes to him by
then.  Now I want you back here on Thursday.  Ok?  Bring your swimming suit. 
We will start in the pool."

Kerri picked up her crutches, using them
and her left leg to pull herself out of the chair.  Taking the sheets of paper
in her hand, she folded them up and shoved them into the front pocket of her
hooded sweatshirt.  Then she walked beside the therapist to the front desk to
schedule her appointments for the next week.  Kerri's mother was waiting for
her in the busy waiting room and rose when Kerri walked in with her new
appointment card wrapped around the bar of her crutch with her hand over it.

"How did it go?" her mother
asked calmly when Kerri walked up.  Nothing ever fazed her mother, Kerri
thought.  With four brothers in hockey and her in competitive figure skating,
Kerri's mother had seen her fair share of injuries and played chauffeur and
nursemaid too many times to count.

"Good.  I think it went well. 
Let's go home."

They walked over to the spinning door
that made up the entrance to the medical building that housed the orthopedic
surgeon's office and the physical and occupational therapy center.  It was a
cold late December day in Iowa and a light snow began to fall while they were
inside the building.  Because the parking lot had turned slippery, Kerri waited
by the door, shielded from the falling snow by the portico, while her mother
found the SUV she drove and brought it around.  Once Kerri was safely inside
the vehicle, she leaned her head back against the head rest and waited for the
throbbing pain to ease in her knee.  Looking at her wrist watch, she saw that
it was time for her medication and searched through her purse for the little
bottle.  After taking a few pills dry and chasing them down with several sips
from her nearly frozen bottle of water, she leaned her head back again and
closed her eyes.  It would take twenty five minutes, give or take depending on
the lights and traffic, before they reach home.  They could not get home fast
enough.

Home was a large red cedar and brick two
story colonial styled house located on the outskirts of Iowa City on a five
acre parcel of land that looked out onto Muddy Creek.  A permanent ice rink was
set up off on one side next to a small warming house.  At one point or another
every one of the Sullivan children had used it.  The rink was used now by her
youngest brother, Jeffrey, who was in his senior year of high school and who
played center on the high school hockey team.  She had two older brothers who
played in the National Hockey League, one for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the
other for the Dallas Stars.  Brother number three in the brother lineup played
hockey for the University of Iowa Hawkeyes.

"Hey, Gimpy," Jeffrey greeted
her when she hobbled through the garage door into the kitchen.  He was off of
school today due to the Christmas-New Year's holiday and his hair and clothing
were wet from a recent workout.  Currently, he was eating a small mixing bowl
full of cereal and had a tall glass of water sitting beside him on the kitchen
table where he sat while he was watching a hockey video on the computer tablet.

"Hey, Squirt."  She rested her
crutches by the door and walked the rest of the way into the room carefully
with the aid of the black knee brace she wore for support now that she could
put some weight on her leg.

"Jeffrey, you could have at least
waited until supper," Kerri's mother chided when she walked in behind
Kerri.  "It will be ready in a half hour.  Kerri, go sit on the recliner
and put your leg up.  I'll get your ice pack."

"Smells good too, Mom,"
Jeffrey said at the same time his mother was addressing Kerri.  He was
referring to the pot roast that was cooking in the slow cooker.  He took
another spoonful of cereal then, and before he finished swallowing, mumbled
something unintelligent.

"What?" both Kerri and her
mother said.

"I said that Coach Baranski called
for Kerri.  You're supposed to call her back when you get home from therapy. 
What can I say?  You left your phone here so I answered it."  He put
another spoonful in his mouth and chewed.

"It's all right.  Where did you put
my phone?"  He pointed to the living room.  "Thanks."

Kerri walked into the living room and sat
down in her father's favorite chair, the leather recliner in the corner that
faced the flat screen television.  She often claimed it during the day when she
needed to lift her leg and while he was at the university where he worked as
the dean of the business college.  He was off today, though, due to the holiday
break and was at her younger sister's apartment in Coralville to set up the new
computer system her parents bought her sister for Christmas.

Her mother walked in from the kitchen
carrying an ice pack and set it on Kerri's knee then went back to the kitchen
to work on cleaning the kitchen for supper.  She did not bring any more pain
pills because Kerri wanted to wean herself from the prescription narcotics and
switch to an over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medicine.  The medicine she
took on the way home was OTC and it was just beginning to kick in.  She noticed
that her cell phone was sitting on the table next to the chair just where she
left it that afternoon before she went to the physical therapist's office. 
After picking it up, she quickly looked up Coach Baranski's telephone number
from her contacts list and pressed "call."

"
Dytyna
!  So good of you to
call me back so soon."  It was good to hear the other woman's voice, Kerri
thought.  She had not talked to her coach since a few weeks after the surgery. 
"How is the knee today?"

"It's getting better every day.  I
hope to be able to get back on the ice in another month, two at the very
most."

"What does your doctor say about
that?"

"As long as I don't do too much,
initially, I should be able to skate.  No jumping for at least four months
though."  That was a stretch, actually, but Kerri was anxious to get back
in training as quickly as possible.

"That is good, Kerri.  That is also
why I called.  I will not be able to coach you for the next year."  Coach
Baranski jumped right to the point in her usual up-front style.

"What?"  Kerri tried and
failed to stop the shock and disappointment in her voice from coming through. 
Coach Baranski had been with her for ten years.  If she did not train her, then
who would?

"Don't worry,
Dytyna
.  I
have been talking to other coaches and I found you a coach that I think will
work very well with you.  He is strong skater, very familiar with your skating
already, knows all about your injury and your desire to come back for the
Olympics, and he wants to work with you."