Read Love on Ice (Cannon City Series Book 2) for Free Online Page A

problem was her name. Kate Beck wasn’t the name he remembered.
    She stopped mid-ice and turned. “Are you going to skate or not?” she asked.
    “Yeah, sorry.” He took his guards off, set them next to hers and stepped onto the ice. “Where did you learn to skate?”
    “In Portland.”
    “You’re very smooth.” He approached her and circled around.
    “You have good ice. It’s not mushy.” She turned and started to glide the rest of the length of the rink.
    “What was the kneeling thing you did?” He moved up along side of her.
    “I used to have a friend who said that I should always make friends with the ice before I went out on it. He was Arapaho and I always said the prayer before I’d skate.” She turned and started to move backwards.
    “Did it help?”
    “Sometimes.”
    “You said he told you. Was he someone you were close to?”
    “Hmm...we were good friends and I think we were nine or ten years old.”
    Jay nodded and watched her continue to move backwards. “That’s wise for someone so young. We probably should have warmed up.”
    “For just a skate around? No, we’ll be okay.” She stopped and looked up at him. “There is something I should say though.”
    Jay leaned against the boards and waited patiently.
    “Our kiss this afternoon was very nice, but...”
    “No, no, no buts. The only butts out here tonight are the ones God put right here.” He smacked his rear end.
    She smiled and then frowned. “I’m not a very good catch, Jay.”
    “Now, why do you say that?”
    “I’m not experienced with good relationships and I have a lot of baggage. I wouldn’t want to load you down with it. You seem like a great guy, but I don’t want to burden anyone with my history.”
    “We all carry around loads of bad memories. I’m still pissed at the guy who helped me mess up my knee.”
    “Well, my bad memories are more than I can take sometimes and I ignore it as much as I can. If it feels like it’s getting too close, I pack up my bag and hit the road.”
    “So that’s why you’ve moved around so much. Maybe it would help if you shared it with someone. Like me, for instance.”
    “No, it wouldn’t help,” she said quietly and turned. “It’s nice of you to offer, but I wouldn’t want to give you the wrong impression and, as I said, you don’t need to be burdened with my crap. I do tend to leave a place pretty quick if things don’t feel right and I wouldn’t want to hurt you in the process.”
    Jay watched her skate down the ice away from him. She picked up speed and toward the other end of the rink went into a spread eagle, came around to face forward and stepped into a triple axel. His mouth hung open. “How did you do that? That was a great axel.”
    ****
    When Kate landed that jump she wanted to whoop for joy and weep at the same time. She hadn’t done it for a couple of years, and it felt so good to know that the jump that caused her downfall was still in her arsenal of jumps. She skated backwards and then swung around into a death drop, and then a camel spin. She slowly straightened up into a scratch spin and stopped. She looked down the ice at Jay and heard her mother say she just showed off and no one is impressed with her abilities. She suddenly felt embarrassed and slowly made her way down to where he stood.
    “I thought we were skating tonight? You keep leaning against the boards and your mouth is hanging open.”
    He looked at her and smiled. “That was incredible. How did you do a triple axel? And that death drop. Wow.”
    She crossed her arms and circled around him. “How is it, a guy who played hockey knows the names of figure skating moves?”
    “Ah that, right.” He started to move around with her. “See when athletes aren’t playing their sport there is a lot of down time with nothing to do. I’m not sure what city we were in, but I started channel surfing on the TV at a hotel where we stayed. Some of the guys watched daytime soap operas. General