The Mighty Quinns: Thom (8 page)

“Right,” he said.

Malin forced a smile. “Thank you for doing this for me. Once we’re done with this look, we can leave.” She hurried out of the room.

Thom did his best to give the photographer a few good shots over the next half hour. He couldn’t help but notice that Malin kept to the shadows, just out of sight, and did her best to avoid his gaze.

He was sorry he’d hurt her, but the idea that he and Malin where actually involved in a relationship was ridiculous. And if they’d didn’t have a relationship, why did he even care what she thought?

Over the past few days, he’d been caught up in some silly fantasy that they might have something special, that he’d finally met a woman who could accept him for who he really was. But today was ultimate proof that she wanted someone very different.

They didn’t speak to each other again until they were in the car, ready to leave the studio for his place. They’d brought her car, and when he slid into the passenger seat, she reached for the ignition, then paused.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I shouldn’t have been so pushy. But I really am doing this for you.”

“How do you figure?” he asked.

“I’m trying to find a way to get you noticed on social media in a positive way.” She pulled out her phone and held it out. “Look, we posted a picture of your new haircut and you got a thousand likes and seventy-six retweets.”

“What does that mean?”

“People are seeing the new you and—and they want to engage with you. They’re interested.” She pulled the phone away and tucked it back in her pocket. “We need them to be interested if we want to stop the trade.”

“I just get the feeling that all of this is some big scheme to change who I am.”

“Well, yeah, maybe it is,” Malin said. “The women, the fights, the drinking. Don’t you think you need to change?”

“It’s a little late for that,” Thom replied.

“No,” she said. “I don’t believe that.”

“But it’s not all some altruistic effort to make me into a better man. You want to prove a point to your father, and you want to use me to do it.”

She reached for the key and started the car. He couldn’t tell if she’d discarded his last accusation or if she was considering it in silence. For a long time as she drove, Malin didn’t speak. Then she took a ragged breath. “Maybe you’re right.”

Thom cursed beneath his breath. Hell, he didn’t want to be right. He risked a glance over at her, and he saw a tear trickle from the corner of her eye. It felt like a knife to his heart, and he wanted to take back all his doubts and anger. But he’d protected himself for such a long time by taking the other person down first, and the instinct was too hard to fight.

When they reached the firehouse, Malin parked her car out front but left it running. “I have some things I need to take care of at the office. I’ll be back later.”

“You’re going to leave me alone?” Thom asked. “Are you sure that’s wise?”

He didn’t want her to go. Even though he was angry, he still wanted to keep her close. It was inevitable that that they’d argue, but he wasn’t prepared to deal with the consequences.

“I guess I’ll have to trust you.”

“Don’t,” he warned. “I’m the last guy in the world you should trust.”

Sighing deeply, Malin turned off the car then faced him. “Why do you want an argument? I’m not even sure what we’re fighting about.”

Just the fact that she could read him so well fueled his temper. Thom got out of the car and slammed the door behind him. He didn’t want to care for her. Why couldn’t she be like the other women he’d known—easy to bed and even easier to leave?

“I’m trying to help you,” she shouted as she got out of the car and circled around to him. “You could show a little appreciation instead of acting like a petulant child.”

“Or are you trying to fix me?” he asked.

“Wouldn’t that be part of helping you? What was so bad about today? You got a nice haircut and some fashionable clothes—for free, I might add. Ideally, when you go out now, people will look at you differently.” She met his gaze, and Thom felt as if she could see directly into his soul. “It’s time to grow up, Thom. Time to stop making the same mistakes over and over.”

With that, she turned and walked to the front door of the firehouse. She waited for Thom to unlock it and when he did, she went inside, leaving him standing on the stoop.

Of course she was right about it all. Until she’d appeared, his life had been a mess. And now she was trying to help him, and his instinct was to fight against any authority.

Thom sat down on the stoop and raked his fingers through his new haircut. The stylist had put so much product in it that it felt crunchy. But he couldn’t fault the shave, he mused, rubbing his palms on his baby-smooth cheeks. And his feet and hands looked great.

