Glare Ice Read Online Free

winter. It made him feel like a warrior every time he went out to start the car.
    He kicked at the ice with his boots and then walked along. His dog, Snooper, was snuffling in the weeds. Probably found a dead fish or something. He had to watch that dog. Even though it was a tiny Pomeranian, it had the personality of a big dog and went at life with a lot of gusto. He had inherited Snooper when his grandmother had died. She had called the little dog Bitsy, but he hated that name. You give a dog a name like that, and he can’t help but act like a wimp. Snooper fit him better, Buck decided.
    He could hardly wait to get out on the ice. His skates were all ready to go. He had gotten them sharpened last week. He loved that he could go out, if the ice froze without too much snow on it, and skate the whole lake.
    Even though he was big, he moved like lightning on ice skates. His dad had grown up on the range in northern Minnesota, and they put skates on their boys up there before they could walk.
    Buck had grown up in the cities and played hockey all year long, skating late at night just to get ice time in the summer. He had played varsity his junior year. Went into his senior year one of the best, but got busted for smoking right before hockey season and kicked off the team.
    It made him mad just thinking about it. He could have gotten a scholarship and been someone.
    That was five years ago. Now all he did was work at W.A.G. Not much of a life—certainly no hopes for advancement—but he didn’t mind the work.
    Then there was Stephanie. Buck didn’t know what to do about her. She made him feel like no other woman had ever made him feel: frustrated, helpless. He wished she would just listen and give in to him. But she had to resist. Maybe that’s why he wanted her so bad.
    He hadn’t gone out with many women. Just had a hard time around them. But now he knew why. He had been waiting for the perfect one. Stephanie was perfect: beautiful, quiet, and kind. He had grown up in the Lutheran church, and they didn’t have any saints, but if they did, she could be one.
    Sometimes he felt like he didn’t understand life. He had never been good at talking, but maybe he should try harder with Stephanie. If he sat on his hands and talked and tried to tell her how he felt about her, maybe she’d give him more of a chance. She seemed to like him.
    Snooper came up and stared at him.
    “You want to go home, Snoop?”
    The dog seemed to nod and trotted off in the direction of the truck.
    Buck knew where Stephanie hung out sometimes. Maybe he would swing by Shirley’s Bar and see if she was there. If she wasn’t, Buck would keep checking until he found her. She hadn’t been answering her phone the last few days. She hadn’t showed up at work either.
    Buck had decided he would say something to her, maybe even ask her to marry him. Maybe that’s what she wanted. He knew he could be persuasive. It helped to be six-four and weigh in at over 270 pounds. Working at the pet food factory lifting hundred-pound bags kept him in great shape.
    “I’ll tell her, Snooper.”
    The small dog stood up next to him in the car seat, his tiny paws up on the dashboard, and turned to stare at him with his eyes, dark brown as a coffee bean. He often struck him as smarter than most people Buck knew, and certainly more willing to listen.
    “I’ll say—Stephanie, you be my woman and marry me, or I’ll kill myself. You think that’ll do it?” Buck chuckled.
    Snooper wagged her tail at the sound of Buck’s voice.
    “It’s a plan.”
    “Hey, baby.”
    Stephanie’s heart sank when she heard Jack’s voice on the other end of the line. She had hoped it might be Buck. That was why she had answered the phone. But now that she had answered the phone, she knew she needed to talk to him. Otherwise he would get mad and come over to teach her a lesson.
    “Hi.” She tried to keep her voice calm.
    “It was good to see you the other night. You’ve put on a little