Ian bit back a groan. There were two numbers Ian knew by heart. His parents’ landline and his former best friend’s cell. He hadn’t dialed either of them for weeks, didn’t want to call either of them for the foreseeable future, if ever. But he and Shelby were stuck. He didn’t have a choice. He had to pick the lesser of two assholes. Hating it, he picked up the phone and dialed Christensen.

Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

Shelby was standing in the sheriff’s office lobby in front of the glass doors already bundled up in her coat and more than ready to get the hell out of there when a black SUV with Ice Knights vanity plates pulled into the partially plowed parking lot. Relief seeped into her shoulders and she relaxed them about halfway down from touching her earlobes. Why only halfway? Because OMG, the tension flowing off Ian even though he was on the other side of the lobby was strong enough to be a battering ram.

So much for their tentative truce. He’d gone totally grumpsterville on her again. Was he regretting last night? God knew the smart part of her was, even if she knew it could never work out between them. He was a hockey star; she worked for the team. How in the hell was she supposed to cover the team if she was fucking one of the players? Not to mention, he was all about the snarl and believing everything was at its worst. She had to believe that there was always a silver lining; if she didn’t have that inside her, she wasn’t sure she would have made it through rehab. It was the right call to limit sex to the cabin. They’d gotten it out of their system.

Still…it sure would have been nice to have another few nights on that rug.

Of course, that didn’t mean he couldn’t just take the surly down a couple of notches. They weren’t enemies, just former onetime lovers.

Thanks to the power of reflections, she was able to watch the SUV park in one of the empty spots and see the lines in Ian’s forehead deepen as he squared his jaw. She took half a step back toward him before she caught herself.

Clean breaks were the best kind. If she didn’t, she’d get tangled up in feelings that were one-sided, and that way lay trouble. There were things she could control and things she couldn’t. The best option for her was to stick with what she could control.