“Hi, Thom.”

He glanced up to see ten-year-old Charlie Ross standing in front of him, dressed in a Minnesota Blizzard T-shirt and ragged jeans. He carried a battered hockey stick and wore rollerblades instead of shoes.

“Hey, Charlie. How’s it going?” Charlie was one of five or six boys in the neighborhood who lived and breathed hockey. In the winter, they played at a local park rink, but in the summer they swapped a puck for a tennis ball and played on a nearby dead-end street.

“We’re going to play some street hockey. Do you want to play?”

“I can’t. Not today.”

“You got a haircut,” Charlie said, sitting down beside him.

Thom smiled. “Yeah, I did. What do you think? Does it look good?”

Charlie studied him carefully, then nodded. “Yeah, it looks good. Not as nice as my flow.” Charlie ran his hand over his shaggy hair. “I got it goin’ on.”

“You sure do,” Thom said.

Charlie’s expression shifted. “My mom heard on the news that they’re looking to trade you. Is that true?”

Thom nodded. “I think it might be.”

“You don’t wanna go, do you?”

“No,” Thom said. “And I’m doing everything I can to stay. But it might not be up to me.” He noticed Malin watching them from the window and nodded at her.

“I hope you stay,” Charlie said.

Charlie was growing up without a father, like Thom had. Thom had never set himself up as a role model, but he knew that Charlie looked up to him, and he hated to disappoint the kid. “Do you and the boys want to do the hockey camp again this summer?”

“Can we?”

“Yeah, I’ll grab some applications when I’m at the practice rink. Let the other boys know. I’m not sure I’ll be around to drive you back and forth like I was last summer, but I’ll still spring for the registration fees.”

“We can take the bus,” Charlie said. He paused. “But I sure hope you can stay, Thom.”

Thom nodded. “You better get out of here. Your friends are going to be waiting.”

“You won’t leave without saying goodbye, will you?” Charlie asked.

“No, I promise.”

Charlie waved as he skated off. Thom watched until he disappeared around the corner, thinking back to when he’d met the kid. His father had just taken off, and Thom had introduced him to hockey to try to fill the void, just as someone had for him. Thom had always thought he’d be around to watch Charlie play high school hockey.

But after all that had happened, all the mistakes he’d made, Charlie could be just the latest person he’d failed.

* * *

T
HE
SILENCE
IN
THE
firehouse was occasionally broken by the soft whir of air conditioning or the sound of a horn from the street. Thom had come inside a few hours before, then gone upstairs to work out. She’d decided to let him deal with his issues alone and had gone to the office. She returned around five, but he’d still been holed up in the gym. Now it was nearly nine and they hadn’t had dinner yet.

In truth, she should have realized that she’d pushed him too hard. But he’d seemed happy to oblige her for most of the day. Then, like a switch had been flipped, his mood had changed at the photo studio. He hadn’t been happy about the fashion shoot, but her plan was already working.

Thom had collected over ninety thousand Twitter followers in less than two days. She’d decided to put up an Instagram account, as well, adding the few photos they’d already posted and a picture of Thom’s new haircut. All the responses to his new style had been favorable, particularly among the female fans.

Now for phase two: show people the good man she’d gotten a glimpse of the last couple of days. The one who gave money to struggling entrepreneurs, expecting only doughnuts in return. The one who sat on the stoop with a neighborhood kid and treated him like a friend.

Reaching into her bag, she pulled out the invitation to the St. Paul Children’s Hospital benefit, which was two weeks away. Her contact at the hospital had let it slip that Thom had already donated a large sum to the charity, and that he was a regular volunteer. He deserved to go to the benefit, but her father had demanded that Thom lay low until the trade could be arranged. Showing up at the benefit would directly defy that order, but it would also show Thom as human.

Malin sighed. She wasn’t even sure if she could get Thom to change his
socks
now, much less dress up in a tux and walk a red carpet into the benefit. Besides that, she’d have to find him a date.

Her to-do list was getting longer, and Malin wasn’t sure that she had a cooperative subject any longer. Perhaps it was best to find out if she was wasting her time with all this. Pushing off the sofa, she gathered up her things and headed upstairs.

