Heart and Snow (Texas Highlanders Ice Hockey) Read Online Free Page B

tailbone.
    “You need to be more careful.”
    “Yes, because I totally hurled myself to the floor on purpose,” she snapped. “Aren’t you supposed to be over there?” She waved her hand back toward the crowd.
    He frowned. “I was. I saw you fall, and I was worried.”
    “I’m fine. It was just an accident.”
    She grunted and rubbed her backside. That was going to bruise.
    “What are you doing here, anyway? I just talked to you on the phone. You didn’t mention you were here.”
    She glared up at him. Anger seemed like the emotion to have, just so she didn’t have to show how embarrassed she was. “I was just talking to Val.”
    “What about?”
    “Girl stuff,” she said, not wanting to say anything, though she fully expected him to be able to figure it out on his own.
    “Oh.” He frowned and didn’t say anything.
    Frustrated, she sighed. Nothing was going right here. Her tailbone hurt, he was still frowning at her, and she just wanted to crawl into bed and start the day over. “See you at home.”
    As she walked away, trying not to limp so he wouldn’t know she hurt at all, he asked, “Wanna go to lunch?”
    She slowly turned back to face him, now about five feet away. “Lunch?”
    He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Yeah.”
    “Why?”
    He shrugged. “We could… talk, maybe.”
    “Really?” She knew shock probably covered her face, but she didn’t dare try to hide it. She stifled a smile, in case it wasn’t true. God, she hoped he was ready to talk. She needed him back. “You wanna?”
    He shuffled his feet, his toes following the lines on the floor. When had they regressed into this? It was both uncomfortable and miserable. This wasn’t how she imagined her marriage to be. “Yeah, I think so. We should.”
    “Okay,” she agreed before he changed his mind. “Where do you want to go?”
    “Um… there’s a sandwich place down the road.”
    “Okay… So I should—“
    “Ride with me?” he asked. “There’s no reason to take two cars.”
    “Yeah, okay.” She nodded, completely unsure of this new territory. What had changed? Wasn’t it just last night that he was telling her he wasn’t ready to talk? “Sure.”
    He looked like he was going to offer his hand, but apparently thought twice. Instead, he nodded back. “Good. I’m in the parking garage.”
    She turned toward the garage, disappointed as Cody walked beside her, not touching. He’d opened up enough to want to talk, but all of a sudden, she was a leper to touch. Her tailbone sent waves of throbbing pain up her spine. She walked stiffly toward the garage, refusing to show any vulnerability.
     

CHAPTER FOUR
    Sub Station was a quaint little sandwich diner down the road from the rink. The lunch crowd currently had control, people bustling behind the counter, dozens of conversations intermixing with each other.
    The two of them stood in line, got their food and found a table back in the corner, away from the crowd as much as possible. Cody quietly wondered if this lunch was a good idea. He and Joey had always loved these lunch dates after practice before. But this baby thing made everything awkward. He just didn’t know what to say to her anymore. Hell, if he was honest, they’d been headed this direction even before the baby. Why else wouldn’t she have said something about the baby before?
    “Cody?”
    He met Jo’s deep blue eyes. “Yeah?”
    “Are we really this bad off?” Her whispered question was almost lost in the sounds of the busy restaurant. But he didn’t want to hear it louder.
    She was the same beautiful woman she’d always been. The same woman he’d married years ago. Long blonde hair that reflected the light like an angel fell over her shoulders. But those sapphire eyes of hers weren’t right. They were a little puffier than usual, dark crescents underneath them. Stress. Fatigue. She hadn’t been sleeping right lately. Neither of them had. That couldn’t be good for the kid or Joey at this