“Thom?” she called. The workout room was empty, but she noticed a door open next to the bathroom. Peering around the doorjamb, she found a stairway that led up to the roof. “Thom?”

Malin switched on a light and climbed the stairs, then pushed open the steel door at the top. She sighed softly as she stepped onto the rooftop deck, a warm breeze teasing her hair. She’d stepped into a perfect oasis in the middle of the city.

There were lush plants and flowers everywhere, along with a few potted trees that rustled in the wind. A privacy fence outlined the perimeter, which was lined with strings of lights twinkling against the night sky.

Malin walked past a pair of upholstered chaises, both of them large enough for two or three people. In fact, the rooftop looked like it was made for a romantic interlude, with comfortable sofas and even an iron bed draped with netting. All that was missing was the hot tub.

But as she moved closer to the front of the firehouse, she noticed a wavering blue glow coming from behind a row of plants and realized she shouldn’t have sold him so short. She found Thom relaxing in the tub, his eyes closed, earbuds in his ears. His arms were stretched out along the edges of the tub, and his skin shone from the underwater lights.

Malin’s gaze dropped lower, to the parts of his naked body that were hidden beneath the bubbling surface. Kicking off her flip-flops, she moved to the edge of the tub, then swung her legs over the edge and into the hot water.

Thom must have felt the movement of the water, because he opened his eyes and stared at her for a long moment. A shiver raced through her body, and she couldn’t seem to drag her gaze from his.

“I know you’re angry at me,” she began. “And I’m sorry for trying to do too much at once.”

“I’m sorry, too,” he said.

“You are?”

Thom shook his head. “I’ve been trying to figure it out, and the closest I can get is that I’m angry at myself.”

“Go on,” she said.

He drew a deep breath before he continued. “I’ll admit, I have a few rough edges, and I don’t always behave the way I should in social situations. And I have this undeniable need to defy authority when it comes to my personal life. This has always confused me, because on the ice, I’m focused and professional, and I do what is asked of me.”

“You do,” she said.

For a while he was caught up in his thoughts, and he didn’t speak. Malin waited, hoping that he wouldn’t shut down before revealing more. To her relief, he continued, this time with an angry edge to his voice.

“I know who I am. At least, I thought I did. And I was good with that guy, and I understood him. But since you’ve come along, it’s like the Thom Quinn I knew got lost. Now I’m not sure who I am or how I feel about myself.”

“I’m not trying to change the man you are,” Malin said. “I like that man.”

“Then why the hair and the clothes and all the stuff we did today?” Thom asked.

“That’s just what the public sees. It’s—it’s a costume you put on. Like when you put on your uniform and skates and step onto the ice. You become Tommy the Beast.”

“I’m not sure who I am without The Beast,” he said. “There might not be anything beneath that.”

Malin heard the fear in his words. As tough as Thom appeared on the outside, there was a very vulnerable man beneath the image. “Oh, there’s someone wonderful there,” she said in a quiet voice. “I’ve met him. And I really do like him.”

He searched her face as if to gauge the truth in her words. He didn’t trust easily, but Malin could feel that last wall between them crumbling. And in that moment, it was all that mattered to her. To have his trust, and to give him hers in return.

“So, what do I need to say to get you out of those clothes and into the water?” Thom murmured.

“I’m sure you have your lines.”

“Not one that a woman like you would respond to,” he said. “Why do I always feel like an inept teenager when I’m close to you?”

Malin slipped into the water, the loose cotton skirt she wore billowing out around her. Grabbing the hem of her shirt, she pulled it up and over her head and tossed it onto the deck. The skirt came next, and she pulled it off, leaving her dressed in just her hot pink bra and panties.

They’d already spent an entire day together naked. There was no need to play coy. So a few seconds later, she wadded up her underwear and tossed the ball next to her skirt. Malin waited for a sign that he was ready for her.

It came in a rush as he rose out of the water and pulled her body against his. Malin had time for only a quick breath before his mouth came down on hers in a deep and desperate kiss.